All outgoing energy
following a selfish motive is frittered away; it will not cause power to return
to you; but if restrained, it will result in development of power. This
self-control will tend to produce a mighty will, a character which makes a
Christ or a Buddha. Foolish men do not know this secret; they nevertheless want
to rule manking. Even a fool may rule the whole world if he works and waits.
Let him wait a few years, restrain that foolish idea of governing; and when
that idea is wholly gone, he will be a power in the world. The majority of us
cannot see beyond a few years… Just a little narrow circle-that is our world.
We have not the patience to look beyond, and thus become immoral and wicked. This
is our weakness, our powerlessness.
Selfishness is the chief
sin, thinking of ourselves first. He who thinks, “I will eat first, I will have
more money than others, and I will possess everything”, he who thinks, “I will
get to heaven before others, I will get Mukti before others” is the selfish
man. The unselfish man says, “I will be last, I do not care to go to heaven, I
will even go to hell if by doing so I can help my brothers.” This unselfishness
is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more
spiritual and nearer to God. Whether he is learned or ignorant, he is nearer to
God than anybody else, whether he knows it or not. And if a man is selfish,
even though he has visited all the temples, seen all the places of pilgrimage,
and painted himself like a leopard, he is still further off from God.
Every successful man must
have behind him somewhere tremendous integrity, tremendous sincerity, and that
is the cause of his signal success in life. He may not have been perfectly
unselfish; yet he was tending towards it. If he had been perfectly unselfish,
his would have been as great a success as that of the Buddha or of the Christ.
The degree of unselfishness marks the degree of success everywhere.
Life is ever expanding,
contraction is death. The self-seeking man who is looking after his personal
comforts and leading lazy life-there is no room for him even in hell.
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