Merit and competence

 

Merit and competence

One of the few pairs of words about which, we seem to have clarity about their distinction, and yet we miss the distinction during its application.

“I do not know what merits I had earned, in my past life, to deserve so much of love/comforts/wealth/prosperity/etc, in this life time !” A few humble souls express thus, when they feel gratitude for something they received, without working for it. The choice of word is ‘merit’ and not competence. So, merit is earned from others, where as competence is acquired, at the minimal requirement level.

A very meritorious youth, with a gold medal in academics, meets disappointment when he himself discovers that he lacks competence to handle a routine situation at the workplace, which is so-effortlessly handled by a fellow who got the same qualification with barely just-pass-marks. Merit was ‘official recognition’ accorded by competent authorities in the academia!!! Then, what went wrong??? Probably, the criteria for ‘merit’ lacked something that missed to ensure a minimal competence required at the workplace, where the work is related to the same professional qualification. (we are not trying to plug loopholes in our ‘system’ here. We are merely trying to attempt a ‘clarity’ between the two, which will help us to function better in our routine life personally and individually).

In rare few professions, where competence is crucial to survival, we are clever to ensure competence. For instance, in armed forces, even a barber, a sweeper, or a driver, needs some basic training to handle a simple rifle or a gun, at least to save himself, when he becomes the sole survivor of an infiltrated attack by the soldiers from the other side. Minimum competence is ensured. Merit is when a soldier gets decorated with war medals, for a performance far exceeding the highest levels of ‘competence’ expected from a soldier. A doctor, given a job, without adequate competence, ends up granting ‘moksha’ to more number of patients than his meritorious counterpart, but only in the form of a clinical death, and nothing to do with the ‘spirit’. We need to re-calibrate our norms while diluting the levels of competence for certain jobs, in our laws!

Ability or capability is just a potential which could be latent and untapped as yet. Competence is often evaluated by a parameter/yardstick, when incompetence is likely to cause any disruption to any routine affecting any person/s. That is why the ‘competence’ gets stripped off during the period of ‘suspension’ of a Cop! His abilities/capabilities remain intact. But competence to deploy it is denied by the civilian norms.

I was wondering about these terms ‘competence’ and ‘merit’ in relation to my personal and private arena of pursuit. Spirituality !
A story, I heard.... Once, Aadi Shankara told his disciples “assemble for an important lesson today”. Every disciple eagerly made it to the classroom, excitedly waiting for that ‘important’ lesson. But the teacher, AadiShankara, seemed to be still waiting for ‘somebody’. Everybody grew curious! Who is he waiting for? We all are here. Nobody is missing. Then whom-for is he waiting ? Then suddenly, looking out of the small window, a lad appeared, picking a few flowers for the next worship/Puja, from the front-yard a little away. Shankara kept looking at that flower-picker. One of the disciples remarked to the teacher “Sir, he is just an idiot meant to be used to do only odd jobs like picking flowers, sweeping, cleaning, fetching water etc. Why wait for him? He isn’t capable of understanding the lessons taught to us. Incompetent. (and so on)” But Shankara shot a side glance at that humble lad, with a spiritual war-head mounted on that ‘glance’. At once that lad ‘attained’ a coveted state of lighting_up of his intellect, and he started singing a praise for his Guru, (famous verse ‘thotaka-Ashtakam’ I guess), and prostrated to his Guru, Aadi Shankara with deep gratitude and reverence ! Merits of that lad’s past life was accorded due recognition by the Guru, and the parameters of ability, capacity, or competence was bypassed by the guru, in granting a spiritual attainment. (I have a personal experience of having performed a spiritual practice, without any prior practice!.  I fetched the first levels of results the very first day!. Traditionally, this practice is said to require some 22 years, including a whole set of other rigorous practices, as a preparation for this one. A combo of 2 mudras, and 1 kriya! This experience compelled me to concede that there is indeed a past life, and even a carry-forwards of its merits, by the spirit, waiting for a 'mind' to utilise it at the physical and material level of this world . I would therefore recommend to await an experience without blindly conceding or negating the theory about any past/future lives!)

Incompetence, inabiltiy, disability, incapacitatedness, etc had no relevance for spiritual evolvement. These qualities are relevant only for material world. Yet, these very qualities, if put to use by us to the best of our abilities, would fetch us a ‘merit’ enough to deserve the highest human possibility, which is a spiritual attainment. To me, it appears, that there are not water-tight compartments between these distinct words. Doing my very best, always, leads me quite naturally, climbing on the ladder of heirarchy, towards the highest merits. Maybe over a few lifetimes!

Incompetently yours,

psn(26 Feb, 2026)