Consumers of a Satsang Program

Just some random thought when we had our lecture on Intelligently interacting with others. During the lecture, we discussed the phenomenon of Selfishness in human beings.
Our class was asked the question whether think they that human beings are selfish or not, Whatever human beings do, do they do it for their own sake?
About 90% of the students replied that yes, Human beings are selfish by nature.
The teacher however was not happy with the result. He believed that there are good people in the world who are not selfish and that our generation could not be that cynical about the misery, pains, and misdeeds about the world.
To reply to that opinion, what we said was – actually we do a lot of good but that good is also done to satisfy our ego or to have mental peace. When we help somebody, we know that it would come back to us- So we help others to help ourselves. We get mental peace and satisfaction by helping others.
Like , if you help somebody and that person thanks you profusely.. your reaction probably would be .. Hey look, I too benefited after helping you.
So, the point is that even the society accepts that everything you do, you actually do it for your own self.. and thus QED.. Human beings are selfish by nature.


The teacher had a very wonderful point to add here which I would like to say here..
He said.. Actually Human beings are not selfish.. But when asked to justify their stance that why did they help.. they resort to the fact that Look Boss, I am selfish , that’s why I did it.
Why they do so is actually to adjust in the society where it is expected to be selfish
How many times have you thought of your own self when you helped somebody.. very very few times.. You just help. Because it is your inherit nature..
But when asked for justification, because of the societal norms.. you accept that you had a selfish motive but in actual you are not.


The explanation sounded very logical to me but when I extended the theory to various Satsangs and Pravachans being held all over our country, I thought maybe, they are not teaching societal norms but they are the ones who are actually setting them..
When I go to some satsang.. I am being taught to help others.. It will increase my good karma.. I will attain bliss.. etc etc
What I fail to get is
1. The institutions that preach about the ultimate objective of moksha , why should they teach about the benefit of self
2. By expounding the benefits to self, aren’t they making us human beings think in a more selfish way.

Some random thoughts.. don’t have the time to potray my thoughts sequentially.. coz as usual I am very bad at co-relation