Questioner: Everyone has a desire to be something, and here around you, we have the desire of not wanting to be anything, we want to be free from any semblance of superiority (visheshata). In the worldly interactions, one feels, ‘I am something. And I want to be something.’
Dadashri: That is because they enter a racecourse there, do they not? He wants to run because so many other horses are running. Hey you! You are sick so why don’t you relax and take it easy? All the others are strong horses, besides only the one who comes first will get the prize and the rest will die huffing and puffing.
So, not even a fool would take part in a competition (racecourse). Yes if they were going to award five hundred prizes or so, then one can believe that he may get lucky and win a prize. But you are not going to come first, so why are you in the competition? Go home and go to sleep. Who would enter the competition? How can you enter their racecourse? Some horses may be so strong from a diet of chick peas (garbanzo beans) while others may be eating grass. Therefore, I did not enter the racecourse of the worldly life. That is how I found this Lord within.
And the prize goes only to the one who comes first, does it not? The rest are left wandering around life after life. They die huffing and puffing and gain nothing. How can one enter a racecourse of the world with that kind of justice? What do you think?
Questioner: That is correct.
Dadashri: And the human nature is to be competitive. Are people not competitive?
Questioner: Yes they are. That becomes cheap.
Dadashri: There is competition everywhere. Even at home, if an argumentative person comes along, he will start a competition between the husband and wife. If the wife says something, the husband will tell her, ‘You be quiet, you did it this way and I am going to do it this way…’ Hey! Both the horses have started running? Who is going to give you the prize? That is why ‘we’ say, ‘We’ do not know how to do things the way Hiraba knows.’ So ‘we’ let her run. Run. Run as much as you want to! Even Hiraba says, ‘You are naïve (bhoda).’ I tell her, ‘Yes that is fine.’
People suffer because they compete. They enter competitions.Just watch the competition; you have to simply ‘see’ which horse comes first. When one continues to simply ‘see’, then the ‘seer’ (jonaar) has no pain or suffering. Those who enter a ‘racecourse’ have to suffer the pain. So it is not worth entering a ‘racecourse.’
Reference: Book Excerpt: Aptavani 9 (Page #377 - Paragraph #5 & #6, Entire page #378, Page #379 - Paragraph #1 to #5)
When our construction contract business was recognized as being number one in the area, a kind of power entered the mind that my mind was working like a genius. However that too was not akkal(wisdom, right intellect); on the contrary it was foolishness. It was nothing but a museum of inviting troubles (upaadhi). Right intellect, wisdom is that which reduces external problems (upaadhi); it is where potential problems coming your way gets diverted and end up going to someone else. They go to someone else.
People’s methods are all wrong. The practices they use or resort to for progress in life are also wrong. We ran around according to other people’s methods and practices. We come first and win but then we even come last too. I understood that all this is nothing but betrayal indeed. I too had joined others in the competition by entering the racecourse; I ran very hard and after coming first, I then came in last. That is when I felt, ‘What kind of madness is this? It is all a trap!’ You never know when some unscrupulous person will destroy you. Do people not do such things? One day you may be number one and the next day such a person will come and make you puff and pant in the race to no end. ‘We’ realized that a person can lose everything from being number one and that one should not enter into such horse races (competition).
‘We’ used to live very peacefully and in ease. Before the roads used to be crooked; full of winding curves so inner calculations would arise, as to which one road was the shortest. ‘We’ never followed the paths everyone else followed. ‘We’ would try to look for short cuts. ‘Our’ method and practice was different. ‘We’ never did anything just because other people did it or because it was the traditional thing to do so. ‘Our’ method and practice was completely different. I never painted the wall in my house, if the wall were to get the paint on its own, then so be it.
‘We’ say just one thing and that is, ‘there is no competency (barkat) left in ‘us’’. ‘We’ have seen the face of competence! ‘We’ ran a lot! ‘We’ ran to no end! ‘We’ are telling you from ‘our’ experiences of life after life, that all the running of countless lives has been a failure and completely worthless! I have run so hard, hard enough to be sitting on the top but I have also suffered miserably in the process. Instead why not run away form this racecourse! Let us discover our true domain…it is, oh my…gigantic”!
So even if the devas (celestial beings) were to come down and tell you, ‘We are giving you the first place in this horse race’, you can tell them, ‘No, Dada has been there and I believe him when he tells us about what he saw there and his experiences. Thank you very much. I do not want such a race.’
A relative of mine, while talking about money, tells me, ‘You have done well, you have made good money in the business’ I told him, ‘I really do not have any such thing; it is you who has done very well. You have factories etc. How can I compare myself to where you are at! I do not have the skills you have; you have been able to accumulate so much wealth. I do not know anything about this. I only know about the other things (Self realization).’ There was nothing left to discuss any further when I said that. There was nothing to compete, was there? There was no relation left. Why would I want to enter into competition (spardha) with them?
People are always competing in this way, but how can I run with them? Let them win the prize. You just observe them. What happens when you compete against them? You end up hurting yourself so that is not for you.
Reference: Book Excerpt: Aptavani 9 (Page #392 - Paragraph #3 & #4, Page #393, Page #394 - Paragraph #1 to #3)
1. Competition makes one fall in worldly life
As long as there is ignorance of the Self, the ego is alive and until then it is in some form of doer-ship. ‘I should do something. I should progress somehow. I should become famous’ and if that is not possible then through association with others, through seeing others the rivalry of, ‘I want to be better than him’ indeed occurs and consequently competition arises. There is no problem in him getting ahead, but because he does not have capacity to do so on his own, he brings others down, or impedes them, and that is how he gets ahead. He does not have the attributes to become superior, so he destroys other’s superiority in order to make them inferior to him. Only then does he become superior in their comparison, right? And from that arises competition, which leads to enmity, causing worldly wandering.
On a highway if someone overtakes you, it will immediately bother you that, ‘He over took me?’ And you will increase your speed and pass him and be satisfied that you got ahead of him. Hey, but hundreds of thousands of cars went ahead of you on that road. Why doesn’t any competition arise there? But when someone comes next to you and your buddhi (intellect) shows something negative, then competitiveness arises. This is how all living beings (jivas) are travelling on the path of liberation (moksha). Going through the path of moksha. In it, so many have attained Keval Gnan and the ultimate liberation (moksha). But the competition arises against those who come in close contact with you.
Those who want to go to moksha- even if people call you crazy, beat you up and throw you out, you should declare defeat and sit there. The Gnanis’ method is to win over the world by letting others win!
Those who have the knowhow, exhaust themselves by running around. Instead, there is pleasure in admitting that you don’t know anything, and sit aside. Gnani Purush Dadashri clearly says, ‘I don’t even know how to shave, even after so many years.’ What did he deduce from the racecourse? Even if one comes first today, he will indeed come last some day. One’s personality will begin to shine by moving away from the racecourse. There is no compatibility between one’s personality and racecourse.
2. Misery due to competing with others
And it is not worth entering into the “racecourse” (competition). You just have to see which horse comes first. The whole world is involved in the racecourse. I realized this at a young age, so then I have never entered the racecourse, have I? Not a single racecourse (competition). When will this race end? There is no end to it. If someone says that a certain person made so much money in tobacco, then that would become a problem for us. We have the money and yet we become miserable. It is considered a racecourse, isn’t it?
All miseries are due to lack of understanding. The miseries of the world are indeed because of misunderstanding. That is why I am saying, remove the misunderstanding and live life with understanding; then there is no misery at all in this world.
Q. What is competition? Why does It happen?
A. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan compares competition with a racecourse, meaning horse racing. His... Read More
Q. Where and why do we compete with others?
A. Where in the world does competition not exist? There is competition at home, in family, in earning... Read More
Q. How to overcome fear of losing money or worries due to competition in business?
A. Every business has gains and losses associated with it. If there are a lot of mosquitoes in your... Read More
Q. How to win when someone comes to defeat me? What is the best way to win?
A. You have done nothing but the same thing over and over again in countless past lives. Now it will... Read More
A. In competition, the process is such that in my communities if one’s son is making progress, they... Read More
A. What is dharmadhyan? It is to have no negative bhaav (feeling) towards anyone who causes you harm... Read More
A. People want liberation and yet they engage in conflicts and difference of opinions, and take sides.... Read More
A. With the yoga of gurutam one becomes heavy; he becomes gurutam. Guru means heavy and when something... Read More
Q. Is there any place in this world where there is no competition?
A. That is exactly why ‘we’ say to you, ‘all of you are right.’ There is no competition (spardha) in... Read More
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