Success has any Destination?

I remember when I was in primary school coming first in class was success for me, that is what I was told to me by my parents and teachers and that is what I assumed to be right. When I came in 10th, getting good percentage in board exam was success for me. After passing 10th getting into IIT or similar good institution was success for me and thus getting high rank in competitive exams like IIT, AIEEE was success for me. After getting a sufficiently good rank in AIEEE and getting into a good college, getting a good job became success for me. To achieve that success I spent 4 years in college studying all those subjects which I was willing to study! Similar was the case in my primary, secondary and during the preparation for competitive exams, I was not really willing to study all those subjects which I studied. To study all those I had to mug, I had to go against my willingness, I had to suffer, I had to struggle, but since I had assumed something as success so I could not be happy until I achieve it. I completed my B.Tech and got sufficiently good job. I am successful as per my previous definitions of success, now what? Is this sufficient? do I want something more than this? But NO! When I see around me I find there are still some other notions of success. Getting up into corporate ladder is Success, doing MBA and getting a much high paying job is Success, getting ahead of others and coming on the top is success and there are many more!

When I see all this I find that I am not happy in the process of achieving the success which I have assumed to be success and by the time I achieve what I had assumed to be success, my notions of success are changed and I am still running! They say “Success is a journey and not a destination”, but am I happy in the journey? Is there any end to this race? Is there any absolute success or it is always relative? If success is relative then will I ever be successful? Is there happiness in process of achieving success or even after having achieved what I have assumed as success? Is there any definition of Success without Happiness? Why do I want to become successful?

When I ask these questions to myself, I realize that I want to become successful to be happy. Happiness is the main purpose. If the main purpose is not being fulfilled in the course of achieving success or even after having achieved success then what is meaning of becoming successful? There is no definition of success without understanding Happiness i.e. what is happiness? and how can I achieve it?

In current scenario or current notions of success are not able to make us happy and will not be able to make us happy, this is clear, but if not this then what will? This is the very basic question. I have talked to many people who are successful in current notions of success and I realized that they are still not happy, they want something “more” than that, but what is that “more” they do not exactly know!

There are two main questions which a human being has in his life.

1. What do I want to achieve?
2. How can I achieve it?

To analyze first question, if we make a list of all our desires and think more on them then we can identify what we really want to achieve. If I ask myself this question then answer which comes to me is, I want

Happiness + Prosperity + Relationships + Continuity of all 3.

Others can also ponder over this and can verify this if they find this true for themselves or not.

I want Happiness continuously, always, I want to “feel” Prosperity always, I want to live with feeling of relationships with others around me always. There is never a time when I desire for unhappiness, there is never a time when I desire for deprivation, there is never a time when I desire for opposition with anybody.

Now second questions which comes is, How can I achieve it?

Answer of this question can be taken as a proposal,

I can achieve Happiness + Prosperity + Relationships + Continuity of 3, by Understanding. By Understanding of what Happiness is? by Understanding of what Prosperity is? by Understanding of what Relationships are? In total by increasing my Knowledge at the level of

1. Self
2. Family
3. Society
4. Nature