How to be free of this rat race?

Acharya Prashant
3 min readApr 2, 2020

Only the losers complain about the rat race. When the same losers become winners, they will never complain, because everybody is a part of the same result-centric, achievement oriented process.

You feel happy when you are on top, and you feel bad when you are down in the dumps. And when you are down then because you don’t want to admit that it hurts, you say no, the game is not good, the game is unfair.

Let’s call off the game like petulant kids, who do not want to complete a game just because they are losing. Haven’t you seen six year olds, ten year olds, behaving this way? If they are losing a cricket match, a soccer match, anything, they start saying that the game is unfair, let’s call it off. Or give me my bat, I am going back. The bat belongs to me. This is the same mentality at work. Because I could not win, hence there is something wrong with the game. Not that you have come to see, come to realize, the intrinsic falseness in the game, no, that does not happen.

You are still very much a believer in the game. As much of a believer, as the one, who is today shouting from the roof top. It is just that you do not see yourself as a winner right now.

There is the winner, there is the loser and then there is a third mind as well. We do not know that third mind. That third mind is the one, which has opted out of the game, which has seen that this game can not be taken seriously.

The winner says, it’s a beautiful game. Why is it a beautiful game? Because I am winning. As long as I am winning, I will be very appreciative of the game. I will say, wonderful, let’s play a little more. And then there is a loser, who has lots of grudges against the game because he is losing. The moment the tide turns, the winner starts losing and the loser starts winning, their positions will be reversed, their statements will be swapped. Is that not so?

There is a third mind, that does not win while winning and does not lose while losing. With its winning, it is alright with winning, with its losing, it is equally alright with losing. Shouldn’t we rather talk about that? Isn’t it much more important to talk about that mind? Yes?

That third mind never goes anywhere. It is not third at all. It is not a particular state of mind at all. It is