Conquering Narcissism.
Vaisesika Dasa: Psychologist, Earnest Becker writes in his book Denial of Death: “Freud discovered that each of us repeats the tragedy of the mythical Greek Narcissus: we are hopelessly absorbed with ourselves. If we care about anyone it is usually ourselves first of all. As Aristotle somewhere put it: luck is when the guy next to you gets hit with the arrow … Man does not seem able to ‘help’ his selfishness; it seems to come from his animal nature.”(Becker; Denial of Death pp. 2-3, 9)
According to Bhakti scriptures, however, one can help oneself by cultivating humility.
In the Gita, Lord Krishna lists humility as the first step to attaining real knowledge.
Commenting on this, Srila Prabhupada writes:
“The beginning of knowledge, therefore, is amanitva, humility. One should be humble and know that he is subordinate to the Supreme Lord … Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others.” (Bhagavad-gita 13.8; purport)
Bhakti yogis practice humility by:
regularly declaring their subordination to and dependence on God
replacing the desire to be honored with the act of praising God and God’s devotees.
Narada Muni:
“An intelligent person should carefully cultivate speech, behavior, and thinking that fix him in utter humility, and anything that stands in the way of it he should avoid.” (Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta II.5.223)