“A person who plucks unripe fruit from trees gets no rasa and destroys the seed, but the one who waits for the fruits to ripen gets both the rasa and the seed. Timing matters and so does patience.” — Vidur Niti [Vidur’s wisdom for Dhritarāshtra]
If you’ve driven a car with a manual transmission, you know there is a time to change gears. Shift up too soon and the car will stall. Shift up too late and the engine will rev unnecessarily.
How do you develop this viveka (discernment)? By studying action and result.
Likewise, in every area of life, we develop viveka by studying action and result. Then we realize that often, the context in which the action is taken plays a larger role in the outcome than the action itself. And one critical aspect in context is timing.
As Vidura explained to Dhritarāshtra, how tasty a fruit is will depend upon, among other factors, the timing of plucking it. If you’re early, the fruit is raw; if you’re late, it’s overripe.
Before taking a decision, consider which factors will impact the result. If you can influence those factors, prepare. If not, be patient until the time is right. (But don’t wait until the time has passed.)
Bhishma gave similar counsel to Yudhishthira:
“Heroism should be shown only when the time and place are appropriate and in your favor. . . A task, however noble, if undertaken when the time is not right, rarely gets the desired results.”
Doing this doesn’t mean the outcome will be per your wish—a Sāttvik never makes that mistaken assumption—but it will increase your chances of success.