Get Lost!

If you have ever been one of the last to be selected in a sports team line up, you will know exactly how it feels to think that others may think you’re not good enough or you’re a loser. We are terrified of losing—be it losing what we love, losing who we love, losing out or even losing face! Our stomachs do a flip at the very thought of it!It is okay if I willingly decide to give up something by my own choice, but if it’s snatched from me, I just can’t handle that! In fact, even giving up something on my own is not something I want to do very often, unless it is something I don’t like. If I like it, I will want to hold onto it and never let go! If we were to imagine having to give up everything, and remain with nothing—it would be a scary thought, wouldn’t it? It would be very difficult to do. In fact, from all the things that we have hoarded and kept with us, even giving up one or two things is difficult for most people.In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is taught again and again to have courage and steadiness and that’s only so that he can prepare himself for what’s to come! Krishna is no ordinary teacher, and he doesn’t do things in small measure. In the 18th chapter of the Gita, the very last one, he hits the ball out of the park by asking Arjuna to be prepared to gain the greatest goal by losing what is most precious—himself!.Every day we see examples of how people want to lose themselves. In the most negative scenarios, don’t we see people wanting to lose themselves in harmful addiction to social media, drugs, even high speed? In harmless ways, don’t we see people losing themselves in music, art and nature? Every night we lose ourselves in sleep, with the promise of waking up to a new morning.But there is no true loss when we lose ourselves in something truly great, only gain. We find something more joy-giving than anything that we could ever possibly lose, and that is how goals are achieved. Swami Chinmayananda says we should have a ‘steady aspiration’ for the goal. Our focus should never be on what we are losing, for what we feel we lost at the time seems inconsequential and irrelevant later.If we want greatness, we have to surrender our mediocrity. Something’s got to give. Actually, everything’s got to give, but at the same time, there is everything to gain. There comes a time in all our lives when we have to give up what is comfortable and cushy, to be able to rise to the occasion; to drop the beginner’s level on this game of life and take up the ultimate level.And after all, is our goal demanding something from us that will not serve us for the better? If I can lose myself to my goal, and thereby lose my selfishness and pettiness, isn’t that a winning score?