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than the other two but I'll have to look for someone else, the fourth person who can become the ruler of my kingdom."
When you think you are being of service to others, in fact you are not. How can one serve others when he doesn't even know who he is? Serving the poor, attending the sick in the hospital, gives you the idea you are rendering some kind of service. But if you'll look at the whole thing very closely you'll find somewhere along these acts fulfilling your ego. And if it is your ego that ultimately feeds upon such acts of service, then this service too is exploitation. Until one has attained self-awareness he can't be altruistic; because, only after one has known oneself, can such a great transformation take place.
I have heard, Mulla Nasruddin's wife was having a fight with him. She said to Mulla, "This matter has to be settled once and for all. Why do you hate all my relatives?" Mulla said, "This is totally wrong, the facts don't support your accusation. I have the proof for it, and the proof is that I love your mother-in-law more than I do mind."
This is how the ego finds its ways through. Superficially it looks as though you are doing service to others, but deep down it is your ego that is being serviced by you. And the more subtle the way of the ego becomes, the more it gets out of reach. The others are unable to gauge it, of course, but even you yourself fail to have a handle on it. Others are deceived by you, of course, but even you become the victim of your own deception. Even you get lost in the enigma, the puzzle, you create for others. We have created our respective mazes with the intent and purpose of befooling others not realizing that someday we may ourselves be duped by it -- and in fact we already are.
So remember one thing: no one belongs to you except your own self. The moment this remembrance becomes crystallized within you that consciousness is the being, that except consciousness nothing else is mine -- all the rest is extraneous, disparate -- the first ray of transformation enters your life. With that, a crevice appears between you and the society, between you and your relationships. But the man doesn't
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