Be Selfish, Yes, Be Selfish

We get too much carried away with the word "selfishness" and it has be given a wrong intended meaning. It is fine to be selfish. If you take any great thinkers of the world, you can observe that they are selfish. I am not talking about people who claim themselves as thinkers. I am talking about Buddhas, Vivekananda and so many other thinkers that this world has seen. First, they were selfish. For example, Buddha wanted to know what is the root cause of all miseries. Swami Vivekananda wanted to see God. Buddha never thought that his quest to understand the root cause of all miseries is a desire. He was able to bring higher level of thinking. He differentiated the desire and the purpose. Same is the case for Swami Vivekananda.

If we are selfish about our purpose and if the purpose is at a higher level, it is good. Our selfishness will only yield a better world. In this world, we have limited number of purposes at higher level. However there are at least infinite number of ways to realize the purpose. We fail to understand the purpose and get caught in the way (most of us die in mid way). Only way how you can walk the full distance is by being selfish - being selfish to understand the purpose and pursue life to attain the purpose. So being selfish is not really bad, it is a great thing.

Shortly after I published this post, I read Robin Sharma's quote in Twitter, "Best way to improve world is to improve yourself". If everyone is selfish in taking care of themselves, this will be a better place.