Selfishness and Duty–A True Revelation
1. All outgoing energy following a selfish motive is frittered away but if restrained it will result in the development of power. This self-control will tend to produce a mighty will, a character which makes a Christ or a Buddha. The majority of us cannot see beyond a few years, just as some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Sitting in our own little wells we think that the whole world is our little well. Just a narrow circle, that is our world. We do not have the patience to look beyond and consequently become immoral and wicked.
2. When the idea of doing good becomes a habit, then one would do good only for doing good and not with any other motive, like the lamp which constantly burns for that is its natural habit. When such selfless work is done without any desire for money, fame or anything else and when a man can do it, he will be a prophet and out of him will come the power of work which will transform the whole world.
3. Unselfishness is more paying, only people do not have the patience to practice it.
4. Man thinks foolishly that he can make himself happy, and after years of struggle finds out at last that true happiness consists in killing selfishness.
5. Happiness comes upon us unaware while we are helping others. Help your brother’s boat across, and lo! your own has reached the shore.
6. Give up the attitude of doing everything only for your own comforts, pleasures and profits. The best way to keep yourself happy is to ensure that others are happy. In short, you should always remember that in the well-being and happiness of all, lies your own happiness. If your neighbour is suffering, you can’t remain happy in spite of all luxuries.
7. Life is ever expanding; contraction is death. For the self-seeking man who is looking only after his personal comforts and leading a lazy life, there is no place even in the hell.
8. By sharing, pleasure increases and pain dwindles.
9. Whatever you give to others, you actually save, and whatever you keep with you, you actually lose.
10. All of us have common needs and goals and also bear the same relationship with God. Thinking and doing various works with the consideration of common benefit and an universal outlook is the sign of an expanded consciousness which gives us a sense of fulfillment; on the other hand, doing everything only for one’s personal gain is highly selfish and unbecoming of us as human beings. It negates the very purpose of our existence in this world. We must exercise our will-power to control ourselves whenever we are tempted to boast about ourselves or to talk only about our own interests or problems. In fact when consciousness is enlarged, the idea of living and working only for oneself appears to be quite absurd.
11. We have to eliminate self-centredness in our talks and deeds. There are some people whose whole conversation is filled with ‘Me’, ‘Mine’, ‘I’ e.g. ‘I have done this’, ‘I like this’, ‘I only can do it’ and so on. It appears from their talks that only they constitute the whole world and there is nothing else in the world except them. In fact, talking and thinking only of ourselves is a sign of very narrow and low level of consciousness by which we make ourselves very small. We no longer remain a part of this world of God, we become separate.
12. Krishna says, “Look at me Arjuna! There is nothing I do not possess and nothing that I want to acquire. And yet I continue to work. If I stop from working for one moment, the whole universe will die. I have nothing to gain from work. I am the one Lord, but why do I work? Because I love the world. That which the ignorant do with desire for results and gain, let the wise do without any attachment and without any desire for results and gain.”
13. Even after attaining perfect knowledge when you have no duty (as you are free,) still you have to work for the good of others. Because whatever great men do, ordinary people will do also. If they cease to work, then all the rest without attaining that perfection will try to imitate them, leading to confusion in the society.
14. Those who do not bother for things not achieved and do not exult for things achieved, who is not affected by pain or pleasure, he is a sage. Surrendering the fruits of work to God, he takes neither credit nor blame and remains happy. ‘I am not the doer’, drinking this one drop of nectar he is always happy.
15. Do everything but do not get identified and attached with anything. Take for instance money, it is a great thing to have it, to earn it, says Krishna; ‘Struggle hard to get money, but don’t get attached to it.’ So with children, wife, husband, relatives, fame, everything; you have no need to renounce them, only don’t get attached.
16. Though absolute non-attachment is hard to practice but the easiest way for everyone is to do the work and not to take the results, as it is our desire for results that binds us. If we take the results of our actions, whether good or evil, we will have to bear them all. But if we do not work for ourselves, but only for the glory of the Lord, the results will take care of themselves. “To work you have the right but not to the fruits thereof ”. The soldier fights, he is not worried about defeat or victory as it belongs to the general.
17. Please note that world is not going to stop or run because of you and me. It was going on when we were not (physically) there and will go on when we will not be here. We are just a momentary existence deriving some lessons and training from this great school of learning. The world doesn’t demand anything from us. It is self-supporting. It is we who are utilizing the world to grow and survive. By doing something great, we are basically helping ourselves and not the world. Hence, we should avoid all undue anxieties as to what will happen if we are not there, nor should develop any pride that things can run only because of us.
18. In the presence of an ever-active Providence, who notes even the sparrow’s fall, how can a man attach any importance to his own work? Will it not be a blasphemy to do so when we know that He is taking care of the minutest things in the world? We only help ourselves in this gymnasium of the world. This is the proper attitude to work. If we work in this way, if we always remember that our present opportunity to work is nothing but a privilege which has been given to us, we shall never be attached to anything. Millions like you and me think that we are great people in the world; but we all die and in no time the world forgets us.
19. Similarly, we should also not have unnecessary concern about bringing up of our family. They are also being fed and looked after by the Almighty God and not by us. We are simply an instrument of God to bring them up, working as a servant or caretaker under His command and utilizing this opportunity for our own growth. Let us not worry about the horse after we die as the owner will take care of it.
20. “Look upon your children as a nurse does” without any sense of attachment. You have to be so with all that you consider your own. You are the nurse, and if you believe in God, believe that all these things which you consider yours, are really His.
21. “To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance”. – Buddha.
22. Don’t claim anything as your own. Every thing belongs to God. Whatever you claim as your own, is actually given to you only for temporary use, as a means to achieve your goal of self-development. Why to be sorrowful for something which is not yours like a thing which you find by chance?
23. You should be able to leave any worldly possession or attachment at a moment’s notice. Such should be your power of detachment towards worldly things.
24. Cut down the banyan tree of your desires with the axe of non-attachment.
25. All attachments except that for God and good works should be avoided and love should be given to all. ‘May that undying love which the non-discriminating have for the fleeting objects of the senses, may you have the same attachment only for thee.’
26. Always remember two things. Firstly God, who has made this world and secondly death, which hovers over every head. A man, who always remembers them transcends selfishness and involving himself in benevolence, attains freedom.
27. ‘Working with a selfish desire is verily far inferior to the work which is performed without any thought of selfish results; O, Dhananjaya! seek refuse in this Buddhi, evenness of mind. Wretched are they, who act only for selfish results.’
28. The work which is for one’s pleasure, irrespective of pleasure or pain to others, is the lowest.
29. There is only one way by which selfishness can be restrained; giving the man an ideal to work and die for. Then that person in devotion to that ideal will be able to control the pulls of his self-interest.
30. This is a divine law that the more you run towards wealth, power, name, fame, status; the more will they run away from you. The more you are reluctant towards them; the more will they run towards you. This letting go does not mean throwing and leaving everything you have. You may have everything but still you should be mentally detached from them.
31. One may live on a throne in a golden palace and be perfectly unselfish. Another may live in a hut and wear rags; and have nothing in the world; yet, he may be intensely selfish. Selfishness or unselfishness are states of mind.
32. To him comes everything who does not care for anything. Fortune, like a flirt does not care for one who woos it but falls at the feet of him who does not care for it. Money, fame, and all come and shower upon one who does not crave for it.
33. He is wise who is free from desires for gain or selfishness. Truth can never come to him as long as he is selfish.
34. Disinterested work is quite as difficult as Tapasya. The more intently one thinks of the well-being of others, the more oblivious of the self he becomes. He is a sage, who even while living in the world, lives to serve others without any self-interest.
35. He, whose efforts are bereft of all desires and selfishness and who has burnt all the bondage of his actions with the fire of knowledge, he is wise.
36. If you are unselfish, you will be perfect even without reading a single religious book or going to any church or temple, for to be perfectly unselfish is salvation itself, for the man within dies and God alone remains.
37. Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of ourselves first. He who thinks “I will eat first, I will have more money than others, I will possess everything, I will get to heaven before others and will get mukti before others” is the selfish man. The unselfish man says, “I will be the last, I don’t care to go to heaven, I will go to hell, if by doing so I can help even one of my brothers.” Unselfishness is the true test of religion. One who is unselfish, whether learned or ignorant, is more spiritual and nearer to God than one who is selfish, though he might have visited all the temples of the country; he is still further off from God.
38. Perfection comes through the unselfish performance of actions.
39. Life’s primary motivation cannot be selfishness, be it worldly or other-worldly. Even salvation for self is a selfish pursuit. When millions are in distress, how can I enjoy the pleasure even of salvation for myself?
40. I want to get out as soon as possible if the wicket is of selfishness, but if it is selflessness then I want to play an unending innings.
41. When work is pleasure, life is joy; when work is duty, life is slavery. Selfish work is slave’s work. Ninety-nine percent of mankind work like slaves and the result is misery; it is all selfish work.
42. The degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere. Work for work’s sake should be our watchword but it is easy to say but very hard to follow. In almost all our actions there is somewhere a selfish motive – if it is not money, it is power or gain, or desire for name or fame, or expectation of your agreeing with me.
43. Be unselfish in helping others. If you are selfish it will neither benefit you nor those you help. If it is unselfish, it will bring blessings upon them to whom it is given, and infinite benedictions upon you, sure as you live.
44. Good works are valuable as a means of salvation; they do more good to the doer than to the other.
45. How can we find joy in the work? By working for oneself? No; it is not possible to find that continuous bliss while working for selfish motivations. Frustration and ennui are the results of all selfish work. Frustration and nervous breakdown are the ends of a self-centred life.
46. In all our actions the motive power is selfishness. We are like the caterpillar which takes the thread out of its own body and with that makes a cocoon and gets ensnared; with its own work it imprisons itself; that is what we are also doing.
47. The ordinary idea of duty is on the lower plane as all of us have to do something to keep us living. Yet we may see that this peculiar idea of duty is very often a great cause of misery.
48. “Duty, which now a days is another name for selfishness, becomes a disease with us; it drags us ever forward. It catches hold of us and makes our whole life miserable. It is the bane of human life. This duty, this idea of duty is the mid-day summer sun which scorches the innermost soul of mankind. Look at those poor slaves of duty! Duty leaves them no time to say prayers, no time to bathe. Duty is ever on them! They go out and work. Duty is on them! They come home and think of the work for the next day. Duty is on them! It is living a slave’s life and at last dropping down in the street and dying in harness, like a horse. This is duty as it is understood. The only true duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God. All our duties are His. Blessed are we that we are ordered out here. How easy it is to interpret slavery as duty – the morbid attachment of flesh for flesh as duty! Men go out in the world and struggle and fight for money or for any other thing to which they get attached. Ask them why they do it. They will say, “It is a duty.” It is the absurd greed for gold and gain, and they try to cover it with a few flowers!”
49. Duty is really the impulsion of our attachment; and when that attachment becomes established, we call it duty.
50. So, when attachment becomes chronic, we baptize it with the high-sounding name of duty. We strew flowers on it, trumpets are sounded for it, sacred texts are said over it, and then the whole world fights, and men earnestly rob each other for this duty’s sake. Duty is good to the extent that it checks brutality. To the lowest kind of men, who cannot have any other ideal, it may be of some good; but those who want to be Karma-Yogis, they must throw this idea of duty overboard. There is no duty for you and me. Whatever you have to give to the world, do give it by all means, but not as a duty.
51. How some people give all their energies, time, brain, body and everything to become rich! They have no time for breakfast! Early in the morning they are out and at work! They die in the attempt – ninety nine percent of them – and the rest when they make money cannot enjoy it. That is grand! We know that we have to give up money and all other things when we die, and yet see the amount of energy we can put forth for them. But should we not employ a thousand-fold more strength and energy to acquire that which never fades but remains with us forever? Our own good deeds are our only friends, they follow us beyond the grave; everything else is left behind here.
52. Man is born as God (non-attached) but grows into a devil (all attached) and dies as a dog.
53. Every thought, word and deed which takes us to freedom is unselfish. This definition holds good in every religion, every system of philosophy; everywhere and at all times.
54. Any action that makes us go Godward is a good action and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil and is not our duty.
55. There are gradations of duty and morality; the duty of one state of life, in one set of circumstances, cannot be that of another.
56. The great mistakes is to judge others by our own standards, each man should be judged by his own ideas, ideals, customs, reasoning and conditions.
57. Environments, place and time change the nature of our duties. Doing the duty which is ours at any particular time is the best thing we can do in this world. Let us do that duty which is ours by birth and when we have done it, let us do the duty which is ours by our position in life and society.
58. Karma-yoga is the process of attaining, through unselfish work, that freedom which is the ultimate goal of the human nature. Every selfish action retards our reaching that goal and every unselfish action takes us towards it. Therefore, that which is selfish is immoral and that which is unselfish is moral.
59. “All love is life, all selfishness is death. It is the only law of life, and is true here and hereafter. It is life to do good, it is death not to do good to others. Ninety-nine percent of human brutes are dead, for none lives my friend, but he who loves.”
60. The difference between God and devil is the difference between unselfishness and selfishness, between holiness and unholiness. Similarly in the present world excess of knowledge and power, without unselfishness or holiness, make devils of human beings. The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is, and so also with the race. The race which is bound down to itself has been the most cruel and wicked.
61. The mood of selfishness in our country is the outcome of centuries of failure and repression. It is not real selfishness, but deep-rooted despair. It will be cured at the first inkling of success.
62. Selfishness breeds fear. Only the brave can renounce.
63. Like smoke around the fire some evil will always cling to work. So, we should engage in such works which bring more good and the smallest measure of evil. If Arjuna would not have killed Bhisma and Drona or Duryodhana, the forces of evil would have triumphed over the forces of good and thus a great misfortune would have gripped the country. The government of the nation would have been usurped by a body of unrighteous persons to the great misfortune of the people. But this battle against evil should not be fought with a selfish motive, it should be fought for the good of others.
64. “Even if he kills the whole universe or be himself killed, he is neither the killer nor the killed, when he knows that he is not acting for himself at all.” Protection of the good and righteous is verily a duty enjoined by our religion. No sin will attach to us while doing this duty. It is unequivocally and for all times to come has been declared by the Lord Himself that establishment of ‘Dharma’ implies the destruction of the evil.
65. The desire for name and fame is also a kind of selfishness because people respect us for our good work and not us personally. So we should never develop any ego for a work done or expect any reward or admiration for the same, as it is a fact that we on our own cannot really do anything unless supported by God.
66. Love of fame is most insidious, it is the last infirmity of a noble mind. It is easier to digest the deadliest of poisons then to digest praise and honour.
67. Celebrityism is the illusion that things don’t happen unless famous people make them happen.
68. The world is a demon. It is a kingdom of which the puny ego is the king. Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never we can enter the kingdom of God. None ever did and none ever will. But this relative ‘I’ is very tenacious, it is very difficult to kill.
69. Arrogance is the cause of all human miseries. Whereas a flattered ego can greatly impair one’s judgement, a battered ego can provoke one to engage in acts of retaliation. Therefore, ego is the biggest obstacle to spiritual progress. Other obstacles namely desires, attachment and sense of enjoyment can be overcome but the ego tenaciously clings on to very end till the Self is realised.
70. Men are selfish; they do not want others to come upto the same level of their knowledge or wealth, for fear of losing their superiority over them. But to have the desire that you should be always at the top of the world in all areas and that you only should be appreciated the most, is highly illusory.
71. Our lives are too precious to be spent in getting the admiration of the world. We have no time for such things.
72. We are all beggars as whatever we do, we want a return. We are all traders. We are traders in virtue, traders in religion, traders in love. This desire for return is the chief cause of all miseries as it is bound by laws of success and failure. It is a great paradox that the most unselfish man is the most successful and happy. It is true that one who is unselfish gets cheated and hurt, as Christ was crucified but was at the same time the cause of true success of millions and millions. We come into life to accumulate, we do it, but nature puts her hands on our throat and opens our hands (when we die). We take in order to give, therefore, do not seek any return. A river is continually emptying itself into the ocean and continually filling in again.
73. As long as there is selfishness in the heart, so long the love of God is impossible; it is nothing but shopkeeping.
74. Do you ask anything from your children in return for what you have done for them or given them? It is your duty to work for them and there the matter ends. In whatever you do for a particular person, the society or the nation assume the same attitude towards it as you have towards your own children – expecting nothing in return. When you do something with a thought of return it brings attachment.