Survival Vs Selfishness

I found myself commenting to one of the blogs that Survival is an act of selfishness. I felt that comment of mine lacked depth and clarity and hence this blog . Yes, I can see that its not completely black and white and one can get some interesting arguments supporting the above statement (survival = selfishness) as well. Even after that it’s not correct to say survival as selfishness because it would be contradicting the model around which sustenance of life is based.

Every organism needs to fight for survival and I wonder if we can say it is its basic right? Probably Yes. However what do you call as survival and what is not? It’s very clear-cut for animals. There survival is only physical so they either fight for food and for a mate in the breeding season. Some carnivorous animals like tiger, lion might fight for territory which is again linked to the first two. If we notice these acts of survival (first two basic ones at least), they are momentary by which I mean is the struggle is for Now and not for tomorrow or any time in the future. So it’s pretty clear.

Unfortunately it’s not the same for us humans. We have two levels of survival. One Physical and the other being Psychological. Just like animals if the survival was limited to physical it would have been far simpler but for most of us survival is psychological. Will I pass the exam? Will I be able to get a new job? Will I get my promotion? Will she accept my love? And the list is never ending..
if you see these questions all have the same characteristics - All questions are to be answered some time in future and there is nothing much you can do to answer them in black and white right now. However these questions will be there long before the d-day and raise every now and then and you can do pretty much nothing about answering it (completely).

What we end up doing? - We try to survive beyond survival.
What do I mean by that? OK, Lets take an example of one such classic question.
Will I have enough money for tomorrow?.. (ha ha..what a question?). I don’t think anyone will ever be able to answer this question but never stop an effort towards answering it. How? - Accumulate. When ever you get that question you stop, think and find a new way to accumulate.
Corruption is one such way to accumulate and there are much more. So in this quest to answer the never answerable psychological question of survival we continue to accumulate selfishly, for life. In the end it ends up being an act of survival beyond survival - call it Selfishness.

So what is the conclusion?
Conclusion is humans are miscible creatures who live surviving all life. Its a pit/mine set up by the mind and we fall for it every time. I don’t know if there is a way out of it for us. Many saints say there is but I have my doubts but there is Hope and I hope there is a way out. I hope ..