Author: DAIV
Success is a gift received, and the danger begins the moment we start calling it a possession.
The Kena Upanishad tells of a victory won by the gods over the demons. Flushed with triumph, Agni, Vayu and Indra began to say, “This victory is ours; this greatness is ours”. The Divine, seeing their pride, appeared before them as a mysterious being, a Yaksha, whom they could not recognise. Agni was sent first. “Who are you, and what can you do?” asked the Yaksha. “I can burn everything on earth,” said Agni. The Yaksha placed a blade of grass before him. Agni used all his power and could not burn it. Vayu came next, boasting he could blow away anything, and he could not move the blade of grass either. When Indra himself approached, the Yaksha disappeared. Then Uma, the goddess of wisdom, appeared and told Indra that the Yaksha was Brahman, and that the victory had been His.
The Gita says the same in a single verse: the ego-deluded person thinks, “I am the doer” (3.27). Our abilities, health, teachers, timing and circumstances all came to us before we could claim any of them, and none will stay unless we hold them humbly. Today, take your latest achievement and write down three people, three circumstances and one unseen grace that made it possible. Thank each of them before you celebrate yourself, and your success will stay light in your hands.