January 16, 2021
Success is key for which everyone strives. Every human being is striving in the world to get success. If we ask a student, he doesn’t want to remain in the same class for ten years rather move to a higher class and achieve success. Then we should really know what the definition of success is and how to find it!
Can we say success is money? Can a millionaire be called a successful man? We may not even remember who the richest man is in 2020 or 2019. We might guess a few names like Bill Gates or Donald Trump or the Tata family. However, it is not important to us who is the richest man in the world as it won’t help us in any way. He may be forgotten by the world after he dies. Many Billionaires have lost their wealth suddenly and were even put to jail and they had to eat the same prison food. Where is their prestige? Then money is not success.
What about Authority? Does a person who has authority over a nation be considered as a successful man? Is being the Prime Minister of India a success? If we are asked to write the names of the Prime Ministers of India to date, we might hardly write 5-8 names instantly and later we may need to think or search in the website to find out. For India we have very few as Narendra Modi is the 15th Prime Minister of India whereas, in the US, it has reached up to 48th President. Hence Authority is not success.
Can we consider Power is success? A person having power or physical strength is success. Mohammad Ali, a famous boxer in the 1960s in the US. Many were imitating him and every poster of Mohammad Ali had a quote below that said, 'I will conquer the world by POWER'. However, one of the newspapers in 2000 in the US read that he was invited to present a ceremony where he was an embassy, but he was unable to climb the stage and was helped by others as he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. So where is the power which he had earlier? Thus Power is not success.
We all know our grandfather’s name. Grandfather’s father’s name too might be known to us. But hardly anyone would remember grandfather’s name. That may not be necessary for us. Here is a thing I would like to highlight that what we have done for ourselves is not remembered by the world and what we do for others cannot be forgotten by the world.
We all know Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahaveera, Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Vivekananda, Basavanna, Shankaracharya and Mohammad Pigambar. Why does the world remember them? They are not our relatives. They lived a very long back. Basavanna lived in the 12th decade. Shankaracharya lived in the 8th decade. Jesus was before 2000 years. Buddha lived in BCs. The world still remembers them because of their contribution to others and to society, not for themselves.
Here I remember a short story. Once a poor boy was standing on the street and watching a beautiful car. Suddenly the owner of the car came and observed the poor boy watching his car. The owner asked the boy “Did you like the car” and the boy responded "Yes". The owner said that this car was presented to him by his brother and suddenly this poor boy was about to say something to the owner, but the owner interrupted and spoke predicting what the boy was about to say- that he wished he too had such a brother to present such car. The poor boy replied "No". He did not think like that. Rather, he wanted to be like his brother, so that one day he too could present something to his brother. What a moral in this story! Before expecting something from others let us put up something for our brethren.
Thus we find the real meaning of success is giving to others in society, that leads to our nation, and thus to the entire world. From dust, we have come and to be remembered by the world before we go to dust. It may not be in terms of big. As Mother Theresa said - 'We need not do big things, rather small things with big hearts'.
Thus to wind up, let us face the challenges in life. As we have moved in the year 2021, be in a hope towards success, complying the said points, thus to build a good family, society and good nation. God Bless us all.