Does bhakti create feelings of inferiority within us?
Question, doesn't the path of bhakti make one feel inferior by forcing one to remember constantly that one is a servant, one is a servant? So, isn't this damaging to one's psychological health? Isn't it a very negative self-portrayal? And isn't it difficult to conceive of oneself as going down to a God whom one doesn't even know properly? Answer, the focus in the path of bhakti is not on self-denigration. It is on God-glorification. That means that actually if we are just denigrating ourselves, minimizing ourselves, feeling inferior, Oh, I am a servant, I am a servant, then that is not really the essence of bhakti.
Because the essence of bhakti is God-consciousness, it is not self-consciousness. Actually, there is a fundamental difference between humility and inferiority complex. Because genuine humility is so rare, and to meet humble people is such an unusual and extraordinary phenomenon that most of us don't even understand what real humility is.
So, humility is not in inferiority complex. In inferiority complex, one is constantly thinking of oneself and one wants to show the world that I am great, but one finds that because of circumstances, or because of one's own inadequacies and inabilities, one is not able to be great. So, one still has a huge false ego, but there is no avenue by which to express that false ego, and that's why the false ego becomes frustrated.
So, this leads to feelings of inferiority, and when these feelings of inferiority become perpetuated, that leads to inferiority complex. So, the foundational point of inferiority complex is that it is self-centered. One is always thinking of oneself, and one is trying to bloat one's false ego, but one is frustrated in doing so.
Whereas, the defining characteristic of humility is that it is not self-centered, it is God-centered, precisely Krishna-centered. So, if we are mistaking the principle of servitude that is taught in Bhagavad Gita with inferiority complex, then naturally, who will want to feel inferior? In the path of bhakti, as long as we are filled with ourselves and our own glories, we just cannot think of Krishna, and as long as we can't think of Krishna, we cannot develop our bhakti for Krishna, and we cannot relish the beauty and the sweetness and the love of Krishna. So, therefore, if we see what the Bhagavad Gita tells us, and what the various Vedic scriptures tell us, it's not that to constantly remember you are a servant, you are a servant, you are a servant.
No, what they say is always remember Krishna. And when we remember Krishna, if we think of Krishna, if we let our minds dwell on Krishna, then, naturally, we are attracted to Him, and as our attraction to Him develops, we will want to serve Him. So the focus of the path of bhakti is not berating oneself with a sense of inferiority, but it is of diverting our attention or reverting, to be more clear, because originally we were all God-conscious, it's reverting our center of attention back to Krishna.
That is the essence of the path of bhakti. And as a corollary effect, one naturally starts feeling humble. So, of course, we may feel, what is the need for me to think of Krishna at all? Then we may use the philosophical analysis to convince ourselves that we are not anything but servants.
Even if we think we are controllers, we are still servants. We serve our family members, we serve our boss in the company, we serve our children and others. And when we do that, generally speaking, especially when we allow somebody and serve that person, that doesn't create inferiority, that actually creates intimacy.
So service brings not inferiority, but intimacy. So when, say, a family member is sick, and at that time we serve the person, that time we don't feel inferior, we feel intimate with that person. Service is what brings us close, otherwise the whole relationship stays mostly ethereal and it doesn't become real.
So, therefore, there is no need to feel any sense of apprehension that bhakti creates a negative self-conception. No, it doesn't create a negative self-conception, it negates our self-obsession. It frees us from being obsessed with ourselves and helps us to think of something greater.
Actually speaking, all of us are very self-centered and unfortunately, there is not much substance to our self-centeredness. Because if we try to dwell on our own glories, we run into two problems. First is that we don't have too many glories.
And second is that whatever little glories we do have, they don't stay with us always. They stay with us for some time and they unpredictably go away. Therefore, when we keep thinking of ourselves, over a period of time, it becomes a very unsatisfying meditation.
So bhakti offers us the most satisfying alternative to this self-absorption. Even in material life, people try to get out of their self-obsession by watching TV, by going to movies, by watching sports matches. And even people who are not necessarily God conscious, they tell that the most satisfying moments of their life are when they are absorbed in the cause greater than themselves.
So, happiness is never attained by the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is always a by-product of the pursuit of some nobler and higher cause. And when we understand that Krishna is the greatest publisher of all living beings and when we serve Krishna, we become instruments for Krishna's supreme benevolence to benefit everyone, at that time we understand that devotional service to Krishna is the ultimate cause.
It is the ultimate cause for not just benefiting ourselves but for benefiting the world. It benefits us because the relationship with Krishna fulfills our heart like nothing else and benefits others because they also begin the journey of fulfillment. So, essentially, when we say that we are servants, the focus is not on we but on who is the object of our service.
So, this principle of servitude and humility need to be carefully understood that they are not meant to create any feelings of self-denial or self-minimization. They are basically meant to get us off self-obsession and focus on the most satisfying object of thought and the most satisfying cause that we can ever have. Because Krishna is eternally attractive and He has all six opulences, He is the most satisfying object of thought and because Krishna is the most benevolent well-wisher of all living beings, His service becomes the most fulfilling cause that we can ever participate in.
So, therefore, there is no need for us to let our bhakti be crippled and checked by this misconception that bhakti involves cultivating feelings of inferiority. Not at all. Bhakti involves cultivating feelings of intimacy with Krishna and that intimacy comes by thinking of Krishna and serving Krishna.
That is the essence of bhakti. Thank you.