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not to be proud or vain. This virtue of compassion or humility, which annihilates vanity root and branch, is really commendable.
What to speak of a man in the street, when bad luck dominates, even Kings are born as germs in the excrete, as a result of this pride and vanity. This egotism or vanity, which causes great hurt to the soul, is a deadly enemy of man. The saintly persons should always destroy vanity through this virtue of compassion or humility (Mardava); or if they have to be proud, they should take pride in their vows and holy pledges so that the enemies of religion may be annihilated. Even the mountain of vanity crumbles by compassion. Aark Kirti, the son of Emperor Bharat Chakarvarti, had to suffer so much disgrace, and the God Maya Mani Ketu burnt to ashes the sixty thousand sons of Emperor Sagar Chakarvarti in the twinkling of an eye due to this vanity. Therefore, just as king Bharat tried to uproot vanity of the royal prince, his brother Bahubali, likewise the saintly persons always try to flee the ghost of vanity from the heart of would-be enlightened souls.
The holy teachers have great affection for the persons gifted with the virtue of compassion or tenderness (Mardav). These saintly persons take them also for saints. Such persons attain Right Knowledge (Samayak Gyan) by the blessings of their spiritual teachers and thereby they enjoy pleasures of paradise.
To be vain or proud is extremely harmful for a person. When Ravan disgraced Vibhishan out of vanity, Vibhishan joined the camp of Ram accompanied with his four battalions of cavalry (char akshohany sena) and thus got his own brother Ravan killed. Hence, we should not nourish malice or ill will for any one to satisfy our feeling of vanity or egotism. Despite being an extremely mighty king, Ravan is condemned and defamed to this day only due to his egotism. In truth, true greatness is free from pride. Little carries pride to its extreme limits. It has been said:
barhe barhaii na karen, barhe na bolain bole hira mukh se na kahe, barha hamara mole
Two trees stood side by side in a forest. One was Banyan tree and the other Cane tree. Due to being big size, wide spread and strong the Banyan tree developed vanity and egotism at heart. So it became proud. It said to the Cane tree, "What use is your life? You can provide neither shadow nor fruits nor flowers to anybody. Look at me. I provide shadow to so many creatures and even if somebody cuts me down beautiful coaches can be manufactured with my wood for sitting.” In a short while the weather took such an ugly turn that the storm and rain both started together all of a sudden. In an instant the Cane tree bent down and lay straight on the ground. But the storm saw that the Banyan tree stood erect and adamant. The storm uprooted this egotist tree and cast it away turning turtle. As a result the vanity of the tree was shattered to pieces. Therefore, we should never be vain or proud about our safety. Just as sometimes our own weapon becomes the cause of self-destruction, likewise our vanity or egotism becomes the cause of our own ruin. Nobody likes to look with reverence at a person who is self-conceited and prides in his beauty, knowledge, strength and affluence. All persons love gold because it is more soft and full of luster than iron; they wear different types of ornaments molded from it and safeguard it. But no body likes to wear ornaments of iron for they being hard and without luster. Iron lies outside in the open bearing both the winter and cold and
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