Pride is a Cancerous Disease

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi had great reverence towards monks.

Once a monk asked the Mother, “Are not all equal who have taken refuge in the Master [Sri Ramakrishna], irrespective of their being monks or householders, inasmuch as they will all be freed [from rebirth]?”

The Mother replied, “Good gracious! Can the monk and householder be equal? The householders are a prey of passions and desires, while the monks have come away leaving everything behind. How can they be compared?”

Although she revered the monks, she cautioned them against pride. Once Swami Arupananda said to her, “Mother, sanyasa brings with it a great conceit,” she replied, “Yes, a great conceit – ‘I have not been saluted, I am not honoured, I have not been treated with the respect due to me!’ Compared with all that, I am much better as I am (pointing to her white saree, and implying her internal renunciation).”

While discussing the above comments of the Holy Mother in a discourse,¹ Swami Purushottamananda² quoted a Kannada 4-liner by DVG,³ a rough translation of it may be given as follows:

Miserable is the craving for food

More so is the man-woman attraction

Craving for recognition is worse than the previous two

As it eats away the very soul, my ignorant friend

Swami Purushottamananda further narrated an episode from his life to drive home the importance of humility. One day, he was walking in the Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore with a senior monk from Belur Math, Calcutta. A devotee saw them and came towards them to pay his respects. As Swami Purushottamananda was more familiar to the devotee than the other monk, he tried to prostrate to Swami Purushottamananda first. Stopping him and pointing to the senior monk, Swami Purushottamananda told the devotee, “Pay your respects to him, first. He is much elder.” Hearing this, the senior monk replied it seems, “Where is the question of elder and younger among monks? A Tulsi plant whether big or small is equally sacred.”

What a great level of humility! How many people can think like that? What a beautiful example he chose! And how true is that example! Tulsi plant whether big or small is indeed sacred. So are the world-renouncing monks.

Let us remember Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s words regarding pride and a craving for recognition. Let us keep a close watch on our own behaviour and do not let this cancerous disease called ‘pride’ eat away our soul.   

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¹ I heard this recently from a CD, whereas the original talk was given probably around 1985.

² Swami Purushottamananda was a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order. He was with the Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore for more than 30 years and later was the President of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum. See Wikipedia to know more about him. I would like to write more about him, if God permits, as soon as possible.
³  DVG stands for Padma Bhushan DV Gundappa, a great writer of Karnataka, India. See Wikipedia to know more about him.