Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

On Pride

Mayapura, West Bengal

I met a fellow on the main street of a place called Saskatoon when we talked on the subject of pride. I was on my third walk across Canada. This fellow saw me take a break during that 40 km day and wanted to talk.

"What do you think about pride?" He asked.
"In general, it's harmful but it depends on which type of pride we're talking about."
"In my opinion, it's all evil, every form of pride." He asserted.

I really couldn't agree with him. There was no middle-ground thought for him. I walked on.

At the ISKCON Leadership Sanga right here in Mayapura I felt a great pride and would argue with anyone about it being an evil pride. Spiritual Krishna Conscious leaders from all over the world, the second-in-line of command (I would say) had converged in Mayapura to discuss and learn how to be more effective at leading. A young couple from Toronto, Radha Mohan and Shyama Mohini put forth their presentation to the body of leaders, numbering 300-400 describing their monthly sankirtan festivals which is really an outreach program. They handled themselves so well.

I felt a sense of pride, but not arrogance, because they were our kids, so to speak. They are from Toronto, Canada, my home.

Their delivery was pakka, which means very good. I guess you could call it a kind of feeling a healthy achievement.

I had mentioned somewhere prior in this blog that our guru was first discovered by an American English teacher looking for a guru. When he saw him in New York's east side he described his demeanour as looking like an aristocrat implying that he carried a sense of pride. The pride was not a self-consuming one. The holy man he met was representing a tradition and culture that was nothing to be shameful about.

So, there is such a wholesome thing as pride as in "I was proud of my son, my daughter, etc. etc."