Success, Satisfaction & Spirituality

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11 mins September, 2026
Success, Satisfaction & Spirituality
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Rethinking happiness through spirituality

By Rukmini Vallabha Dasa


Most of the people in this world chase after success and few chase after satisfaction. Success is the external happiness and satisfaction is the internal happiness. Both are needed to experience complete happiness. In this article, we shall explore how spirituality helps in enriching and balancing between success and satisfaction in this world and offers us the ultimate success and satisfaction in the eternal spiritual realm.

Every one of us has desires. Our desires are a product of our upbringing, circumstances, the company we keep, and some are typical of our personality. Different desires keep on popping up into our conscious mind. Among them, some desires we take seriously and make them our goals, which can be short-term or long-term. After fulfilling a desire, we get different types of feelings. These feelings can be of four types – joy, achievement, relief, and fulfilment. One may find joy after having a favourite pizza or listening to favourite music. This is generally related to sensual gratification. One may find a sense of achievement after getting a dream job or acquiring a dream car. This is generally based on validation from society. One may find a sense of fulfilment on performing charity or seeing someone dear happy. This is generally based on being other-minded. One may feel a sense of relief after getting rid of a toxic relationship or after completing a hectic project. This is generally based on being away from anxiety and stress. A sense of achievement and joy determine our external happiness. In this article, I will refer to success as this external happiness. A sense of fulfilment and relief determine our internal happiness. I will refer to satisfaction as this internal happiness.

Spirituality offers us a better success



Nowadays, being successful is considered the same as being happy. Success is seen in terms of wealth accumulated, power and position acquired, and popularity and fame achieved. Those who possess these – the billionaires, CEOs, political leaders, movie stars, and sports stars – become the role models. The whole education system is designed to inspire and train students to achieve this sort of success, thus propagating it further. Culture, media, and art further reinforce this conception of success by highlighting and glamorizing it. An individual’s worth is solely assessed based on this sort of success instead of being assessed based on wisdom, character, and virtue. But we see that the pursuit of this success is never-ending and keeps one dissatisfied.

It is difficult to maintain this kind of success at the same level at all times. For instance, with advancement of age, the performance of sports stars diminishes and the looks of movie stars wither. The value of wealth is also affected by real estate prices, stock prices, and the value of currency. And the level of success is also very relative. One may be at the top of the Forbes list of billionaires only to fall to 2nd or 3rd place in a matter of months due to fluctuating stock prices. If one bases happiness on this kind of success, they have to constantly struggle to maintain and increase their level of success. It is a never-ending and never-fulfilling chase.

Since this pursuit of success is futile, the masses pursuing this illusory happiness remain in constant anxiety and depression. They become anxious when their current level of success is threatened and become depressed when their achievements lose value. It also creates conflicts among people because one’s pursuit of success conflicts with another’s pursuit of success. Spiritual wisdom helps one in understanding the reality of this self-centred and materialistic definition of success. This, along with spiritual practice, provides one with an alternate definition of success that is individually constructive and socially harmonious.

Spiritual texts point out that the things of this world are limited and temporary. If one bases happiness on success in the accumulation of things of this world and enjoying them, one is bound to great suffering (Gita 5.22) and anxiety (Gita 16.11). Then the Bhagavad-gita provides a different definition of success. If one bases one’s success on contributing one’s best to society as per one’s talent and ability, bereft of selfish goals and agendas (Gita 2.47), one will attain lasting fulfilment and happiness (Gita 2.48). Let us take the example of an IT engineer. In the case of self-centred success, one becomes an IT engineer to make money and to get prestige in society. In the case of success based on social contribution, one becomes an IT engineer primarily for offering service to society, and earning money becomes secondary. With this definition of success, the success of one individual does not conflict with another. In this way, this success mind-set creates harmony and synergy in society and reduces crime and conflict.

Spirituality offers us a better satisfaction



Some, when they go through ups and downs while pursuing self-centred success, realize its futility and resort to pursuing satisfaction in life. It can also happen that one may realize the superior quality of happiness from a success based on selfless contribution than one based on selfish accumulation. Some may pursue this because they do not want to work hard in life. For instance, someone may want to be a homemaker because they do not want to slog in the rat race outside and instead live a simple life taking care of family. They pursue activities like social service, activism, volunteering, and philanthropy. They also try to live a simple life closer to nature, far from the corporate rat race. This kind of life, pursuing satisfaction, gives a sense of inner joy and peace from the trials and tribulations of the world. But this happiness and peace are constrained by the limitations and imperfections of this world. One may be selfless, but others may not reciprocate in the form of gratitude; rather, they can be demanding and exploitative. Even though one may strive to be selfless, one is prone to be influenced by selfish propensities of lust, anger, and greed from within and without. This leads to frustration, and one may eventually fall back into the pursuit of self-centred success.


Spirituality provides a better purpose and support for the pursuit of satisfaction. Spirituality emphasises the performance of philanthropy, community welfare work, and caring for nature as part of being dutiful towards society, community, and nature (Gita 3.20–21). It emphasises simple life as a necessary means to focus on inner growth and higher things in life (Gita 2.44). This provides a more rational and solid purpose to pursue satisfaction in life. Spiritual wisdom also points out that pain and suffering owing to the limitations and transitory nature of the world are universal. It applies both to one who is chasing material success as well as to one who is pursuing satisfaction. The pain in the second case can be less because of fewer expectations and desires, but nonetheless, it will be there. Spirituality also helps in the purification of the heart from selfish vices of lust and greed (Gita 2.49). This will help one remain committed to the pursuit of satisfaction through activities of philanthropy and social work.

Spirituality helps us to balance between success and satisfaction



The self-centred pursuit of material success and the pursuit of satisfaction out of frustration are two extremities, and both are not sustainable. It is not possible to become totally selfless just based on wisdom. It takes gradual purification of the heart to become totally selfless (Gita 5.25). Therefore, we need a balance between the pursuit of success and satisfaction. As we have seen earlier, spirituality gives the right and sustainable purpose for the pursuit of success as well as satisfaction. It also gives the right direction in which one can pursue success and satisfaction. To pursue success, there are different careers – engineering, finance, media, entertainment, and politics. In this era of information explosion, publicity, and promotion, one is pulled in all directions, and it is difficult to assess one’s abilities and interests and cling to a particular career path. Spirituality helps one to detach oneself from the screen and focus on oneself (Gita 14.11). Then one can introspect and find a suitable career where one’s abilities and interests align.


Spirituality helps in making the pursuit of satisfaction sustainable, beneficial, and complementary to the pursuit of success. Spirituality equips one with wisdom so that one’s philanthropy ensures long-term benefit to the recipient as well as the giver. Spirituality also enables one to rightly assess one’s wealth, resources, and talents and accordingly perform social service in a sustainable and fulfilling way without getting into undue comparison. If one is an entrepreneur, he or she can render social service by donating wealth, whereas if one is an intellectual, they can render service by teaching for free. Spirituality also helps one in pursuing simple living in a sustainable way. It helps one introspect and understand one’s needs with respect to health, comfort, recreation, and ability to endure hardship and sacrifice, and accordingly go about simplifying life in a gradual and constructive way. It also helps one understand the nuances of simplicity. The Bhagavad-gita helps one in practicing simplicity in speech and thinking, apart from bodily simplicity. In this way, spirituality gives proper purpose, direction, and means to pursue spirituality.



Spirituality provides us higher success



The pursuit of success in this world is subject to trials and tribulations even if one discovers one’s niche and innate talents. One may have talents, but one may not be able to get the opportunity to pursue success with that talent. One may have talents and opportunities but may not have good health to put in the effort to pursue success, or they may face stiff opposition and competition. Spirituality informs us that we are spiritual beings entrapped in a material body and mind. Owing to identification with the body and mind, we desire and seek material success in the form of worldly wealth and power. But in actuality, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Spirituality offers us a pursuit of success based on our spiritual identity as atma. This entails the revival of our spiritual identity and experiencing spiritual happiness by connecting oneself to the Supreme Divine – Krishna. One can establish this connection through devotional service. Since this pursuit is on a spiritual plane, it is unaffected by material factors in terms of limitations of space, time, and situation. Unlike our external physical body, this spiritual body is not subjected to material decay and death. The progress on the spiritual path is not interrupted by death and can continue across lifetimes. Since the spiritual realm is not limited by space and time, there is no competition for spiritual success; everyone can achieve it, and there is no prerequisite. And the spiritual realm is eternal, so there is no question of falling away from spiritual success. In this way, spirituality gifts us with a higher and better success to pursue than worldly success.

Spirituality provides us higher satisfaction


In the material realm, our experience of satisfaction depends on several external factors. If we take the example of philanthropy, one needs wealth, one needs an opportunity to give away wealth, and a sense of gratitude from the recipient. Seeking satisfaction through spiritual means is not affected by limitations of space, time, and circumstance. Spirituality consists of practices like meditation and studying spiritual texts, which can be practiced at any time and in any circumstance. Spirituality also frees us from worldly desires, attachments, and the frustrations arising from them that affect the level of fulfilment we experience. In this way, spirituality gifts us with a higher and better means of satisfaction to pursue than worldly satisfaction.

Spirituality provides us highest success and satisfaction



Devotional service to Krishna helps us to attain love for Krishna. This helps us attain the highest success and satisfaction. Since Krishna, the Supreme God, is all-attractive and all-loving, the joy experienced in relationship with Him is complete and the highest. This joy is higher than any other success possible in the world – the success of wealth, power, and popularity. And the happiness experienced is eternal and ever-increasing, unlike worldly success, which diminishes and is eventually destroyed over time. Since God is all-attractive, experiencing God fully satiates the heart, and the heart does not crave anything else other than experiencing God more and more. Since God is omnipotent, He can satisfy such cravings for more divine experience. In this way, the heart remains fully satiated after attaining love of God.

Thus, spirituality neither discourages one from pursuing success in this world nor deprives one from it. It enables and empowers one to pursue success efficiently and provides a more enriching experience of being successful in this world. At the same time, it educates one of the limitations of the success possible in this world and it offers reliable means to pursue satisfaction to complement the limited success possible in this world and ultimately offers the highest and ultimate success which can be achieved through devotional service to God. 



Rukmini Vallabha Dasa, a disciple of His Holiness Râdhânâth Swami, began practicing Krishna consciouness in 2010 and serves full time at ISKCON Pune. He is a research student at Bhaktivedanta Research Center, Mumbai, and blogs at https://spiritualwisdomonline.com

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Success, Satisfaction & Spirituality

Success, Satisfaction & Spirituality
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Rethinking happiness through spirituality

By Rukmini Vallabha Dasa


Most of the people in this world chase after success and few chase after satisfaction. Success is the external happiness and satisfaction is the internal happiness. Both are needed to experience complete happiness. In this article, we shall explore how spirituality helps in enriching and balancing between success and satisfaction in this world and offers us the ultimate success and satisfaction in the eternal spiritual realm.

Every one of us has desires. Our desires are a product of our upbringing, circumstances, the company we keep, and some are typical of our personality. Different desires keep on popping up into our conscious mind. Among them, some desires we take seriously and make them our goals, which can be short-term or long-term. After fulfilling a desire, we get different types of feelings. These feelings can be of four types – joy, achievement, relief, and fulfilment. One may find joy after having a favourite pizza or listening to favourite music. This is generally related to sensual gratification. One may find a sense of achievement after getting a dream job or acquiring a dream car. This is generally based on validation from society. One may find a sense of fulfilment on performing charity or seeing someone dear happy. This is generally based on being other-minded. One may feel a sense of relief after getting rid of a toxic relationship or after completing a hectic project. This is generally based on being away from anxiety and stress. A sense of achievement and joy determine our external happiness. In this article, I will refer to success as this external happiness. A sense of fulfilment and relief determine our internal happiness. I will refer to satisfaction as this internal happiness.

Spirituality offers us a better success



Nowadays, being successful is considered the same as being happy. Success is seen in terms of wealth accumulated, power and position acquired, and popularity and fame achieved. Those who possess these – the billionaires, CEOs, political leaders, movie stars, and sports stars – become the role models. The whole education system is designed to inspire and train students to achieve this sort of success, thus propagating it further. Culture, media, and art further reinforce this conception of success by highlighting and glamorizing it. An individual’s worth is solely assessed based on this sort of success instead of being assessed based on wisdom, character, and virtue. But we see that the pursuit of this success is never-ending and keeps one dissatisfied.

It is difficult to maintain this kind of success at the same level at all times. For instance, with advancement of age, the performance of sports stars diminishes and the looks of movie stars wither. The value of wealth is also affected by real estate prices, stock prices, and the value of currency. And the level of success is also very relative. One may be at the top of the Forbes list of billionaires only to fall to 2nd or 3rd place in a matter of months due to fluctuating stock prices. If one bases happiness on this kind of success, they have to constantly struggle to maintain and increase their level of success. It is a never-ending and never-fulfilling chase.

Since this pursuit of success is futile, the masses pursuing this illusory happiness remain in constant anxiety and depression. They become anxious when their current level of success is threatened and become depressed when their achievements lose value. It also creates conflicts among people because one’s pursuit of success conflicts with another’s pursuit of success. Spiritual wisdom helps one in understanding the reality of this self-centred and materialistic definition of success. This, along with spiritual practice, provides one with an alternate definition of success that is individually constructive and socially harmonious.

Spiritual texts point out that the things of this world are limited and temporary. If one bases happiness on success in the accumulation of things of this world and enjoying them, one is bound to great suffering (Gita 5.22) and anxiety (Gita 16.11). Then the Bhagavad-gita provides a different definition of success. If one bases one’s success on contributing one’s best to society as per one’s talent and ability, bereft of selfish goals and agendas (Gita 2.47), one will attain lasting fulfilment and happiness (Gita 2.48). Let us take the example of an IT engineer. In the case of self-centred success, one becomes an IT engineer to make money and to get prestige in society. In the case of success based on social contribution, one becomes an IT engineer primarily for offering service to society, and earning money becomes secondary. With this definition of success, the success of one individual does not conflict with another. In this way, this success mind-set creates harmony and synergy in society and reduces crime and conflict.

Spirituality offers us a better satisfaction



Some, when they go through ups and downs while pursuing self-centred success, realize its futility and resort to pursuing satisfaction in life. It can also happen that one may realize the superior quality of happiness from a success based on selfless contribution than one based on selfish accumulation. Some may pursue this because they do not want to work hard in life. For instance, someone may want to be a homemaker because they do not want to slog in the rat race outside and instead live a simple life taking care of family. They pursue activities like social service, activism, volunteering, and philanthropy. They also try to live a simple life closer to nature, far from the corporate rat race. This kind of life, pursuing satisfaction, gives a sense of inner joy and peace from the trials and tribulations of the world. But this happiness and peace are constrained by the limitations and imperfections of this world. One may be selfless, but others may not reciprocate in the form of gratitude; rather, they can be demanding and exploitative. Even though one may strive to be selfless, one is prone to be influenced by selfish propensities of lust, anger, and greed from within and without. This leads to frustration, and one may eventually fall back into the pursuit of self-centred success.


Spirituality provides a better purpose and support for the pursuit of satisfaction. Spirituality emphasises the performance of philanthropy, community welfare work, and caring for nature as part of being dutiful towards society, community, and nature (Gita 3.20–21). It emphasises simple life as a necessary means to focus on inner growth and higher things in life (Gita 2.44). This provides a more rational and solid purpose to pursue satisfaction in life. Spiritual wisdom also points out that pain and suffering owing to the limitations and transitory nature of the world are universal. It applies both to one who is chasing material success as well as to one who is pursuing satisfaction. The pain in the second case can be less because of fewer expectations and desires, but nonetheless, it will be there. Spirituality also helps in the purification of the heart from selfish vices of lust and greed (Gita 2.49). This will help one remain committed to the pursuit of satisfaction through activities of philanthropy and social work.

Spirituality helps us to balance between success and satisfaction



The self-centred pursuit of material success and the pursuit of satisfaction out of frustration are two extremities, and both are not sustainable. It is not possible to become totally selfless just based on wisdom. It takes gradual purification of the heart to become totally selfless (Gita 5.25). Therefore, we need a balance between the pursuit of success and satisfaction. As we have seen earlier, spirituality gives the right and sustainable purpose for the pursuit of success as well as satisfaction. It also gives the right direction in which one can pursue success and satisfaction. To pursue success, there are different careers – engineering, finance, media, entertainment, and politics. In this era of information explosion, publicity, and promotion, one is pulled in all directions, and it is difficult to assess one’s abilities and interests and cling to a particular career path. Spirituality helps one to detach oneself from the screen and focus on oneself (Gita 14.11). Then one can introspect and find a suitable career where one’s abilities and interests align.


Spirituality helps in making the pursuit of satisfaction sustainable, beneficial, and complementary to the pursuit of success. Spirituality equips one with wisdom so that one’s philanthropy ensures long-term benefit to the recipient as well as the giver. Spirituality also enables one to rightly assess one’s wealth, resources, and talents and accordingly perform social service in a sustainable and fulfilling way without getting into undue comparison. If one is an entrepreneur, he or she can render social service by donating wealth, whereas if one is an intellectual, they can render service by teaching for free. Spirituality also helps one in pursuing simple living in a sustainable way. It helps one introspect and understand one’s needs with respect to health, comfort, recreation, and ability to endure hardship and sacrifice, and accordingly go about simplifying life in a gradual and constructive way. It also helps one understand the nuances of simplicity. The Bhagavad-gita helps one in practicing simplicity in speech and thinking, apart from bodily simplicity. In this way, spirituality gives proper purpose, direction, and means to pursue spirituality.



Spirituality provides us higher success



The pursuit of success in this world is subject to trials and tribulations even if one discovers one’s niche and innate talents. One may have talents, but one may not be able to get the opportunity to pursue success with that talent. One may have talents and opportunities but may not have good health to put in the effort to pursue success, or they may face stiff opposition and competition. Spirituality informs us that we are spiritual beings entrapped in a material body and mind. Owing to identification with the body and mind, we desire and seek material success in the form of worldly wealth and power. But in actuality, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Spirituality offers us a pursuit of success based on our spiritual identity as atma. This entails the revival of our spiritual identity and experiencing spiritual happiness by connecting oneself to the Supreme Divine – Krishna. One can establish this connection through devotional service. Since this pursuit is on a spiritual plane, it is unaffected by material factors in terms of limitations of space, time, and situation. Unlike our external physical body, this spiritual body is not subjected to material decay and death. The progress on the spiritual path is not interrupted by death and can continue across lifetimes. Since the spiritual realm is not limited by space and time, there is no competition for spiritual success; everyone can achieve it, and there is no prerequisite. And the spiritual realm is eternal, so there is no question of falling away from spiritual success. In this way, spirituality gifts us with a higher and better success to pursue than worldly success.

Spirituality provides us higher satisfaction


In the material realm, our experience of satisfaction depends on several external factors. If we take the example of philanthropy, one needs wealth, one needs an opportunity to give away wealth, and a sense of gratitude from the recipient. Seeking satisfaction through spiritual means is not affected by limitations of space, time, and circumstance. Spirituality consists of practices like meditation and studying spiritual texts, which can be practiced at any time and in any circumstance. Spirituality also frees us from worldly desires, attachments, and the frustrations arising from them that affect the level of fulfilment we experience. In this way, spirituality gifts us with a higher and better means of satisfaction to pursue than worldly satisfaction.

Spirituality provides us highest success and satisfaction



Devotional service to Krishna helps us to attain love for Krishna. This helps us attain the highest success and satisfaction. Since Krishna, the Supreme God, is all-attractive and all-loving, the joy experienced in relationship with Him is complete and the highest. This joy is higher than any other success possible in the world – the success of wealth, power, and popularity. And the happiness experienced is eternal and ever-increasing, unlike worldly success, which diminishes and is eventually destroyed over time. Since God is all-attractive, experiencing God fully satiates the heart, and the heart does not crave anything else other than experiencing God more and more. Since God is omnipotent, He can satisfy such cravings for more divine experience. In this way, the heart remains fully satiated after attaining love of God.

Thus, spirituality neither discourages one from pursuing success in this world nor deprives one from it. It enables and empowers one to pursue success efficiently and provides a more enriching experience of being successful in this world. At the same time, it educates one of the limitations of the success possible in this world and it offers reliable means to pursue satisfaction to complement the limited success possible in this world and ultimately offers the highest and ultimate success which can be achieved through devotional service to God. 



Rukmini Vallabha Dasa, a disciple of His Holiness Râdhânâth Swami, began practicing Krishna consciouness in 2010 and serves full time at ISKCON Pune. He is a research student at Bhaktivedanta Research Center, Mumbai, and blogs at https://spiritualwisdomonline.com