Mirage

Wrote this article a long time ago.Thought of posting it here and this is how it goes...

Why is it that we find so many people around, whining every moment? They desire to possess the best things under the sun. Why does the human mind always crave for the good? Nothing but only the best can satiate its thirst. Even as I write this piece, a part of my mind is already ‘craving’ for the adulation that I would get, if this chunk of text can impress upon an august audience. Why do we always want to succeed? Oblivious to the fact that failures are a part of life, we cannot accept any failures in our professional or personal lives. It is a rarity to find someone ‘pleased’ at his inability to do something. Status, wealth, and fame…the ‘most wanted’ ingredients in the recipe for a so-called ‘successful life’ go on.

Precisely speaking, there is no formal definition of a successful life. It is all left to your perception as to what you see in a successful person. It is nowhere stated that the person who the makes the greatest of discoveries or the richest man alive can be termed ‘successful’. That makes success a subjective issue. You see a sweeper who relentlessly goes about doing his mundane job, as successful and so he becomes. But that again, is only your perception. The world might not even be aware of his existence.

Then what is it that makes success a common or a disparate perception? Ostensibly, success stems from the ability to do something that others have not been able to attempt or have failed if they have done so. When people fail to understand your work you have good chances of being labeled successful!! For instance, I might be a ‘successful’ writer for someone, not very adept at the English language. At the same instant, the author of a best seller could tag me a ‘miserable failure’ at writing. Consequently, success or failure is only relative. There is no yardstick to measure your success. It is like a mirage you encounter in the blistering heat of the desert. The moment you feel you have reached it, it has eluded you.

That teaches us an important lesson. Do not run after success, just like you should not be running away from failure. That is because, it is just like trying to breathe in vacuum. There is no air and you wish to breathe? You will not find success or failure in your lives no matter how fast and how far you run. They are non-existent entities in reality, which find place only in your minds in the form of an illusion. The only reality is YOU and your duties in life.

If only everybody, myself included on top of the list could realize this, the world would be a much better place to stay in. Ah! There goes the mind again craving for better things. You cannot correct the mind, can you?