Positive Thinking 25 – See life as a marathon, not a sprint

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna, welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking, we are discussing about, the third sutra in energy, E-N-E-R-G-Y, E is eyes, fix your eyes on real success, so, topic we will discuss today is, life is a marathon, not a sprint, when, people run for marathons or people run for sprints, their whole attitude is very different, in sprints, they are usually 100 meters or 200 meters, or some very short distance, the whole purpose is, on how one can run as fast as possible, and get across the finishing line first, in contrast, when one is running in a marathon, the focus is on running, not just as fast as possible, but on running as long as possible, so, a quick short spurt, can actually do counter effort productive in a marathon, because that initial drilling of energy, may cause a person to, no longer be able to, run at a good speed, the whole marathon, so, pacing and stamina, are extremely important in a marathon, and this means, that when a person is running a marathon, at that time, that person has to, recognize, how far I have to go, and even if once or twice, that person falls back in some laps, doesn’t matter, in some phases of the marathon, one can always catch up, and speed up later, so, one who, sees the long run, and paces oneself accordingly, that person becomes successful in a marathon, so, similarly, when we, are going through life, if we have, a materialistic world view, then, success often, life often takes the shape, of a sprint, I have to get, these marks in exam, I have to get this job, I have to, do this, win this medal, I have to get this trophy, I have to get a house, I have to get a car, and these things, consume our consciousness, leaving us, with very little, with not much, mental space, for, seeing the long term perspective in life, a spiritual world view, helps us understand, that we are souls, and we are eternal beings, that means, we have gone through many lives in the past, and we will go through many lives in the future, and because of, having gone through many lives thus, we primarily, are dependent on, our own consciousness, for our happiness, we may achieve certain things, but no matter how much we achieve, we will soon lose those things, soon may vary, it may be a few days, few hours, or it may be few years, or few decades, so, when we recognize, that, our inner success, are the, the consciousness that we have developed, the culture of discipline, of diligence, of self mastery, of being able to, direct our thoughts and emotions, in constructive channels, rather than negative channels, if we have developed these, then we will be happy, whatever situation we are in, but if we have not developed these, then no matter what we achieve, we will, find ourselves frustrated, we will find ourselves, at the mercy of the ups and downs of life, being buffeted, by whatever life sends our way, we will be elated by success, and we will be devastated by failure, so, once, a king, called us and he said, I will give a great gift, great prize to someone, who gives me something special, so the condition is the same thing, it should make me happy, when I am sad, and it should make me sad, when I am happy, people are perplexed, how can the same thing, have opposite effects, finally, a wise old man came, and gave the king, a ring, and in that ring, was written, this too, shall pass, this too, shall pass, so, now, when the king read this, he smiled, when he was, when he was, devastated by failure, when he would be, down because of failure, if he reads, this too, shall pass, understand that, this failure, this disappointment, this is temporary, it is going to go soon, I don’t have, to get worked up by it, let me just, keep moving onwards, and, this too, shall pass, and, if a person is too inflated and elated, by success, at that time, one can again look at, the, at the, at the, and see, this too shall pass, there is no need for me to get, hyper excited, about success, because this too, shall pass, this is not going to last, let me not get overworked by it, let me just stay calm, not lose perspective, so, we, when we understand that we are eternal beings, and, the, the self mastery, the self poise, the self satisfaction, that we develop in our consciousness, the way we learn to adjust our thoughts, and focus on constructive things, rather than on, debilitating or destructive things, that is going to be pivotal, for our happiness, when we recognize this, central role of, the spiritual, in our, life journey, the spiritual is that which is, eternal, that which is, non-ephemeral, that which is unchanging, and, spiritual worldview, we discussed earlier, the idea, understanding our spiritual identity, understanding our, understanding the, benevolent disposition of divinity, understanding that, we ourselves are eternal, and harmonizing our activity, so that we move towards the eternal, all this can help us, to fix our eyes, on real success, real success is, the development, the refinement of our own consciousness, the habit, of discipline, of self mastery, that we develop, in whatever work we do, so with this, we can, when we cultivate this vision, that life is a marathon, not a sprint, then what happens in the short run, will not trouble us so much, because we will know, that the short run, what is in the short run, will soon run out, and we can move onwards, towards things, which are going to give us, lasting success, so, by viewing the life, not as a sprint, but as a marathon, and, focusing on that, the development of our inner character, and consciousness, which is pivotal for, our success in the marathon of life, we can avoid the negativity that comes, by the inevitable, short term ups and downs, that life sends our way, thank you,