Why should not I become a selfish person?

Is it not right if I am concerned about myself? Is it not right if I perform all actions to make me happy and comfortable? Is it not that my interests are above everything? Is it not right if I work only for satisfying my appetite? Is it not correct that all the religions of the world and all the spiritual scriptures are written by few selfish people who have invented them to fulfill their own greed and lust for power, supremacy and selfish interests? When I am born on this planet, I know that I have to feed myself, I have to be happy and one day I have to die when time comes. It is my birth right to be happy, enjoy the world, eat, drink and make merry. I was not concerned about anything before my birth and I will not be concerned about the world once I die. The world did not exist for me before my birth and it will cease to exist once I die. Only in between the period of my birth and death the world exists for me. Then as long as I am alive, why not I should be concerned about myself and pursue the only goals to make me happy and happier? Even if have to borrow or snatch money and food from other people for my survival and happiness, what is wrong in it? I am only performing my duty to fulfill my bodily needs and make myself happy. In this world, I see everything that exit is for consumption and therefore, if I am snatching it from others, I am not committing any crime. Let me satisfy my greed, my desires and my lust. In the process of making me happier, if I donate my wealth, do charity or help the society, it is only to increase my happiness and to make me wealthier. For me, I am the center of everything and I am the God, the only  for me. I have every right to hoard wealth and satisfy my sensual desires. In the process, even if I kill a person, I don’t see anything wrong in it as I am only making an effort for my survival. For me, I am the law, I am the justice. Nobody can decide anything for me.

The above mindset is a typical example of a selfish people in the world. They justify everything in the name of self preservation. This is called a demonic view or immoral view (Aasuri Sampati- demonic wealth or demonic nature) and the people falling under this category are called immoral people. This is the nature of the materialistic world which is normally referred today. The materialistic people are engaged purely in fulfilling their bodily needs without any concern at all for others.  

The truth of the matter is that the above view point cannot be sustained and supported at all by wise people. In the scenario of selfish world, everybody will justify their acts and everybody will take laws into their own hand. If everybody is self centered and is only concerned about him/her, then the society will sink into chaos and disorder. Everybody will become a snatcher, everybody will become corrupt and everybody will become a murderer. The law and order will go to hell and everybody will snatch other’s rights and everybody will become a dacoit.

Now, let us view the other point of view. Is it not a fact that each one of us wants to be happy? Yes, everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants to live and sustain his life. If I am snatching somebody’s right to live, is it not correct that I am encroaching upon his/her right to live? Definitely, yes! Then who gives me right to snatch somebody’s life? Nobody can give me such a right. In a forest, a lion has a basic instinct to kill other animals to sustain its life. The jungle laws are “might is right”. It is absolutely right in the jungle but in a civilized society, the same laws will broke hell and cannot be applied. In a civilized society , each one of us has the same kind of consciousness, the same kind of feelings and emotions. We cannot allow the jungle laws to prevail in a society. In the primitive times, when the human being were in the process of evolution and were living in jungles, such jungle laws  could have been prevalent but with the evolution of the modern civilization the jungle laws have no place. In order to sustain the civilization, certain laws, “dos and don’ts” have been put in place in every society to offer equal opportunities and justice to everybody. In a civilized society, the purpose of the life does not remain merely live, eat, drink and merry but has gone far beyond mere bodily needs.

Over the centuries during the evolution of modern civilization, a new opposite mindset has come into existence to prevent the application of jungle laws.  This is called the enlightened mindset which influences humanity to follow the divine laws or moral laws (Daivi Sampati- Divine Wealth or nature). This leads to higher levels of human development. While the Aasuri Sampati pushes humanity down to primitive stagnant and cruel level, the Daivi Sampati pushes up the humanity to the levels of purity and spirituality. The choice today is between the wealth of spiritual development and materialistic pleasure. The world where the spirituality exists is the heaven on the earth and where the materialistic life exists is the hell on the earth. Similarly, the spiritual people are called the divine people (Devas or Gods) living in the heaven on the earth and the materialistic people or the demonic people (Aasura people) living in the hell on this very earth. This applies to all the societies of the world and everybody must realize that there is no separate heaven and hell beyond this earth.  

PIC: artofliving.org

In Chpater 16 of the Bhagwad Gita, Bhagwan Shri Krishna describes the qualities and characteristics of the divine people and demonic people. The divine people are those who possess character of fearlessness, purity of heart, steady fastness in knowledge and practice yoga, almsgiving, control of senses, sacrifice, study of scriptures, austerity and uprightness, non-injury to others, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, tranquility, compassion, gentleness, modesty, energy, forbearance, fortitude, absence of hatred, absence of pride etc. etc. The divine state is deemed to make liberation while the demonic state leads to bondage. The demonic people who live in hell are those who possess negative qualities like ostentation, arrogance, self conceit, anger, cruelness, filled with sensory desires, full of hypocrisy, pride, arrogance, holding evil ideas, addicted to gratification of lust, greed, wrath, unjust, hoarders of wealth for sensual enjoyment, covered by delusion, evil doers, egoistic etc. etc. The demonic people believe that the world is without truth, without a moral basis, without a God and believes that they are here in this world only due to mutual union of man and woman out of lust. Describing the daivi and aasuri sampaties, Bhagwan Shri Krishna advises humanity to avoid the evil gates leading to darkness and practice good for oneself and to open the doors for liberation.

PIC: iskcondwarka.org

Therefore, everybody has a choice. This answers the question that why should not I become a selfish person. One can become a selfish person or an unselfish pure person. One can become a divine person or a demonic person, here itself in this world. The Bhagwad Gita further leads the humanity to the ultimate theory of cause and effect as per which, the divine qualities leads to achieve eternal peace and liberation whereas the demonic qualities force one to come to the planet Earth again and again and go through the hell produced due to our own bad Karmas (actions). Nobody can escape the laws of cause and effect and has to settle the transactions committed in this life, some time somewhere sooner than later.