Does humility mean dishonestly blaming ourselves for things we haven’t done?
The question is that Yudhishthira Narayan said that as the war happened because of me, the Goswamis say that I am more fallen than Jedi in my life, but these are not true facts objectively speaking so does humility mean being honest or does it mean that we are dishonest? No there is there is material dishonesty where I do a mistake and I pass the blame to others there is a saying that whenever there is success, success has many parents and failure is an orphan so whenever something goes wrong nobody wants to take responsibility so failure is an orphan that means there is a level of material dishonesty where we don't accept blame for what wrong we have done then there is material honesty the bug stops here yes I accept responsibility, this is what happened this is what went wrong, so that is material honesty and certainly honesty is the foundation of humility that means that if we truly understand who we are yes I may have some abilities right now but those abilities are not my own abilities, they are gifts given by Krishna and they may be there with me for some time and they will be regularly with me because of which I think they are mine but in due course of time they will be taken away the most drastic example of this is Arjuna he was such a heroic warrior throughout the Mahabharata and towards the end of his manifested pastimes he couldn't even fight against some cowards he lost his archery ability so our abilities are gifts given to us by Krishna, so if we understand this then we won't become proud of our abilities so humility requires honesty and in fact honesty will naturally lead to humility because even if I have some abilities maybe I am the best cricket batsman who has outstanding talent to play all kinds of shots but sometimes even the best batsman goes out of form and then that person goes out and gets out for a very ignominious job and then everybody blames that person and then that person goes into depression thinking what went wrong now if the abilities were that batsman's abilities entirely then why did that person go out of form go out of touch that means that our abilities are not entirely our abilities they are gifts given by God to us so humility is founded on honesty that is the level at which we can function now in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna talks about humility in 13.8 to 12 when he talks about the 20 qualities that comprise knowledge so he talks about it in negative terms that means so he says he doesn't say that is also humility but he talks about now what is the difference between the two Prabhupada translates it as humility and pridelessness if you look at Vishwanath Chaturthi commentary he explains that Dambha the difference between Dambha and Maan is Maan is when I have certain qualities and I expect respect for those qualities Dambha means I don't have any qualities but I pretend to have those qualities so that I can get respect from others so I am not a religious person I have no devotion to God but when there is some social occasion where everybody goes to a temple I will go to the temple so that people can have darshan of me oh what a good person he comes to the temple so Dambha means when we claim honor for the abilities that we don't have that is we are talking about the third level dishonesty so Adambitvam is certainly required but Krishna also says Amanitvam means that one does not seek honor even when one has honorable qualities and honorable conduct so Prabhupada explains in his commentary that one should not be anxious that humility means to not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others that's a very deep definition to not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others that means he is not saying that humility means one should not be honored by others humility does not mean that we behave in dishonorable ways no we behave in honorable ways and in the course of events if honor comes we accept honor humility in this context means that we accept honor but we don't expect honor we don't expect honor Amanitvam so this is the level of humility which we should aspire for so to put it another way humility means to not let our ego come in the way of our service whatever I am expected to do I will do if in the course of that I get respect fine if I don't get respect still I will find some other way to continue my service so Prabhupada when he was in India he was at least at the nominal level he was respected sadhus respected in Indian culture so people would host him people would come and hear his lectures but they were not ready to make much commitment you know there are so many sadhus and it's a part of our pious culture to hear from sadhus but their idea was you hear from sadhus and the sadhu goes on with his life and we go on with our life this is the only thing that we have to change everything in our life and Prabhupada came to Sumathi Moranji who later sponsored Prabhupada's travel to America so she saw Swamiji is so elderly how can he go to America so he said Swamiji if you want to sing Bhagavatam you come to my house everyday I hear Bhagavatam so Prabhupada actually wanted to speak Bhagavatam but in a way that transformed people so externally speaking when Prabhupada went from India to America from the Vedic perspective the western world is considered degraded but even from the western world's perspective the place where the hippies were living the lower east side that was degraded so Prabhupada went to the most degraded place among the degraded places and there people had no conception of respecting him but still he went there because he saw the spark of interest in Krishna and he found it so humility means to not let our ego come in the way of our service so Prabhupada yes he actually would have got from the cultural perspective more respect in India and he got far lesser respect at least in the initial days later on when they understood the philosophy then it was different but initially so the point is the devotees focus on the service and for our service whatever is required we do that so if it requires taking up a position of honour in the service we do that if it requires accepting a position where we will be reviled and neglected we may accept that also but the same Srila Prabhupada who went to America all alone with practically no contacts no finances no organisational support it is like one single soldier going to attack a whole kingdom and what is the in the soldier thinking what is my strategy how will I go inside even when Hanuman went to Lanka his plan was not to destroy Lanka his plan was primarily to find Sita but as he found Sita then when Ravana burned his tail he thought let me do some more fun he decided to he didn't even plan to burn half of Lanka but half of Lanka got burned over there so the point is that one soldier going is very difficult to do that when Prabhupada was going to America he was going on a historically unprecedentedly challenging mission but what was his thought he was in his heart thinking that oh lord I am a insignificant unfortunate beggar I have no capacity to change people's hearts you please make my words understandable so now what is this is it that Prabhupada was I have no capacity to speak to others and when Prabhupada spoke that he was not referring to the fact that his English pronunciation was not understandable to the western people he was referring to something much deeper that was when a devotee wants to serve the lord at that time the devotee feels that the lord is so glorious his service is so glorious I am in keeping of doing that service so that when a devotee feels that I am at fault or I am unqualified that feeling is primarily a feeling that comes by increased awareness of Krishna's glory as compared to Krishna's greatness what am I so when say the Goswamis say that I am more fallen than your mother is that objective truth no it's not but from their devotional perspective when they are realizing Krishna is so great and Krishna loves me so much Krishna has bestowed so much mercy on me as compared to that I have done nothing to reciprocate with him and therefore I am so unfortunate now although Krishna has done so much I have done nothing for him so this transcendental psychology wherein the devotee being so overwhelmed by an awareness of Krishna's greatness and Krishna's love feels oneself utterly insignificant that is a testimony to their deep absorption in Krishna so the transcendental love for Krishna is beyond material logic and material perceptions to give another example of this say Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that when he was going towards Vrindavan every forest that he saw what did he think of it to be? Vrindavan every lake, every water body he saw Yamuna now was that forest Vrindavan or not? if you say it was not then can God commit a mistake? God we say to be illusion is one of the defects of a conditioned soul now here God is getting illusion he is thinking that some ordinary forest is Vrindavan is he getting into illusion? now the fact is that at one level he thought of the forest as Vrindavan but still he kept going towards Vrindavan he did not stop there so when we consider transcendental love the benchmark for understanding transcendental love is not agreement or disagreement with material facts the benchmark for appreciating transcendental love is the extent of absorption in Krishna so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu perceiving an ordinary forest to be Vrindavan is testimony to the absorption of his heart in Vrindavan to his intense longing for Vrindavan and that's why it's a Bhushana, it's opulence it's not a Bhushana, it's not a contamination so that was from the lord's perspective similarly from the devotee's perspective when the devotee feels something counterfactual like as you said Yudhishthira Mahaprabhu I was responsible for the war or Sudama feeling that I am simply a brother of a brahmana I am not even a brahmana so this is testimony to the devotee's awareness and absorption in Krishna's greatness as compared to which whatever one may be that seems to be so dwarf as to be insignificant so there is materialism of honesty there is material honesty and there is transcendental there is transcendental perception where things may appear to be counterfactual but in transcendental perception the benchmark is not agreement or disagreement between factuality the benchmark is absorption in Krishna.
So as devotees we don't artificially imitate the Goswamis or those exalted emotions wherein the devotees take blame for that which they have not done also what we focus on is trying to develop humility at the level of honesty where we understand our identity and based on our understanding of our identity we appreciate that without Krishna I am nothing Krishna is what is enabling me to do everything and that is the humility that we aspire for and as we become advanced as our consciousness becomes absorbed in Krishna then these counterfactual expressions of humility will emerge spontaneously because they will be so absorbed in Krishna that whatever we do it will seem insignificant in relationship with Krishna. So we focus on developing humility at the level of honesty. Does it answer your question?