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“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”
– C.S.Lewis

Kabir – The couplet
??? ?????? ? ??????, ??? ???? ????? |
?? ??? ??? ?? ??????, ???? ??????? ??? ||

transliterated:
Kade abhimaan na kijiye, kaha Kabir samjhaye|
Ja seer aha jo sanchare, pade chaurasiya jaaye ||

Translation:
Do not practice pride, teaches Kabir as he explains |
He whose head floats in the clod of pride, is lonely even in the town square||

My thoughts:

Pride is one of the primary cardinal sins we are always warned to stay away from, and yet it is our first resort, our primary comfort zone and our provider of solace for many of our failings.

When I do not make it to the next level, pride tells me the game was designed in a faulty manner. When I fail, pride preaches that success was not an option made available, and my failure was really masked success. When I do not know the answer, pride prevents me from reaching out to seek help and find answers.

Pride distances the individual from the group, when, by design, we are a social being that achieves greatness by participating in the larger whole. We increase our individuality when we fully integrate into the larger society, and yet this truism is lost as we succumb to the lure of pride.

Pride is the hidden poison we need to stay away from.

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“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. “
– Ecclesiastes

Kabir – The couplet
?? ??? ? ???? ???, ??? ???? ? ??? |
??? ????? ?? ???, ?? ?? ?????? ??? ||

transliterated:
Dhan rahe na yauvan rahe, rahe gaanv na dham |
Kahe Kabira jas rahe, kar de kisika kaam ||

Translation:
Wealth does not endure, nor youth; village and holy space will also succumb to time |
Say Kabir, a good name will live eternal – go out and help someone in need||

My thoughts:

Solomon (in the book of Ecclesiastes) presents an interesting concept – that the day of death is to be celebrated rather than the day of birth. In expanding that thought, there is a different way of seeing the purpose of life.

When we come into this world, we have a clean slate – no baggage, unknown purpose and a clear lack of dependencies. By the time we are done with our life, we have all three, and perhaps a lot more.

In the process of living our life, we accumulate joy, pain, satisfaction, frustration, and a host of other conflicting emotional baggage. Death is the moment when we are relieved of this and we return to a state of peace and oneness with the universe.

This is also true for all that is a creation or construct of this material world. Commerce and wealth are part of only the material world – so also the house, the village, and our place of reaching out to a higher power (pilgrimage place, temple, church). The soul, God, the Maker, the higher power, are all omnipresent and omniscient. We, in human form, need to define material space – not the soul.

The true wealth of a good name, too, is eternal – who forgets the name of David, Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi or Helen Keller? When we serve without thought for a result other than making the served satisfied, we receive a great wealth in return. When we do with result(s) anticipated, we may get some of the result – but none of the name.

We get exactly what we give – no more and no less.