Questioner: Some people say that you should live for yourself, and some people say that it gives you more happiness if you live for others. So, which of these approaches is the right one?
Acharya Prashant: So, she is asking whether to live for oneself or others, right? That’s the way the question is framed. There is a side where you live for yourself, and contrasted to that there is a side where you live for others. Yes, there indeed are two sides, but they are not quite the way you are seeing them and presenting them. The two sides can rather be seen like this.
There is a center within us from where we see that working for oneself is different from working for others; that’s one center we operate from. And if you operate from that center, then it’s an either/or situation, a zero-sum game. From that center, self-interest is always contradictory to, and pitted against general interest; and most people operate from that center, right?
We can have two centers within; we can have two drivers within from where we come; we can have two identities within. If you operate from the first center or the first identity, you will feel that your welfare and the welfare of others, the world, the society, these two are mutually exclusive. You will feel as if there is a piece of bread and if you have it, then your brother can’t have it; and if he has it, then you can’t have it. Even if the two of you decide to have half of it each, still it’s not the same as you enjoying the complete portion, the full bite, right? So, this is just a zero-sum game. Do you understand a ‘zero-sum game’? If it’s plus one for you, then it’s minus one for the other. If I win, then you lose; the two of us can’t win simultaneously. That’s a zero-sum game.
