Can One Completely Live Without A Sense Of Pride Or Ego?

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Yes, one can!

Gnani, the Enlightened Ones, are a living example of this…

By observing Gnani in action, by listening to his noteworthy teachings, by recognizing his virtuous qualities, by setting a pure goal like him, and by sincerely persevering to follow that goal, we too can be like him!

Spiritually, one is called ‘Gnani’ since he’s an enlightened being, having a constant experience of the real Self i.e. the Soul. However, the circumstances that Gnani faces in his day to day life are, many a times, quite similar to yours and mine. But what distinguishes Gnani from a common man is the way he deals with them, without the ego, pride or self-righteousness having any role to play whatsoever.

So come, today, let’s take a glimpse into some of the live instances that actually happened in Gnani’s life, and from them, study how Gnani lives without a sense of pride, ego or self-righteousness.

Gnani never allows his ego to interefere in any of his dealings.

Once, Gnani was invited to a religious convention, in Toronto, Canada. Our Gnani was the youngest speaker there! Great monks and nuns were present at the convention.

Soon, it was the turn of one very important person to come up on stage and do the speech. But what is this? The speaker was aghast when he saw that on the stage, there was kept a fairly ordinary plastic chair for him to sit. A mere sight of this made him furious, “Such a great speaker like me, to whom such esteemed crowd from all over the world has come to see, would sit on such a chair? Never!” Thus, he refused to get onto the stage and make the talk.

This baffled the organizers completely as they didn’t know what to do next. Just then, one of them requested our little Gnani to come up on the stage and make his speech. Gnani, with great ease and an enchanting smile ever present on his face, stood up, climbed up the stage, sat on the ordinary chair and gave a nice enlightening spiritual talk to the attendees.

One who is a Gnani carries no air; and no matter what, he never allows ego to rule over him. Even if he would be asked to sit on the floor and do the talk, he would just not mind, because in his mind and heart, there is only one thing that is constantly playing all the time, and that is, how can every person, with right understanding, come out of his miseries which are in most cases self-created!

Gnani always lives, and also teaches us how to live, without a sense of pride

Gnani suggests one should always see the good in others. This is the easiest way to get over pride and become humble. He says, “When we see good in others, we become humble, and our words have a positive effect on the other person.”

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Let me share with you one more example from his life. This is about the time when Gnani was a young lad, and by profession, he was an engineering consultant. One day, in a certain factory, an expensive machinery broke down. The factory owners called for him and expressed the emergency as the production was down.

Gnani quickly reached the site, and while he monitored the machinery scrupulously, he politely checked with the workers there too, that how exactly did the sequence of events occur, prior to the breakdown of machinery. Gnani carefully listened to each one of them without an iota of pride of ‘being an extraordinarily skilled and well-educated engineer’, even when a lot of it was something that he already had a fair idea about.

Gnani not only gave a patient hearing to what the workers said, but from the bottom of his heart, he saw each worker as his Guru, when it came to repairs of the machine they were used to operate day in and day out. As a result, the workers, although illiterate, could share a lot of useful information with Gnani, which helped him not only bring about a quick solution to the problem, but also aided him to provide good suggestions to the factory owner to help prevent such problem to reoccur in future.

Gnani has no insistence, not even when he is absolutely right!

Whenever someone scolded Gnani for no fault of his, he would never waste his time and energy in retaliating or defending any of his acts. His sole focus would always be on how to resolve this situation with Gnan (right knowledge), rather than self-righteousness.

When asked how he manages to do that, Gnani humbly reveals the secret, saying,

“I have been taught that one has infinite mistakes in him. So, I tell myself, ‘In a total of infinite mistakes, if plus two (those mistakes that you did not make) happens, should you have any problem? You are already in loss, some more loss – how does it matter? Moreover, is it possible that you may not have been able to see few of your mistakes?’ He, in turn, receives a humble reply from within, ‘Yes, it is possible; there is a lot I cannot see.’ This is how Gnani concludes, ‘Then in that, two more, Where’s any problem in that?’” and thus does not allow any insistence of, ‘I am right!’ to overrule.

One does not become Gnani overnight!

One is given to take numerous beatings of sharp, sweeping strokes, that a sculptor (Guru) uses to remove the excess stone as small chips or dust. Only then is the sculptor able to create a spiritual masterpiece, which he then places before the world declaring him as ‘Gnani’, so that he can now inspire people and help each one of us come out of their sense of pride, ego or self-righteousness.

I too want to become like him!

When anyone observes such Gnani, automatically a strong and effortless resolve happens within him / her that, “I too want to become like him!” And just seeing the serene, divine smile on his face, one instantly forgets all the troubles and miseries in his life, and becomes ready to let go his sense of pride, ego or self-righteousness in the lotus feet of such Gnani. After such surrender, it does not take much time for one to then start living a life that Gnani draws him unto; one without an iota of ego, pride or self-righteousness.