satsang with guruji

(guruji, swami tejomayanandaji, was invited to deliver a talk titled 'can ambition and contentment co-exist?' by the EO/YPO chapter in mumbai on 3rd december 2007. the following post is a synopsis of the talk. the venue was the lawns of a house adjacent to the sea in worli and guruji spoke with the sea as the backdrop.)

it'a a pleasant evening and i'm glad to be with you.

a few days back niraj ambani invited me for this talk and we were discussing what should be the topic. after some deliberaion we came to this topic - 'can ambition and contentment co-exist?'.

this question arises because of a couple of reasons. when we look at the definition then there appears to be a contradiction.

'ambition' means a strong desire for something. it could be wealth or power or anything. and 'contentment' means being satisfied with what we have. so ambition presupposes dissatisfaction and therefore discontentment.

now different people might say different things. one may say,
'let there be a contradiction'.
'i've got ambition and no contentment, so what?'.
'i've got contentment and no ambition, so what?'.
if a person has only one then he has no conradiction.

so the two words appear contradictory.

if a person says 'i'm contented with my ambition', then there's no problem. but some people have a spiritual bent of mind and want to achieve something. but they tend to have a feeling of guilt.

because spirituality says that you should be contented. therefore there is conflict!
the question is - can the two co-exist so that there is no guilt? can i be ambitious about contentment or contented with ambitions?

(anecdote) once a very ambitious person went to the sea-side and saw a young man sitting under a tree and resting. the ambitious person felt agitated that this youngster is wasting his life and asked to do something, maybe buy and sell vegetables. the youngster had this nagging habit of saying 'and then?' to everything the ambitious person said.

young person (yp) : and then?
ambitious person (ap) : then you can get more money and open a bigger shop.
yp : and then?
ap : then you can become a merchant and open a chain of shops.
yp : and then?
ap : you can then start exporting also and your business will grow.
yp : and then?
ap : and then you can appoint managers, build a palace for yourself, etc.
yp : and then?
ap : and then you can sit back and relax.
yp : but that's what i am doing right now without having to go through this entire exercise!

we have to ask ourselves why this questions arises? and in whose mind? a person who feels that there is contradiction and wonders whether they can co-exist?

now lets look at it from a scriptural perspective. in most of the scriptures like gita we see that desire is not considered wrong. it takes strong desire to achieve something. anything we do is an expression of desire. therefore desire or ambition itself is not a problem.

there are various categories of desire :
1. spiritual desire
2. materialistic desire
3. base/vulgar/criminal desire

some people tend to love only base desires and is destructive to oneself and others. such a desire is universally condemned. it is below any human dignity. any human being wants to live and live happily. therefore one doesn't have the right to harm anyone or destroy their happiness.

therefore such desires are called base and undesirable.

when a person has a desire to help his or her own lot - i want to prosper; then it is not wrong in itself. such a person will be usually dissatisfied. which is not a problem as it motivates.

problem arises when this desire grows to such an extent that he becomes inconsiderate about other people's happiness and this then becomes uncontrollable greed.

there a few things we should always remember when it comes to materialistic desires.
desires are many and the desired objects are limited. therefore there is bound to jealousy and frustrations and disappointment, etc.
uncontrollable greed then prompts a person to 'kill and get killed' instead of 'live and let live'!

(anecdote) there were two neighbours. one was greedy while the other was jealous. the greedy person used to think that i should have more than my neighbour. and his neighbour would think, 'why should he have more?'

one day the greedy man found the jealous man in a temple doing tapas. so he also started doing tapas. lord shiva appeared before them and granted them a boon. but he said that only one person should ask and the other person would get twice what the first person asked. both didn't ask and waited for the other to ask. lord shiva got impatient and told them that have only two minutes left to ask their boon. so the jealous man promptly said. 'please make me blind in one eye!'.

this is why it is said that greed makes man blind. therefore all through history we see how greed destroys people, kingdoms and society. whenever you become over-ambitious then it becomes destructive greed. you may succeed for some time but finally people will revolt.

a slightly higher form of greed is where we think about what we can give to others. even here sometimes we see competition.

once a prosperous man wanted to be the top donor to a temple. so he gave a large amount, but later found out that he was only the second biggest donor. so he decided to increase his contribution. the two donors started competing till this man reached his limit. he felt sad that he could not giev more. so he asked himself what it is that he could give to feel satisfied? and then he remembered that he was a chain smoker. so he decided that from that moment he would give up smoking.

thats when he decided that he would not compete in giving more and more, but he would rather focus on growing up. then the joy and satisfaction he felt was unique.

one form of greed is 'acquiring' and the other is 'giving'. when there is a sense of competition then there is a problem.

but when the goal is non-material or spiritual (eg. to grow out of my weaknesses) then it is far greater.

eg. 10 people wanting something versus 10 people wanting peace of mind.

as the latter ambition grows we will feel more and more contented.

eg. when a function is arranged at your house everyone comes and enjoys. you feel full and you don't feel hungry

when your heart is full your need/greed/craving disappears.

such ambition and contentment can co-exist.

now contentment is of two types -
1. fullness of heart
2. contentment at physical level of fulfilling one's needs.
eg. a millionaire can wear only so many clothes or can eat only so much.

the ideal situation is when a person understands that his needs are minimum and is satisfied; but has an ambition that the world should be more and more contented.

in 'rudra sukata' in one section the rishis salute all gods, beings, etc. in the second section the rishis then ask for innumerable things. so we might wonder whether the rishis are driven by greed!

but the actual essence is that the rishi feels oneness with all and is therefore wishing for all beings to be more and more prosperous.

eg. parents feel that kids should get what they had not got and therefore desire more for their kids.

the satisfaction derived from such ambition is a different nature.

so one kind of contentment it is based on fullness of heart and spiritual goals. the other kind is content with minimum needs and wants.

the difference between an ignorant and a wise man is that :
a sense of incompleteness in the ignorant person prompts action to gain happiness. while a wise man's action arises from 'happiness'.

so a person who manages both, fullness in oneself, as he also thinks of how the world can be happier, is called a 'santusht' (happy or satisfied) person. such a person has found happiness within himself. such a person has minimum needs and thinks of the welfare of all.

this is seen in the examples of most great people - leaders, saints and politicians. eg. when lokamanya tilak was asked what post he would like to take up after freedomw. pat cam his response - a teacher.

similarly gandhiji's vision was to have contentment as well as the ambition and inspiration to lead such a life.

there are similar examples of great masters building organisations.

in such examples it was a case of rising from fullness rather than rising from incompleteness.

and fullness can come only from spiritual bliss. materialistic ambition cannot generate this.

so if we look at the question - can ambition and contentment co-exist? - then from a material perspective the direct answer is 'no'.

spiritual contentment is not passive or dull contentment. on the spiritual path one must work hard and then be satisfied with the result.

when ambition becomes spiritual then there is inspiration and also contentment.