Dear Friend,
There has been a drastic shift within me in the last couple of years, and I have reached a point where words like success and failure have lost all meaning to me. This is something I was pondering yesterday, so I thought I would share it with you. I understand if you feel differently, and that is perfectly alright.
Success and failure, I feel, are only judgments the mind places on events that transpire. If this happens, then I am successful; if it doesn’t, then I have failed. Quite often (usually), the definition of success and failure is borrowed from the world’s definition—a certain amount of money, a well paying job, a big business, a luxurious life, the things one owns, being married and well-settled, etc.
Look at nature: a seed sprouts and grows into a tree; some don’t. Does the tree or the seed perceive itself as successful or a failure? A lion feels hungry and preys on a deer. If he manages to catch one, does he think of himself as successful? Let’s say he fails to catch prey on a certain day. Does he then think of himself as a failure and go into self-criticism? Do such events lower their self-respect? A bird is born, lives its life, sings beautiful songs, regardless if anyone listens or not, and then one day dies. What would you call that, success or failure? There is nothing like success or failure in nature. It is simply life expressing itself and living itself out. But humans, the mind creates these judgments from being conditioned with the definitions of success and failure and labels the events that transpire.
Given we too are part of nature, the same is true for us. It is life living itself out; we only ought to live through it.
Now, where I stand, there is no success or failure. There is only awareness or the absence of awareness. Consciousness or unconsciousness. If success is to be defined, then my definition would be this: any moment spent in awareness is a successful moment. Any moment spent in unconsciousness is a moment of failure. Each moment is a new opportunity to become aware. Each moment is an opportunity to become successful. Each moment is a doorway to the eternal self. Even if I am cleaning my bathroom, if I do so in awareness, then it is holy. It is a ‘successful’ moment. With this definition, nature is successful each moment since all beings in nature are always here, aware and present.
Yes, I give money its importance in life, given that I need it to buy groceries, pay bills, and sustain this body. But that’s about it. Money is only a means of survival, not the source of our self-respect or a measure of success.
What is your definition of success? Is it authentically yours, or borrowed from the world?
Wish you a beautiful day :)
Lots of Love,
Varun Jain
