Why do people become proud? Or what are the sources of pride? Let us enumerate the sources from where man / woman get their pride:

Youth pride: ‘I am young’ is what Shankaracharya called ‘yovana garvam’. It is there is man right through childhood to old age!

Money: “I am rich’ is also a very strong pride / ego booster. Normally associated with people who have earned their own money. However there are some inheritors who could also have this pride without contributing to the corpus. Have you seen the Pramod Mahajan family? LOL.

Strength: ‘I am strong’. Strength is a very big source of pride. Compliment a man on his muscles or a woman on her well toned body and they will go ga ga over their regular habits, gym, swimming, running…..blah blah…

Drinking: Surprisingly being able to hold say ‘8’ pegs or ’12’ pegs is a great source of pride! Actually to me this looks almost stupid. If booze does not make you tipsy, you might as well have water.

Illness: We are in such a competitive environment that even illness are found to be a source! Have you noticed people saying “i have diabetes” or ‘I have blood pressure. This is the ownership mentality? On the other hand ‘I have great health’ is also a source of pride.

Capacity to do a lot of work: I have been working all day and night for the last few days is a common ‘sigh’. It may not mean that they really work hard, but they create an atmosphere of creating an impression of working hard. Many a times they take on work far more than what they can handle – but they like martyrdom, so they continue to do so…

Educational Pride: Being educated well and knowing more than the common man in any field leads to what is called ‘Jhana’ gauravam. However this is very risky – how educated you are is a clear function of what kind of crowd you are sitting with!

………many more to go……..