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Be Absolutely Selfish

Even to worry about oneself is too much. To get rid of those worries is too much, it is difficult, and if you are worrying about the whole world then there is no way to get out of it. Then you can be certain you will always remain worried.

And don’t think for even a single moment that you are helping the world by worrying about it. You are not helping the world by worrying about it, because a worrier cannot help anybody. He is a destructive force.

So reduce the worries first to the minimum. That is, confine your worries to yourself, that’s enough.

Be absolutely selfish. Yes, that’s what I say – be absolutely selfish if someday you want to help others. If someday you want to be really altruistic, be selfish.

First change your being. First create a light within your heart, become luminous. Then you can help others. And you will be able to help without worrying.

Because worrying never helps anybody. Somebody is dying and you sit by his side and you worry. How is it going to help? If the patient is dying and the doctor is worrying, it is not going to help. How much he worries is pointless. He has to do something.

And when a patient is dying, a doctor is needed who knows how not to worry. Only then can he be helpful, because only then can his diagnosis be clearer, more correct. That’s why if you are ill and your own husband is a doctor, he will not be of much help, because he will worry too much about you. Somebody is needed who is impersonal.

A child needs an operation. His own father may be a great surgeon, but he cannot be allowed to operate on the child because he will be worrying too much. His hand will be shaking – his own child; he cannot be just an observer. He cannot be objective, he is too much involved. He will kill the child. Some other surgeon is needed who can remain impartial, who can remain far away, aloof, distant, unworried.

So if you really want to help humanity, first you have to become unworried. And to become unworried you have to drop unnecessary worries first. Don’t think about the world. The world has continued the same and it is going to continue the same.

Don’t be foolish. All Utopians are a little foolish – they expect something which is never going to happen, which has never happened.

All that is possible – be realistic, be scientific – all that is possible is that you can transcend worries. So just worry about yourself and find out a way to get above them, beyond them. When you have gone beyond, you can be of tremendous benediction to the world.