Question: How can I achieve humility?

Sri Chinmoy: In our human life when we have something, immediately pride, vanity and many other undivine forces enter into us. We extol ourselves to the skies. But let us think of the example of a tree. When the tree is in full bloom, when it is laden with ripe fruits, when it really has something to offer the world, the tree bows down. If we can become one with the consciousness of a tree, we will feel that the more we have to offer, the more humility we will have.

Whenever we aspire we get an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss. When we practise concentration and meditation regularly and devotedly we get abundant Peace, Light and Bliss. When we get these qualities in abundant measure, automatically we feel that it is our bounden duty to become inseparably one with the rest of the world. The higher we go, the more we feel our universal oneness. At that time, real humility dawns. The deeper we go the sooner we see the root. Once we become part and parcel of the root, we cannot be proud. We see that it is from the root that the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the flowers and the fruits have come into existence, yet the root mingles humbly with the earth and clay. If you want to develop more humility, I wish to tell you to dive deep within or climb up high, higher, highest, on the strength of your inner cry. Your inner cry will lift you up into the freedom of the Vast and make you inseparably one with the rest of the world. When you reach the Highest, automatically your divine oneness makes you humble.

There is also a practical way to achieve humility in the outer life. If you are a good singer and you are bloated with pride at your achievement, what you have to do is think of the world’s best singer. Immediately your own achievement will pale into insignificance because this other singer is undoubtedly far better than you. Pride comes when you feel that you are in some way superior to other people or that you have something which they do not have at all. But if you will compare your capacity or your achievement with that of someone who has it in far greater measure, then your pride will have to fade. When pride diminishes and disappears, humility increases and looms large.