A dog has also pride: “I am this dog, hrr.” [laughter] “I am fox terrier. I am this. I am that.” So dambhah is there even in the dog, even in the lower animal, even in the cat. But the divine characteristic, “Oh, I am so low,” trnad api sunicena, “I am lower than the grass. I am lower than the grass”… This is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teaching. What is this dambhah? Why I should be pride? What is this pride? So that is ignorance, due to ignorance. When one man is unnecessarily proud, that means it is due to ignorance. And Caitanya-caritamrta author, he describes himself that “I am lower than the worms in the stool.”

purisera kita haite muni se laghistha
jagai madhai haite muni se papistha
[Cc. Adi 5.205]

Adambhitvam, in the Ninth Chapter. Just the opposite. Why I shall be proud? What I have got? “I am humble servant of Krsna. Let me discharge my duties.” But if one is proud after becoming a pure servant of Krsna, that is very good. That dambhah, that pride, is very glorious. “I am a servant of Krsna.” That is very nice.

One has got the tendency to become proud. So if one is proud to become a cats and dog or a tiger or a so-called big man of this material world, that is for his bondage. Asuri. Daivi sampad vimoksaya [Bg. 16.5]. And if you become proud by becoming the most confidential servant of Krsna, the same pride is for your liberation. And if you become proud that “I am minister,” or “I am this big dog or big…,” that is for nibandhaya, your bondage; you will continue material life.

By your spiritual pride… Of course, we must be proud after being situated in the spiritual platform. Otherwise that is also ignorance.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 16.4  — January 30, 1975, Honolulu