How does one’s self-realization help others?
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When you do not realize, you constantly live in a feeling that you are a separate entity.
When you keep feeling that you are a separate entity and that others are separate, that others ‘are’, that there is an ‘otherness’, there would always be a gap, a kind of violence. Realization reduces this gap. Realization reduces the very feeling of separation, of otherness. When the feeling of otherness reduces, that is called love. So, realization of oneself is simultaneously love towards others. More you realize yourself, the more this feeling that others, are others, reduces.
What is meant by others? Others mean foreign, separate, alien, not me, somebody else. The more close you come to yourself, parallelly you find that you are coming close to others also. And the ultimate point in all this is when you say that the self is so immense that it encompasses, it includes, everything, everybody, there are no separate individuals at all. There are no others. The deeper is your belief in your separation, your boundaries, the more violent will be your relationship with others.
The more you believe in your limits, the more insecure you will be about yourself. And when you are insecure, you obviously cannot have goodwill towards others. Your very concern will be to save yourself.
But the primary objective of the spiritual mind is not others. The fact that he helps others is incidental and has to be incidental. If the primary concern is himself and if he places his primary concern outside of himself. If he says, “I do not know who I am, but I want to do social service. I want to help others.” He would only end up, harming the so-called others.
With no awareness of your own mind, it is impossible to be of any help to anybody else. But we do not want to take this, right?
We say, “It doesn’t matter what my own situation is, let me help others according to my concept of what helping means.” Now, when you do not know yourself and your entire energy is directed towards the world, what is your self-concept? Ignorance.
Ignorance, worships ignorance. Ignorance, likes and begets ignorance. Your very concept of helping too would be to further ignorance. “Who am I?” Ignorance. “I Want to help others, what would my concept of…