Is it worth to enter a competition? Why should we be with ‘no competition’?

The racecourses of the worldly life and competitiveness (spardha)

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)

The racecourse of life

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)