The Snob and the Spirit

By Karmayogi

‘‘I have worked hard and sincerely all my life but am still at the bottom.'' ‘‘I am always successful, but the results go to another.'' ‘‘Everyone cheats me, who am totally honest.'' These are statements we often hear. There are many more such descriptions. Most of them are negative, as life in general is negative. Occasionally we hear a positive statement: ‘‘I have not done anything special wherever I have worked, but unseen help from all quarters used to come. Now, as a result, I am presiding over this organisation.'' There are several such positive statements, but there are not many examples in our experience. The truth is that the outer reflects the inner. People consult their horoscope and console themselves. Those who look down upon their inferiors and those who are servile to their superiors are called snobs. The latter are called yes men, tale bearers, sycophants.

There was one such man attached to a well-to-do family. This man is honest, sincere, hard working, but a personification of a snob. He will be in his elements when he is by the side of his rich friend. He resigned his government job, ran a small establishment for his superior, and earned a huge amount in one year. The rich friend was quick, anxious to remove this snob on some pretext, lest he should claim part of the profits later. He successfully pushed out the snob. The man was on the street. Life rewards not for your work, but for what you are inside. The snob went to another man who generously helped him unconditionally. The snob cheated his benefactor not of his capital, but his profits. He moved to a third man with the enormous profits earned in the second venture. Very soon both were utterly ruined to their own amazement.

It never occurred to the snob that the latent dishonesty in him was the cause of the betrayal by his first partner. His second partner used to tell him often, ‘‘After all, one day you will return to your old friend who betrayed you.'' The snob used to be annoyed. All that took place in less than five or six years. Now that life has taught the snob its lesson, though he has not learnt it, he shamelessly returned to the man who grossly betrayed him. Not only that, while in the presence of the rich man, the snob feels an exultation as of old. The Spirit responds to a well-formed personality of self-respect.