Success

Everyone wants to be successful in life. But what is success?

Is it financial, professional, or personal success, what is it?

Or the moment we become a successful graduate, the definition of a successful graduate changes.

For a businessman, it is making more and more money, for a service person, it is about climbing the ladder, and for a homemaker, it is about building a luxurious home. For unfortunate people, it is about having some fortunate moments in their life. For an immensely rich person, success is about making use of every opportunity. For couples in love, living together or marriage and for married couples, leading a happy life with a child and a loving family is a success. For a life, living peacefully and blissfully, and for a person approaching death, attaining moksha or heaven is a success. And what if we find out that the life we lived before death was heaven itself? Now, the question arises: what makes us successful?

In earlier times, it is said that the one who sits below a Kalpavriksha, has all his wishes come true. What if you come to know that the same Kalpavriksha in today’s world is your own mind? As the saying goes from a famous Shah Rukh Khan movie;

“Itni shiddat se tujhe paane ki chahat ki hai ki har zarre ne tujhse milane ki saajish ki hai.”

Once we decide to achieve something for certain, along with ourselves, all the surroundings around us also help us get there. When a child focuses on getting into IAS, we get there, when we focus on getting married to our significant other, we get there, when we focus on getting a highly paid job, we get there, when we focus ourselves to run a successful business, we get there. Shah Rukh Khan once focused on becoming the king of Bollywood, and yes, he got there today. Mostly because, at that time we don’t let our mind overpower our thoughts of going into a particular direction. Till the time we reach the destination, we become the director of our own thoughts and minds, and we write the script of our life's movie.

If we focus on flying like a free bird, to be boundless, limitless, to be the epitome of awareness, yes, we will be there. But are we choosing it seriously, or are we happy with our own limitations? The question is, has the spider realised that he is stuck in the web he built by himself, or has he started feeling safe and comfortable in the web he made for himself? Or untill here he knows, he has been taught how to build this web. After this, he doesn’t know what he has to do with life.

We have been taught things untill here only, to earn a livelihood and make a family. After this, after serving everyone, what are we supposed to do? We have never been taught this. Which then lies outside our comfort zone. Getting a job, working and earning money, owning a business and how to run it is what we have been taught by our education system and this is what has become a part of our comfort zone. We are being taught to earn a livelihood, but who will teach us to live a life? To live a life is something that lies beyond our comfort zone. Birds give birth to babies, teach them to fly and make them feel free and confident enough to fly on their own. This is nature.

What are we doing as humans? We give birth to our children, make them learn and get an education throughout their whole life, with the expectation of later getting shelter from them in return. Parents compare themselves with a big tree stem from which all the branches stem. We shoot, but did they ever realise that the biggest bark can never take shelter under its own stem? Why do we ourselves start feeling helpless and small in front of our own stems? It's all because we are being taught in this way.

We are being taught that old age is the helpless stage. What if we come to know that it is the limitless stage of life? Where you have achieved everything you wanted, you have lived everything you wished for… now what are you expecting to be the servant of your own children… what makes you think so? Because people have told you education has taught you that you are old and helpless. Instead, if you start feeling that old age is the most boundless and limitless stage where you are heading towards limitless power, imagine how beautiful this old age would be.

Because they are not taught what to do after retirement. That is beyond their comfort zone. The moment we are heading towards adulthood, we are being told to bind ourselves to one subject to move ahead in life. After studies, we are being told to bind ourselves to one partner to move ahead in life. After getting old, we get taught to bind ourselves to the children as old age is helpless. Nobody is teaching us to be boundless and limitless.

As Sadhguru says, our success essentially depends on how well we can use our body and mind.

Be limitless in choosing your subjects. Be limitless in choosing your life. Be limitless in choosing to live.