Humility

God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Why? Just because He is all Humility. We know by God's all-pervading Humility that He is God. God is infinitely greater than anybody else. He is infinitely superior to us in every way. Why is God with us, in us and for us, who are infinitely inferior to Him? We are following the spiritual life. When we meditate, what do we feel? We feel His Presence within our heart. Why should the One who is Infinite, the One who is dwelling in infinite Consciousness, stay inside tiny creatures like us, inside our tiny little hearts? We are the finite absolute. He is holding His infinite Consciousness inside our spiritual heart, which, according to the Upanishads, is as small as a thumb. Here in this tiniest possible corner, the Infinite is staying. Why? It is because of His Concern for us, and His Humility. It is because of His feeling of oneness with us. From the spiritual point of view, God is becoming totally one with us through His humble attitude. He knows what is best for us and for Him. That is why He has adopted this life of Humility.

We can launch into the spiritual life if we feel that God is the Doer and God is the Action. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said to Arjuna, "Become a mere instrument." Right now, when we do something grand, we are bloated with pride. We proclaim, "I have done it, I have done it!" Our achievement makes us so unbearably proud that nobody can come near us. But when we see that we are not capable of doing anything, that it is God in us who is doing everything, humility enters into us. If we feel that we ourselves are not the doer, then automatically our sense of pride decreases. We do nothing; all is done by God within us. If we take a humble attitude, if we are really humble, basking in the sunshine of true humility, then the Supreme's Grace can act and we can run speedily to our Goal.

We must feel that out of His infinite Bounty, God is utilising us; we are not indispensable. He can utilise us today and tomorrow He can throw us away. The world needs us, but at the same time we must have the feeling that without us the world can go on. Very often people feel that the world needs them, that their friends, their family, all their relations need them. No! They all need God. And if God wants to, He can utilise them. The more we give the responsibility to God, the sooner we will become one with Him. As individuals and members of society we can do this. If we offer our responsibility to God and become mere instruments, then automatically we become one with God and with other human beings. Then our pride is diminished.

A tree is humble from the root right up to the top. When we identify with a tree, we get humility. The tree protects people against rain and against bright sun. When the tree bears many fruits, it bows down with these fruits and offers them to the world at large. The tree is at that time the possessor of wealth in the form of its fruits; it is all-powerful. When the tree has attained this wealth, it wants to offer it to mankind, so it bows down; it is ready to offer its achievement with utmost humility. Why? Because the consciousness of the tree feels that if it bows down with its branches, then others will benefit. When a tree bears fruit, it becomes a perfect servant to feed mankind. The tree could have been very proud, very haughty; it could have lifted its branches still higher because it had achieved something great. If it had been without leaves, without fruits, its branches would have remained always straight, dry and very erect and, we can say, arrogant. But no! This tree does have many fruits and flowers; it does have good qualities and it wants to offer these divine blessings to humanity.

Similarly, when spiritual Masters achieve their realisation, they come down to serve humanity. When they get the highest Light, they come down into the earth-consciousness to be of some help to the aspiring souls. The higher we go, the lower we can come down with compassion for mankind and the easier it will be for mankind to realise the Highest. When we have that kind of inner humility, we will become one with the Supreme and His entire creation.

Divine humility is very often misinterpreted and misunderstood. I wish to say that only when one is really spiritual can one be humble. People make a mistake when they think that spiritual Masters do not have humility. They do have humility. If they did not have humility, no spiritual Masters would enter into the mire of ignorance and bondage of the world. They have come out of bondage. They could easily stay in the Light of Perfection, in infinite Bliss and Delight; but they consciously and deliberately enter into the earth-consciousness. It is the Light of the Supreme that they use when they enter into unaspiring or aspiring human beings.

Sometimes spiritual Masters use divine authority. Divine authority is not to be confused with aggression, haughtiness, pride or vanity. Divine authority comes directly from the Supreme when the spiritual Master executes His Will. The Supreme says, "Do this," and the spiritual Master gives the message to a particular person. He just executes God's Will. The spiritual Master tries to put the same strength, the same power that the Supreme uses, into each word. This is not pride or vanity; it is only the Master's way of expressing the Truth or the Reality while announcing the Supreme's Command.

How can we become humble? If we know the secret of identification, we can become humble. Look at Mother Earth who is protecting us, nourishing us and giving us shelter in every way. How many bad things are being done to Mother Earth! Yet she is all-forgiving. Forgiveness is all-humility. Right in front of us we can see humility in a patch of grass. When we see grass with our human eyes, we feel that it is something unimportant. Anybody can step on it. But when we see it with our inner eye, we feel how great it is. Early in the morning when we see dew on the grass, we say, "How beautiful it is!" And just a few hours later we will be walking on it; yet it never complains or revolts. When we have the inner capacity to appreciate the grass, we say, "How humble and self-giving it is!" When we identify ourselves with grass, we see that it has a very big heart. Consciously or unconsciously, from grass we get a feeling of humility.

When we really have something to offer, and when we want to offer it with a devoted quality, then humility automatically comes to the fore. We have God's Blessing, and that is why we have some good qualities. But when someone does not have anything to offer, we say, "Naturally he has to be humble." But it is not so. The very fact that he does not have anything, that he does not have any good quality, means that it is impossible for him to cultivate humility. If he has no ordinary good qualities, how can he have the best, the most precious quality among all the divine qualities, which is humility? When somebody is really good, from him we can expect something. If he has some good qualities, then he can grow more good qualities.

First we have to try to grow more divine qualities. It is from one good quality that we get two or three more good qualities. We have to give more importance to the divine qualities than to the undivine qualities. Gradually, the divine qualities will conquer the undivine qualities in us, such as arrogance and stubbornness. And the more divine qualities we develop within, the sooner we will have the best, the absolutely most essential quality, which is humility.

While we are constantly achieving something, we have to remember to be humble in order to be of greater service to mankind. But first we have to know that if we want to become humble, it is certainly because we want to become happy. And in self-giving we become really happy. Real humility is the expansion of our consciousness and our service. Let us always try to develop these good qualities within us and then humility is bound to come.

With His infinite Light, God has become one with finite and insignificant creatures like us. The Infinite has entered into us. We are learning from God how the Infinite can show His feeling of oneness by identifying Himself with something inferior, something limited. Similarly, one person notices that God is within him. That ordinary human being sees that he is superior to someone else, just by one inch, or just for a fleeting second. Again, that other insignificant creature is superior to somebody else, who is one inch inferior to him. So these people should realise that they also can be humble to their inferiors. The more we identify ourselves with the ones who are a little undeveloped or awkward, or who are not in the same fortunate position as we are, the quicker we help mankind to reach the Highest.

There is false humility and there is real humility. False humility is what a slave shows to his master. Humility is not coming from his heart. A slave knows that if he does not obey his master blindly, if he does not show this kind of outer humility, the master will punish him. That is why he is very humble. The master knows that the slave is insincere, but in spite of that, the master keeps him because he gets the job done. Are all bosses fools when their employees and subordinates show them false humility? No. Some bosses like false humility and flattery. Of course, flattery itself is all false. When we seek appreciation from others, we get not appreciation, but flattery. When people are flattered, they are satisfied. When they notice false humility, they say, "Something is better than nothing. This person is showing humility, while others are only snubbing me; they don't pay any attention to me." This kind of person is satisfied with false humility.

But when the boss is God and the subordinate is man, God does not fire us; and we cannot flatter God. God has infinite Patience. If we are stubborn, if we are arrogant, God says, "All right, let some light dawn on them, and one day they will know what humility means, what the feeling of oneness means."

When we meditate, the first thing we have to know is whether or not we are humble in our inner, spiritual life and in our outer life. One who has an inferiority complex can never be really humble, but can only have false modesty or false humility. Inside, his heart is burning with jealousy, and he is all the time thinking of how to become equal to his superior and then surpass him, or how to belittle or destroy the good qualities of the superior. It is on very rare occasions that the inferior shows real humility towards the superior. In the ordinary life, the superior person does not have humility either; he is always bloated with pride. He is stronger and he is more powerful. But one who is really powerful spiritually is humble because he knows that the ones who are inferior are also part and parcel of himself.

By outer means, by outer behaviour, by courtesy, one can never become humble. Humility comes directly from the soul's light. When the soul's light is expressed in the soul's way by the physical being on the strength of absolute oneness with all human beings, this is divine humility. Nothing can enter an individual so silently and at the same time so convincingly as humility.

From the inner, psychic point of view, real humility and real strength go together. When one has real humility, one can have the soul's strength. At the same time, real humility comes directly from the soul, and it actually is the soul's strength. From the spiritual point of view, what we call in Heaven 'humility', we call on earth 'strength'. When the soul's strength wants to manifest in humanity, it does so through humility. If another force is used, people will not accept the Power or Light or Delight or Peace that is offered. But people will accept something when it is given to them with utmost humility. That is why the soul finds it extremely easy, in comparison, to inject human beings with humility.

When one really possesses Peace, Light and Bliss, he becomes humble. Then he descends into the inferiors, into those who also want to climb up and achieve the Highest. When a superior wants to enter into an inferior who has just started aspiring, it is always better to enter through humility. We use humility when we want to enter into the vital or into the physical of aspiring human beings. We use the soul's strength when we see that someone is already awakened and wants a further push. When one is aspiring and has gone a step forward in the spiritual life, if his inner urge is really strong, at that time we can use the soul's force. We use the power of the soul only in dealing with advanced aspirants who can receive Light and Power when these forces enter into them. So on various levels we use soul's humility or soul's strength, although they are one.

From the spiritual point of view, in divine humility alone can true dignity abide. Human dignity, if it is not purified, is all pride, ego and vanity. It is through false human dignity that we are constantly separating ourselves from the world. But when we have divine dignity, we say, "I am God's child. I am in everything and with everything; I have to be in the world's suffering and in the world's delight." At that time we can never separate ourselves from the world or from reality.

We have to know the purpose of each action of ours. If someone washes the dishes, immediately ordinary people will say, "Oh, such a mean job, such insignificant work he is doing!" But I say, no. This is the greatest job if we are doing it soulfully. Lord Krishna washed the feet of the kings, of the emperors, of the most important people, and he was declared the greatest man — an incarnation of God. When we act or when we say something in pure humility, there lies our divine dignity. Human dignity separates us from this divine dignity.

Humility does not mean that we will be always silent and shy, when inside we are criticising others' wrong actions and wrong judgements. Humility is the true inner wealth that unites us consciously with God. When we show humility to God, He feels that we really have some inner wisdom.

When we meditate here at our Centre, we should try to bathe first in the sea of humility. Otherwise, infinite Peace and Bliss we will not get. Spiritual Grace is like a torrent of rain. If we keep our inner door closed, we will get nothing. Let us open our inner door with the key of humility.

At home also, when we meditate, let us please feel that we are all heart. We are God's children and God's children are those who are really humble in their inner life as well as in their outer life.

We really need God. Let us step onto the first two rungs of the ladder of spiritual progress: simplicity and sincerity. These qualities should be bathed in the sea of humility. The Supreme is infinite. Him we can cherish. Him we can possess, embody, reveal and manifest with soulful humility. When we speak to our spiritual brothers and sisters, we should speak with utmost humility. This humility is immediately received by the Supreme in our brothers and sisters. Let us be humble to each other. We want the Supreme to be proud of each of His children at every second. In the spiritual life, humility is the key to open the door of Infinitude.