8 hours Ago By Atul Sehgal
Much has been written about the immanent evil of pride in human personality. We have heard numerous lectures and videos, and read thousands of textual passages deprecating the evil of pride. Often, or mostly, it is given the name of EGO.
It is a personality defect so much in evidence today that you can find elements of it in a large majority of persons, young and old alike. The English dictionary gives it parallel names—haughtiness, superciliousness and arrogance. Given the very fact that this negative trait appears almost ubiquitous today, it begs a deeper discourse.
Let us analyse the subject of pride from the spiritual perspective after giving it a mundane exposition. Pride is an emotional element in the human being which makes him feel superior to others in any respect—looks, beauty, intelligence, liquid bank balance, ownership of properties and other monetary assets, wisdom, knowledge, erudition, religious faith, race, class, caste..
.. anything.
This feeling of superiority or ‘holier than thou’ attitude gives him a positive emotional kick and makes him feel elated. The above-said state of elation is what brings the downfall of a proud person. The sense of elation distorts the personality of the individual.
His behaviour becomes condescending. He looks down on others. People start distancing from him.
Cracks develop in personal relationships. Cooperation, collaboration and camaraderie suffer. Pride is the opposite of humility.
Humility opens up and expands vistas for understanding, learning and cooperation. Arrogance works for the opposite. In the realm of spirituality, pride is the result of ignorance and illusion.
As per classical Vedic literature and texts like Yogasutra derived from it, the soul identifies itself as a distinct animate entity through the material element of ego-self. All material elements in the human being have the three primal attributes of satogun, rajogun and tamogun. The ego-self gets puffed by an imbalance of rajogun, which gives the individual a false sense of superiority.
This makes the person swollen-headed and vitiates his intellectual faculty. Thus, in the high emotional state of arrogance, the person is unable to think rationally, and perform right and fruitful actions. He gives in easily to anger, which exacerbates the problem.
The human being needs to keep a healthy balance of satogun, rajogun and tamogun in him to maintain sound health. Here, health denotes the health of the body, mind and intellect. The three attributes affect not just the body but also the mind and intellect.
When the element of rajogun increases in humans, it has a twofold effect—on the gross body and the subtle organs (mind, intellect and ego-self). The adverse effect on the physical body results in ailments like hyperacidity, quinsy and heart disease. The baneful effect on the mind, intellect and ego-self tends to make the person proud and arrogant.
Therefore, we need to keep the proportion of rajogun at a moderate level for proper functioning of the body and the mind. Thousands of illustrative examples can be cited from history or contemporary times about the deleterious effects of pride. Ancient Indian epics of Ramayan and Mahabharat render accounts of characters—Ravan and Duryodhana, respectively—who became victims of their bloated egos.
Modern history is replete with examples of personalities like Hitler and Mussolini, whose nemesis was the result of their high arrogance. In the case of Hitler, the cause of arrogance was ethnocentric pride, and in the case of Mussolini, it was the fascist mindset. The evil of pride afflicts many of us in a myriad of ways.
We look down on and deride those who are or who we think are less endowed in any way. Such behaviour creates serious immediate and short-term effects—communication gaps and cracks in relationships. Since the evil of ‘ego’ is rampant in today’s world, it has long-term cascading effects, severely impacting peace, productivity and progress.
It would be worthwhile to mention a lifestyle plan that prevents or minimises the above human evil. A balanced diet and adequate sleep, which keeps rajogun at a moderate level, is important. Pranayam, the breath regulation practice, also helps.
But most importantly, we need to perform regular Vedic worship (praise, prayer and meditation in regard to the object of worship, Ishwar). The latter helps enormously to shed a puffed-up ego and develop humility. Humility is crucial to grasping truth and making progress—both material and spiritual.
Atul Sehgal is the author of Guide to Inner Wellness and can be contacted at [email protected].
