Humbleness before God is one thing. It’s okay to (say), “Okay, God is perfect. Who am I in front of Him? I can humble myself.”
But in the shloka (sacred verse) we touched on last night, we had to learn about humbleness amongst people. And generally, we all have the idea, myself included, that “I am better than everyone else.”
That tends to be the way that’s like our default setting.
“I’m smarter than everybody. I’m better than everybody.”
So our default setting is not humbleness. We generally think of ourselves as being superior and everyone else is inferior to us. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ji explained that we should also feel ourselves to be even lower than anybody in this world.
That’s a devotional quality, having that kind of humbleness. It’s not an inferiority complex. Don’t confuse it with being depressed.
It’s simply a way of saying that, “Krishna, I’m yours. All of these are your children. I’m also one of your children. I don’t have to be better than anyone in your eyes. I just have to accept that I am fallen. Nobody is worse than me.”
The truth is we’re all equally worst. We’re all tied for the lead in that category. But those who accept it and admit it, that’s a sign that they’re progressing more quickly in their devotion.
So he gave us a few pointers like, instead of demanding respect from other devotees, go out of your way to give respect. This is a practical thing that we can analyze in our mind.
“Do I have that attitude?”
If not, try to apply it. Try to live that way. It’s not easy, but with practice, anything is possible.
So he said, “Be more humble than a blade of grass that bends down when people step on it and doesn’t grumble. And be more forbearing and forgiving than a tree whose fruit gets plundered, branches get broken, but it continues to provide shade and food for everybody.”
We should also try to develop these qualities of tolerance, forgiveness, and humbleness.
Then Mahaprabhuji said, “With these qualities as the foundation for your devotion, repeat Krishna’s name all the time in your heart.”
Keep remembering His name 24 hours a day.
