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Questions and Answers: Unselfishness
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by Paramhansa Yogananda
Inner Culture, December 1939
Question: Does it pay to be unselfish and unattached?—R.S.
Answer: Let your supreme goal be to make others happy in order to gain happiness for yourself. Never think that you are acting unselfishly. Always think that you are doing things for your own pleasure, that you find your pleasure in making others happy. You cannot teach the principles of unselfishness to others unless you first practice unselfishness in your own life.
Whatever you do attracts those conditions to yourself. If you set the example of selfishness, people will practice selfishness on you. Self-preservation is an instinct, but God gave you memory, intelligence, and imagination to understand the difficulties of others. Find happiness in helping whoever crosses your path.
Avoid evil selfishness, which is the root of all troubles, whether individual or national. First came bows and arrows to protect one selfishness against another selfishness. Then guns were invented, then machine guns, and now poisonous gases to protect the selfishness of one group of people against the selfishness of another group. There will be more suffering before mankind realizes that national selfishness is just as evil as personal selfishness.
Good Will Our Only Security
Your greatest security is in the good will of others. If you are enthroned in the hearts of every one, that is the greatest kingship. If there are one hundred people in a town and each person is trying to take from the other, each one has ninety-nine enemies, but if each one is trying to help the other, then each will have ninety-nine friends. Jesus gave up his body for all, and yet he is enjoying eternal life. In being unselfish he was looking after his spiritual welfare. Evil selfishness will cause you to lose everything of value in life.
World Family
You must remember that you are a part of the world family and cannot exist without it. You must think of others when thinking of your own needs. It is wrong to think just of yourself, excluding all others. A nation is built of small communities and they are built of individuals. Even if you have an enemy, you must remember that he is your neighbor. Everybody is our own, for God is our Father and we are his children.
If you think only of the welfare of your hands and feet and fail to look after your head, your brain will not serve you well. You must supply the needs of the entire body. So it is that the brains or capitals of nations must work harmoniously with the hands and feet or laborers of nations. If they are divided, there will be disorder and suffering
We really do not own anything. We shall have to part with everything sometime, either by accident, or theft, or deterioration, or death. We are only given the use of things for a while. When something is given to you, you must know that it is only yours for a little while. You must not become attached to it. In time, your loved ones will be taken away from you. They were just given to you that you might learn to sacrifice for others and share with others.
The true Self is the manifestation of Spirit within. Anything that you do for the Self could be called "selfishness." Good selfishness consists of those actions by which the pure image of the Self within can be realized. Evil selfishness is that which you do for the ego, thus going against the true interest of the Self.
"Love God with all your heart," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." You will need no other commandments if you follow these two.
