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Acharya Prashant
Success does not lie in doing any random thing. The game is not about picking up some arbitrary thing to do and then investing yourself fully in it, plunging into it, spending a lot of energy, and trying to be successful. No, that is not the point.
Choose the right thing to do, and in that lies success. In that lies immediate success. You have been successful right in the moment of the choice itself; you don’t have to wait for the outcome. Choose the right option. Make the right decision. Fight the right battle. And now it doesn’t matter whether you win or not because you are already victorious.
Victory lies in choosing the right road to walk. It does not quite lie in reaching the destination earlier than others. In fact, it is a frivolous comparison. It is about the immediate moment in which the decision is made.
The concept that we carry is that the real battle lies in the attainment of the goal. But in actuality, it lies in the determination of the goal and not its attainment. What goals are you picking for yourself and why? If you fight the wrong battle, isn’t victory worse than defeat? What is the point of speeding down the wrong road? What is the point in managing to obtain and eat huge quantities of food that your body does not need?
Do you know your real inner need? Is your decision-making aligned with your core self? That is the question to be asked. You must know who you are and what you really need, who you are when you are not defined by others, and who you are when you are not ruled by your animal body. Once you know the nature of yourself, you also know what your self is really asking for, and longing for, and that makes your decisions; that decides what you would be choosing. That is the right decision.
Now you stand by it because you are choiceless. You have known what you really need and there is no going back. The choice has been made and it is the right choice. The future holds no significance at all. The future is now a child’s plaything. It will show you some situations, but they will not hold any deep significance for you. You may get some money and respect as a result of your decisions or you may lose the same. All that will happen but on the periphery. Inside, you are already victorious if you have made the right decision. Outside, it may appear that you have lost a lot or won a lot depending on how the future unfolds. But you in your heart know full well that it is not about how things show up in the future.
Pause, reflect and take your time. Be open, alert and inquisitive. Life is precious. Time is not to be squandered in chasing unworthy goals.
(Acharya Prashant is a Vedanta teacher, author and the founder of Prashant Advait Foundation)
