Question: What should my attitude be when someone else wins a race I am running in?

Sri Chinmoy: As children, we learn how to walk only after repeated falls. We stumble and then we get up again. We become a fast runner after losing the race many times. We become good wrestlers by being defeated many times.

If I feel sad when I observe someone else winning a race, this will not help me. He has the capacity, so he will win. I do not have the capacity, so I will not win. But if I can appreciate his speed, automatically some of his capacity will enter into me. Through sincere appreciation we gain capacity.

When I see that somebody is running the fastest, I really feel that I am that person. Ask me to run with the fastest runner and I will be nowhere. But when the person runs, I get great joy because I feel that it is I who have run the fastest. If you can identify with other people's successes instead of envying them, you will get a great deal more joy out of life. And of course, if you can identify with their defeats as well, you will learn sympathy and kindness as well as enriching your own experience.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The outer running and the inner running, Agni Press, 1984
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ori