To be happy, compete with yourself not with the world

By Satyendra

What is it that every person wants in his life?

The answer is ‘repose’.

As we gain consciousness in our life, we find gradually that we are in a constant state of running between targets.

We do not like to be wherever we are. We always want to go somewhere else.

The reason for this state of constant running is our own desires.

If one desire of ours gets fulfilled, ten more desires get generated.

This queue of desires keeps on lengthening, and it starts building anxiety in us. Non-fulfilment of desires generates frustration.

If we try to see the surrounding animals, we find that they hardly have any anxiety in their lives. If there is an anxiety, that is very temporary.

The basic needs of an animal are very similar to that of humans. They also eat, sleep and have sex.

But just watch a cow after eating. She will sit in the centre of the road and start chewing cud. Watching that cow, we can say that she is not interested in the world anymore.

Now she doesn’t want to go anywhere.

She will think about the next meal only when she is hungry again.

Likewise, your dog, after having his food, will just go and lie down in a corner of the room and sleep.

If you address him, he may acknowledge you by wagging his tail once or twice and will again go to sleep.

Is competition detrimental to our happiness?

So, is it not right to have desires?

There is nothing wrong in having desires. But when our desires are influenced by the achievements of others around us, a competitive life is generated, and we enter into a race.

When we are unsuccessful in that competition, we get disheartened and sometimes a feeling of jealousy and despair arise which forces us to live a discontented life.

In that embittered state of mind, we start cursing our circumstances and we feel that life is not giving us a fair deal.

So, is being in competition detrimental to our happiness?

Perhaps no…

But we must only compete with ourselves.

When we are in competition with others, the pressure to perform starts increasing.

Some will be victorious in that competition, while some will lose.

Those who lose will be embittered, while those who win will realise that they need to go on being victorious.

The victors may go on winning all their lives, but in the end some will realise that they have entered a race which does not have a finish line.

Due to the globalisation and the western education system and values, competition is glorified today.

But living in competition is a very poor way of living.

A child is in competition with his classmates in school, a man in a job is in competition with his colleagues, a businessman is in competition with other businessmen.

Gradually the whole life becomes competition and discontentment.

We do a good job; we earn good money, but we find that we are still not content.

We fail to find out as to how did we miss the bus.

We remain unhappy because we weave a story of our life and we stop seeing life beyond our story.

But the universe is not interested in the story of our life.

We succeed in our story; we fail in our story; but we forget that success and failure is just a societal perception.  Nothing more than that.

The universe, uninterested in our story, is busy… silently working, spinning around the planets.

A socially successful person may live an unfulfilled life, whereas a socially unsuccessful person may bask in the warmth of joy.

So, don’t compete, give up competition.

After working honestly, just enjoy the fruit that you get.

Unless we acquire such surrender, we will keep on running and will not get any rest.

Only when we die, people will bless us by saying… rest in peace.

(The column Spiritual Shades appears every Monday.)

Read also:
You may not know it, but thought is the mother of all Karma
How to take fear out of death