By Chirag Dangarwala
In order to understand what selfishness is, let us first of all examine what the self is, generally speaking people consider the body which is seen with the naked eye to be the self and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to please the body or the senses, i.e sense gratification. Some consider the mind as the self and engage themselves in mental speculation and excessive thinking and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to please the mind at the cost of others. Some others consider the intelligence as the self and they are engaged in philosophical discussions and debates, and selfishness in this regard is the tendency to establish one's ideas as true amongst the others. From the Vedic point of view we can understand that the self is neither the body, nor the mind or the intelligence. In the eighth chapter of Bhagavad Gita Arjuna asks Lord Krishna about what is the self