“All it takes is . . . nothing
. . . to be successful.”
They looked at him, not
understanding a word of what he said.
“People are born successful. Or you
can say they are destined to be successful”. He continued, “They don’t have to
find it. They really don’t have to look for it. Trust me there is no need”.
“What do you mean? What are you
talking about?” One of them asked.
“I mean . . .” he looked at the
guy who asked the question. “Perhaps I mean nothing. These are just meaningless
words. There was no need to create alphabets and words for communication. Man
could understand others better without words. . . No. let me rephrase it. Man
could feel others better without words. You see we listen to their sufferings
but can’t feel anything. If someone tells you he is thirsty, you give him a
glass of water. Do you feel his thirst? No, you don’t. You do it because you
have learnt that it’s good to quench his thirst when he is thirsty and one day
HE (The Lord) will quench yours and you will be rewarded for your good deeds. Can
you really feel how a thirsty person is feeling when he asks you for water? You
could if there were no words to communicate. . .”
“Pardon me Sir! But we want to
listen about success”, he said thinking about the loan he had to return in a
few days.
“Success is nothing my pal but
your destiny. If you try to find it, you are a fool. And if you try to chase
it, you are mistaken. Running after success is a useless job. Let me ask you a
very simple question”. He paused.
“If a child dies after one hour
of his birth, will he go to the heaven or hell?” He asked them looking into
eyes of the guy who asked about success. The guy lowered his gaze.
“To heaven, as we are told” a boy
sitting next to him answered.
“Why?” He turned towards him.
“Because he is innocent. He has committed
no sins” The boy replied.
“He has done no deeds of virtue
either. Why is he among the successful and not among those who go astray?”
No one replied. He looked at them
and paused. Then he smiled softly as if he was listening to someone.
“Look dear friends! You are born
successful. It is behind you all the time. You don’t have to search it in the
books of great scholars or in the lives of successful. It is yours. It is with
you all the time. It’s you who is running away from it by committing mistakes,
by hurting other people, by running after riches and by running after success”.
He was looking at the ground and talking like talking to himself, or to someone
he couldn’t see.
” It’s with you but you don’t
recognize it. It comes towards you but you don’t embrace it. Righteousness is
nothing but avoiding wrong. Success is nothing but sticking to your own path.
Sticking to the innocence, truth, honesty you were born with. You go towards
failure when you forget the real you and try to find some other path, be some
other character, play some other’s role, chase after some other’s part of the
wealth. Be who you are and you will be successful. Stick to the path you have
and you will be successful. Do nothing what others are
supposed to do and not you and you will be successful”.