Humility

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To experience ceaseless spiritual happiness Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

advocated " Being humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a

tree and offering all respects to others and expecting none in

return, chanting the holy names of the Lord constantly " .

 

He explained that we are spiritual beings, eternal loving children of

God. We can find lasting happiness - not in acquiring material

positions and possessions, but in reviving our innate love of God.

Humility and tolerance, virtues essential for achieving endless

bliss, are also valuable assets for living peacefully and

successfully in this world.

 

Humility, sometimes misconstrued as a weakness, is actually a power

that few people tap. Srila Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, explained

humility as freedom from " the anxiety of having the satisfaction of

being honoured by others " .

 

Pride, the opposite of humility, makes us crave for honour from

others as our source of happiness. When a proud person is

disrespected, his lack of freedom becomes appallingly obvious; he is

forced by pride to lose his prudence and explode with words and

actions, often hurting the other person and even himself far beyond

what the situation warrants.

 

Humility, on the contrary, brings freedom from the craving for

external honour and empowers us to act for our and everyone's

longterm good. Humility doesn't mean that we let others trample upon

us without protesting, but that we don't let others' (mis)behaviour

determine our decisions and lives. Humility allows us to calmly

consider the cause of disrespect and maturely adopt a principled

course of action to clarify the situation and rectify the

misdemeanour.

 

Tolerance too is an underutilised power. A relative behaves

unreasonably, a colleague speaks impolitely, a power cut upsets our

plans, another vehicle cuts across our path - such daily situations

offer rich premiums for the tolerant. Tolerance empowers us to not

let irritating circumstances steal our peace of mind. Lack of

tolerance makes us a victim of our circumstances, whereas tolerance

brings the freedom to choose an intelligent response and stay fixed

in our values and goals, irrespective of our circumstances. But it is

sad that today in the world there are lot of Our Muslim Brothers

getting killed Due to Intolerance in the name of Religion.

 

Prabhupada summarises, " One's greatness has to be estimated by the

ability to tolerate provoking situations " . When people lack

tolerance, they respond to adverse situations and inimical people in

one of two ways: depression or violence. Chronic depression, self-

martyrdom, inferiority complex, addiction and even suicide are

fallouts of the first response, whereas divorce, larceny, murder, and

even war are results of the second.

 

Our biceps protect us from physical dangers. Similarly, humility and

tolerance protect us from internal over-reactions to externally

distasteful situations. Thus they constitute our inner muscles, which

we can increase by the spiritual bodybuilding exercise of chanting

the holy names of God.

 

God is the reservoir of all powers and when we connect ourselves to

Him through mantra meditation, we gain access to the divine powers of

humility and tolerance. Let us therefore chant Hare Krishna (or any

other bona fide name of God) with devotion, empower ourselves with

inner muscles, find peace amidst the ups and downs of life and

contribute towards building a peaceful planet.