Selflessness: the best self-interest

In many real-life situations, we feel as if we are at war. People are so obsessed with their self-interest that can almost kill others for the promotion of their self-interest. Nations are attacking each other. High ambitions coupled with incapacity give rise to jealousy. Jealousy coupled with timidity forces a person to adopt means like terrorism, sycophancy, bitching, etc. Jealously coupled with aggression results in behavior like bullying, using abusive language, and fighting. These fights are taking place among the nations. Similar fights also take place among the corporates, communities, organizations, and people. 

In such a world, where is the place for love? While a person is facing all types of attacks from different fronts almost entire attention is occupied with defending the self. Where is the scope for love? I feel that the answer to this question lies in the root cause of this chaos. The root cause is ambition. The more ambitious a person is the lower will be his threshold to tolerate a loss or an attack. He will be triggered by very little provocation and waste his precious energy fighting useless battles. 

This correlation is well understood. But how can a person live without ambitions in this world? wouldn't that be an aimless life? Can we think a little out of the box? Can individual ambitions be replaced with the will of the consciousness? There are many examples in history and mythology to demonstrate the possibility of life without personal ambition. We can see the example of Rama. Rama went to the forest for 14 years following the orders of his father, fought the battle of Lanka made Vibhishana the king of Lanka, and sent Sita to the forest for whom he fought the battle of Lanka because the subjects doubted her purity. We can also see the life of Krishna. Krishna killed Kansa not to rule over Mathura. He participated in the battle of Kurukshetra not for his self-interest. We can also see the life of Mahatma Gandhi. He never wanted any position in the government of the independent India. 

In a selfish world, probably, ambitions get an ideal breeding ground. This is the test that Vibhishana had to pass. He was surrounded by many Rakshasas in Lanka who had very strong self-interest and were quite ambitious. Vibhishana could have lived an easy life by being like them. But he chose selflessness. He had to pay the cost of being outcasted from Lanka. If we examine carefully, being outcasted was actually a prize for him rather than punishment. It was the design of destiny to make him meet Rama. Rather than resisting this apparent punishment and changing the course of life, Vibhishana trusted nature's laws and followed the direction set by destiny. 

Probably, we become a little short-sighted when we look at the selfish world and start imitating the same. If we examine it in-depth, selfishness has a huge cost. First of all, all the pleasures we aim at have a diminishing marginal utility. We can not eat unlimited food. The next property does not give as much pleasure as the first one. That applies to all the pleasures. Secondly, there is a huge cost of maintenance of all these possessions such as money, power, and positions. Thirdly, there are a lot of side effects. If we take sugar more than what our body needs, the excess gets stored in the form of fat causing different diseases in the body. The same rule applies to all excess accumulations.

If we are wise enough to understand and appreciate these simple rules of nature, we will soon understand the benefits of being selfless. Apparently, it looks like a bad deal. When everybody is selfish, I also need to fight for my self-interest and live a life of ambition. However, if anybody looks inside, one will soon notice that the punishments for being selfish are immediate. The moment we set a target or form an ambition, we become restless, and that restlessness increases exponentially with the passage of time. We are just chasing a mirage and when we reach there we soon experience the law of diminishing pleasure, the cost of maintenance, and the side effects of getting disillusioned and forming another ambition. First, we form ambition to earn money to have food at five-star hotels have parties, and accumulate properties. After fulfilling the ambition, we want to go to the gym to get slim, to go to retreats to get mental peace, and to get in the trap of some Baba who promises to give you peace in exchange for your properties. What a foolish way to waste life.

I feel if we are a little intelligent and can see life as a whole, we will soon realize the futility of being selfish. We will also soon realize the rewards of being self-less. I am not at all saying that one should be in a vegetative state or a punching bag where everybody can punch and move away. Self-defense is a fundamental thing. However, we need to discriminate between self-defense and ambition. We can not justify ambition, greed, and accumulation in the name of self-defense. I believe that we all are selfish creatures and there is nothing wrong in that. However, we should at least know what our self-interest is.