The Vedas say that there is not a single person who does not have pride.
Nowadays, many concepts have lost their true understanding. So, sometimes it seems to us that pride is a good quality, while in the understanding of some people, pride is equated with self-esteem, and humility, on the contrary, is a negative trait, which emanates something weak-willed and phlegmatic.
However, the scriptures say that it is pride that is the source of all human shortcomings. We get irritated and angry because someone does not want to take our opinion into account. We feel greedy because we think we deserve more comfortable living conditions. We envy because our false ego suffers when our neighbor in the country has apples that are redder than ours. So many negative qualities come out when we are at odds with our pride! But how can you check whether you are a proud person or not? And the answer is quite simple.
- A truly developed person is one who sees the mistakes of another person, but forgives him for them. If he cannot forgive them, then he is an undeveloped person. It’s just pride,” notes Oleg Gennadievich.
The Vedas say that there is not a single person who does not have pride. This quality manifests itself so subtly that we do not even suspect how often we are proud of ourselves, how much we are imbued with pride. Oleg Gennadievich notes that it is impossible for a person to discover pride in himself if he does not work on himself and does not engage in spiritual practice.
The fact is that pride manifests itself unconsciously, and such things are extremely difficult to track. At best, we can understand the manifestation of our pride after it has broken the woods. In fact, pride does not exist on its own; moreover, it is skillfully disguised as various feelings and behaviors that we engage in almost every day. You will see this if you read the 54 signs of pride, according to the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata.
We will not list all the signs; they can be easily found on the Internet. However, let’s focus on the main ones, which we all certainly know and have noticed more than once.
The immutability of the fact that you are always right. Confidence in one's own constant correctness (infallibility)
It is unlikely that anyone will defend someone else’s point of view with the same vehemence as their own. Most often (if not always) it seems to us that we are the ones who are right. We believe that we know better what to do in a given situation. We are convinced that we have the right to give advice to people when we are not asked to do so. Hence, people often display arrogance, snobbery, a sense of their own superiority and a bunch of other unpleasant qualities that only complicate the life of a person and all those around him. Especially his children, because they have no right to choose.
Sense of self-importance
This quality is especially noticeable when someone’s merits are noted in front of us, but our work is not noticed. Our self-worth, in other words, the false ego, at this moment suffers from lack of attention and demands justice. This is clearly seen in the example of people who do the same thing. Thus, if you praise another in the presence of one violinist, he will experience terrible torment. Try to praise one surgeon in the presence of another - the reaction will be the same. Deep down in our souls, we really want to feel our superiority and thereby emphasize our importance in the eyes of others.
The thought that you are better than others, boasting
Pride differs from other qualities in that a person exalts himself and everything connected with him: family, work, car, the area in which he lives, and even the stores in which he dresses. If he succeeds at work, then he believes that he has the right to consider himself better than others. While boasting to friends and relatives, he forgets that everything he has came to him by the grace of God. But his arrogance lies in the fact that he thinks that he can achieve everything himself. Have you noticed that after such thoughts, a series of obstacles and failures often begins in life? Thus, the Lord lowers the star-studded man from heaven to earth. He shows him the real state of affairs: “Well, if you know how to do everything yourself, let’s try, and I’ll look from the outside.”
Control of the situation, but without taking responsibility for the situation
Is this a familiar quality? When you put a lot of effort into doing some important work, but “experts” come and watch you, how and what you do, and at the same time make very “smart” comments. As a rule, there is no real benefit from such assistants; there is only a clear desire to demonstrate their knowledge of certain issues. We think that many have encountered such a situation, both at work and at home. This often happens when grandmothers want to help a young mother. They are not responsible for what they advise, but they completely control the current situation. Therefore, such a desire to dictate something without the desire to be responsible for one’s actions is also one of the signs of pride.
Patronizing, condescending attitude towards others
This point partly resonates with a sense of self-worth and constant rightness. However, being looked down on also gives a person the “right” to criticize the actions of others. To clarify this point, we have a good quote from Oleg Gennadievich.
- If you condemned a person, it means the same thing will happen in your life. You will sit in the same puddle. Deep thoughts with negativity take over a person’s fate. When we condemn a person, God looks at us at that time and thinks: “Aga, you condemn, which means you are superior. Okay, get the same exam and pass it. If you are taller, try to pass and handle the same thing and we will see whether you are taller or not.” Therefore, a person who condemns someone actually ends up in the same galosh,” notes Oleg Gennadievich.
Feeling worthless
Pride does not always lead to inflating one’s merits; sometimes it happens that a person lives with the thought of how unworthy he is, how little he has achieved, etc. This means pride with a minus sign. Such a person tells everyone around him that he can’t do anything, has no talents, has too much weight, doesn’t have a husband—you can come up with anything you want. This position means an unwillingness to take responsibility for your life. After all, someone should take care of him, feel sorry for him, praise him.
One day a man approached the Vaishnava saint Srila Prabhupada and said, “I am the most fallen.” To which Srila Prabhupada sternly said: “You are not the best. Not even the most fallen." This means that sometimes we hide behind a mask of false humility and simply want to attract attention to ourselves so that everyone around us will notice and admire us.
So, we have examined only six signs of pride, so we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the full list in order, as they say, to know the enemy by sight. In the next article we will talk about how pride manifests itself in spiritual life.
