Selfish!!!

What will you do if someone called you “Selfish”?

Frown? Get upset? Try to justify that you are not selfish?

Dhondu will probably be happy on being called “Selfish”…

Why?

Let’s see the exact dictionary meaning of Selfish – A person who is mainly concerned with his / her own interests.

Is there anything wrong with this definition?

Of course there are some new dictionaries which add further adjectives like unfair, unreasonable etc.

Lets break down the word into its components:

Self (means one self) + ish (generally added to show orientation of the subject. E.g. impish, childish etc)

So Selfish would mean oriented towards oneself and towards one’s interests.

Whats wrong in that?

A person who works aggressively to get ahead of his peers is called selfish whereas he is actually working towards his own good…

A person who does not want to share what he has is called selfish…

Tell me one thing…

You step out from a place of worship, you see a beggar and give him 5 bucks. 8 out of 10 times, you have a thought that you will receive blessing for this act of yours… Is that not selfish?

How many times in this life time have you prayed to God without asking for anything? Almost everytime we pray, we ask… we beg…

If everything is alright, we don’t even bother to pray…

Is that not selfish???

I met a person who has given up everything in the material world and devoted his life to spirituality… Is he not looking for salvation? Is he not selfish? Is he not looking for something for himself?

Do you think I’m sharing this learning for anybody’s benefit? Even I have my own selfish reasons.

Even when I share my knowledge with others, I’m sharing it in faith that it will come back to me when I need it… That is selfish and I’m fine with it.

Problem is not with being Selfish. Problem is that we have associated the word with Selfish with Wrong.

When you climb up… that is fine. When you climb up by stepping on another’s shoulder, that is wrong…

When you win… that is fine. When you make others lose, that is wrong…

You have knowledge… that is fine. You don’t share it with others when they need it… that is wrong…

Not giving what you have earned the hard way is ok… Taking away others’ earning is wrong…

Being Selfish is fine…

Being Selfish the wrong way is not…