“Question: You seem to advise me to be self-centered to the point ofegoism. Must I not yield even to my interest in other people?Maharaj: Your interest in others is egoistic, self-concerned, self-oriented. You are not interested in others as persons, but onlyas far as they enrich, or enoble your own image of yourself.And the ultimate in selfishness is to care only for the protection,preservation and multiplication of one's own body. By body Imean all that is related to your name and shape--- your family,tribe, country, race, etc. To be attached to one's name andshape is selfishness. A man who knows that he is neither bodynor mind cannot be selfish, for he has nothing to be selfish for.Or, you may say, he is equally 'selfish' on behalf of everybodyhe meets; everybody's welfare is his own. The feeling 'I am theworld, the world is myself' becomes quite natural; once it is es-tablished, there is just no way of being selfish. To be selfishmeans to covet, to acquire, accumulate on behalf of the partagainst the whole. I Am ThatNisargadatta Maharaj”

“Love is not selective, desire is selective. In love there are no strangers. When the centre of selfishness is no longer, all desires for pleasure and fear of pain cease; one is no longer interested in being happy; beyond happiness there is pure intensity, inexhaustible energy, the ecstasy of giving from a perennial source.”

“ It is important that when pursing our own self-interest we should be “wise selfish” and not “foolish selfish”. Being foolish selfish means pursuing our own interests in a narrow, shortsighted way. Being wise selfish means taking a broader view and recognizing that our own long-term individual interest lies in the welfare of everyone. Being wise selfish means being compassionate.”

“All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of love you bear for your self, all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. Deny yourself nothing -- glue your self infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond.”

“As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown is the source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide there."I Am That" - pg 188”

“And the flesh is that reprehensible preference for self that lurks within every one of our hearts. It is that base and selfish instinct to preserve our own interests at the expense of God's interests. It's devious, it's deceitful, it's self-indulgent. It's interested only in selfish comfort and will happily crucify Christ afresh to secure it. God also has another name for it- sin.”

“Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and delaying your Self Realization. You are not to expect an explosion, for the explosion has already happened - at the moment when you were born, when you realized yourself as Being-Knowing-Feeling. There is only one mistake you are making: you take the inner for the outer and the outer for the inner. What is in you, you take to be outside you and what is outside, you take to be in you. The mind and feelings are external, but you take them to be intimate. You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection of your psyche. That is the basic confusion and no new explosion will set it right! You have to think yourself out of it. There is no other way.”