Chasing Dreams vs. Walking Along: Finding True Growth

After years and years of chasing mirages, has there ever been a story that ended with us catching up with the mirage? "Humankind captures mirage, finally completes chase. The whole planet rejoices!" was never a headline anywhere. But still, we chase.

Certain things are worth chasing, we try to convince ourselves, as we continue our perennial chase with an ephemeral life!

Life has a time limit. It expires. As I write this and you read it, we have lost time. Any scarce resource has great value. Since time is a scarce resource that can be used only once, it is, no doubt, of the greatest value to us.

Therefore, how we use one of our most valuable resources—time—dictates our quality of life.

Let’s say you wish to go from Point A to Point B, which is 10 minutes away. Since you like to run, you decide to run the distance. Since there was a treadmill nearby, you started running on the treadmill! After 5 minutes, 8 minutes, 10, 15, 20 minutes of running, are you any closer to Point B? Not surprisingly, you are right where you started. Nevertheless, you are exhausted due to the effort.

Chasing a dream is a wonderful happening. It fills us with hope. However, we need to be careful not to step on the treadmill!

Sometimes in our lives, despite working for years, we feel stuck. It would seem that we are right where we started.

You start a career with a simple goal of making money. This money would go on to help you chase your dreams. Years keep rolling. At the end of five years, as you take stock of things, you see that the dream has not gotten any closer. If anything, you have created a few more obstacles to cross over! And it feels as if the chase never ends. This is precisely the treadmill phenomenon. We run and run until we are exhausted in the same spot!

Unfortunately, for most of us, by the time we realize that we’re caught in an endless loop, we are on the other side, listening to our eulogies! Time catches up.

Why does this happen? Why do we chase?

Most of our productive time on this planet is spent chasing. Chase good grades, chase a good college, chase a good partner, chase a job, chase to win, chase to earn, chase to settle, and eventually, hesitate to die! Running after something seems to be ‘the’ way of life.

We chase because we are taught to. We chase because we always seek something better. And almost always, we seek a tangible gain. A gain in property, riches, wealth, health, muscle, and so on.

If all the people in the world decide to stop chasing, the business empires would collapse. There would be no demand. And hence, businesses strategically condition our minds through social media and advertising so that we never quit chasing.

But then, we are a curious breed that thrives due to our exploratory nature. If we are not to chase anything or to run after anything, what would we do? How would we grow and evolve?

Walking Along - A Powerful Alternative

There are two aspects of growth: what to chase and how to chase it. Let’s address both these aspects individually.

What to chase:

Right from our childhood, our modern-day education system puts us in a race. We are trained to run after several things. Ask a kid or an adult what they want today, and more often than not, their life is headed towards a supercar, superhouse, superstardom, and such other things that they see and believe should be the dream.

But as a breed that has evolved over millions of years and has explored astounding levels of intellectual capability, we humans can consciously step out of this race. If only we empower ourselves with a little bit of clarity in thought, this chase could mean a whole different thing!

Adi Sankaracharya, in his simple yet extremely powerful work called Prasnottara Ratnamalika, answers questions that can be helpful in this regard. This work is a list of 66 key questions that provide direction when our lives seem to be in a loop. Let’s take a look at a few of these questions and answers.

“What is the essence of life? - Ask yourself this question and reflect on it repeatedly.”

“What is the most desirable for human beings? - Life dedicated to one’s and others’ welfare.”

“What is to be done? - Good of the creatures.”

“Where should human effort be invested? - In learning, good medicine, charity.”

“What is to be reflected on, day and night? - The futility of life.”

“By whom is this world conquered? - By the person who has truthfulness and endurance.”

“Which is the destroyer of all good qualities? - Greed.”

“Who is good? - One who is always contented.”

“What do the non-ignorant constantly urge for? Charity along with sweet words, Knowledge with Humility, Courage with patience, Wealth with renunciation. These four auspicious things are hard to attain”8

These crisp answers to life’s most critical questions teach us how to select our goals.

Adi Sankaracharya guides us to keep in mind the futility of life, stay away from greed, and move towards contentment and dedicate life to the good of self and others. When the question ‘what to chase in life?’ is answered with this undercurrent in our mind, our goals become more clear and more inclusive.

In this context, it becomes important to understand the word growth. ‘Abhivrudhi’ is the Sanskrit word for growth. Breaking down further, this word means - ‘Abhitah paritah Vridhih’ - That which enhances the inner self and the surroundings - this is referred to as all-inclusive growth.

Imagine a world where kids and adults choose their goals based on this definition of growth and chase them with the utmost rigor - what beautiful results that chase would yield!

How to chase:

The moment we have clarity on what to chase, the how becomes easier. When growth is inclusive and the goal transcends beyond personal greed, the chase takes on a new dimension!

This chase does not breed anxiety. This chase does not push us into endless loops. Precisely because we are not chasing a material, tangible product. When the goal that we chase is not driven by personal greed; when we experience our efforts materializing in everyone’s welfare and self-improvement, each part of the chase will make us feel warm and contented. We would be joyfully in a hurry and never running after!

Therefore, the checkpoints are these:

• When we feel we are running in a loop, as on the treadmill, it could be an indicator that the chase is neither effective nor joyful.

• When the chase is not joyful, it could be an indicator that we are running after things manifested out of greed.

• Redefining our goals and re-aligning them to an all-inclusive growth is an important aspect of life.

• Chasing a selfless goal makes us feel lighter and gives us a remarkable amount of positive energy.

• Having a clear vision of what to chase and how to chase it defines our quality of time on this planet.

• Whether we want to run after something or walk along with everything—the choice is always ours.

Source: Prasnottara Ratnamalika of Adi Sankaracharya

1. किं संसारे सारं? - बहुशोऽपि चिन्त्यमानमिदमेव | किं मनुजेषु इष्टतमं? - स्वपरहिताय उद्यतम् जन्म || 5

2. किं साध्यं? - भूतहितम् || 12

3. कुत्र विधेयो यत्नः? - विद्याभ्यासे, सदौषधे, दाने || 15

4. को अहर्निशं अनुचिन्त्या? - संसार असारता || 16

5. केन जितम् जगदेतत्? - सत्य-तितिक्षावता पुंसा || 18

6. कः सर्वगुणविनाशी? - लोभः || 36

7. कः साधुः? - सर्वदा तुष्टः || 48

8. किं तद्वदन्ति भूयो विधूत-तमसो विशेषेण? दानं प्रियवाक्सहितम्, ज्ञानं अगर्वं, क्षमान्वितं शौर्यं, वित्तं त्यागसमेतं, दुर्लभमेतत् चतुर्भद्रम् || 25