Whenever we try to do something wonderful or even worthwhile, we often get caught in ourselves: our struggles, our successes, our failures. Being thus caught, we may overlook the many factors beyond us that shape our endeavors. Let’s look at two such factors: inspiration and motivation.  

Inspiration: While there are many good things that we could do, we don’t always feel driven to actually do any of them. But sometimes, we get an idea with such clarity, beauty and certainty that it’s as if the idea has been planted inside us by something outside of us. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) points to the indwelling divinity as that mysterious source of all wisdom — including all inspiration. 

Motivation: Whereas inspiration usually centers on cognition and what Gita wisdom calls the knowledge-acquiring senses (jnanenedriyas), motivation usually centers on action and what Gita wisdom calls the action-enacting senses (karmendriya). Motivation is the massive moving potency that enables us to persist through the various obstacles, external and internal, on the way to doing anything worthwhile. 

How can we translate inspiration into action? By contemplation. The Gita (02.62-63) outlines how dwelling on an idea increases its power. When we treasure inspiration as a precious gift, we note it down promptly and properly whenever we get it; analyze and come up with ways to implement that idea; and then start implementing it with tangible steps, even if they are presently tiny. When we thus engage systematically and steadily with an inspiring idea, it expands: it no longer remains just one component in our consciousness, brightening our cognitive side; instead, it spreads throughout our consciousness, energizing our entire being with the fuel to keep acting till the idea becomes a reality. The result is a positive, uplifting change in our world — a concrete testimony to the amazing power of inspiration and motivation harmonized. 

One-sentence summary:

When we get an idea, that’s inspiration; when an idea gets us, that’s motivation. 

Think it over: 

  • What is inspiration?
  • What is motivation?
  • How can we translate inspiration into motivation? 

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15.15: I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.