On attaining success, how can we be happy without becoming proud?

Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Whenever we succeed, we feel happy about it. So how can we be happy without being proud? Yeah, I see three broad things for this. First is that whenever we succeed, we recognize that actually for my success, my effort was there.
But so many other factors also have to fall in place. Only then that success will come. I write on the Bhagavad Gita every day at a daily.com. So I wrote an article on this famous verse, Karman nevadhika raste, ma phaleshu kadachana.
So that article I guess that performance matters, but performance is not all that matters. Even in a field like sports, which is very performance driven, in sports players have their quirky superstitions. There was an Australian batsman.
Australia was known to be at least 10-12 years old. They were known to be very tough, in it to win it, that was their mood. So this Australian batsman, whenever he would go to bat, before that he would go to the pavilion commode and make sure all the lids would be closed.
And then he would go to bat. And if he would get out early, he wouldn’t go to the pavilion, he would go to the commodes. And if any lid would be open, he would go and snap at his team members.
Why did you keep that open? I got out because of that. Now you may say what else the commode lid being open got to do with getting out. But the point is every sports player recognizes that there is something beyond me, which affects me.
And in their own quirky way, they are trying to appease that unknown. Somebody might put a earring only in one ear. Somebody might put a handkerchief which is half in half out.
So basically, whenever we are able to succeed, we look also at the things that are not in our control, which worked out right. So that will ensure that we don’t become proud. We were happy that what we did, we are able to do our part well.
So happiness, see, we, Bhagavad Gita says, do not think that you are the cause of the result. That what does it mean? That of course, we are the cause, but we are not the sole cause. So to the extent we think we are the sole cause, we will become proud.
But to the extent, my part was there and I did my part well. So for that, I’m happy. And there is other things fell in place.
So therefore, the result came out and I’m happy for that. So by seeing that which is not in our control, that also worked out right. That can prevent pride.
Another thing which we could do is that we can thank God for whatever works out right. Instead of making, taking credit for our success, we can give thanks for the success. So by that what happens? Our focus shifts from ourselves.
See, pride basically comes when you think, I am great. But if you’re shifting our attention to someone who is bigger than us, then that pride doesn’t have to come. At least it will not come so much.
So thanking and acknowledging. Now there are these famous prayers. So the whole mood over there is what? That whatever I am doing, I’m offering to you.
So by your grace, I was able to do this well and I offer it to you. Thank you for enabling me to offer this and please accept it. So if we can do this, then again the pride will not come.
Basically, if we see something, not just something that is out of our control working out right, but someone personal, some personal being who is helping us, that can also prevent pride. And thirdly, with respect to the happiness that we get, we all need happiness. As I said, we all need a sense of success in our life.
Otherwise, just one after another after another reversals will dishearten us. But what we could do with respect to that happiness is that we focus more on learning than on parading or exhibiting. Yes, I’m happy that this worked out, this happened.
But what did I do right? At that time, the happiness might be there. But if we shift up, what did I do right? And how can I learn from it? So if you have that mood of learning, see learning itself brings, a mood of learning brings humility. So that way also we can avoid pride.
Because as I said, even when we do something right, it’s not just we doing it right. Whenever I speak of something spiritual, there are many times when certain thoughts, certain examples, certain ideas, certain point just come through which even I may not have thought of them before. They’re broadly in consonance with the, with the wisdom of the spiritual texts.
But sometimes when we do something right, we do it more than what we have practiced also, or what we have learned. So then we, if we have that learning mood, then that also helps us to prevent pride. I was a few months ago attending a talk by one of my friends.
And he spoke a brilliant point. After that, I appreciated him. That was such a brilliant point.
He gave me a strange look. I said, what happened? He said, I heard this point in your class only. So I had spoken that four or four years ago, and I had completely forgotten it.
So then it struck me that, you know, I can’t claim that this is knowledge which I am giving. If I don’t even remember what I spoke, so much that even if somebody else speaking, it’s not reminding me. So we can just recognize that even what we do, it’s not we alone doing it.
So if we have that mood of learning, then also we can be happy but not become proud.