How entitlement can destroy ourselves – and the whole society
Śṛṅgi illustrates our tendency for entitlement and lack of compassion. These are two qualities that are bad in anyone, but are especially destructive in people in positions of leadership.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned on several occasions that the degradation of the social system in Kali-yuga began with the degradation of the brāhmaṇas. Since the brāhmaṇas are the head of society, they have the responsibility of guiding the other classes, and thus keeping people properly engaged. When they stopped performing this function, the other classes also degraded, leading to the wholesale degradation of society. By the time Lord Buddha appeared, about 2500 years ago, there was not much of the original Vedic culture left in India.
How exactly did this process happen? On SB 1.18.34, Śrīla Prabhupāda gives us some insight that can help us not just to understand the historical perspective, but also give us insight into how the same tendency is present inside our spiritual society and ultimately inside each one of us.
In this passage, Maharaja Parīkṣit, being afflicted by thirst, goes to the āśrama of Śamīka Ṛṣi and begs for a little water. Being in samādhi, the sage doesn’t hear his pleas, and Parīkṣit Maharaja eventually leaves, feeling that the sage ignored him. He didn’t do so, however, before putting a dead snake around the neck of the sage in retribution. This was certainly inappropriate, but on the other hand, it didn’t cause any serious harm. When the sage came back to his external consciousness, he just threw the snake away without thinking much about it.
The problem was that Śṛṅgi, the immature son of the sage, became excessively angry and cursed Maharaja Parīkṣit to die because of this small offense. This was not just a disproportionate punishment for the King, but also an indirect punishment for the whole planet, since people were deprived of a saintly King who was protecting them against the advancement of Kali-yuga. However, in his anger, Śṛṅgi couldn’t understand this.
In the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda relates this behavior to a lack of compassion. Śṛṅgi didn’t at all feel sorry for the king not being properly received in his house; on the contrary, he disproportionately punished the king for a relatively small offense and then tried to justify it by minimizing the qualities of the king, comparing him to a dog that was misbehaving towards his master. Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions that this is characteristic of the so-called brāhmaṇas of Kali-yuga.
We can see thus that apart from being a historic personality, Śṛṅgi illustrates our tendency for entitlement and lack of compassion. These are two qualities that are bad in anyone, but are especially destructive when found in people posted in positions of leadership, especially in spiritual institutions. All of us are leaders to a certain degree (there is always someone who sees us as some kind of role model); therefore, we should be very attentive not to allow such qualities to creep into our psyche.
One of the definitions of entitlement given in the Cambridge dictionary is “the feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are”. When we develop a sense of entitlement, we start to consider ourselves better than others, and this leads us to not only treat them unfairly but to justify this behavior by dehumanizing them. Using philosophy to dismiss others’ suffering by, for example, casually telling people that they are suffering because of their karma, also fits in this category.
It’s not difficult to imagine how such tendencies can be destructive not only for ourselves but for society as a whole. When leaders develop such a sense of entitlement and start treating others unfairly, abusing their positions, unrest follows, which causes further problems. Thus, when a leader mistreats someone based on this false conception, he or she causes problems not only for the person being unfairly punished but for society as a whole. Gradually, an environment of envy and quarrel sets in, where good people start to leave, and bad elements feel encouraged.
People refusing to obey leaders can be a problem, but it doesn’t help much if the response is to just tell them to continue following blindly without correcting the misbehavior of the leaders in question. To correct the problem, both sides need to be addressed. It’s easier if we can avoid it altogether.
In his purport, Prabhupāda mentions that “This mentality of false prestige is the cause of downfall of the perfect social order, and we can see that in the beginning it was started by the inexperienced son of a brāhmaṇa.”
Mother Yamunā was, in her last days, speaking a lot about the problem of entitlement. That’s something we should be attentive to both on an individual and collective level, since it undermines the very basis of our spiritual practice, and robs us of all good spiritual qualities.
If we want to develop and then preserve a healthy spiritual culture, we must consciously cultivate qualities such as humility, accountability, and compassion as an antidote to entitlement. First, we need to develop these qualities at a personal level, and then in the communities we are trying to form.
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