22 May 2012 - QA 8

Guruji, even after putting maximum efforts why do I fail? What should we do in these situations?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you really want what you are aiming at, hold on to it. But if you feel it is worthless putting so much effort then move on to something else which is much easier.
Once there was a Prime Minister in India. He was a Prime Minister only for a few months.
So this gentleman, he invited me to his farm house outside Delhi. So I said okay and I went there.
When I was there, he said, ‘Guruji, for 40 years I did everything, I played good and dirty games to achieve this seat, to be the Prime Minister. Now I am the Prime Minister and I find that, for this seat I struggled all my life, and now I find it meaningless. Before I could sleep here happily, but now there are 50 policemen guarding and I can’t even sit outside my own home. It was a futile struggle all my life.’
I said, ‘To understand this, it took you so many years. Anyways, at least now you realize. Many people do not even realize this.’
What is happening with all these dictators in North Africa, they are all killing thousands of people just to hold on to power. This is stupidity. At least this gentleman had the sense to realize that it is all futile. I told him, ‘You are lucky in that sense.’
So like that, if you want to really achieve something then put all your life into achieving it. But if you find something else which is better to put your energy into, go in that direction.
The other day a youth came to me and said that he had been appearing for his CA exams and he has failed seven times and his parents want him to appear again.
I said, ‘Why do you want to do that? You have failed seven times! Do you hope to pass this time?’
He said, ‘No, I do not have any hope of passing.’
So when you have no hope of passing then why waste your time, do some business. Get on with some job. That is a more intelligent thing to do.