Acharya Mahaprajna
And yet, it is not possible to remain entirely untouched by selfishness. Even a person doing meditation has his own selfish motivation. This is not entirely bad or undesirable. Serving self-interest could also be good but it should be within limits. Self-serving should not be such that it does harm to the well being of others. The individual is not the only entity. The world is very large; there are millions of people. A person may develop his self-interest to an extent that he achieves his own economic development but causes harm to others. This is certainly not the right thing to do.
Mahavira also said that along with economic development we should ponder over other aspects. Mahavira's shravak Anand was very prosperous from economic point of view. He possessed thousands and thousands of acres of agricultural land. He had a large cowshed having forty thousand cows. Capital worth crores was invested in his business. But being a member of a Vrati (devout) society his vow was not to use unacceptable means to earn wealth. On that basis alone, he had attained his own economic prosperity.
