No one in this world wants to be a failure—whether we are looking after a home, have a profession, a business or are in service. Whatever we are doing, each one of us wants to be successful, and so normally we will try to learn from those who have been themselves successful in whatever field our interest is in.

However, sometimes those people who have been very successful in the field that we are interested in are failures in other parts of their lives; or even being successful in their field from one sense, they are failures from another sense.

Thus we seek the advice or example of those who have not only been successful in their field but know the art and science of living successful lives as a whole. If we are fortunate, they will tell us not only the mechanics of being successful in our field but the attitude that is required: Your life must be built on the spirit of service. You must treat others the way you would like to be treated. Practice non-injury, truthfulness and self-restraint, and you will be successful in an all-round way.
But still, even we are able to be successful in an all-round way, we don’t feel totally satisfied. There is something missing, and there is usually still some conflict in our life. Sometimes, for example, we find that we cannot practise both non-injury and truthfulness; we’re not sure what to do.

It is then that we must turn to a sat-guru, a true teacher or a scripture that shows us how to go beyond being a successful and good person into a person who can reconcile all the pairs of opposites, all the confusion in life. That is why we are told to read the Gita every day, and once a year we pay homage to it in a special way on the anniversary of when Lord Krishna tried to straighten out Arjuna’s thinking. Arjuna was a good person. He was also very successful. But ultimately, as all of us do, he ran into a conflict in his life between what he considered to be the right thing and what his duty was. This can happen to any of us, and to be truly successful we need to find the solution. The solution, Lord Krishna said, is not to run away from your duty. It is not give up being successful in this world. It is not to be become a failure, but it is learn to be truly successful through understanding the true basis of life.

It is to understand that everything is one, and that that One has a will for our lives It is not only to come in harmony with the laws and guidance that that One has given us, but to go beyond all dharmas, all rules and regulations and morality and take refuge in that One alone, to allow that One to become our life. We no longer are trying to do the will of God, but we become the will of God.

Our conflict is because we have all our ideas of what the will of God is and what we think is right. That was Arjuna’s problem. Lord Krishna treated him indulgently but would not compromise one centimeter: There is another way, Arjuna. You have come to the point where you must learn it. And so it is with us. A time comes when we can no longer live our own way on the basis of what we think. Lord Krishna and the Gita are our guides as to how to move from our way of thinking to God’s way of thinking, so that our lives will be crowned with a success that knows no failure.