SUBCONSCIOUS SELFISHNESS

Those driven by personal dharma sometimes end up damaging their surrounding environment without being conscious of it, and certainly they aren’t really conscious of these actions.

Personal growth – either material or spiritual has its flip side. Sometimes, it makes one very selfish, and sometimes one becomes more and more self-conscious. Some are so focused on their personal growth for which they are carefully and constantly reflecting upon their actions, and analyzing their growth based on their performances. They are so enterprising to grow better than before that in doing so they forget that there is a family, a society and humanity. Owing to this, their personal growth creates a disturbance to the society in a very conscious way, but the person in concern is blissfully unaware of it.

Therefore, the Gita talks about this from the very beginning – ‘you grow but also help uplift the society’. Both must go hand-in-hand. That is healthy growth.

Some so-called spiritualists deny the realities of the world. They use these sufferings to escape in to the woods and meditate to escape this world and go to the higher realm. On the other hand, we also have materialists who are so absorbed in this world that they neither care about nor believe that there is something beyond this world. They get selfishly soaked in personal gratification. There are also some others who are moved by the suffering of people and actively partake in problem solving; but these people mostly land up becoming atheists because, on their own, they cannot figure out how God allowed this to happen. So they conclude that there is no God.

But those who are conscious of all layers of life plan self-growth in harmony with the society’s benefit on all levels – physical, vital, emotional, intellectual and ultimately spiritual. Therefore the Pandavas represent these principles. As very responsible citizens and eventually Kings, they took care of material affairs flavored with devotion to Lord Krishna, and at the same time, pursued intensely their spirituality, which was not a concept of world-denial.

 This is why we see Lord Krishna glorifying the life of trees in Srimad Bhagavatam to His friend – for doing ultimate charity. Let us choose to cut the tree of life or sit under it reflecting, ‘can I be useful like this tree for some people at least?’