The Real Key to Success
Beads of Truth, Spring 1981 #7 Vol 2
by Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
We need to understand how we can present ourselves to the best advantage and to know what role the ego plays in our life. Your unknown is God, and the self is otherwise considered to be the known. But when you want to know what you have yourself, do you really know your self? Do you want to know your self? Have you worked to know your self? My self is very important to me. Yet this is the only thing which I ignore in my life. I want to be known as a doctor, as an attorney, or I want to be known as a business manager. Because I have never worked on my self. I have never introduced my self. I have never cared to represent my self. I do not identify with my self. I do not proportionately appropriate my self. I do not proportionately understand and distribute my self. And still, I want to be very successful, myself.
I'll tell you the mystery of life: life is not a mystery at all. It is a simple mastery of the Self. For example, if a problem comes to me, then I look at that problem with these guidelines: I have to work through this problem, I don't have to confront it. I have to solve it. Then I ask myself - how will I solve it as the Siri Singh Sahib? How will I solve it as Yogi Bhajan? How will I solve it as Harbhajan Singh? From which area has the problem come from? If it is a problem of Dharma, I don't have to care whether I benefit or I lose. I have to solve that problem as the Siri Singh Sahib.
If it is a problem in the emotional or mental realms, I have to solve it as Yogi Bhajan. I don't have to solve it with Dharma. Dharma is a path of the human. Those with emotional or mental problems are not yet human. A person does not know what the path is. I have to make a person human and then deal with the human. Therefore I have to deal with it as Yogi Bhajan.
If someone has a relationship with me as a father, then I am Harbhajan Singh. But, I am using the same ego to solve these different kinds of problems.
The other alternative is that a problem comes to you and you confront it. The moment you confront the problem, either you win or you lose. That is called self-destruction. You don't need to confront anything. It is not worthwhile, because everything moves. The problem will move. (You won't move because your ego gets hung up.) But you can't solve a problem by confronting the problem. Then it becomes a hassle and the neighbors will know about it and people will hear about it.
What is the secret of success? OPI OPM: Other People's Intelligence and Other People's Money. Your own intelligence cannot solve every problem. Your own intelligence is how you employ and successfully deploy the environment, the surroundings. That is OPI. Employ and deploy the surroundings. When you employ the surroundings, don't involve yourself in it. Because it is not you in the problem, rather it is your interest in the problem. You should see that you get the highest rate of interest, but it is not you.
Once I was asked if I wanted to have a certain inspector working under me or not. I questioned why I was being given an additional inspector. I was told that nobody wanted to have him working under them. I agreed that I would take him, but I asked that inspector why the other officers did not want to have him working under them. He told me that other officers were threatened because he was so sharp and efficient that they felt that their own jobs might be taken over by him. I decided to take him. I just outlined to him my area of responsibility. I told him that I would give him a specific area of my duty and he could take total charge of that area and do whatever he wanted to do with it. I can tell you that I never bothered with that work at all, and he came out perfect. Because he was very intelligent, very righteous, very honest and very sincere. You may get a good worker but it is rare to get a sincere worker.
Another example I want to share with you. I had a pesonal servant named Ramu. His job was just to serve me and personally attend to me. One day while I was eating with my friends he just came and picked up my plate. Then he brought me some other kind of food and served me. I understood his habits, but after a while I just called him to explain to these people why he made me eat something different? He said:
"Baba, you are not to eat this food because yesterday you worked very hard and this food is very delicious and you would definitely overeat. You are to go on duty in half an hour and you won't be in a position to digest it, therefore, I am sorry, I couldn't give you that food." I said, "But, you never gave it to me, someone else gave it to me!" He added, "Another person is another person. I am responsible for what you eat."