Does being humble mean being indifferent towards honor or being absorbed in Krishna?
Part.
Question from Stoker Krishna Prabhu. What exactly is humility? This is based on a Gita daily article. When we mistake self- perpetuity to be humility, spirituality becomes an exercise in futility.
So in his purport to this verse, this verse refers to 13.8 to 12, Shri Prabhupada explains humility as not being anxious to have the satisfaction of being honoured by others and you have explained it as being Krishna- centred. How do we link up these two perspectives on humility? Answer? Yes, Shri Prabhupada explains humility in one way over there and that is definitely true. If a person is anxious for being honoured by others, then that indicates a lack of humility.
But that is talking of humility in one terms, that is, of what one should not be doing. And that Shri Prabhupada emphasises because Krishna himself is talking in those terms, in negative terms. So he is talking negative.
Similarly, Shri Prabhupada explains don't be anxious to be honoured by others, to have the satisfaction of being honoured by others. Now this verse comes in the Jnana section of the Bhagavad Gita where the Jnanis are not necessarily all devotees. In this 20 elements that are talked about in the 13.8 to 12, 20 items of knowledge, one of them is bhakti, unflinching bhakti.
But Jnanis often use this as a sadhana so that they can attain moksha. So here Krishna is not talking directly about devotees. Now if you want to know what humility for devotees is, we have to look at places where humility is talked about directly in the devotional context.
So we see Tranadapi Sunichena Tarorapi Sahishtina Amanina Manavena Kirtanina Sadahari Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explains in the Shiksha Ashtakam that in verse 3 that you be humbler than a blade of grass that he talks about humility. So he says Kirtanina Sadahari one should be able to always chant the holy names of Krishna. So the purpose of humility is to become Krishna conscious.
So from a negative point of view humility means that we are not too eager for our own honor, our own glorification. We are not at all eager for our own glorification and praise. But at the same time humility has a positive aspect.
So when we are freed from that obsession of wanting to be recognized and praised by others then our mental energy becomes free and what do we do with that free mental energy? Then we can absorb ourselves in Krishna. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he is recommending us to be humbler than a blade of grass, the purpose is to be able to do kirtani as Sadahari. So that's why humility has two aspects.
One is that we don't seek glory in this world and second is that we seek glory, we seek the glory of Krishna. We glorify Krishna, ourselves, we absorb ourselves in Krishna and we speak Krishna's glory so that his glory spreads to other people also. So Krishna Prabhupada is giving based on the Amanitvam words which talks about a negative purpose of humility that the Jnanis at this stage may not know about Krishna and that's why for them humility may not be necessarily in terms of being Krishna centered.
So for them when Krishna is describing a sadhana, he describes in negative terms humility. Don't be eager for glory in this world and N. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu described it in positive terms that yes, after being humble, after this is a grass insignificant, grass isn't, nobody recognizes the grass in the world. So like that, we don't seek recognition in this world and when our mental energy is freed from that, then we focus on Krishna.
So that's how both are complementary. One talks about what we should not do and other talks about what we should do. Thank you.