Question: What causes pride, and how do we get rid of it?

Sri Chinmoy: If we are sincere, then we will see that Mother Earth has blessed others with infinitely more capacity than we have. Then automatically our pride is transformed into humility. Pride enters at a particular point because of our ignorance. But when we have a sense of identification, at that time there can be no pride. When we are wanting in light, one portion of us is in ignorance while the other portion is in wisdom. So let us surrender our ignorance to our wisdom. Then there can be no pride. Pride goes away when light enters into us and we become one with others.

When I throw the shot with my right hand, I throw much farther than with my left hand. With my left hand I can’t throw at all. But my right hand does not say to my left hand, “Look, you can’t throw. You are simply useless.” No, both my left hand and my right hand belong to me. Again, when the right hand is throwing, the left hand has such identification with the right hand that it feels that it is throwing. So when there is a feeling of oneness, there can be no pride. When we achieve something and we are proud, we have to feel that the person next to us, who has not achieved this thing, is part and parcel of our own existence. If we feel our oneness with that person, then immediately we will feel that our achievement is his achievement and that his achievement is of the same level, the same measure.