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Man must continuously strive to enhance his qualifications, mental sharpness, skills, capabilities and prosperity. No one can deny the necessity of this materialistic progress. However it needs to be kept in mind that man’s progress should never be one-sided; materialistic progress needs to be combined with the furthering of good human qualities like gentleness, nobility, generosity and compassion as well. Only a balanced and coordinated physical and intellectual progress with a noble character can be beneficial.

It is true that an empty gunnysack cannot stand erect by itself and a man with an empty stomach would behave like a wolf. The saying ‘what all sins would a starving person not commit’ cannot be belied. So all efforts must be made to acquire economic, intellectual and all other kinds of prosperity, but it also must be kept in mind that single-tracked progress creates imbalance and that it does more harm than good. If someone’s affluence rises but virtues like modesty, gentleness and sensitivity do not grow, then the acquired wealth would not be used properly, would be drained in the mire of addictions and pompous showoff, or would be misused in harming others. In such cases, there may be prosperity on some fronts of life but it would only lead to complexities, problems and adversities in one form or the other.

A vehicle with one wheel big and the other small cannot move anywhere. A person with one leg thin and the other stout, one hand long and the other short, would not only look ugly, but his work efficiency would also be low. Both components that make a pair should be equal. It is necessary to enhance righteousness along with materialistic affluence. Happiness can last only if it is fairly shared with others. There is nothing wrong in earning wealth; but while spending it they also should be included who, for some reason, by themselves could not become prosperous like them. Eating up the earnings all alone leads to harmful indigestion. The selfishness of unrestrained expenditure or unnecessary accumulation may be a sign of cleverness and success for some, but when the ill-effects of such narrow-mindedness are looked at, it becomes clear that adopting such a way of life seems gainful only in the short run; it eventually results in great harm. Everyone gets envious and jealous of a selfish person’s progress. It is natural to expect that those who gain more by the grace of God must become more kind and generously distribute the benefits of their accumulations to the entire society. Those who do not do so and indulge in narrow selfishness, even if they are not called guilty or offenders, actually break the universal rule of God’s creation in which it is expected that more prosperous and successful individuals would try to be more useful to the society.

The basic principle of religiousness is that a person learns self-restraint, adopts simple living, becomes polite, and at the same time learns to share his potentials and possessions for the welfare of others. Firm faith in true religion educates, encourages and matures a man on this righteous path. As a result a religious person proves useful in a holistic sense, to himself as well as to humanity. This enhances his dignity. Others get encouraged to follow him. Those who come in his contact get opportunities and support to grow and gain happiness. In this way a pleasant ambience is generated which gradually spreads in the society and cultivates possibilities of peace, stability and collective progress. Exactly contrary to this, a person blinded by arrogance or selfishness, flouts moral rules and principles and creates difficulties for himself and also for many others who come in his contact.

Selfishness has been called the basis of sin, and selflessness that of virtuousness. This is so because a person blinded by selfishness gets so much engrossed in his narrow vested interests that he cannot think of doing anything for anybody’s good, and normally has no hesitation in breaking moral rules, and hurting public interests for his own narrow benefit. In contrast, a selfless and benevolent person gives importance to universal good and keeps personal gains to himself only to the extent that does not harm the social setup in any way. It is a man’s attitude and way of thinking alone that make the level of his actions superior or inferior.

A stout but self-centered and egotist individual would use his muscle-power in acts like wrestling, fighting, and ruling over the weaker ones. His narrow-mindedness would not let him think of anything beyond. If his self-indulgence increases further he will use his strength to commit crimes like stealing, dacoity, rowdyism, etc or in terrorizing others, extorting money from others, etc. In contrast, if a person builds up his body with selfless motives then he would deploy his physical strength for beneficial acts such as – service of the disabled, protection of the oppressed, rescue and relief operations in times of emergency or crisis, physical training and education, peace-keeping etc.

Same principle applies to acquiring the wealth of knowledge too. A self-seeking intelligent man would try to earn name and profit from each and every bit of his knowledge. He will not allow even a slight advantage of his knowledge to go to anybody else without some return. Whenever possible, he will not hesitate to lay traps to entangle simple people, befool them and grind his own axe. So before generalizing whether being knowledgeable is good or bad, it is necessary to ascertain the motive of an individual behind acquiring the knowledge.

The narrower the point of view, the more inferior will be the utilization of all acquisitions. In one way or the other, a self-obsessed person spends whatever he earns in fulfilling his own desires, or in acquiring sensual pleasures, or in increasing comforts of his family members only. He will not be able to spare his resources or efforts towards eliminating the ailments spread in the society like illiteracy, diseases, unemployment, poverty etc. It is another matter if somehow he has to part with some of his earnings unwillingly under duress, or with an interest to earn fame. In contrast, if wealth has been earned with a view to spend it for universal good, then after retaining the bare minimum – of whatever God has bestowed upon him – for self and family, a great enthusiasm and joy will be perceived by such a person in willingly returning the rest for the good of others.

A selfless individual will be ready to bear any personal inconvenience or loss for the greater good of the society. Just the contrary, a selfish person will treat his self-interests above everything else and shall feel no guilt in performing actions that may cause great harm to the society. For this very reason, selfishness is criticized and selflessness is praised in every religion.

A self-centered person always thinks of himself and desires everything for himself. He looks at his wife and children also as a means to fulfill his selfish needs, and so looks after them. He desires of his wife’s services and benefits of children’s earnings in his old age or their performance of post-death rituals for him. A son is often loved more by such a father, because it is thought that he would bring dowry home in his marriage and will earn and look after the parents when he grows up. A daughter is often seen as a burden and is therefore given lesser privileges and looked down upon. A selfish man will have no hesitation in relinquishing his wife if he does not like her because she is ugly, ill or unable to bear children. Such individuals do not hesitate in even committing heinous crimes like ‘selling’ their daughters, or appropriating wealth of their sisters. Such people do not feel pain or remorse in mercilessly killing animals and birds to satiate their tastes of tongue. Immoral conduct and ill deeds of criminals are nothing but extreme forms of ego and selfishness.

All the great persons in this world have been selfless. They have utilized and spent most of their energy for the welfare of others. They have been regarded as great men and women in the same proportion as their sacrifice of personal conveniences and comforts, and their acceptance of life full of difficulties to carry out benevolent deeds. Their glorious lives have been inscribed with honor on the pages of history from time to time. Saints and pious people are regarded as deities on the earth only because they take a vow to adopt virtuous practices of serving the society while subduing all selfish desires. Godly personas have always adopted the path of selfless and lovefilled service of society as an integral part of their sadhana.

People with inferior mindset enjoy consuming more and more resources for personal comforts and pleasures. Kind-hearted and benevolent ones, on the contrary, apply their belongings and potentials for the good of others and feel happy and contended when they see that their resources are being used for universal good rather than for personal gratification. What is dignified for a human being is only that his/her thoughts and actions get dedicated towards enhancing the well-being of larger and larger sections of the society.

What is best for a society is that most of its people find honour in being engaged in collective welfare activities. The greatness of a country, religion, society or culture can be measured only based upon the extent to which the noble quality of altruistic attitude or selflessness is present in its people and the enthusiasm its people have in performing benevolent deeds.

In the principles of socialism and communism there is a harsh criticism of individual selfishness, and provisions are made for imposing strict or harsh checks on the same. The principles of spirituality are very similar as far as materialistic usage is concerned. Hoarding is treated as a crime in socialism, and ego and selfishness and the tendency of accumulating wealth for selfish means have been termed as sins in spirituality.

We may surely earn with hundred hands, but we must also have the benvolent urge to distribute the same with thousand hands. As strong is one’s tendency to share the sufferings of others and to distribute personal happiness and gains among others, to that extent the individual can be termed spiritual. If the sentiment of divine devotion and worship evolves and develops into magnanimity and altruism, then it should be understood that the little sapling (of spirituality) that was planted has grown well and borne fruits, and has been successful in establishing its meaningful existence.

Patriotism and nationalism are taught as high ideals. People are encouraged to display their valour and courage for the security of the nation by joining defence services. According to the principles of socialism an individual is asked to work hard for the benefit of society, and also to maintain his standard of living at par with that of the common man. Simple living and high thinking define nobility. Government by imposing taxes compels one to return the excess earned for public welfare. People are inspired in religious sacraments to donate for good causes and earn virtues by serving others. All this is meant to control self-centeredness and to awaken kindness and altruism. Humane sentiments, compassion, an intuitive interconnectedness and selflessness are the foundational elements of true religion. Dignity of man and society, and peace and happiness are also nurtured by these virtues. Herein the basic teachings of all religions coalesce. This will be the basis of a universal religion for humanity.

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