The mythical pursuit of Greatness

The recent fiasco of the Indian Cricket team reflects the adverse affects of holding the intangible weight of expectations. In this case, expectations of a billion people.

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A similar downturn would imperatively be noticed in the life of Indian kids , who have been burdened with the weight of enormous expectations right from their childhood days.
"Aspiring for greatness" is one thing and injecting that aspiration on a blank mind is another.
"Greatness" always comes at a cost. It doesn't need to be aspired for. A truly great person would have never aspired to become great.
Ask Sachin- He never aspired to be great, as a kid he only aspired to play for his country.
Ask Newton- His passion for searching the truth and finding solution is what made him great.
Ask Vivekananda- would he have aspired for greatness? I seriously doubt.
"Greatness" comes as a gift and not as a destination to be aimed at. World around me is full of people who try to become "great" in different ways. They aim at milestones , that are looked up in high regard by the Human Society.  Examples would be:
1. Getting into a top College.
2. Working in a top MNC.
3. Going abroad.
Status seeking in short has become the anthem of today's society which has become synonymous to greatness. People toil in hard, aimlessly to achieve and maintain those revered forts instead of exploring things that would otherwise make them happy in life. The pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of greatness. Succeeding in life has a different meaning, which forms the root of most of the problems that the human beings are facing.
It was good to hear that Mahendra Singh Dhoni , who seems to have realised and accepted the toll of being great, and is thinking on if, he should retire from test cricket to continue in other formats of the game and enjoy his work, rather than be burdened by it.