The Failure Of Success

Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 14:50

The ultimate success brings about failure ultimately says Osho, illustrating the truth through a short story.

The 'Sumeru mountain' accepted in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism is believed to exist in heaven. The significance of the mountain is that any great emperor who has conquered the whole world, when he dies, signs his name on the Sumeru mountain for his incredible achievements.

One great emperor, after his death went along with his wives who died on his funeral pyre, as was the case in ancient days, reached the gates of heaven.

At the gate, the gatekeeper obstructed his wives from entering in order to accompany the king to sign his name.

The king was upset “How can you not let my wives in to witness me signing on the mountain?"

The gatekeeper laughed and said, “O king, I have been the gate keeper for generations and my ancestors were all gatekeepers here. I have said the same thing that I've told you, to all those who have come here before you. You will actually be thankful. However if you still insist , you may go ahead with your wish!"

The king felt that the gatekeeper would know better and hence went alone to sign on the 'Sumeru'. To his amazement, contrary to his belief that he was one among the few to sign on the 'Sumeru', the king found thousands of signature's on it, with hardly any space to fit his signature.
He immediately felt grateful towards the gatekeeper.

He said in a tone of disappointment, “I always thought that I would be the one to sign on the Sumeru mountain, but there are thousands of others who have signed before me. Where shall I sign now? I feel humiliated!"

The gatekeeper said, “There is an option. You can rub one of the names and have yours in its place!"

The king said, “What is the point, then one day somebody will rub out my name and will have his name on"

“That is most likely to happen, but its up to you!" said the gatekeeper.

Osho points out that this is the failure of success. The 'Sumeru mountain' may not exist anywhere , however the truth of the failure of success is inevitable. We all run about with our ego chasing different goals . The most we can do is to run up till the 'Sumeru mountains', only to wipe out another person's name, there by wasting our lives. The truth is that our names can also not be made eternal.