Q: What is the best way to avoid being selfish?

Sadhguru: You cannot avoid being selfish. “I do not want to be selfish, I do not want to be selfish…” – this is very selfish. Look at yourself sincerely and tell me, are you really capable of not being selfish? Whichever way you look at it, the very perspective in which you understand life is through yourself. So there is 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 the reason they do it is because it makes them happy. So there is no question of being unselfish. Be selfish, but be 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. 

Subscribe

Get weekly updates on the latest blogs via newsletters right in your mailbox.

Let us be selfish, what is the problem? But let us be selfish in an unlimited way.

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. 

Zero or Infinite

If you want to attain to the highest, there are only two ways to be: either you must become a zero, or you must become infinite. They are not different. In trying to be unselfish, you scale yourself down – you make yourself from a ten to a five, but you cannot dissolve yourself. 

Either you must become a total zero. Or you become infinite.

Either you must become a total zero. Or you become infinite. The path of bhakti is dissolution. You surrender and become nothing – then there is no problem. Or you include everything as a part of yourself and become everything – again there is no problem. But once you speak about self, some entity has come, so dissolution is out of the question. So you better become unlimited. It is an easier way to go for you. 

Editor’s Note: Bhava Spandana Program is an advanced meditation program designed by Sadhguru to provide the opportunity to experience oneness and resonance with the rest of existence. Find out more about this program here.