The Pride in Goodness is the Root of Evil - Please Explain

[Guest guest]

QUESTION: What does Swamiji mean when he says - " Pride of Goodness

is the Root of Evil " ? Please Explain Anil bhanot

 

Once again, Venerable Sir, I must say that when you say " the pride of

goodness is the root of evil " then in my humble opinion you are

telling a Half Truth only and not giving the Full Truth from the

Bhagwad Gita. These half truths are dangerous and I beg you to consider their

impact on the already broken Hindu. Krishna taught pride in Goodness, to do

good, to have achieved good, indeed he himself said that he is the

personification of all that is good and glorious and only those who believe in

him will be liberated from Karmic cycle of rebirth. Without pride in good one

cannot worship it. What you are may be meaning is perhaps ARROGANCE.

 

Please clarify the right Gita knowledge - We need pride in goodness but we

should not have arrogance in it at any cost. I appreciate that pride is

traditionally known as a sin but it is not actually pride as we understand it

now - it is AHANKAAR which is ARROGANCE, a negative excessive form of pride.

Parnaam. anil bhanot

 

--------------------------------

:Shree Hari:

 

28th July, 2008, Monday

Shraavan Krishna Dashami, Vikram Samvat 2065, Somvar

 

Pride

 

1. The pride of goodness, is the root of evil.

 

2. By renouncing selfishness and pride, one attains saintliness.

 

3. Pride in our intellect, prevents the words of scriptures

(Sastras) and saints, to remain adn last in the inner faculty.

 

4. Whatever is special about a particular class, race, stage in life

etc., is for the service of others, not for pride and vanity.

 

5. As much pride as you take in your goodness, that much evil will

be created. Therefore be good, but do not be proud and egoistic

about your goodness.

 

6. Knowledge frees (liberates), but pride of that knowledge leads

to hell.

 

7. In acquiring worldly objects, one can become proud, but in

attaining God, pride can never arise; rather pride is entirely and

in every way wiped out.

 

8. Without giving up selfishness and pride, man cannot become most

excellent and great.

 

9. Where there is pride of race, nationality, family lineage, class

etc., there the presence of devotion is very difficult; because

devotion takes place in the Self (swayam), not through the body.

But class, race, nationality, lineage etc. is of the body, and not

of the Self.

 

10. So long as there is selfish and pride, till that time, there

cannot be love for anyone.

 

11. A proud person serves less, but he feels he has served much

more. But a humble person does not realize much, but is able to

serve a lot more.

 

12. An intelligent person's vanity, arises from his foolishness.

 

13. That which is one's own, does not make one vain, and that which

is not one's own, there is no pride and vanity in that as well.

Vanity comes from that which is not one's own, but it is assumed to

be one's own.

 

14. Whatever is known, assuming it to be complete knowledge and by

being proud, man becomes an atheist. By not being content with what

is known and to become uneasy with the non-existence of knowledge,

man becomes an " enquirer " , a seeker.

 

15. That organization, community, creed, ideology, scripture,

person etc., that stresses upon renunciation of selfishness and

pride, they are extra-ordinary. Whereas, where there is

predominance of pride and selfishness, they are drawn down and

wretched.

 

From " Drops of Nectar " in English pg 7 by Swami Ramsukhdasji

 

Ram Ram

 

For full online discourses in Hindi, please visit Swami

Ramsukhdasji's website. http://www.swamiramsukhdasji.org

To gain clarification, please send questions to:

 

To read online books, visit:

http://www.swamiramsukhdasji.org/swamijibooks/

To read all previous messages, please visit:

sadhaka/

P.S. Please share this message to whomever you think can benefit

from the same

--------------------------------

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9. Please use appropriate judgement and only address the response to

a particular individual, where it makes sense to do so.

 

10. Due to the large readership, only those responses will be posted

which are in line with the general philosophy of taking Shrimad

Bhagavad Gita as the reference.

 

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for expediency, moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting for minor

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with guidelines).

 

12. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth,

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bracketed wherever possible.

 

13. Any personal remarks over the knowledge of any sadhak or about

the stage at which any sadhak is standing in his quest / sadhna /

spiritual journey - must not be included in your posting. Also,

there should not be any sarcasm towards fellow sadhaks in this

spiritual learning and sharing.

 

 

MODERATOR

Ram Ram

[Guest guest]

QUESTION: What does Swamiji mean when he says - " Pride of Goodness

is the Root of Evil " ? Please Explain Anil bhanot

(Details of email below)

 

NEW POSTING

 

Hari Om

 

No Anilji. Swamiji did not mean " arrogance " . He meant

only " goodness " . There is no half truth. It is a complete truth. Our

level of belief in truth may be more or less. Truth can never be half.

 

" Goodness " is the good inner expressions (bhavas) of your

antahkarana. All sadgunas and sadachars are called divine properties.

They belong to Paramatma only. When you presume these good properties

as your " personal " - then pride comes in you, which as per Gita is the

root cause of all of your miseries (16:4) and is a demonaic property.

 

The goodness in us is not our " personal asset " . Had it

Been " personal " - it would not have been in others also. Tell me a

single goodness in us which is not present in some other also ! In

fact these are general traits which any human can adopt in him.Just

as in the asset of father, son has natural right and access-

similarly every human has natural right and access to divine

properties.

 

The pride of goodness which generates in us, in fact, clearly

indicates some deficiency in us of goodness ! It is only when there

is some " durgun " also that pride of " sadguna " arises. It is a law.

For example- we can feel pride of " truthfulness " only if there is

some " falsehood " existing in us ! The pride arises when we compare

internally the volumes of both inside us. Pride of say, our being a "

millionaire " will arise only if there are poors around us. If all

are " billionaires " , will we feel proudy of being a millionaire? Hence

pride comes only when an internal or external comparison takes place-

which necessarily implies deficiency..

 

There is an independent existence of goodness (sat) but there is no

independent existence of badness(asat). Because " asat " (badness)

needs " sat " (goodness) to survive, but goodness does not require

badness to exist. A liar ( false speaking person) can speak truth

sometimes , but a person who speaks truth only will never speak false

or untruth.

 

Pride of goodness has no corelation with Hinduism of any nature

whatsoever. Hindu can never be broken. Trillions and Zillions of

aeons have come and gone, Sanatan Dharma is still existing and shall

remain so till the end of this kalpa- unscathed ! So shall remain

Hindus.

 

Pranaam

 

Vyas N B

 

Pride means ownership. What swamiji asserts is that ownership in any

compartment of your life – be it in actions, or in thoughts or in

desires or in knowledge or in service or in anything as such – is

the ONLY hurdle in self realization.

 

Throwing away things that are already labelled " bad " is relatively

easy for every one since they are already aliented into a rection

box. It is just a matter of time that one would win over one's

weaknesses to relinquish from these things.

 

Throwing away what we think good is almost formidable. The ownership

on " good " things is the most binding of all since our intellect

fails to find fault with the same. As Eeshopanishad puts it, one who

hangs on to foolishness may have a chance to realize; but not the

one who thinks he knows! So is this, one who hangs on to bad things

may one day drop them; not the one who hangs on to good things. Good

is very addicitve in its nature and misleads a spiritual seeker

easily.

 

For example, Daana (charity is not a good translation since it has a

popular appreciation of helping others). Sanatana Dharma prescribes

that if you perform Daana, you should profusely respect the receiver

and that the receiver should go through severe penance to nullify

the effect of receiving Daana. It is very easy to feel " good " that I

helped somebody – perfectly fine from social point of view; but

extremely dangerous from spiritual point of view. We do Daana to

understand the falsity in our holdings as well as our dependence on

the object transacted in the action. The receiver is helping us to

releive ourselves from the associated ownership. Therefore, we

should respect the receiver since he is helping us. On the other

hand, due to social mispositioning, the receiver may be helpless to

take help from the object of transaction. But, he is inviting

attachment to something new and has potential to multiply his

ownership – therefore, he should be involved in penance to avert

himself from the potential corruption. Therefore, from spiritual

point of view, there is nothing good in being a Daani for others.

 

Rather, the very attempt of labeling aspects as good and bad is the

very subtle egoistic tendency that grows into trees and forests of

anger, arrogance, frustration etc. Do we really have any right to

say something is bad and good in the first place? Till we insist for

the distinction between good and bad, we are not ready to be one

with The One … we are still dancing around with our dualistic

threads puppeting us.

 

Respects.

 

Naga Narayana

-

Dear Sadaks,

Pride in Goodness comes to one only when he thinks he is doing good.

The pride paves to Ego which is PURE EVIL.. If one does good but

never have thought of that action as if did, the action (Karmic) pala

is surrendered to GOD.

B.Sathyanarayan

 

-

 

PREVIOUS POSTING

Question Detail:

Once again, Venerable Sir, I must say that when you say " the pride of

goodness is the root of evil " then in my humble opinion you are

telling a Half Truth only and not giving the Full Truth from the

Bhagwad Gita. These half truths are dangerous and I beg you to

consider their impact on the already broken Hindu. Krishna taught

pride in Goodness, to do good, to have achieved good, indeed he

himself said that he is the personification of all that is good and

glorious and only those who believe in him will be liberated from

Karmic cycle of rebirth. Without pride in good one cannot worship it.

What you are may be meaning is perhaps ARROGANCE.

 

Please clarify the right Gita knowledge - We need pride in goodness

but we should not have arrogance in it at any cost. I appreciate that

pride is traditionally known as a sin but it is not actually pride as

we understand it now - it is AHANKAAR which is ARROGANCE, a negative

excessive form of pride. Parnaam. anil bhanot

 

--------------------------------

:Shree Hari:

 

28th July, 2008, Monday

Shraavan Krishna Dashami, Vikram Samvat 2065, Somvar

 

Pride

 

1. The pride of goodness, is the root of evil.

 

2. By renouncing selfishness and pride, one attains saintliness.

 

3. Pride in our intellect, prevents the words of scriptures

(Sastras) and saints, to remain adn last in the inner faculty.

 

4. Whatever is special about a particular class, race, stage in life

etc., is for the service of others, not for pride and vanity.

 

5. As much pride as you take in your goodness, that much evil will

be created. Therefore be good, but do not be proud and egoistic

about your goodness.

 

6. Knowledge frees (liberates), but pride of that knowledge leads

to hell.

 

7. In acquiring worldly objects, one can become proud, but in

attaining God, pride can never arise; rather pride is entirely and

in every way wiped out.

 

8. Without giving up selfishness and pride, man cannot become most

excellent and great.

 

9. Where there is pride of race, nationality, family lineage, class

etc., there the presence of devotion is very difficult; because

devotion takes place in the Self (swayam), not through the body.

But class, race, nationality, lineage etc. is of the body, and not

of the Self.

 

10. So long as there is selfish and pride, till that time, there

cannot be love for anyone.

 

11. A proud person serves less, but he feels he has served much

more. But a humble person does not realize much, but is able to

serve a lot more.

 

12. An intelligent person's vanity, arises from his foolishness.

 

13. That which is one's own, does not make one vain, and that which

is not one's own, there is no pride and vanity in that as well.

Vanity comes from that which is not one's own, but it is assumed to

be one's own.

 

14. Whatever is known, assuming it to be complete knowledge and by

being proud, man becomes an atheist. By not being content with what

is known and to become uneasy with the non-existence of knowledge,

man becomes an " enquirer " , a seeker.

 

15. That organization, community, creed, ideology, scripture,

person etc., that stresses upon renunciation of selfishness and

pride, they are extra-ordinary. Whereas, where there is

predominance of pride and selfishness, they are drawn down and

wretched.

 

From " Drops of Nectar " in English pg 7 by Swami Ramsukhdasji

 

Ram Ram

 

For full online discourses in Hindi, please visit Swami

Ramsukhdasji's website. http://www.swamiramsukhdasji.org

To gain clarification, please send questions to:

 

To read online books, visit:

http://www.swamiramsukhdasji.org/swamijibooks/

To read all previous messages, please visit:

sadhaka/

P.S. Please share this message to whomever you think can benefit

from the same

--------------------------------

GUIDELINES FOR POSTING A RESPONSE:

 

1. The group is focused on the Holy Gitaji, therefore, only

responses which further clarify the understanding of Gitaji, will be

posted.

 

2. Making reference of Gitaji shloka is highly encouraged - at least

once in the response. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or

other scriptures to substantiate your response.

 

3. Please be as concise and to the point as possible, respecting

sadhaka's time. Under no circustance the answer should be limited to

half a book page, at the most 3-4 paragraphs.

 

4. Kindly limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc. to the

extent that they further help in understanding the Gita shlokas

 

5. Kindly focus your writing to the subject at hand only.

 

6. Please do not include links to the other sites or other

organizations (we do not have the bandwidth to review links to

determine if content is appropriate for distribution).

 

7. Complete reproduction of texts from any book is strongly

discouraged, however partial cut - paste is acceptable and

references may be made of the book or author(but not links to other

sites).

 

8. Kindly do not include your personal information such as phone

number, address etc.

 

9. Please use appropriate judgement and only address the response to

a particular individual, where it makes sense to do so.

 

10. Due to the large readership, only those responses will be posted

which are in line with the general philosophy of taking Shrimad

Bhagavad Gita as the reference.

 

11. Moderator will reject any content that does not meet guidelines.

However,

for expediency, moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting

for minor

changes to content (mispelling, wordiness that is irrelevant to the

overall core

discussion, personal information, opinions / feelings etc. that do

not align

with guidelines).

 

12. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth,

westerners, non-sectarian audience. Kindly limit the use of only

Sanskrit words, rather provide the English word with Sanskrit

bracketed wherever possible.

 

13. Any personal remarks over the knowledge of any sadhak or about

the stage at which any sadhak is standing in his quest / sadhna /

spiritual journey - must not be included in your posting. Also,

there should not be any sarcasm towards fellow sadhaks in this

spiritual learning and sharing.

 

 

MODERATOR

Ram Ram