We have heard this popular saying that suggests us not to be braggers. It indicates that if a person keeps boasting then eventually that person will face downfall. And that is a certainty. But what constitutes "pride"? Neuroscientists have painstakingly studied the details of different cognitive aspects of human brain and theorize that pride is one of the social emotions. This means it is a resultant of representation of mental states of other people with whom we interact. It is about how we perceive other’s admiration for us.
Now why is pride such a bad thing that it causes one’s journey
down the hill? As one becomes obsessed with one’s own achievements and craves
for acclaim from others a false sense of confidence creeps into the mind which
plays its own tricks on the person’s behavior. The person becomes a slave of
his emotions and goes to the extremes to strengthen the position by committing
irrational actions. He fails to see faults in his deeds. In such a condition
one would only want to hear that he alone is great and be surrounded by
followers who would be interested in fueling his idée fixe. And this leads one
far away from the absolute truth. The moment a person deviates from the truth,
the downfall is inevitable.
A stanza from Sri Adi Shankaracharya’s Bhaja Govindam
says:
Do not boast of wealth, friends and youth. Each one of
these will be destroyed within a fraction of time. Free yourself from the
illusion of the world of Maya and attain the timeless Truth.
Once we get involved in the clasp of Maya, we fail to observe the reality. Our pride makes us
fallacious. We lose our mental faculties to reason and keep boasting our own
abilities, achievements, and belongings. We don’t realize that it is just a
matter of time when each of those that we would pride upon could just crumble.
They would not be with us anymore! So it is important for us to be aware of the
illusion, the Maya that surrounds us. Let us be humble always and remember that
pride comes before fall.
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