Best and not first

A lot of our quests are a drive to be first among all. It is a race to become better than everyone around us and a competition to be ahead of others. This is exemplified in a chase to win sports championships, a race to academic and wealth rankings, and even to be the largest donor in charity. Most marathon runners, however, chase what they describe as personal best, PB, where they try to improve themselves race after race.

Chasing a first position is seriously self-limiting as it benchmarks the goal in the context of another. But how do you know if the other, with whom you are trying to benchmark, has discovered an optimum that needs to be beaten? Imagine if Apple had benchmarked itself against Nokia or BlackBerry, and tried to make phones that were better than those. The world would not have changed in the manner in which the iPhone changed it had Steve Jobs not decided to think of a completely different optimum solution.

In chapter X of the Bhagwad Gita, Krishn describes himself as being the best of everything. He states that he is the best of the Vedas, mountains, sages, weapons, fish, alphabets, and yakshas and rakshasas. To chase a personal best is no less than a chase towards that manifestation of God, which He has described himself to be. So, next time you look at your smartphone, think of perfection manifested in its invention; stop your race to be first and start striving to be the absolute best.