Good is better than the best

Originally written in Dec 1990 in persoanl diaries

It was in class IX, I think, that I first read the Darwin's “Survival of the fittest” theory. At that time, it was nothing more than another topic of the curriculum. However, as I advanced further, I noticed that the emphasis was not on “to do good”, the point of importance was “to be the best”, in whatever field. In studies, my rank mattered, not the percentage; in playground, my win/loss mattered, not my play. It was no longer enough to be good, you needed to be better than the rest; you needed to be the best. Then, I don’t know how it came, I realized that it had never been. I realized that when you are decidedly the best, at least in your small circle and at least, in the things that are counted (not “in the things that count”), you don’t feel the competition. Its only as your circle grows larger, your interaction expands that you begin to feel where you are with respect to others.

Once, when I was small, someone elder to me had told me that everything in this world is relative. One was big because there was someone smaller than him/her, one was fair because there was someone darker in complexion and that sort of thing. I had believed him. I still do. I remember reading a story that said that till you have experienced darkness, you can’t appreciate light; till you have experienced sorrow, you can’t appreciate happiness; in fact, till you have seen death, you can’t understand what a prize life is. I had started almost to believe that comparison is the law of nature, that everything is relative and nothing is absolute. I had even started to accept competition as a part of life and I was starting to stop thinking about myself as to what I should do, to be guided only by the thought of being the best, relative to all others, when I read the theory of relativity by Einstein.

The philosophical meaning of theory of relativity may be different for others, but for me, the theory of relativity doesn’t point out that there is no absolute frame of reference, to me, it points out that there is an absolute, the speed of light. When I realized that even for a reference frame moving with the speed of light, the speed of light would be the same constant c, I was mesmerized. This meant that there could be a thing which had no comparison, a thing good enough that nothing is better or best in front of it. The very idea was lovely, fantastic.

Then came the real part, to incorporate the idea into myself, into my life. It was very well to say, “Good is better than the best”, to think and write that being good enough to oneself is more important than being better than someone else or being the best in competition among several people. Very soon, I found out that being good enough for oneself is very tough, very nearly impossible.

It is not much difficult to win over others, I never found people difficult. What is most difficult is to win over oneself, because a man cannot be as true to anyone as to himself. To be a winner in life has, or rather can have, two meanings – to win over others or to win over oneself. Here, this winning over oneself does not mean anything with self-realisation and control of soul or mind, it is just being true to oneself, making oneself free from the clutches of this competitive world and being one’s own competition oneself.

The first stage I have crossed, I no more feel the effect of competition. This has proven momentarily a losing proposition, for now I am not even as good as others. Lets hope that the next stage i.e. getting myself successfully into my own clutches, striving to be good enough for myself is carried out properly. Otherwise, it will be back to square one.