The Golden Sparrow of the World: Understanding the Intensity of Career Competition in India
Hello fellow Indian,
Sharing my 2 cents to the question you shared with me. I do not profess to have all the answers, but I am sharing some perspectives based on my understanding.
It is true that today, for many of us, success is defined by what we achieve in relation to others, and our happiness is controlled by external factors. Our scripts and ancient texts speak about satisfaction being an internal measure, a state of mind, while success is an external one, the manifestation of what we have achieved or what the world perceives us to have accomplished. In my opinion, we should shift our focus inwards to strive for excellence in whatever we do. This way, our motherland will regain the glory it once enjoyed, the Golden Sparrow of the world.
The Sculptor's Perspective on Excellence
I would like to share a story that I believe is relevant to this context. A gentleman visited a temple under construction and saw a sculptor making an idol of God. He noticed a similar idol lying nearby and asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same idol?”
The sculptor replied, “No, we need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.” The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. “Where is the damage?” he asked. The sculptor answered, “There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” Curious, the gentleman asked, “Where is the idol going to be installed?”
The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. “If the idol is that far, who is going to know about the scratch on the nose?” the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled, and said, “I know it, and God knows it!”
Desiring Excellence Without External Appreciation
The moral of this story is that the desire to excel should be independent of whether someone appreciates it or not. Excellence is a drive from within, not from without. Excel at a task today, not necessarily for someone else to notice, but for your own satisfaction.
Excellence and External Success
It is also noteworthy to mention the words of our beloved leaders, particularly the former President, whose message to the young people of the country was, “Have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible, and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.”
If all of us do our bit, then someday we might restore the glory for our motherland. May this day come soon.
Let us all embody the quality of the sculptor and strive for excellence, ensuring that our happiness is rooted in our internal satisfaction rather than external achievements.