Unconditional. Really?

Dear Satchi,

To become selfless totally is a difficult step but not an impossible task. I can't touch my heart and say I have become totally selfless in my life but I can segregate selfish actions from selfless actions.

Serving the total strangers is one way to build selflessness in life and it doesn't have to be full time. I am going to share an audio file about Altruism in response to your post and I have done that once already in response to Sabitha.

Wired For Altruism

I am of a firm belief that somehow our consciousness is connected to the entire universe including all other lives and we have a very close emotional attachments to alleviate the sufferings of the fellow beings. Some nurture it very well while others keep it dormant for a while and activate it later in life. However, this sensational feeling comes up when we hear about a child starving to death in Africa, when a dictator conducts an genocide to eliminate a particular sect or religious believers, when a poor country gets affected by earthquake, etc. We have watched many videos of a Leopard raising a baby monkey, a dog saving the life of a child, a human rescuing a dog from a flash flood, etc. in Facebook.

Why would an Albanian come to Calcutta to alleviate the pain and sufferings of leprosy and dedicate her entire life to help the people of the streets in Calcutta? What motivated her to do so? Why would an African leader spend 28 years of his life in Jail not even allowed to attend the funeral of his own family members? Why would a soldier make an ultimate sacrifice in order to protect the honor and dignity of the people of his nation? Not everyone can reach that level but can do activities that would make them feel selfless to begin with.

When I go and help an elderly person suffering from MS not being visited by his children for many years, he feels very connected to me. When a good friend plays guitar for the terminally ill patients once a month, they all assemble in a hall to listen to his music, he is doing an selfless act. When my son recorded a video of a terminally ill patient to share his/her family for his/her future generations, he is doing a selfless act. When a group of people distribute school supplies to the homeless children, they are performing a selfless act. When a group of people work for a medical camp as a volunteer to help the homeless to attend to their feet, eyes, dental cleaning, etc. issuing fresh shoes, glasses and dental hygiene products along with breakfast/lunch, they are performing a selfless act. Volunteering to perform service to a total stranger or helping someone in need on the roadside is a selfless act. One derives a great sense of fulfillment in such acts.

Let me finish this long response with one final thought in two simple paragraphs. Niskhamakarma (Selfless act with no expectations) is recommended to alleviate our own suffering in the human form due to negative Karma we are carrying from prior lives. The birth itself is the mercy of the Lord to either face the consequences of our past action or perform good actions to eradicate such encryption. The path we choose is left to our own hand. Even Niskhamakarma in a way is selfish as it is done to alleviate our own sufferings. However, Lord Krishna says, "Performing actions for the common good of others will nullify that selfishness."

The other option to Sefless act is total surrender to the Creator (nicely articulated by JAG) which is easier said than done. You can either be a baby monkey holding tight to the hip of the mother jumping around the trees or a kitten totally surrendering to the mother cat because mother cat carries the kitten by mouth and navigate any small hole protecting the kitten.

There is so much to say here and let me stop here.

Viswa

 

Hmm...not quite..each of the yogas..(Raja Gnana karma and bhakthi ) are fairly independent ways to start off ur journey towards self -realization /liberation. The path u choose largely depends on ur mental make-up. There is no one better way and one yoga is certainly no pre-requisite for the other . The contention vyasa makes is that while the paths are so diff in nature the goal itself is the same. ...t I am digressing..
While the first 3 rely on ur passionate pursuit of knowledge and places an enormous amount of responsibility on the seeker ..the last one makes it easier to walk away from all other desires by objectifying all ur desires into one (a.k.a God) ...in time will that desire also need to be vanquished? Too many questions ..too few answers.

 

Satchi,

I am sorry for this interruption.

@Jey,

Serving others selflessly has been suggested by many learned people as the best way for spiritual progress. It helps one to recognize that the source for every being is only one. It brings unity in our mind with the universe. Lord Krishna clearly said in Bhagavad Gita, "If an action is performed for the common good without any expectations, it will burn our encryption including our selfishness. It is better to be selfish to help others than to be selfish to help ourselves.

The concept of looking after ourselves would make the world better is dying, as many have demonstrated greed resulting in economic debacle. That is how Subprime Mortgage Crisis happened. It created tyranny and narcissism in the world with leaders suggesting a class of people to be slaves when they feel threatened by their personal growth. When selfishness manifest over the religion, people interrupt religion to develop terrorism and kill innocent civilians and to do so, they sacrifice their own lives. I am not suggesting that one should give up their own effort to make a living to serve others but at least have to make a conscious effort to understand the sufferings of the fellow beings and help those in need.

Wealthiest of wealthy people are finding peace and fulfillment by serving the needs of those who are suffering. In spite of having a lot of wealth, people go after teachers who teach how to achieve peace and happiness. The principle of right living taught in Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Quoran, Granth Sahib, Tripitaka, Torah, etc. ask us to be compassionate to people who are in need and serve them selflessly. The founders of many of these religions led an exemplary life to demonstrate how to help others.

The world peace can be achieved by stepping into the shoes of fellow beings and understand their sufferings. That is why so many countries have jumped into help Syrians migrating to Europe and North America.

Viswa

 

Dear Satchi,
As the great Vedantic text the Bhagavad Gita has explained, any act of kindness must be done without the slightest expectation for reward, recognition or gratitude in return. This is because when we act with the expectation of a reward in mind, we are only fueling our own sense of importance or ego, the one important thing in spiritualit, which we are trying to get rid of. The happiness we feel after doing a good deed make us proud which in turn makes us egoistic.

It is for this reason that the Gita lays the utmost stress on the ideal of “Nishkama Karma” or desireless actions – doing helpful acts freely and unconditionally, without the slightest expectation of gratitude or reward.

Only when work is done from this state of absolute desirelessness, can we succeed in annihilating our ego and evolve to a higher consciousness.

PS

 

It's true that almost everything we do is motivated by self interest. Almost. I like to think that every now and then we do the right thing just because.

In any case, the motivation of the giver does not take away from the benefit to the recipient.

I suspect your domestic help's "request" for a "loan" is more a matter of extortion than seeking help.

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