At a certain time, there once was a lovely arm chair. The chair was very proud of its appearance. One day the chair announced to anyone that would listen that it was going to be totally unselfish and encourage anyone from any background to come in sit with it.
It boldly announced to the world, “I do not want to be selfish, I do not want to be selfish… I am available to anyone”.
The chair had a wise friend – a French style coffee table who always sat close by. The coffee table was not impressed and made its displeasure known to the chair. The coffee table said to the chair, “This is very selfish. Look at yourself sincerely and tell me, are you really capable of not being selfish?”
“Of course, I am!” exclaimed the chair. “Anyone is welcome to come sit with me!”
The coffee table calmly asked, “Why do you want to be unselfish?”
“It will make me happy!” announced the chair in an emphatic manner.
The coffee table wondered out loud, “So, if I understand you, you are saying that the reason you are doing this is because it makes you happy. Is that not of itself an act motivated by the self? Whichever way you look at it, the very perspective in which you understand life is through yourself. So, there can be no question of anything called unselfishness. Do not mislead yourself with morality. Try to not be selfish and see, you will only deceive yourself. Unselfishness is a lie that morality has created in the world, with which so many people are being deceived. People think, I am doing something unselfishly. But when you look at what is really going on, it invariably relates to some sort of pay off. No, it is far better to be selfish, totally selfish. The problem right now is, you are stingy even with your selfishness. Right now, your selfishness is limited to: “I want to be happy.” Be totally selfish: “I want the whole universe to be happy. I want every atom in the existence to be happy.” Be completely selfish. Then there is no problem. You are miserly even in your selfishness, that is the problem”.
The Moral of the Story…
Let us be selfish, what is the problem? But let us be selfish in an unlimited way. At least in our selfishness, let us be complete. We are not willing to be complete in so many aspects of life. At least let us be completely selfish. If you want to attain to the highest, you must become infinite. In trying to be unselfish, you scale yourself down – you make yourself from a ten to a five, but you cannot dissolve yourself.
If you choose to include everything as a part of yourself and become everything – there is no problem. But once you speak about self, some entity has come, and self-interest becomes alive. So, if you want to become unselfish, be totally selfish. That way you become unlimited.
