Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Way is the Real Goal.

Here an attempt is made to summarize the discussion I had with sir recently. I may not be as organized as sir explained it to me. The moot point was whether to have a goal and how well can we be unaffected by it.

Do we need goal? Yes. We need it. Goal is important because it gives a direction to your efforts and makes your life meaningful. Further you need it as your mind is meant to do something and you can not keep it idle. Your body suffers when you don’t do any work or if you work excessively. Similarly your mind also needs something to dwell on. And a goal serves the purpose. Absence of a goal is similar to the absence of work. It doesn’t make you healthy. So it is obvious that there isn’t any harm to have a goal more over it is desirable to have one.
But there are two important aftereffects of having a goal irrespective your success or failure in achieving your objective. The first one is that your journey never ends after the achievement. In other words the realization of one goal leads to another. The happiness one gets after accomplishment is short-lived. The second one is with the non achievers who feel disappointed for not realizing their objective. The happiness of achievers dwindles slowly and they do feel just like non achievers after some time. So whether you achieve or do not achieve, it does not give you happiness permanently.
So what should you do with the goal? Shall you have to get away with it and lead a life with out a goal? No. That is not the right solution. Here the often repeated preaching ‘Do your duty and leave the results to the god’ holds well. But you know that it is practically difficult to remain unaffected, more so when you consider your goal so precious. The alternative is to realize the futility of goal and its limited effectiveness so that you can be least affected by its success or failure. You should realize that the success or your achievement does not stop there it leads to more desires and it is never ending process. The happiness you get is also temporary. On the other hand the failure also brings in disappointment but it is also short-lived. After a while both achievers and non achievers are put exactly on the same footing. So the next question would be do you still need a goal? The answer is yes. You need a goal to have a path that leads to your goal. As it has become clear that accomplishment does not give you joy permanently, you have to derive happiness on your way towards your goal. Goal is essential to the extent that it provides you with a path and direction. Just as in hunger…your joy lies in eating when you are hungry but not after eating. A painter or a player derives pleasure while doing their work. They may have a little sense of accomplishment at the end. But the joy they derive while doing the work is more precious than it. You derive pleasure while watching a movie but not after doing it. You should realize that the real joy is available in the process of achievement, not in the achievement of goal. So your goal is not to achieve the goal but to enjoy the path towards the goal. Once you become aware of these facts, you become free of the ill effects of having a goal.
Way is the real goal. Derive the joy on your way to the goal. We should have a goal only because it gives us a path.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010