What’s in it for me?

whats in it for me, why should i help others, what do i get by helping others, why should we help others, why do you like to help others

If I were to blame one thing for stopping me from a lot of actions, it would be this. I am not sure if it is only me, I am not even sure if it is the first stock response I have in my mind when a situation or an opportunity arises. But something that I have consciously observed is that this question arises!

I guess that is the beauty of thoughts, we don’t have control on all of them, sometimes they come out without us wanting to either. I am aware that this very thought makes me appear as an incredibly selfish person, but that doesn’t make it untrue, it is there, it is existent. The action has happened, the thought has appeared.

The question now is what to do about it. Do we try and analyse all the possibilities and scenarios to see if there is a way this could benefit us or just do it cos the gut says so. I guess there have been instances where I have done both of them and without realizing, these actions have ended up benefiting me more than I had even imagined. Maybe that is the beauty of actions without many expectations. If I were a firm believer in Karmayoga and life as a full circle, the actions we do must have repercussions. All the good we do must somehow find a way to help us in the end.

Well, let me not try and be philosophical here, but even looking at the moment, the very prospect of helping someone else brings us a wealth of joy inside, even if it doesn’t have much to do with us. It makes us happy, and the very realization that we have done it without any expectations makes us even happier.  I believe that is a good enough reason for us to start working on that front, whether it gives us a direct advantage or not.

I am not saying that we should go out of our way to help others, probably that is not needed, but if that is something in our way, something which we can do without sacrificing a lot, I guess there is no harm in sharing the tab!

3 thoughts on “What’s in it for me?”

  1. He he he he :D .. The karmic vengeance :P..

    “If you are lucky god will let you watch?! “.. I cant stop laughing here!! .. I do agree though it does catch up. But meanwhile I guess we can make up for it by doing as much good as we can ;)

    Thanks Preethi, apologies the site was down for a couple of days.. Hopefully it’s back on track now :)

  2. Now i am grinning ear to ear. Frankly…i do believe karma catches up with us. And these days it happens right before our eyes. no waiting for the next birth. I read this quote somewhere that Karma always catches up, you don’t have to take revenge, and if you are lucky enough, god will let you watch…lol…loved it!! And if we go around thinking “what’s in it for me?” for every transaction we come across…its going to be tough to find people who will help us when we are in need…nice write up :)

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