Humility
Q. What is Humility? Why Humility is a must for the seekers of Integral Yoga? How can we lead a humble life?
Q.1. What is Humility?
Answer: In ordinary life, we have been taught from childhood to be humble always by our parents and teachers. This means, we have to give respect to elders, listen to them without causing any violent reactions etc. That’s all fine as part of our Moral education classes in the schools for ordinary life. When we look at examples of successful people such as Abdul Kalam, Modi, Vajpayee, Draupadi Murmu, Narayana Murthy, Tata, we can know the sheer power of Humility, even at their highest heights, and at the pinnacle of success. They never create any public brawl or spectacle despite being successful. But when success goes to someone’s head, one usually tends to fall apart at those moments of appreciation and show the arrogance. Look at the example of Virat Kohli, a shining world class batsman, but every now and then he brings disrepute to the Gentleman’s Game of Cricket by his arrogant stunts, fights, brawls, animal like attributes on field. Various such examples persist in our day to day life. We meet so many people in our family, society, friends and office circle, we can clearly demarcate people with their quality of humility.
But when we seek to lead a spiritual life, the meaning of humility changes. When I read Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, I got the true meaning of Humility. It is beyond morality.
The Mother says: True humility is humility before the Divine.
It is a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine…Even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the Divine Consciousness.
True humility consists in knowing that the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Will alone exists and that the I is not.
The Mother:
As I have often been questioned about it, I shall touch briefly on the meaning of true humility, supramental plasticity and spiritual rebirth. Humility is that state of consciousness in which, whatever the realisation, you know the infinite is still in front of you. The rare quality of selfless admiration about which I have spoken to you is but another aspect of true humility; for it is sheer arrogance that refuses to admire and is complacent about its own petty achievements, forgetting the infinite which is always ahead of it. However, you need to be humble not only when you have nothing substantial or divine in you but even when you are on the path of transformation. Paradoxical though it may sound, the Divine who is absolutely perfect is at the same time absolutely humble – humble as nothing else can ever be. He is not occupied in admiring Himself: though He is the All, He ever seeks to find Himself in what is not-Himself – that is why He has created in His own being what seems to be a colossal not-Himself, this phenomenal world. He has passed into a form in which He has to discover endlessly in time the infinite contents of that which He possesses entirely in the eternal consciousness.
Q.2. Why Humility is a must for the seekers of Integral Yoga?
The First Quality:
The Mother: Whatever is your personal value or even your individual realisation, the first quality required in yoga is humility.
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The Mother’s Humility By
Champaklal:
Mother’s Humility
I clearly remember this small but significant incident.
In those days Mother was not keeping well. She came out other salon at night and stood near Sri Aurobindo’s door. I was sitting near Sri Aurobindo’s bed. She looked at me and asked: “Can I see Sri Aurobindo?”
Truly her manner of asking touched me deeply. Surely she did not need to ask me if she could come into Sri Aurobindo’s room! And yet she asked.
I said: “Of course. Mother.” And I went inside and informed Sri Aurobindo.
He said: “Yes.”
Champaklal Speaks
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Have a look at the meaning of Humility as per the Mother in the above quotes.
- We have to be humble before the Divine.
- We have to be humble to accept Her Kingdom,
- We are nothing, but puppets in Her hand. But Our BIG EGO completely overpowers us always, we think we are the real doers, we are the original thinkers, we are the unique creators of anything, we are the original discoverers, inventors, writers, actors, teachers, gurus, doctors, etc. completely forgetting the original Source of our power, disregarding the supremacy of the Supreme.
- We are a big zero without the Divine.
- We are a big zero in front of the Divine.
- When we achieve something, we try to claim all praise and recognitions, we try to get all attentions to ourselves only, forgetting the Supreme Mother’s Help in every step in our journey.
- We keep cheating with the Divine Mother as we progress in our spiritual Path, as we chart a new way of living, in parallel with the Divine. Although our spiritual journey started with a sudden spark of the soul’s aspiration to the Divine, we get in touch with the Divine and Her Path because of Her Grace. But later we forget this original fact completely as we progress in our life. We keep on demanding more from the Divine, just because we are following Her Path. We try to fulfil our cravings, seek more audience attention, public clapping, awards, and recognitions for our smallest achievements in any field as if we were the actual doers of our actions.
We must understand, every moment, we are on a loan from the Divine. We are breathing here because of the Divine Grace. We must never forget the power of the Supreme, which can create and destroy the things at the same time. As long as The Mother is sending the oxygen in this world, we will breathe in this world. At least we must be aware of this fact and be grateful to the Divine for this every day when we wake up, when we get another day to live.
The Mother: Humility is that state of consciousness in which, whatever the realisation, you know the infinite is still in front of you.
The rare quality of selfless admiration about which I have spoken to you is but another aspect of true humility; for it is sheer arrogance that refuses to admire and is complacent about its own petty achievements, forgetting the infinite which is always ahead of it.
Sri Aurobindo:
All was abolished save her naked self
And the prostrate yearning of her surrendered heart:
There was no strength in her, no pride of force;
The lofty burning of desire had sunk
Ashamed, a vanity of separate self,
The hope of spiritual greatness fled,
Salvation she asked not nor a heavenly crown:
Humility seemed now too proud a state.
Sri Aurobindo
Impact of Humility
The Mother:
One of the greatest victories of this ineffable humility of God will be the transformation of Matter which is apparently the most undivine. Supramental plasticity is an attribute of finally transformed Matter. The supramental body which has to be brought into being here has four main attributes: lightness, adaptability, plasticity and luminosity. When the physical body is thoroughly divinised, it will feel as if it were always walking on air, there will be no heaviness or tamas or unconsciousness in it. There will also be no end to its power of adaptability: in whatever conditions it is placed it will immediately be equal to the demands made upon it because its full consciousness will drive out all that inertia and incapacity which usually make Matter a drag on the Spirit. Supramental plasticity will enable it to stand the attack of every hostile force which strives to pierce it: it will present no dull resistance to the attack but will be, on the contrary, so pliant as to nullify the force by giving way to it to pass off. Thus it will suffer no harmful consequences and the most deadly attacks will leave it unscathed. Lastly, it will be turned into the stuff of light, each cell will radiate the supramental glory. Not only those who are developed enough to have their subtle sight open but the ordinary man too will be able to perceive this luminosity. It will be an evident fact to each and all, a permanent proof of the transformation which will convince even the most sceptical.
The bodily transformation will be the supreme spiritual rebirth – an utter casting away of all the ordinary past. For spiritual rebirth means the constant throwing away of our previous associations and circumstances and proceeding to live as if at each virgin moment we were starting life anew. It is to be free of what is called Karma, the stream of our past actions: in other words, a liberation from the bondage of Nature’s common activity of cause and effect. When this cutting away of the past is triumphantly accomplished in the consciousness, all those mistakes, blunders, errors and follies which, still vivid in our recollection, cling to us like leeches sucking our life-blood, drop away, leaving us most joyfully free. This freedom is not a mere matter of thought; it is the most solid, practical, material fact. We really are free, nothing binds us, nothing affects us, there is no obsession of responsibility. If we want to counteract, annul or outgrow our past, we cannot do it by mere repentance or similar things, we must forget that the untransformed past has ever been and enter into an enlightened state of consciousness which breaks loose from all moorings. To be reborn means to enter, first of all, into our psychic consciousness where we are one with the Divine and eternally free from the reactions of Karma. Without becoming aware of the psychic, it is not possible to do so; but once we are securely conscious of the true soul in us which is always surrendered to the Divine, all bondage ceases. Then incessantly life begins afresh, then the past no longer cleaves to us. To give you an idea of the final height of spiritual rebirth, I may say that there can be a constant experience of the whole universe actually disappearing at every instant and being at every instant newly created!
The Mother:
To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are nothing and can do nothing; without the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.
Therefore the mind, the vital, and the body must learn and feel, once and for all, that they are wholly incapable of understanding and judging the Divine, not only in his essence but also in his action and manifestation.
This is the only true humility and with it come quiet and peace.
This is also the surest shield against all hostile attack. Indeed, in the human being it is always the door of pride at which the Adversary knocks, for it is this door which opens to let him enter.
Q.3. How can we lead a humble life?
We must dissolve our Ego to lead a humble life.
The moment we progress in our Path, we must be aware that it is the Divine who brought us this far. It is not separate me, who has built this house, did this job, got this award, learnt about Integral Yoga. It is only Her Grace, which brought us closer to Her. She is the doer, creator of everything, planner and organiser of everything, at every step of our life.
The Mother: A true and sincere humility is our safeguard – it is the surest way to the indispensable dissolution of the ego.
Many a time, we are disgusted and not satisfied with life, with changing situations, with jobs, with people around, managers, family members, with society, with happenings in the country etc. Instead of surrendering these testing times before the Divine Mother, we try to act smart by becoming the odd man out. At that very moment, we forget our real self, we forget the sanctity of the place where we live in, we throw tantrums, we create noise, outbursts, release enormous negative energy to the universe. In the process, each of our actions create a blow on the Mother. We have to learn to be an ideal child of the Mother. The first condition of Ideal Child as per the Mother is to be a good tempered child (in Odia we call it: ହେବ. ଥଣ୍ଡାମିଜାଜର).
IS GOOD-TEMPERED
He does not become angry when things seem to go against him or decisions are not in his favour.
IS CHEERFUL
He knows how to smile and keep a happy heart in all circumstances.
IS GENEROUS
He appreciates the merits of others and is always ready to help another to succeed.
ON THE FIELD he applauds a good play of his opponents.
IN SCHOOL he appreciates another’s merit.
IN LIFE he does not ridicule the man who is “down” but encourages him. He is not afraid to voice his opinions straightforwardly and clearly.
IS MODEST
He does not become conceited over his success, neither does he feel himself superior to his comrades.
ON THE FIELD he works for the good of the team rather than for individual honour; he will even sacrifice his own prestige for his team; he is a gracious winner.
IN SCHOOL he does not become conceited over his success, neither does he feel himself superior to his class-mates.
IN LIFE he does not “blow” about what he is going to do; he does not boast about what he has done.
After we accept this fact, we have to decide how we should live this Path, how we should lead a spiritual life with Humility at the centre.
Q. Humility – did You mean being humble towards everybody?
The Mother: Certainly not.
Q. To be humble towards You, yes, that I will do. Let me receive Your Grace so that I may realise humility!
The Mother: It is towards the Divine that you must be humble, an absolute and integral humility.
The Mother: (in Prayers and Meditations) Lord, it is in a heart-felt gratitude that I draw near to Thee. Thou hast given me the first words of the knowledge I so longed for, and with this knowledge has come effectivity, the true power in each field of realisation.
It is only a beginning, it is not an accomplishment; but the road opens, visible and straight, there is nothing to do but to follow it; the veil is rent in answer to the humble but all-powerful effort of the dark days. Grant, O Lord, that the path may be thus lit up for all, and that after having seen clearly into ourselves there may not be any new difficulties for the knowledge to become conscious in others. Despite everything, a human being, no matter how great, is limited, at least for a long time, by the very fact that he is human and because, even when he is in contact with immensity, this immensity is translated in his outer consciousness from the angle of his own personality. It is very difficult for him not to have a perspective partially obliterated as it were by his own viewpoint. But these last obstacles must be overcome, definitively broken down, so that they may no longer be able to rise again. The road must be entirely free and the knowledge that has been glimpsed become firmly established. Thy grace is with us, Lord, and it never leaves us, even when appearances are dark; night is sometimes necessary to prepare more perfect dawns. But perhaps this time Thou hast placed us in the presence of the Dawn that does not pass away….
Receive the offerings of our ardent gratitude and our integral surrender.
I knew that this notebook would end with the closing of one phase of my spiritual life. That is indeed what is happening.
The light has come, the road has opened; with a grateful bow to the laborious past, we shall move swiftly forward on the new way opened wide by Thee before us.
On the threshold of this new field of a vaster and more conscious realisation, we bow before Thee, O Lord, in an integral surrender and adoration. We give ourselves to Thee without reservation.
Once again it is Thou who livest in us, and Thou alone. Thou hast once more become the King of Thy kingdom, but a kingdom vaster and more perfect, a kingdom more worthy of Thy rule.
The Mother: There is one thing that has always been said, but always misunderstood, it is the necessity of humility. It is taken in the wrong way, wrongly understood and wrongly used. Be humble, if you can be so in the right way; above all, do not be so in the wrong way, for that leads you nowhere. But there is one thing: if you can pull out from your-self this weed called vanity, then indeed you will have done something. But if you knew how difficult it is! You cannot do a thing well, cannot have a fine idea, cannot have a right movement, cannot make a little progress without getting puffed up inside (even without being aware of it), with a self-satisfaction full of vanity. And you are obliged then to hammer it hard to break it. And still broken bits remain and these begin to germinate. One must work the whole of one’s life and never forget to work in order to uproot this weed that springs up again and again and again so insidiously that you believe it is gone and you feel very modest and say: “It is not I who have done it, I feel it is the Divine, I am nothing if He is not there”, and then the next minute, you are so satisfied with yourself simply for having thought that!
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Q: What is the right and the wrong way of being humble?
It is very simple, when people are told “be humble”, they think immediately of “being humble before other men” and that humility is wrong. True humility is humility before the Divine, that is, a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness, and this sense one must always keep, because then one always has the true attitude of receptivity – a humble receptivity that does not put personal pretensions in opposition to the Divine.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1953): 13 May 1953
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Q: Mother, when we make an effort, there’s something in us which becomes very self-satisfied and boastful and contented with this effort, and that spoils everything. Then how can we get rid of this?
Ah, that’s what looks on at what it is doing! There is always someone who observes when one is doing something. Now sometimes, he becomes proud. Obviously, this takes away much strength from the effort. I think it is that: it is the habit of looking at oneself acting, looking at oneself living. It is necessary to observe oneself but I think it is still more necessary to try to be absolutely sincere and spontaneous, very spontaneous in what one does: not always to go on observing oneself, looking at what one is doing, judging oneself – sometimes severely. In fact it is almost as bad as patting oneself with satisfaction, the two are equally bad. One should be so sincere in his aspiration that he doesn’t even know he is aspiring, that he becomes the aspiration itself. …
One minute, one minute of this, and you can prepare years of realisation. When one is no longer a self-regarding being, an ego looking at itself acting, when one becomes the action itself, above all in the aspiration, this truly is good. When there is no longer a person who is aspiring, when it is an aspiration which leaps up with a fully concentrated impulsion, then truly it goes very far. Otherwise there is always mixed up in it a little vanity, a little self-complacency, a little self-pity also, all kinds of little things which come and spoil everything.
The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 17 November 1954
A Poem on Humility
Man invented, achieved a lot, and broke impossible limits
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Space Tourism, Drones
Internet, Gene Editing, Bringing water from Moon and Mars,
The pacific mystery to climbing Mount Everest
But Man’s highest heights of intelligence is peanuts
Before the Divine Consciousness and Creations
Without the Divine, he is nothing but ignorance, chaos, and impotence.
As Intellectual Man forgets one thing completely
To become humble and simple and well-behaved.
He becomes the Only animal in the world who
Goes into depression and suicide despite knowing brain mapping techniques
Faces emotional turbulence of fear, anger despite knowing heart replacement
He fails to win over death, disease, and decay despite
Claiming to be the most omnipotent and omniscient.
Only Reason for this human folly and stupidity
He kicks out his own creator God
As he enjoys and wastes the time gifted by the Divine.
He forgets that his entire life as a gift from the Divine
All his properties are temporary forces, not permanent
Nothing is all his own that he creates: prosperity, knowledge or power
As all his territorial claims are Divine’s Assets.
Nothing stays with man permanently except the soul
Neither material prosperity
Nor his six-pack growth in physical
Nor overloaded Information on his head
But will the most intelligent animal, the Man ever
Know his folly and gross stupidity?
Know his highest intelligence is peanuts before the Divine?
Come out of these trapping illusions of money, power, and sex?
Stop dancing like a slave to their tunes?
Control his thoughts, desires, and other inner challenges?
Overcome his anger, depression, suffering, and death?
Realize his true self, his true potential?
Time to be humble and admit finally and
Feel that separate “I” does not exist
As “Supreme” controls, creates and carries everything
We are all parts and creations of that One Eternal Divine
Because “Humility to the Divine” is the only right attitude
For this realization, Man has to be humble first.
But true humility is humility before the Divine
To live each moment with loving gratitude to the Divine,
As this is the Need of the Hour
To respect the call of the Divine
To show absolute and integral humility for the Divine
To save humans from all acts of stupidities and chaos
To cultivate spiritual humility, Man should
Show Truth, nobility, and disinterestedness in his actions
Live life without any desire or attachments
Feel that he is a dot in the Supreme creation
And He is nothing without the Divine Grace
Accept the great Divine sanction when he gets a blow, or a pain
A Man will be truly humble when he:
Places himself before the Divine
Refers himself every time to the Lord and His Instrument
Stops judging people or things or revolting
Feels that he is only a Divine Instrument
Breathes from the breath of the Divine
Gets the eternal and universal joy and delight in his psychic
Does all works for the Supreme Divine
Understands everything with His Love and Knowledge
When a Man becomes humble, he will
Start to realize the Divine in things and people
Have no sense of superiority, pretensions, or doubts
Be open to all with no jealousy or prejudice
Stay grounded and down to earth at his very roots,
Feels that he is an intermediary state between the psychic and the Divine
Remove the words from his outer life forever -
I, Me, Mine, Our, I think, I feel, I see, My Way, My own, My understanding,
A Perfect Humility with Divine will lead to
A condition of full realisation
A life full of sincerity, delight and genuineness
Growth in consciousness for the sake of harmony
Concrete surrender and love for the Divine
A belief that Divine is the only safeguard and the happiness
A strong will power and aspiration that can erase our past Karma
A chance to unite with the Supreme
Spontaneous starting point of Yoga Sadhana
