selfishness good or not?

The word “selfish” often sparks negative feeling. It sounds resembling to words like self-centered, self-serving, self-involved. And it gives us a feeling of meanness like “me and my interests,” right? We are always taught ,”giving is preferential to taking?

There is one area where we actually need to be Selfish. As when we travel in an aircraft, we’re told we need to adjust our own oxygen mask first before helping others in a plane emergency.

if anything is against my well being emotionally and physically, then saying no is not being selfish . Mostly the women in India ignore their health at the cost of their families well being. Is it a good idea. Ofcourse not. A healthy mother of a wife can contribute better to the well being of families instead of the one who just keeps ignoring herself to earn the tag of selflessness.

Hope it’s clear that it’s okay to be selfish when your well being is at stake. Otherwise it’s great to be selfless and think of others . I want to share a story , I read , to still emphasise the importance of selflessness also.

president Xi Jing Peng of China said

When I was a small child ,I was very selfish , always grab the best for myself .Slowly , everyone left me and I had no friends.I didn’t think it was my fault and I would criticise others.

My father gave me 3 sentences to help me in life.

One day, my father cooked 2 bowls of noodles and put the 2 bowls on the table.One bowl has one egg on top and the other bowl does not have any egg on top.He said,”My child.You choose.Which bowl do you want? Eggs were hard to come by in those days. Only days when we get to eat eggs was during festivals or New Year.Of course I chose the bowl with egg !As we started eating, I was congratulating myself on my wise choice/decisision and wallop up the egg.Then to my surprise as my father ate his noodles, there were TWO eggs at the bottom of his bowl beneath the noodes. I regretted so much !and scolded myself for being too hasty in my decision .My father smiled and said to me,”My child.You must remember what your eyes see may not be true if u intend on taking advantage of people, you will end up losing !”

The next day, my father again cooked 2 bowls of noodles :one bowl with an egg on top and the other bowl with no egg on top.Again , he put the two bowls on the table and said to me,”My child.you choose. Which bowl do u want? ” This time I am smarter.I chose the bowl without any egg on top. To my surprise, as I separated the noodles on top, there was not even a single egg at the bottom of the bowl! Again my father smiled and said to me,”My child.you must not always rely on experiences because sometimes,life can cheat you or play tricks on you. But you must not be too annoyed or sad, just treat this as learning a lesson .You cannot learn this from textbooks.

The third day, my father again cooked 2 bowls of noodles , again one bowl with an egg on top and the other bowl with no egg on top.He put the 2 bowls on the table and again said to me ,”My child.you choose, which bowl do you want?”This time ,I told my father,”Dad, you choose first.You are the head of the family and contributed the most to the family,”My father did not decline and chose the bowl with one egg on top. I started eating my bowl of noodles , Sure in my heart I was thinking that there is no egg inside the bowl. To my surprise, there were TWO eggs at the bottom of the bowl.

My father smiled at me with love in his eyes,”My child, you must remember, when you think for the good of others, good things will always naturally happen to you.”

I always remember these 3 sentences of my father and lived and do my business accordingly. True Enough , my business was a roaring success.

Xi Jing Peng