If our scriptural knowledge makes us proud what can we do?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
If we feel that our knowledge is making us proud, what can we do at that time? Answer, the cure for pride is usually a shifting of focus. We are all individual living beings and we all need a sense of self-identity and self-worth. If we have been blessed with the capacity to analyze, learn, explain, basically to acquire knowledge, then naturally we latch on to knowledge as a means to deepening our, or to gaining some inner security, to gaining some self-worth and self-identity from that knowledge.
Now when we study scripture, the purpose of scriptural study is meant to shift the basis of our security to our spirituality. By studying scripture, when we understand that we at our core are souls who are eternal parts of the whole, Krishna, then we move forwards towards steadily working to realize that identity. Of course, journey towards realization is a long journey and in the intermediate process we will need security somewhere, we will need some self-worth somewhere.
Naturally, again we will latch on to the area where we are talented. So if somebody is good at singing, they will get their sense of self-identity and self-worth from there being a good singer. And when does this valid need for self-worth change into a unhealthy pride? It is primarily determined by how we view others and how we interact with them.
So, if while interacting with others, we gain some security by proving, by establishing our superiority over them, then we will very forcefully want to do that through our whatever ability we have, be it singing or speaking. Now in spiritual life, knowledge is respected because that knowledge can help us to share Krishna Bhakti with others and those who are sharing Krishna Bhakti are naturally given a respectable position in the devotee community. And of course, Krishna also considers them special.
He says that no one is more dear to me than such people. So, it’s natural that we will get some respect in the devotee community when we are sharing knowledge and that respect can make us proud. But that usually happens only when we are focusing too much on ourselves and not on the other person.
If you understand that spiritual knowledge is transformational, that it is a healing knowledge that helps people to become freed from the deceased cravings of the mind and to become permeated and animated by the positive energy of a loving devotional service attitude towards Krishna, then we start seeing ourselves as doctors who are assisting in healing people. Of course, we are not the sole doctors. We are a part of a big medical team in which Krishna is the supreme doctor.
So, when a doctor is busy treating people whom they see are actually sick and suffering, and that time the doctor, just by interacting at a human level with people, starts becoming more and more empathically concerned about helping and healing people. And it’s implicit over there that a doctor has much more knowledge than the patients. But when that knowledge is connected with its purpose of helping and healing, then that knowledge doesn’t lead to pride because a compassionate doctor is is too busy trying to help people and to relish the joy that comes from healing people than to delight in the pride.
So, especially if we see that it is not we alone who are helping people transform themselves, but we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. And sometimes the same piece of knowledge, same insight, the same philosophical point, we may speak it and that acts like a bolt of lightning that illuminates and transforms people. But we may notice that I myself am still not being transformed.
I’m speaking this point, but this point doesn’t register on me like that. Then we realize that actually it is not just the knowledge that is transforming. It is not even just my expertise in presenting that knowledge that is transforming.
It is Krishna who is imbuing this knowledge with transformational potency. And it is he who is the real transform. And he is present within the hearts of my audience.
And they are being illuminated by this knowledge, by his grace. And if I want to be similarly illuminated, not just in terms of speaking the knowledge, but relishing that knowledge and realizing it, then I too need the mercy of Krishna and for that I need to connect with Krishna. So, when we see that knowledge will give us far richer returns in terms of everlasting spiritual satisfaction as compared to some fleeting egoistic satisfaction.
If we can just prove to the world how clever we are, then we’d start desiring, start striving to connect with Krishna through that knowledge. And thus, when our focus shifts from helping others and connecting with Krishna using the knowledge that we have, then slowly but surely the pride that may come because of that knowledge, that spiritual knowledge will decrease. We should not stop getting spiritual knowledge or sharing spiritual knowledge just because we are proud.
Rather, we can strive to contemplate on the purpose of that knowledge and the process by which that knowledge fulfills that purpose. When our focus, when we contemplate this seriously during the times when we are in the mode of goodness and then strive to remind ourselves of it when we feel tempted by pride, then we will be able to resist that temptation and focus on connecting with Krishna internally and delighting in seeing the other’s connection with Krishna. And thus, we can avoid the pitfall of pride that is inevitably associated otherwise with spiritual knowledge or any form of knowledge.
Thank you.