Nobody denies the differences between success and failure playing a major role in one’s life. But success is not and can’t be measured from a frame of failed reference. So is the vice versa. Oriental philosophy conditions minds to equanimity. The dual nature of success and failure make them both interchangeable and permeable. There is an element of illusion in both success and failure. Success has an element of failure. Similarly, failure also has an element of success.

An equanimous mind has a sobering control over its heart. It neither jumps with joy over success nor loses heart over a failure. Success and failure make an equanimous mind content and introspective, respectively. Both are taken with same stride, however big may be the occasion. Swami Vivekanand explains the dual nature, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” The Hindu calls this Mâyâ, the manifestation of God, because it is the power of God.The absolute reflecting through the universe is what we call nature.The word has two manifestations— the general one of nature, and the special one of the great incarnations of God — Krishna,Buddha, Jesus, and Ramakrishna.

Christ, the special manifestation of the absolute, is known and knowable. The absolute cannot be known: we cannot know the Father, only the Son. We can only see the absolute through the “tint of humanity”, through Christ.”

Christianity says the same thing differently. Swami Vivekanand explains, “The Perfect never becomes imperfect. It is in the darkness, but is not affected by the darkness. God’s mercy goes to all, but is not affected by their wickedness. The sun is not affected by any disease of our eyes which may make us see it distorted. In the twenty-ninth verse, “taketh away the sin of the world” means that Christ would show us the way to become perfect. God became Christ to show man his true nature, that we too are God. We are human coverings over the Divine; but as the divine Man, Christ and we are one.” Religion is nothing but realisation.

Religiosity starts with humble attempts for a complete identification with the supreme. How to achieve it? Vivekanand adds, “Our best work is done,

our greatest influence is exerted, when we are without thought of self. All great geniuses know this. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act, and do nothing ourselves. “O Arjuna! I have no duty in the whole world”, says Krishna. Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone can you do any true work. No eyes can see the real forces, we can only see the results. Put out self, lose it, forget it; just let God work, it is His business.

We have nothing to do but stand aside and let God work. The more we go away, the more God comes in. Get rid of the little “I”, and let only the great “I” live.” Once soul integrates with the absolute, the
circumstances become a superficial and shallow reflection of one’s limited knowledge. Besides, we find ourselves million ways to make ourselves unhappy and few ways to make ourselves happy. How can life be liberating and emancipating? Everything in the universe is changing. Even the apparently dead wood and objects are unaware of an earth rotating underneath.