Question: What can I do against being proud?

Sri Chinmoy: When you are proud of some achievement or capacity of yours, look around. If you are sincere, you will see that there is always somebody who far transcends you in that very thing. Suppose you feel that you have tremendous aspiration, inner cry, and your spiritual brothers and sisters are not as spiritual as you are, so you are proud. But look around. You have been comparing yourself with ten or twelve disciples. But we have about one thousand disciples. Now we have a yearbook which Jagari and Sudarshana have done. If pride comes to you because you are aspiring most intensely and others are useless, look at that book. Open it up and turn the pages. As soon as you begin to look, you will see that this person or that person has more aspiration than you, and immediately your pride will be smashed. Always compare yourself. If you are proud, of something, compare and see. In this world there will always be people who have far surpassed you. Immediately you will see it. This is the human way to conquer pride.

There is also a divine way to conquer pride. It is the way of oneness. How will you please God most? By keeping yourself aloof? By separating yourself from the rest of the world? By feeling that you exist only to lord it over others? No. You can maintain your pride, but it has to be transformed totally. You can say, “I am a chosen instrument of the Supreme; therefore it is beneath my dignity to dive into ignorance.” You maintain your pride, but make it divine pride. Human pride you transform or illumine.

Divine pride is the feeling that since I am a chosen instrument of the Supreme, for the Supreme, I can’t mix with falsehood anymore, I can’t mix with ignorance anymore, I can’t mix with earthly bondage anymore. Divine pride says, “I am one with the Supreme; I am one with His Creation. There is no difference between the Creator and the Creation. I am one with His Vision; I am one with His Reality; I am one with His Mission inseparably.” This kind of pride if you maintain, you are not making any mistake, because you are thinking of the highest capacity of your divinity all the time. If you are one with the Supreme, if you are His chosen instrument, then how can you do anything undivine? No, you can only do right things, divine things.

You do not have to get rid of your divine pride. Divine pride is oneness, inseparable oneness with the Supreme. If you can feel that you are the Supremely chosen instrument of the Beloved Supreme, then you can spread your wings. Today if you love a few people, tomorrow you can love God’s entire creation. You can feel your existence inside all human beings, because the Supreme is inside everyone. The only reason why you love me should be that the Supreme is inside me. Because of your love for the Supreme within, you can love each person. If you can establish your oneness with God the Creation, then you can easily maintain your divine pride, which is a positive emotion, not a negative one. But human pride, which makes you feel that you are superior in a particular thing, is undivine. That pride has to be transformed and illumined.

So from the practical point of view, when pride enters into you, please look around and see if there is someone who has surpassed you. If sincerity speaks, immediately you will see that he has surpassed you, or she has surpassed you. Then how can you really be proud? There is nothing to be proud of because there are others who have far surpassed you. The divine pride you can easily maintain, if you feel that the Supreme has chosen you to become His most perfect instrument. How can you become His most perfect instrument? By not mixing with ignorance anymore; by mixing all the time with simplicity, sincerity, humility, purity and other divine friends of yours. This is how you can free yourself from the human pride and, at the same time, divinely and supremely enjoy the divine pride which is inseparable absolute oneness with the Beloved Supreme, your Creator, your Source.