Selfish people may seem to have an easier life to begin with though that too is debatable. Some may find it easier but as they move further things begin to change if they continue on the road of selfishness. They begin to lose friends and loved ones and eventually get isolated and unhappy. They try to gather friends by throwing money or on the strength of material success. They try to gain happiness by buying comforts and whatever else money can buy. But eventually the law of karma takes over and forcefully extracts from them the needed sacrifice.
The Gita reminds us:
‘The egoistic soul in a world of sacrifice is as if a thief or robber who takes what these Powers bring to him and has no mind to give in return. He misses the true meaning of life and, since he does not use life and works for the enlargement and elevation of B.G.3.16 his being through sacrifice, he lives in vain…..’
Sri Aurobindo adds:
‘Indeed, sacrifice is imposed and, where need be, compelled by the universal World-Force; it takes it even from those who do not consciously recognise the law,—inevitably, because this is the intrinsic nature of things. Our ignorance or our false egoistic view of life can make no difference to this eternal bedrock truth of Nature. For this is the truth in Nature, that this ego which thinks itself a separate independent being and claims to live for itself, is not and cannot be independent nor separate, nor can it live to itself even if it would, but rather all are linked together by a secret Oneness. Each existence is continually giving out perforce from its stock; out of its mental receipts from Nature or its vital and physical assets and acquisitions and belongings a stream goes to all that is around it. And always again it receives something from its environment gratis or in return for its voluntary or involuntary tribute. For it is only by this giving and receiving that it can effect its own growth while at the same time it helps the sum of things. At length, though at first slowly and partially, we learn to make the conscious sacrifice; even, in the end, we take joy to give ourselves and what we envisage as belonging to us in a spirit of love and devotion to That which appears for the moment other than ourselves and is certainly other than our limited personalities. The sacrifice and the divine return for our sacrifice then become a gladly accepted means towards our last perfection; for it is recognised now as the road to the fulfilment in us of the eternal purpose.
But, most of it, the sacrifice is done unconsciously, egoistically and without knowledge or acceptance of the true meaning of the great world-rite. It is so that the vast majority of earth-creatures do it; and, when it is so done, the individual derives only a mechanical minimum of natural inevitable pr of it, achieves by it only a slow painful progress limited and tortured by the smallness and suffering of the ego. Only when the heart, the will and the mind of knowledge associate themselves with the law and gladly follow it, can there come the deep joy and the happy fruitfulness of divine sacrifice .’
So let each one follow what they wish to but the Law catches up in the end. To those who seek material success alone through devious, selfish means may get money but lose much and the most important things in life. The unselfish ones may or may not always get material success, for success depends upon a number of factors, but they are blessed with peace and happiness, love and friendship, above all an opening of the higher God knowledge. To each his own choice and the consequences.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
