Theme: The Way I See It

 EGOISM DISGUISED AS ALTRUISM

Selflessness? What exactly is it? We usually categorize people in two terms; egoist or selfish and altruist or selfless.

And we generally appreciate altruism and condemn egoism but if we closely look at this matter, it’s like that people who are selfless are selfish in their own way. There are times when people help others or whatever they do is oriented towards others is mostly because they want fame or appreciation. What kind of selflessness is this? You do it because you want to feel good about your own self. We all do this and then label ourselves that ‘Oh! we are not selfish’. Apparently we are not but deep down inside we are. And we deny this though.

Let’s just take a very simple and common example that if we help our classmate or friend in studies, we expect them to return the favor. What’s the point of helping someone with the intension that the person will be helping us in the future? We all are like this. What kind of world are we living in? Where there is no existence of selflessness. Even I’ve heard people saying that ” yaar yaad karo mainy tumhari us waqt help ki thi” Oh seriously?  You shouldn’t have done that, darling.

Mostly, we do selfless deeds because it’s in our own interest. To some people it gives them inner satisfaction. And sometimes we do it to save ourselves from being guilty. So, everything we do is in our own interest, for the sake of our satisfaction and inner peace.

Being selfish is not a good thing to be but if we are then atleast we should know this and accept it and try to be a good person. What we do is that we don’t even realize it.

In the end I would like to add that I think the person who is selfless in this entire world is Mother. She is the exception. No matter what happens, she will love us. I’m not saying that she doesn’t need appreciation, she does but if we don’t appreciate her she won’t stop loving us. She is someone who won’t ask you to return what she has done for you.

And guess who cried while writing this last paragraph? Yes I did. Because the only word ‘Mother’ is enough to make me emotional. Take care of your mothers, people :’)

Nageen Jawed