Ambition is an eagerness to acquire personal advantage, wealth, power, status or fame while aspiration is a gentle but

firm determination to achieve something. A first look into a thesaurus states that Ambition and Aspiration are

synonyms. Does this mean they are different ways of saying the same thing? The uneducated mind doesn’t bother

about the difference. The literate mind is confused about the difference. The philosophical mind will read too much in
those two words and spew gyan. Aspiration is a strong ambition toward a particular goal or outcome.

Aspiration lies at the root of inspiration and triggers team motivation.

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir mens blood and probably will
not themselves be realized."
- Daniel Burnham

A noble man compares himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than his. The

one produces aspiration; the other ambition”.

- Henry Beecher

Ambition is that part of our emotions which craves for success. History has given it a negative connotation.

Napoleon Bonaparte had an ambition: to become the ruler of Europe and consequently, the world. So did

Alexander, William II and Hitler. This ambition drove them to massacre a million lives and thus the negative

connotation arose. Aspiration on the other hand is described as the “will to succeed”. In our civil society

where diplomacy is a virtue and being politically correct is a requisite, aspiration should be our ideal. Having

the Will to succeed is preferred over having a strong desire to succeed.

Taken superficially, there seems to be just no difference. But subtle changes in

words make great changes in our thoughts. In the rat race of today every living
being has to compete with over a billion lives to survive in our country.
Economists & many other people have sprinkled water on faces and wake us up
to the fact that the number of people we compete against has just multiplied six
fold. Point they are trying to make is that “desire” is just not enough. Strong
desire will take you ahead by two steps. It is “will” that will take you all the way to
achieving your goals. It is “will” that will be the defining difference between
surviving and thriving in our present world. Having aspiration towards a higher
cause will translate into achievement, something our peers will describe as
success. The ambitious is content in being successful. But the aspiring knows
that success is a by-product of their actions.
As the youth transform into the wise, realization dawns upon us that we were ambitious primarily about

material things – we wanted money, fame and power. But we aspired to live a happy life, to love our wife

and kids and make a change in someone’s life, everyday. We now a see the true difference between

ambition and aspiration – ambition is related to our baser goals while aspiration is more towards the ideal.

The end of road to ambitions is success – an accomplishment or an acquisition of a worldly goal. But where

does aspiration end? We aspire towards an ideal. Like the old saying said, we try to reach the ideal as if we

are trying to reach the moon. But we fail to reach it and fall amongst the stars.

“Aspire” isn’t always a magic word. Aspirations might lead us to someplace where we might not want to be.

It may not turn out to be the garden of life we envisaged with blooming flowers and joyful children. But from

aspirations, we come to possess an ideal that will soon start possessing us. Gandhiji aspired for a free India

where everyone was treated as an equal. He acquired the ideal of “equality” through this aspiration, which

will one day start to possess him and define the future of the world. From “Aspiration” one “Acquires” the

essence of his purpose. This purpose will come to define that person.

It is a well known fact that the Vedas, the rich cultural heritage of our country, has done ample research on

ideals and thoughts. The rational mind considers that “ideals” are goals. The ideals that we acquire from our

aspirations are thought to be the destination – the purpose of our life. The Vedas and the many treatises on

them have gone beyond this theme to give a whole new dimension to ideals. Ideals aren’t a destination, but

the journey itself. You don’t aspire to be something, you just be it. When someone says “be the change you

want to see” it isn’t just a forceful statement but a deep attempt at changing one’s perception. By being what

we idealize, we “become” the ideal. Gandhiji was and is still considered to be the embodiment of “Ahimsa”.

Mother Teresa is considered to be the personification of compassion. Muhammed Ali is considered to be

concrete representation of perseverance. They were what aspired to be. They became the ideal they

aspired for. Thus we saw the journey of ambition to aspiration, from aspiration to acquiring and from

acquiring to becoming. Does the journey end here? We might want to think so. But our forefathers have

explored far deeper into the human psyche than science currently has. From being just some random ideal,

they came up with the doctrine of “Aham Brahmasmi”, literally meaning “I am infinite”. This doctrine is two

part – “Aham brahmasmi, tat tvam asi”(I am infinite, thou art that). One transcends from being just one thing

to being everything – infinite. That is the state that many refer to as super consciousness or Samadhi or

bliss. The journey of life is made beautiful by just being, relishing every moment of one’s life and living it to

the full. Cast away all your aspirations and apprehensions and live life, now.