śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
Year 13, Issue 13
Posted: 2 February 2021
Dedicated to
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Inspired by and under the guidance of
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
The Necessity of Guileless Humility
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
My friends who have greater aptitude of love for the All-love, Kṛṣṇa, will not despise me but will kindly count me as their humble friend by graciously allowing me to be blessed with an unalloyed devotion to and love for my own guru, who is identically the same with the predominated Counter-Whole of the predominating aspect of the All-love. I will therefore never be hostile and apathetic to those who have a tendency to be devoted to the All-love, but when I also have a humble position I will regard them as confidential members whom I should serve with all intimacy and love for their close services to Him.
Here are the words spoken by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself: It is necessary to be humbler than a blade of grass if one is really anxious to take the name of Godhead.” One never supplicates [petitions] another unless one realizes his own littleness. We pray for the help of other persons when we consider ourselves helpless.
Śrī Gaurasundara has told us to call upon the name of Godhead, which means He has told us to accept the help of Godhead. He has also told us to be humbler than a blade of grass when we call that name. If we call out to Godhead to make Him our servant or if we want to solicit His help for any work we are doing for our own purposes, we cannot preserve the quality of humility that is greater than that of a blade of grass.
An external exhibition of humility is not the quality of lowliness that makes one humbler than the blade of grass. A mere show of humility is nothing but insincerity, or hypocrisy. Calling out in a manner that our subordinate will respond to does not reach Godhead. Because He is the Supreme Independent, Perfect, Self-conscious Entity, He is subject to none. It is necessary to fully establish one’s individuality in a state of guileless humility. Without doing so, one’s prayer does not reach the perfect Autocrat.
Adapted from The Gaudiya Monthly Vol.36, Issue 4
By the Rays of The Harmonist team
