My pride is smashed by tea²⁹

I can tell many stories about how my pride has been smashed. As you know, in my Chittagong life my parents would not allow us to drink tea or coffee. It was forbidden, forbidden. They only kept it for guests.

Then in my Ashram life I took pride in not drinking tea. Only twice in twenty years I drank it. The first time I drank tea, I did not like it. Then, a few years later, the second time I drank tea, I was very upset because there was not enough sugar.

I asked the man who gave it to me for a little more sugar. He said, “There is no more sugar.” Then very powerful pride entered into me. I said, “All right! Without sugar I will take it.”

I did not like it because there was hardly any sugar inside, but because of my pride, I drank it. Then I suffered. I had to vomit considerably because when you do not like something, the body can react most powerfully.

Now who will believe that I had to vomit because I did not like the tea? But something was wrong inside my system, so I suffered. Then my pride was hurt because I thought that I could eat anything and drink anything.

From:Sri Chinmoy,My book of tea and coffee experiences, Agni Press, 2009
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/tce