​Is humility practical in the professional world?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So in a work setting humility is not appreciated. In fact people take advantage and boss wants us to be bold and straightforward and always in the forefront. Not caring about people’s feelings, how to deal with this.
See again, this is misunderstanding of humility. Humility doesn’t mean that everybody trample on us, everybody treat us like a rug on which everybody puts their feet and rubs their feet. Humility again means that we don’t let our ego interfere with our purpose.
And actually even in professional settings you will see that quite often there might be a boss who has a particular plan, he or she has a particular plan and then some subordinate gives some suggestion. Now that suggestion might actually be better. So if the boss has the humility at that time, yeah, what you are saying makes sense.
Then the whole team will move forward. So it is not there. So if we consider humility as hearing people’s suggestions and accepting them when they are valid, even if those people are junior to us, then in that context, even in a professional setting, humility can be helpful.
So now if we see humility in terms of not not talking about our qualities, we have to know that we live in a culture of promotion. Everybody needs to promote themselves in this culture. Everybody in today’s culture needs to promote themselves.
And if that promotion is done in a mood of service, see, sometimes we associate feelings with certain actions. And that is fine enough. But the feelings are not limited to those actions alone.
That means, if I speak about my qualifications, my qualities, my achievements, you may think this is not humility, this is pride. But that is not necessarily so. In the first canto of Bhavatam, Bishop Dama says, So Bishop Dama is praying, is instructing Yudhishthira Maharaj while he is on his deathbed.
And he says that tatha, therefore, ekanta bhakteshu, because I was a pure devotee, because I am a pure devotee, ekanta bhakteshu, just see, O King, the mercy that the Lord has bestowed on me. What is that mercy? Krishna darshanam ashtam. Krishna has come to give me his darshan.
Yanme sunsthajitah sakshan. At the time when I am about to die, Krishna has come to give his darshan to me. Now, the first part of it, ekanta bhakteshu, because I am a pure devotee.
You may say, isn’t this pride? Should a pure devotee think that I am a pure devotee? So why is Bishop Dama doing that? If we look at the overall flow of the verses over there, Bishop Dama has a purpose. That purpose is that he wants to encourage Yudhishthira Maharaj to stay fixed in his devotional service to Krishna. And he is giving himself as an example.
He had a very difficult service. He had to fight against Krishna. He had to act as the commander of those who are opposed to Krishna and Krishna’s devotees.
And he said, I did that service. Unflinchingly, ekanta bhakteshu. And now when I stood firm in my service to Krishna, just see how Krishna has rewarded me.
And that, he has come to him. Similarly, Yudhishthira Maharaj, you may not like, you may feel that you are the cause of all this bloodshed and therefore you may feel that I don’t want to become the king. But if the lord wants you to do this service, do it unflinchingly.
And then the lord will reward you. So the point here of Bishop Dama, his stress is not that I am a pure devotee. He is using himself as an example to demonstrate the glory of bhakti.
So, to give an example of how glorious bhakti is or how faithful devotion is rewarded by the lord, he uses his own example over there. So the point here is, this may not seem like humility to say that I am a pure devotee, but for the purpose, the purpose is to instruct and inspire Yudhishthira Maharaj to stay fixed in his bhakti. For that purpose, if it is required, he speaks about himself also positively.
So humility means primarily that we don’t let our ego come in the way of our purpose. So if our purpose requires us to speak about ourselves positively, we do that. So for example, if we have to prepare our CV, at that time, we have to… One devotee told me that he says that if there is a tap that is on, he was from IIM, he is from IIM Bangalore only, so he told me that basically when we are trained to do a CV, they have a joke.
He said that if there is a tap that is on and some water is dripping out of it, so you just turn off the tap while you are passing by. He says that you can write in your CV. You know, I have active interest in eco-sensitivity and water conservation.
So now, basically when people write their CV, their bio-data they write, they have to prop up all that you have done. Now if that is done for the sake of service, if we are in a job and if our promotional job or even if our position in that job, it depends on how we promote ourselves. And if we are doing that job as a service to Krishna, then promoting ourselves as a part of that service is okay.
So when we lose humility is when we become self-centered. So for the sake of humility, for the sake of service, we have to promote ourselves, that is not necessarily contrary to the principle of humility. So what is not appreciated, especially in professional settings, is where people are not forthcoming about their strengths.
So now we don’t have to go around bragging to everyone about our strengths. But wherever it is needed, we can’t tell about our strengths. So it’s only when a person, even in a worldly setting, we can make out people who are egotists, they are always talking about themselves.
And it’s not that even in a professional world, everyone is like that. Everybody is interested in promoting their career, but even among them also there are people who are relatively speaking humbler, and relatively speaking who are more arrogant. So if we properly understand how we apply humility, then humility is actually a principle that is not contrary to professional life, but that can also help us in professional life.
Because even in professional life, sometimes others may know things better than us. And if we are too proud, then we will not take their inputs properly. So that’s why humility, if properly understood, can be helpful even in our professional life.