Enlightened selfishness

|| योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ||

The child grows into adulthood to fully grown man through various stages. In it, one of the important aspect is his selfish attitude. With this attitude, his life can be a successful but definitely not purposeful.
A Karyakarta in the organisation has innate urge to make his life purposeful. But he, too, as a human being grows and passes through various stages. Here, knowing this well, Mananeeya Eknathji adds one more step into the becoming of selflessness. He says :
     To enjoy by oneself is selfishness, but to enjoy along with others is enlightened happiness.
How to live with the world is basic wisdom. If the society is saved, I am saved; my safety depends upon the safety of the society. Therefore I must learn to share happiness with others. I want to enjoy the pleasure, but I cannot enjoy unless the society assures my safety. Therefore to ensure my safety, I enjoy along with others. This is selfishness no doubt, but this is "enlightened selfishness".

Ekanthji further explains this with a day to day example :
In business, man maintains honesty not only believing firmly, that 'honesty is the best policy', but he follows that honesty because he can win the favour of the customers and the more the customers, the more will be his profits. So also, one must have the worldly wisdom in not increasing one's hungers because they remain not only confined to the physical level but they reach the mental level also and as a result one starts hankering for name and fame, for power and position, and so on and so forth.

Thus the 'hunger' multiplies in adulthood  as a result of intelligence. It is an artificial development of hunger which prevails. Therefore, proper knowledge is most essential and this knowledge forms the second landmark in the growth from the childhood to the adulthood.