Fear of Failure

Click the play button below to watch the video.

The Full Transcription of This Video is Below…

Fear of Failure

For one who is seeing this life as a stepping stone for a larger possibility, for him there is no failure. For one who is looking at the simple events of this life itself as the goal of life, for him there is failure and success. If you’re just seeing this life as a stepping stone for a larger possibility, if you have a good deal, you use that for your well being. If you have a bad deal, you use that for your well being. The economy was on the boom, when every fool could be successful, no, it didn’t take much. When the economy is on the boom, everybody gets carried, isn’t it? Now there has been a melt down. Now it takes something else to be successful. When the economy was on the boom, you could have brought a certain dispassion towards the money that’s flowing in.

Now the economy’s down, the taps are all closed up, it’s time to come meditate, walk in the mountains. There’s a lot of time. There’s a lot of time on your hands, isn’t it? When there was money, it took away your time and life. Now the taps are closed, lots of time, just the time. It doesn’t matter what the hell happens. It doesn’t matter what the hell happens with your life. If you’re seeing this life only as a stepping stone for a larger possibility, then whatever the situation, it is beautiful and very useful, very, very useful.

Once there was a farmer like you, who was tired of failures, natural factors, ruling the quality of his crop. One day, he called Shiva. It was a wild-card entry. He found access and Shiva said, “What?” He said, “I’m tired of all the natural nonsense happening. Obviously you’re not a farmer. I know from history that you are a hunter. You are not a farmer. You don’t know what it means to farm. Why don’t you leave the nature in my hands? I’m a farmer. I know when it should rain. I know when there should be sunlight. I know when there should be wind. I know what, everything. You don’t know because you’re just a hunter and you’re a crazy ascetic. You definitely not a good farmer. The wrong times it’s raining. At wrong times things are happening. You leave it to me.”

Shiva was in one of those moods. He said, “Okay. Nature is in your hands.” The farmer planned his crop, planted a maize crop, rain, poke the land and see, okay, it’s soaked up to six inches, done. Then plow it, plant it, wait for two days, rain, sunlight. Today I’m working in the field, cloud. Everything just happened the way he wanted. A beautiful maize crop came. He was overjoyed, see? It’s good. Nature should be in farmers’ hands. Then when the time to harvest came, he wanted to see because none of the birds were coming. He was surprised because that also he said, “No birds. No birds.”

Then he went and opened and saw nice, big everything, but you open and saw no grain inside. Then he thought, “What the hell is this? What did I do wrong?” Then he couldn’t figure out because rain, water, sunshine, everything he managed properly. Then again he went back to Shiva, but he was in this condition. He waited for many years for him to open his eyes. By the time these many years, the fields and the family, everything went to blip. He wanted to know the answer. What went wrong? He’s farmer first. Then when Shiva opened his eyes he asked, “I did everything right but there is no grain. Did you sabotage my crop?”

Shiva said, “I’ve been watching. You were doing a lot so I didn’t want to interfere. The rain was great, the sunshine was great, everything was fine, but you stopped all the winds. I used to always send fierce winds which would threaten your crop but because the plants felt pushed and threatened, they put their roots deeper into the earth, so grain happened. Now you have great maize crop. No maize.

Various situations in your life, either you can use it to make yourself stronger and better, or you can sit and cry. This is the choice you have. Everything, it doesn’t matter what happens. The most horrific event happened in your life, that also can be used for your growth and your well being, if only, if you have clearly seen the small events of your life. When I say small events, I mean your business, your marriage, your children, all those big things. All these things are just a stepping stone.

This is not new to you because in this culture they put this into you for centuries, for millenniums. They told you your life is about mukti. Your marriage, your business, your social life, these are all just means to get there. Either you go with it or you go without it. Whether your a sannyasi or you’re in the samsara, your only goal is mukti, yes? The goal was not just for the sannyasi. For everybody it is mukti. If you can walk alone, you walk alone. You want party going with you, you walk with the party. That’s your choice. You want to get there quick, you walk alone. You want to go there having picnic on the way slowly, you go with people. Choice is yours. The important thing is whatever the hell you’re doing, there’s only one goal. See, if you have set this up, then all the events of life, everything is beneficial. The boom is beneficial, the melt down is even more beneficial actually. It is also ecologically very good, the melt down.

The fear of failure, failure is bad enough. Fear is adding spice to it, isn’t it? Success happens to you not because you desire it, because you earn it. Everybody desires it. It comes only if you’re capable of it.