The journey is as important as Success

On the concluding day of a Stress Management Workshop in the city of joy (Kolkata) yesterday, a participant walked unto me and said – I thought I had been extremely successful in my professional career till date; however after listening to your ideas on contentment, I think I am not at all contended in life. Although I regularly display all the extraordinary accomplishments on my hat, I seem to be hollow from within.

This is not a rare situation at all. This is infact a feeling that a vast majority of the population on the Earth is engulfed with today. Firstly – one has to understand that success is a relative term and can never be absolute. The materialistic West had its own way of defining success. The Spiritualistic East had its own way of defining success. Both the ideas prevailed on this planet for several thousand years and it seems that the whole world is now turning to the East to embrace their teachings on the secrets of living of a successful life.

If you earn a lot of money you are successful, if you have several degrees in education you are successful, if you have accumulated vast amount of wealth and assets you are successful. These definitions of being successful are changing rapidly and will undeniably change in the near future, since the ordinary man’s level of knowledge is ever increasing in this world of information. This feeling of despair, non contentment is a natural phenomenon since till date we all have been interpreting success from a materialistic point of view. So we all have been running and running to reach that point of success. Every individual with this wonderful gift called life from the creator seems to be on a blind race, running towards a blind spot called Success. Once they achieve the material success, certain people at this destination halt for a while, and remember that there are several others who continue running without such a halt too – simply running, blindly running.

For the ones who halt at the success for a while, there is a possibility of a very significant question, Is this called as Success?  In holding this certificate, in holding this promotion letter, in holding this ownership deal, why am I not feeling a great sense of happiness? Have I reached here too fast and missed something on the way? Is this success more beautiful or was the journey that I missed more beautiful?  I have become a CEO of a MNC, but in this becoming, I have missed my child’s childhood. I want to replay his childhood but by this time the childhood is over, you have crossed the road now. The only thing you can rejoice over is the CEO’s designation nothing else.  Yes! a very relevant question that a sane man will ask himself, Is this what is called as success?

A wonderful poet has summed up this article in two lines.

Manzil pe pahunch ke soch raha hu ab,

(After reaching the so called goal I have realized)

Ke safar me to iss se bhi haseen mukaam they

(they were many beautiful destination on the journey which perhaps I missed)

Remember – Material success is just a fraction of the true success. Infact, success is never for its own sake; ultimately people want success for their happiness and contentment. True success will be everlasting, it will never be episodic. True success can happen only when you have collected all the fragments on the whole. The journey is as important as success. This is what the materialistic world missed. This is what the eastern spiritual masters offered humanity.

An aware man will never run, he will walk, he will enjoy every single moment of his journey. He will pick up every thing that seems precious on the way, he will remain a witness to everything on the way, good and bad he will remain a witness. By and by he will reach his destination. With all the precious collections from the journey, he will hold his success too. This kind of success will definitely have a different quality now. He has not been running blindly, he has been alive and aware throughout this journey and through this awareness he moves ahead. He seems to have dived into life’s ocean rather than running on the periphery. Success seems to be a by product of his wonderful journey and this is what will bring in contentment in success.

I will continue this article on absolute success in my next article.

Om Namah Shivah!!