PRIDE AND EGOTISMThe correlate of ignorance about Absolute Reality is pride and the inordinate preoccupation with one's own self. Pride and egoism blind one to recognizing transcendent Reality, or even to taking an accurate measure of oneself. Because of pride, a person thinks he is independent and cannot recognize that his very existence is dependent upon Ultimate Reality. He is blind to his relationships to other people, and neither can he conceive that there is a Deity who cares for him. In Christianity, pride is often regarded as the first step to the fall and rebellion against God. In Buddhism, grasping after the self and the sense of ego is the chief of all cravings and the deepest root of ignorance. In the Indic religions pride, like ignorance, is a fetter that binds humans to the wheel of rebirth. The passages collected below discuss pride as the cause of rebellion against God, as a hindrance to knowledge of Ultimate Reality, and as leading to improper estimation of oneself.
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
1. Judaism and Christianity. Proverbs 16.18
The mightily proud ultimately rot in their own arrogance.
2. Sikhism. Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5, p. 278
Nay, but verily man is rebellious
For he thinks himself independent.
Lo! unto thy Lord is the return.
3. Islam. Qur'an 96.6-8
Proverbs 16.18: Cf. Matthew 23.12, p. 545; Erubin 13b, p. 545. Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5: For more of this passage, see pp. 546 and 950. Cf. Bhagavad Gita 16.7-16, p. 397; 18.58, p. 685.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
4. Judaism and Christianity. Isaiah 5.21
Selfishness may be sweet only for oneself, but no harmony of the whole can come from it.
5. Tenrikyo. Osashizu
We say that "Good" and "Harmony," and "Evil" and "Disharmony," are synonymous. Further we maintain that all pain and suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the one terrible and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is selfishness in some form or another.
6. Theosophy. Helena Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy
He who makes his thought better and worse, O Wise One,
Better and worse his conscience, by deed and by word,
He follows his leanings, his wishes, his likings.
In thy mind's force, at the end of times, he shall be set apart.
7. Zoroastrianism. Avesta, Yasna 48.4
Turn not your cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness in the land. Lo! God loves not each braggart boaster. Be modest in your bearing and subdue your voice. Lo! the harshest of all voices is the voice of the ass.
8. Islam. Qur'an 31.18-19
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked;
you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek;
then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
9. Judaism and Christianity. Deuteronomy 32.15
I know that Western culture is characterized by individualism. However, selfish individualism is doomed. Sacrificial individualism will blossom. Individuality in itself is good. God gave each of us a unique way to serve. But individualism without God can only build castles on the sands of decay.
10. Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 10-20-73
Isaiah 5.21: See Proverbs 3.5-6, p. 752; Luke 18.10-14, p. 902; cf. Bhagavad Gita 16.7-16, p. 397. Key to Theosophy: Cf. Sun Myung Moon,10-20-73, p. 467. Qur'an 31.18-19: Cf. Samanasuttam 135-36, p. 912; Doctrine of the Mean 33, p. 912. Deuteronomy 32.15: Cf. 1 Timothy 6.10, p. 420; James 4.13-16, p. 913. Sun Myung Moon, 10-20-73: Cf. Philippians 2.3-4, p. 915.
Nzame [God] is on high, man is on the earth.
Yeye O, Yalele, God is God, man is man.
Everyone in his house, everyone for himself.
11. African Traditional Religions. Fang Tradition (Gabon)
Like a traveler on earth, overstuffed with pride,
Committing innumerable sins, in maya-hues dyed, beings
Sunk in avarice, attachment, and pride are ruined.
Forgetful of death, involved with progeny, companions, worldly transactions, wife,
Is their life passed.
12. Sikhism. Adi Granth, Jaitsari Chhant, M.5, p. 705
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock