Pride: the ancient disease¹

We all have a common disease: pride. Not only do we humans have this deplorable disease, but unfortunately, even the gods have it. Once the gods won a tremendous victory over the demons and they rejoiced to the skies, because it is not a mere joke to win a victory over the asuras. They were bloated with pride. They thought it was their own inner power that had made them win. They thought it was their own force, that nobody else was in the picture.

Brahman, the Absolute, wanted to smash their pride. Brahman thought it was wrong of them to cherish this false idea. So Brahman assumed a superhuman figure and stood in front of the gods. The gods were wonderstruck with this figure. They had never seen such a beautiful form. They asked Agni, the Fire god, to approach this figure and learn something about him.

Agni came and stood in front of the form of Brahman, and Brahman said, “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me? I am Agni. All the world over I am well known, for I can burn everything into ashes.”

“Wonderful,” said Brahman. “You have enormous power.” Then Brahman placed a straw in front of Agni and said, “Agni, now exercise your power. Burn it into ashes.”

Poor Agni exercised all his power to burn the tiny straw into ashes, but nothing happened. It remained intact. Agni’s pride was smashed. He went back to his companions with a sad, deplorable, downcast face.

Then Vayu, the Wind god, said, “Let me accept the challenge. Let me approach this superhuman being.”

When Vayu approached Brahman, Brahman said, “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me?” asked Vayu. “I am Vayu. I am so well known.”

“What can you do?”

“I can blow away everything. There is nothing on earth that I cannot blow away in the twinkling of an eye.”

“Is that so?” Said Brahman. Then he placed the straw in front of Vayu and said, “Move the straw just an inch from where I have put it.”

Vayu exercised all his power, but it was useless. The straw would not budge an inch. It was fixed for good. Poor Vayu went back to the gods and said, “Agni was unsuccessful and I was unsuccessful. Now, who can succeed? Indra is our Leader. Now let him try.”

Indra was always proud of his indomitable strength and power. But the time he came, Brahman had left the place and in his place stood Uma, God the Mother, in the form of the most beautiful woman. Brahman is God the Father, but now God the Mother stood there in most beautiful dress, full of joy, love and compassion. Indra said to this beautiful lady, “Mother, tell me who is that superhuman being who was here. How is it that Agni could not burn his straw and Vayu could not blow it away?”

The Mother said, “It was the Brahman. He wanted to teach you a lesson. You thought that you had gained the victory over the demons through your own power, but that is absurd. You can do nothing without Brahman. It was Brahman who caused your victory over the asuras. If Brahman takes away his power from you, then you are helpless. Here you saw a radiant example. You didn’t have the capacity to move even a straw. You could not destroy a tiny straw and you think that your power enabled you to conquer the demons.”

Indra implored pardon from the Mother, divine Uma, and said, “Now bless me, oh Mother.”

Uma blessed Indra and said, “I have blessed you. You were able to come close to me. Others came and stood in front of Brahman, but you came very close to me. Now I have blessed you. You three among the gods will be very well known.”

Now Indra, Agni and Vayu are the principal gods among the cosmic gods, and Indra is the Lord of the gods because he was blessed by God the Mother.

What do we learn from this story? There are favourites. A spiritual Master has many disciples. Some think their outer success depends entirely on their own efforts and their inner success depends upon their own aspiration. After entering the spiritual life, some disciples cherish the idea that their outer success depends on their outer life and outer activities — that because they go to the office and work very hard they are successful. For ordinary people I am not saying anything. They have their universal God. But those who have entered into the spiritual path consciously should not cherish this idea. I wish to tell them that the Supreme in their Master is enabling them to be successful in their outer life of manifestation. Formerly they worked; they got money or they didn’t get money, but they were always unhappy. Now they get a kind of joy, soulful and fulfilling. Now they have inner peace. They feel that there is some purpose in life.

You meditate every day and this meditation feeds you and sustains you. It comes from the Supreme inside the Master. The joy that you get daily in your outer life makes you feel that life is meaningful and fruitful. Before, you worked and got the same payment, but there was no purpose in it. Now the purpose gives you joy and the joy gives you the purpose of your stay on earth.

There are some who are fifth class and sixth class disciples and there are some who are first, second, third and fourth class disciples. How do they become first class, second class, third class and fourth class? In the first class, also, there is what I call an inmost circle. How do they become members of my inmost circle? Not because they have given me millions of dollars or because they will give me millions of dollars in the future. It is not that. It is through their inner dedication and outer dedicated service. When inner dedication and outer dedication go together, then only can one come closest to the Master. If one can be constantly at the service of the Master inwardly and outwardly, then that person becomes the closest. You don’t have to give the Master one penny in order to be a first class disciple. But, in your inner attitude, are you ready? The Master will not ask anybody to give anything which he does not have. Again, if someone has something that does not mean that the Master will ask him to give it. If somebody gives something only on being asked, then that person has to feel that he is not meant for the spiritual life. When love, devotion and surrender come spontaneously, that is a real dedication and a divine accomplishment.

But if the Master has to ask, “Do it, give it, take it,” then human obligations will come to separate the Master from being totally one with his disciple.

Indra came closest to the Divine Mother and wanted her blessings. When she blessed him, she said, “All your victories, whatever you give, whatever you take, whatever you achieve, if you feel that you have been successful, that you are the victors, then feel that it has come on the strength of your inseparable oneness with the Supreme.”

If you become one with the Master in his decisions, then you have accepted him as your very own. Otherwise you will accept the Master in your own way. But in the spiritual life the Master has to be accepted the way the Master wants to be accepted by his disciples. If the disciple is ready to accept the Master in that way, then he becomes a real, genuine disciple and the Master can have all confidence in him. The Master can say, “He or she is my real representative on earth.” The Master feels that he can entirely depend on that particular person, for that person becomes truly his own.