Questions and Answers Overcoming Pride

Sri Chinmoy: Pride can be conquered in various ways. The easiest way is to have some wisdom and say, “I am not the only one who knows everything. I am not the only one to lead or guide the whole world. I am not the one who will lord it over others. No, no, God is also inside others. Their point of view, their advice, we have to accept. Then afterwards we shall weigh the pros and cons together with others.”

To conquer pride, the easiest way is always to feel sincerely that others can also be correct. You can feel, “I am not the one to be always correct. Others can also be correct from time to time, or even all the time. I am one of those who can make decisions, I am not the only one to make decisions.” In this way we can conquer our pride, by feeling, “I am in a group, I am in a committee, I am one of many.”

But if you think that you are the one who will make decisions right from the beginning to the end, then pride comes. Pride can be conquered only with wisdom. There is no other way. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom – why should God always speak in and through you? Others are also God’s creation. What is wrong for God to use others also as His instruments to illumine us?

If we can establish cheerful oneness with others, with the rest of the world, then pride goes away. When there is no oneness, there will always be pride. Even in one’s own life, the heart wants to see what others have to say, but the mind does not allow the heart to listen to others. The heart is eager to know others’ point of view, what others have to offer us, share with us. Here the mind is undivine, and the heart is divine. We know the mind enjoys supremacy and the heart enjoys oneness.

Again, by becoming one with others, the joy that we get far surpasses the joy that we get by exercising the authority or the pride of the mind. If we know something gives us infinitely more joy, satisfaction and fulfilment, we shall turn to that, to the heart, and not to the mind, to make any decision, to accomplish anything special in one’s life.