Do ambition and achievement help to attain mental peace?
I am a 20 year old guy doing B.Tech from IIT. Though, I have always been a good student, I have a strong feeling that it is far better to pursue a moderate carrer and have peace of mind rather than earn a fortune and spend sleepless nights! It is not that I do not have any motivation or ambition but fame and wealth do not attract me. Kindly advise If I am right.
-— Rahul Gupta
-— Rahul Gupta
Response: This particular isue at present has become so vital that many of us are being compeled to take a good look at one’s priorities in life!
With the rise of ‘consumer culture’ we are being forced to earn more to have more! and in the process, we are alieniting ourselves from our inner needs and increasingly ending up becoming stressed out. Our society also implicitly equates happiness with material prosperity, but in reality it is an illusion, for had it been so, all wealthy people would have been happy! Most professionals are under pressure today. They work for long hours and they have literally no personal life. Many of them develop serious physical and mental problems. Frankly speaking, it is a problem of great concern. You would do well to follow my advice:
Prioritise your goals in life. If you think that peace of mind is all that you need then you should pursue something which you enjoy. After all, you have to have a source of income, however meagre it is.
—- Dr Shiladitya Ray
With the rise of ‘consumer culture’ we are being forced to earn more to have more! and in the process, we are alieniting ourselves from our inner needs and increasingly ending up becoming stressed out. Our society also implicitly equates happiness with material prosperity, but in reality it is an illusion, for had it been so, all wealthy people would have been happy! Most professionals are under pressure today. They work for long hours and they have literally no personal life. Many of them develop serious physical and mental problems. Frankly speaking, it is a problem of great concern. You would do well to follow my advice:
Prioritise your goals in life. If you think that peace of mind is all that you need then you should pursue something which you enjoy. After all, you have to have a source of income, however meagre it is.
—- Dr Shiladitya Ray
Effort
Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.
—Sri Sri Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, in “Autobiography of a Yogi”
From: Vishal - a pure soul like You.
