Success-world and progress-world
Tonight I would like to give a special prasad, because today I lifted one hundred pounds ten times. The weight was placed behind my back, and from there I lifted it.As you know, I am an advocate of progress. I do not know what success is! Let us say that I want to be very tall — that is my goal. Perhaps I feel that I am very tall. Then I look around, and I see somebody who is eight feet, two inches tall. The moment I extol myself to the skies for my success, I just turn around and God gives me the experience of humiliation. This is the success-world. As soon as we become proud of ourselves, there is somebody else right in front of our nose to surpass us.
The progress-world is totally different. It is my individual case. In the progress-world, I am the one to measure my progress. If I have been doing something for some time, and if I can excel, then I get tremendous joy. In the progress-world, we deal with our inner self, our inner life. Here there is no competition; there is only great joy if we can do a little better. If we can make a little progress, then we are not competing with anybody, so we will not be doomed to disappointment.
The success-world is absolutely bound to be full of miseries. But in the progress-world, everything is between me and my inner life, my inner existence, my inner world, so there I do not have to compete with anybody.
Age descends upon us, but if God’s Grace descends faster than age, then we can accomplish many things.
11 June 2005 Aspiration-Ground Jamaica, New York
