If we take a look at the past of the politicians of the world we will be simply surprised. The inferiority that they felt in their childhood has become their driving force; they started running madly, and as long as they were not climbing some peak they did not feel contented. By climbing the peak they showed the world that they were something, but certainly within themselves they were nothing.

Hence all positions, all riches, all fame, become meaningless to the one who acquires them. When such a person sits on the throne he finds that he is the same – he has achieved the throne all right but he has remained the same, and the worm of inferiority goes on eating him up. Hence even the most important of positions does not bring any contentment. The drive still remains there to go further ahead.

Someone asked Alexander the Great, “I have heard that you want to conquer the whole world. But have you ever thought what you will do after conquering the world? …Because there is only one world.”

Then Alexander became very sad and he said, “I hadn’t thought of that. You are right. If I conquer the whole world, what will I do next? Where is there another world?”

Even after conquering the whole world, there was no escape from the inferiority that must have gripped Alexander’s mind. There was no escape even if there were to have been another world and he had conquered that too. It is the inverted inferiority complex that becomes a superiority complex.

So a man who displays arrogance deserves pity because he suffers from inferiority. Just an accidental push from someone and he says, “Don’t you know who I am?” The poor man is suffering from a feeling of inferiority. One who gets angry over trivial matters, one whose ego gets hurt for every little thing – someone is laughing on the street and he presumes that people are laughing at him – know that he is suffering from an inferiority complex. This anguish throws him into the mad race to become superior.

Inferiority is a disease. The superiority assumed in order to suppress the inferiority is a greater disease. Many times the medicine proves to be more dangerous than the disease itself.

Yoga wants to remind us of the other side too. It actually says that if there is a supreme whole, it need not be filled with ego – as if it is something special – because whatever it has, the smallest particle of dust also has it. Hence, on one side, even a small particle of dust need not feel inferior, and on the other side even the supreme whole need not be caught up in superiority. And only when one is free of both inferiority and superiority does he gain balance, equanimity.