Is It Alright to Aspire for Success and Show It Off to Others?

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Q. We often aspire to be successful so that we can show to the world, especially our relatives and friends. Hey Swamiji! Is it ok to think this way? (This question is part of a Mahā Satsaṅga or grand spiritual discussion between Swami, Shri Parikshit, Smt. Bindiya and Dr. J. S. R. Prasad.)]

Swami replied:- This is okay as far as the worldly life is concerned. Such aspiration develops congenial effort to achieve the goal. But, one shall not concentrate much on the aspiration only so that energy spent on aspiration will weaken you and you will become less efficient to achieve the goal. Once the aspiration is felt, it should be leftover and all the energy of concentration must be focussed on the work needed to achieve the goal. This is first law of Thermodynamics, which says that the energy spent on tension due to aspiration will reduce the energy available to do the work. If aspiration-based tension is minimized, almost all the energy will be available to do the work. The same concept is told in the Gita that you shall concentrate all your energy on the work to be done for achieving the fruit by minimizing the energy spent in aspiration based tension (karmanyevaadhikaaraste).

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