Question: Sir, in the beginning you said that when we have plans for future, we get stressed. Don’t you think that in life one should have at least one ambition to follow so that at any time in future if one is going on the wrong path or out of the way, then one has that ambition in his subconscious mind to keep one on that way only, the way that one needs to follow to get that ambition?
Speaker: We all have ambitions. An ambition is the plan for future, a desire for future. Right? What was your ambition when you were four years old? What did you want to become when you were four years old?
Listener 1: I wanted to become a detective.
Speaker: Detective. A Sherlock Holmes or a Karamchand.
*(Addressing one of the listeners sitting in the audience)*Yes, what did you want to become?
Listener 2: I wanted to become a doctor.
Listener 3: I wanted to grow older.
Speaker: Grow older because old people have power, and these kids are always bullied by the old people so let me become old quickly. Yes, what else you wanted to become when you were three, five years old?
Listener 4: Pilot.
Listener 5: Teacher.
Speaker: Sherlock Holmes, Jackie Chan, teacher, pilot, detective.
Listener 6: Sir, we were very much fickle minded that time.
Speaker: How do you know that you are not fickle minded right now? Today you are laughing at that three years old because of his ambitions, but he was very much serious about his ambition. I wanted to become a superman. He was so fascinating.
Listener 4: Sir, now also that fickle mindedness comes.
Speaker: Today you are laughing. Why are you laughing? I was very serious. My ambitions. I must live my life according to my ambitions. Why are you laughing? And why must then I not laugh at your ambitions? You at eighteen years of age are laughing at that four years old, me at thirty five years of age, why should I not laugh at you, the eighteen year old? And somebody who is fifty, why should he not laugh at a thirty five year old? Because these are fickle things, and because your ambition goes only as far as your experience. At three years of age, all you have seen is those TV serials, your neighbors, your relatives, and a few comic books. And all your ambition comes from there. The world is so big, but your ambition comes from this small an area, your comics and your neighbors. So, you can laugh. Is that same thing not happening today? Are your ambitions again not this small? The world is so big, the possibilities are enormous, but just as that four year old was so serious about his ambitions, you too are so serious about your ambitions. My ambitions! Superman! Nothing has changed.
All ambitions come from that limited mind. Every moment is fresh and ambition cannot capture that. Also tell me that how would life had been had you really become what you wanted to become? Then he would have been a Sherlock Holmes, she would have been a teacher. It is great that your ambitions were not realized. Isn’t it great? And if god has mercy upon you then your ambition of today will also not be fulfilled. That is the best I can wish for you. May your ambitions be defeated.
Listener 3: Sir, why did Swami Vivekananda say, ‘Arise, awake and stop not until your goal is achieved’.
Speaker: Which goal is he talking of? His goal is the aatman. He is not talking of becoming the vice president of some company.
Listener 3: Yet, it is an aim.
Speaker: It is an aimless aim, because you cannot aim at the aatman . He is talking of finding yourself. He is saying that find yourself. He is not saying that become something else. He is saying that find out who you are. You are the aataman. That is what he is saying. He is not saying that go and run after a girl. He is not saying that, but we use it in that way. Nobody who has any sense will ever ask you to be ambitious. Go and read the entire wisdom literature of the world from any place, any person, any time. Nobody has asked you to be ambitious. Only small minds ask you to rush after some trivial things. Small minds who have not lived life and who will not allow others to live life.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
