"In fact, every politician is sold into the hands of the super-rich. But the super-rich person is the poorest on the earth. He has succeeded in being important, in being powerful, but he has lost his soul. Inside, there is just emptiness and darkness.

"Why does it happen? What is the mechanism of its happening? Ambition is a ladder, and you always see somebody ahead of you. It is competitive. Your whole mind is continuously thinking of ways and means, right or wrong, to reach higher than others. And if you are cunning enough you may succeed, but in the world of ambition, success is the ultimate failure. A man becomes alert and aware about the failure only when he has reached the last rung of the ladder. He has wasted his whole life in search of being higher than others, holier than others, richer than others. And now his desire is fulfilled.

"Cursed are those people who reach the final stage of their ambition. Their ambition has been their dream day and night – and it is not easy, because everybody else is also trying for the same success. But by the time you have reached the last rung of the ladder you are in for a great surprise and a shock, because there is no longer anywhere to go and your whole training in life has been just to compete, to fight. It is no ordinary competition, it is cutthroat; it does not matter how many people you destroy. Your eyes are fixed on a faraway fulfillment.

"You have heard the saying – it must have been created by the idiots – that 'Nothing succeeds like success.' It is not the saying of a man who has really succeeded, because, I say to you, nothing fails like success. You have reached the goal but your whole life has slipped by. There was no time for anything – not even to breathe properly, not even to smile, not even to love. What kind of life have you lived? It was like a robot, mechanical, and now that you have arrived at the desired goal there is tremendous frustration in your being, because nothing is there."