Question: How to be completely free of pride?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Become a pure devotee.
Do you have another solution?
Pride means “I have received something from Kṛṣṇa, but I do not acknowledge that ‘something’ came from Kṛṣṇa.”
Just remember: whatever you have that you are now proud of was given to you by Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa can take it right back.
Over there is a devotee singer. Kṛṣṇa has given her a gift. She can be really proud, “Everyone likes my singing. I am a celebrity!”
With no effort at all, Kṛṣṇa can take her voice away.
Sometimes it happens.
Someday it is going to happen. Not just temporarily. It is going to happen permanently.
You asked a question.
Look inside: “What are some gifts which Kṛṣṇa has given me?” And “Where is some pride that I am carrying inside, dictating to me ‘I have this, or that, or other — ability, or talent, or wealth, or beauty, or strength, fame.’”
Wherever it is that I may have is so tiny! Yet there is pride in the heart.
Srīla Prabhupāda’s statement is “Even a pauper is proud of his penny.”
This contamination has to be removed from the heart. The method is devotion, bhakti.
Let us become pure in our devotion; then pride will be gone.
