Does being humble mean that we shouldn’t give advice to others?
Hare Krishna. Question, does being humble mean that we can't give advice to others because when we feel humble, then we feel that anyway, I am not qualified. Who am I to give advice to this person? But then there were situations when it is necessary for us and we may be in a position to help others by guiding them.
So what should we do? Answer, the essence of humility is not so much in what we do as in how we feel while we are doing and what is our understanding of our role when we are doing what we are doing. That means that if we see, Ishwara Prabhupada was a world acharya and he was respected as such and that may, sitting on a Vyasa asana and having people offer obeisances and even offering their lives, that may seem to be, accepting that sort of thing may seem to be the opposite of humility and even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sanyasi, he thought, but as sanyasi he got so much respect and in fact, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took sanyas in fact, so that he would be respected because he realized the message that he was giving to the world of taking wholeheartedly chanting of the holy names, that was not being heard seriously enough by people because they thought, who is, what authority does he have? He's also like a householder like us. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in fact, accepted sanyas so that he and then his message would have respect, so how was that humble? Actually, so he wanted to give advice and for giving advice to others, he took sanyas, so how is that humility again? So again, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu s desire was to serve Krishna, himself Krishna, but in the mood of a devotee of Krishna, so his mode was to serve Krishna by sharing the Yuga Dharma or the chanting of the holy names and whatever was required for that service of Krishna, he accepted that.
So, similar the spiritual master accepts a high position, one time Prabhupada was being practically worshipped and his feet were being washed and Prabhupada was saying softly to himself, just see Krishna how your dog is being worshipped. So Prabhupada was thinking of himself not as a guru who is receiving so much worship, he was thinking of himself as a dog of Krishna. So, that means our focus should be on service to Krishna and how best we can serve Krishna.
So, if we have been given some intelligence and especially if we have further Krishna's words of wisdom with us and we feel that we can share them with others appropriately, then we should do that. But of course, this sharing should not be done in a superior condescending sort of way where people feel that you are ignorant and I am enlightened and I am going to deliver you. No, it should be done in a gentle sensitive way where people feel valued not condescended when we offer them help.
And it may be true that we by our own right are not qualified to help anyone but then Krishna has made us qualified by giving us his knowledge and Krishna has told us also that we should share this knowledge with others. He says those who share in 18.68 and 69, he says those who share this knowledge are very dear to him. So, often if we want to explain something to someone, then if we do it in a public forum where that person may feel embarrassed and where it may appear as if we are craving for praise and glory and attention by giving advice to others, we can avoid that and we can often help people privately or we can do it in a general way also in a general forum without mentioning the name of a person and intelligent people will be able to understand it but it has to be done sensitively.
So, overall humility is more about being fixed in our understanding that we are servants of Krishna and doing whatever it takes to serve Krishna. So, if that includes giving advice to others that can also be done in a appropriate sensitive and non-attention seeking way so that the person is helped without feeling embarrassed about receiving that help. That will be very much in the range of humility.
We see Vidura, he tells Dhritarashtra to be humble and he himself, he says humility is like a bitter medicine which is not at all palatable but by taking it you will be healed and Vidura strongly advises Dhritarashtra. So, is he not practicing what he preaches? Is he not being humble? Yes, his humility was that although Dhritarashtra neglected his advice but still Vidura did what he could. He continued in his service and he felt that at that time his service was to try to guide Dhritarashtra.
So, he continued to guide as much as he could and when Dhritarashtra rejected his guidance then he renounced the world but later on again he came back and again he gave advice and that time Dhritarashtra exhibited after the Kurukshetra war. So, humility doesn't mean that one shouldn't give advice but one should not think of oneself as superior to others and one should not especially think of oneself as separate from one's position as being a servant of Krishna. Thank you.