Bhagavad Gita Ch16 part 14 on 02 October 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Mohur Om Vasudevasudham Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadho Gavo Dhogda Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdham Geetha Amritam Mokam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langayate Girim Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramananda Madhavam We have been studying the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita of this from verses 1st to 3rd. 26 spiritual qualities have been beautifully put forward by Lord Krishna without which spiritual progress is not possible. As we go on acquiring these qualities, we will be progressing in spiritual life and as we go on progressing, our facility to develop these qualities will also simultaneously grow faster and faster. In our last class, we have seen the 25th quality, what is called Adrohaha. According to Shankara, Adrohaha means Parajigamsa Abhavaha, Ahimsanam. Adrohaha means freedom from malice, absence of the desire to injure others, absence of hatred. We have discussed several varieties of Drohaha. In plain English language, Drohaha means deviating from the right path and betraying the others. As examples, I have given Desha Drohaha, Dharma Drohaha, Guru Drohaha, etc. Betraying one's country, betraying one's religion or God, betraying one's own teacher. In so many ways, we do that. We never pay attention. If the slightest something happens to any one of our family members, immediately our whole mind becomes affected either positively or negatively. But what happens to the Guru, whether he is okay, absolutely some people only occasionally they will be asking, how are you, etc. But they are not interested in the teacher's welfare at all. That is purely physical. That is not too serious. But what is serious is that not to follow with tremendous sincerity and without deviating what he had instructed them to do and considering one's teacher as just somebody who helped me to get up when I stumbled upon the road. Just say thank you. You have given me initiation and that is the end of it. And for most people, this is the condition. I can assure you that anybody who is still not out of this kind of condition, that person definitely is not progressing in spiritual life and until it is gotten rid of, he will not be able to progress in spiritual life. So now we come to the last 26th quality. Don't think that 26 means only 26. There are so many others are there. These are some of the important spiritual qualities that are highlighted. The 26th one is called Natimanita. What is Natimanita? Atmanita means to feel that I am so and so. Atimanita means entire attention is focused only upon I and me and my absence of this evil quality because so many qualities are expressed in a positive language. So many qualities are expressed in negative language by putting one negative prefix, Akrodha for example, etc. That means they all belong to the opposite, that is worldly, that is qualities which bind us more and more in our spiritual life and which will not allow us to move forward at all. Those who are sincerely wishing to progress in spiritual life must pay special attention to these 26 qualities. The greatness of this 16th chapter is everywhere throughout the Bhagavad Gita, these qualities have been scattered. We find it in the 18 chapters but nowhere have they been gathered in such large numbers and presented to us in such crystal clear terms. We are fortunate, instead of our doing it, the Lord himself has taken the trouble to catalog these things and present them to us. So the last such quality, not least, even though it is Atimanita, in other words what? Absence of egotism, absence of pride and he who has got tremendous pride, his whole circumference is nothing but I and mine. He cannot, such a person, man or woman, cannot see beyond that periphery. He is completely like the cocoon of a butterfly or a fish which enters voluntarily into a trap. He is quite happy with that and in whom such Atimanitva, too much of me-ness, mine-ness, in fact the English word meanness means that he who has got too much of me, that person can be categorized as too much of egotistic person. Me-ness is main-mindedness. So one in whom this is much less, such a person is called Natimani, that he is not having it. Absence of that self-worship, self-glory, selfishness in everywhere, that is called 26th quality Imanita. But if we look at it in the opposite way, what is it called? Humility. What is humility? Bhagavan Krishna considers humility as one of the great spiritual qualities without which one cannot advance in spiritual life. So if Atimanita is pride, vanity, conceit, overestimating oneself and exhibiting oneself in every way, then this Natimanita is absence of all these things which means complete humility. Humility is one of the greatest spiritual qualities and we are going to discuss about it now. Now before we go further, there is a beautiful book called Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Patanjali was supposed to be the compiler or classifier of things which were existing, of knowledge which was existing already and telling what is the greatest obstruction to yoga or spiritual progress. Let us always remember yoga means spiritual progress. Karma yoga means progressing spiritually through actions. Bhakti yoga means progressing spiritually through devotional acts. Praja yoga means progressing spiritually through concentration and meditation. And Jnana yoga means progressing spiritually through proper discrimination of the intellect, proper cultivation of dispassion, proper cultivation of mind control and increasing the tremendous desire, intense desire for liberation, what is called Sadhana Chitrushtaya Sampati, that is called Jnana Marga. Now what is important is there are people who go on doing karma yoga but we don't see progress. On the other hand, a desire for name and fame, for recognition, for other people's worship of him, praising him directly, even better indirectly, these things do not indicate the spiritual progress to karma yoga. Similarly, a devotee, very devotionally the person is doing puja regularly, completely absorbed and completely self-satisfied that I am one of the great devotees of God. But the selfishness, the desire for sharing, caring, sympathy, empathy, these things are completely absent in them. This is called cocooning oneself with even these spiritual practices. And a person who goes on discriminating but indiscriminately discriminating and trying to cause harm to other people, that is no way to progress in Jnana yoga. Similarly, concentration meditation without proper development of Sattva Guna or discrimination is the most dangerous thing. Swami Yathishwaranandaji Maharaj used to give the example of Hitler. He had tremendous self-confidence, tremendous amount of concentration but yet it all turned out to be the root cause of so much of problem in people's lives. So this we are talking about, Patanjali Rishi says how this ignorance slowly leads to pure selfishness. How does it? He says first ignorance is there and that is the mother, it gives birth to avidya, gives birth to asmita. Asmi means egotism. This is me and that's it. The whole world is nothing but me and this egotism immediately manifests in the form of I like this, I don't like this. Likes and dislikes are normal, they are not bad things at all. But if it is intensely related with the I, that is when they start binding us. For example, there is poison. Naturally, I don't like poison and there is something extremely sweet, very very nice and health promoting, I like it. There is nothing wrong in it but only me, my likes, my dislikes, the whole world must recognize what I like, what I don't like and do what I like and promote or remove what I don't like. This complete cocoon-ness is called pragadvesha, that is what binds. And because this body is the root cause of all, the most important instrument and the only instrument through which my likes can be fulfilled, my dislikes can be driven away, so this body intends attachment to the body. Let billions people die, I don't care. But me, the moment somebody touches even with the softest feather, I scream. This is what happens. So Patanjali had put his finger right on the problem, that is what is called asmita, egotism. And absence of this egotism and recognizing my I-ness depends upon God's I-ness. My glory depends upon God's glory. My body depends upon God's body. My life depends upon God's grace, that is called nathimanitha. So let us explore this thing in some detail. Overblown egotism is called nathimanitha and the exact opposite of that is humility. So first let us discuss what is it that comes to pride. Pride means overgrown, overstrong egotism. So pride, also called hubris or vanity, is considered as the most serious of the seven deadly sins. You know, every religion recognizes these sins. What is a sin? According to Hinduism, what keeps us obtaining right knowledge is a sin. Ignorance of right knowledge is called sin. There are seven deadly sins and of all these, the greatest is called pride. So pride is considered as the most serious of the seven deadly sins. It is the ultimate source from which every other sin arises. Pride generates egotism and what does egotism do? It obscures truth regarding ourselves as exalted, superior or worthy of adoration and cherishing intense craving for fame, honor, prestige and respect and feeling happy on getting these even if we do not hanker after them. This is called pride. That is overestimating ourselves. It breeds excessive love of self and makes one look down upon all others. Every great man practically has something to say about this pride. So regarding this, Dante, one of the greatest of those ancient poets, he says love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor. Whereas the Bible says that love for one's neighbor is love thyself, love thy God with all thyself and love, next commandment is love thy neighbor as thyself. Here the exact opposite is what Dante says, love of self and it becomes perverted to hatred because the other person doesn't cognize me, recognize me, honor me, hurts me in some way even if that person doesn't mean. So hatred and contempt for one's neighbor, that is called pride. The natural tendency of most of us is to appear important in the eyes of others. This desire expresses itself as pride and vanity. True inquiry into the self compels man to relinquish pride as a disease of the mind. Pride makes us feel that we are the center of the world. We have high self-esteem which is often a mask behind which our own self-esteem is hidden. Now psychologists tell us something very interesting. A person who has got tremendous amount of powers or some talent, often they become very humble. Whereas the person who lacks them, he wants to compensate them. An inferior person exhibits tremendous amount of superiority complex. That's because he wants to prove to himself, I am better than others and incidentally finding fault with others is exactly serves the same purpose. What does it do? Finding fault with others in simple words is that I am better than others. Others have got these faults. I don't have that fault. So I am better than the other persons. Pride makes us feel we are all powerful, all-knowing and faultless. Pride makes us impatient and distrusting. It breeds contempt for those who do not subscribe to our philosophy, to our beliefs and to our way of life. If others do not agree with our views, we become sarcastic and biting. Pride makes us look down upon our noses at people who react negatively to our beliefs and views. Pride makes us deny the warning signs that there is something seriously wrong with us and thus we become easy prey for a downfall when a serious crisis or disaster strikes our lives. Pride comes before a fall. Pride, vanity, etc. are qualities derived from tamo guna. A characteristic of tamas is pride. Pride and delusion come from tamas. Now one cannot naturally attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Ramakrishna says, water doesn't accumulate on the top of a mound but flows into lowland. It flows in torrents from all sides. And what is most wonderful, it is very difficult to recognize our pride because like Mahishasura in the Chandi, it can take on any particular form. There are so many forms of pride. Just a little bit we are going to think about it. But our ancient rishis had recognized this manifold manifestations of pride. So here is a beautiful, what is called Asta Pasha put in a beautiful verse form, shloka form. Eightfold this Asta Pasha, every one of them, that is whatever generates this pride, whatever may be the source and that all goes to bind us, not to release us. That's why it is called Pasha. Pasha means binding rope. Asta Pasha, eight types of these ropes are there and most of us fall into one or the other of that. Grina, shanka, bhayam, lajja, jugupsa, chaiti, panchami, kulam, shelancha, manancha, astaupasha, prakeerthitaha. So what is grina, hating, shanka, always doubting, bhayam, always fearing, lajja, always feeling ashamed, jugupsa, looking down everything as unworthy. Then kulam, I am born of an exceedingly venerated, respected family. Shelam, I am of such great character. I am the embodiment of all great qualities. My character is flawless, faultless and then I, everybody has to respect me, revere me. When they say, they must bow down to me, they must not be sitting, they must be getting up. Astaupasha, prakeerthitaha, these eight forms, only eight? No, there are many more are there, but these eight are only representative samples, that's all. Now I am going to add a few more. Deha, I have got a most wonderful body. Kula, my family is very ancient, very highly respected family. Payaha, I am an old man, the pride of old man. Everybody should respect me. Saundarya, I am Mr. Universe, Miss Universe. I am a great scholar, learning and I am the president of such and such a huge country. I am controlling. You will just open your eyes. Look at so many, what is called demonic presidents, demonic prime ministers. They are all going on only trying to enforce or gather more and more power, more and more respect and more and more fear in other people, etc. Anybody, whether it is real or imagined, whom they think is going to be a rival to me, I will try to remove them. Even if it means tremendous amount of economic downfall and it means millions of people will be affected and their suffering will be increasing. I don't care. I cannot broke any opposition towards this that affects my power, etc. So pride of power, pride of position, pride of beauty, pride of strength. You know there are some people and Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest wrestlers and he had written his autobiography. What was the title? I am the greatest. Pride of wealth, I am one of the wealthiest persons on earth. Pride of ancestry, pride of power and position, talent. I have got tremendous talent. Oh my God! How these men and women preen themselves if they are great what is called musicians, sculptors, writers or any form some talent is there. Oh my God! How they go on preening themselves. Pride of name and fame, etc. If I am having a lot of name and fame and if somehow I come to know some other people's name and fame is exceeding a little bit than me then my whole Ahankara becomes wrecked. I will be shaking with uncontrollable anger, peacelessness, I can't even sleep until I get rid of that person. I cannot sleep in peace. How much misery they bring of these people upon other people is Bhagawan God alone knows and we don't know. So these are the directly that create a tremendous amount of self-worship. But there is something called vicarious experience or vicarious experience. What is it? Many, especially parents feel proud when their children become doctors, engineers and successful business people. They shoot themselves to fame and power, etc. and the parents, they are most ordinary people. But you know my son is an MP. My son is a great surgeon. My son is a great actor, musician, etc., etc. The parents feel as if no other parents are equal to themselves. Even though they have nothing but by identifying themselves with others that is the many psychological novels depict this kind of vicarious experiences and very few people are aware. Why? Because as we have seen in the end of the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita yad yad vibhuti mat sattvam srimadurjita me vava tat tadeva avagacchatvam mamate jo amsha sambhavam Wherever there is some peeping out of greatness, power in whatever form know that it is all my manifestation. So there is no good. In fact, the whole universe is nothing but manifestation of Creator who is God. God is manifesting as I, as you and as everything in this world as the mountains, as the rivers, as the forests, as the living and non-living, everything. There is nothing else excepting the Self, sarvam kalvidam brahma. But people forget their divine nature and these are the qualities and especially this particular quality called pride or egotism, etc. that obscures the vision of God. What does it do? Really mean in practical terms. That is what we need to see. What is going to happen? Practical terms. Many become vain even when there is nothing to be proud about. These unspiritual qualities like pride, secretiveness and the like are so many bonds which keep man in ignorance. Man is free only when he is liberated from all these. Of all forms of pride, the worst and most harmful is spiritual pride. You see, there was a funny character called Hajira and he lived with Sri Ramakrishna for several years and yet he used to preen himself and he used to even criticize Sri Ramakrishna. It all comes from pride. I am doing so much japa. Sri Ramakrishna never does any japa. What kind of teacher is he? And following him, his disciples also are not doing anything. It is all a very horrible situation and he used to advise the devotees and disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who used to come to him. Oh, this person is absolutely a horrible person. Don't go to him. You come to me. I am going to give you everything. Of all forms of pride, the worst and most harmful is spiritual pride. That is why I quoted Hajira's case. If the pride of spirituality enters into you, woe unto you. It is the most awful bondage that ever existed. Neither can wealth nor any other bondage of the human heart bind the soul so much as this. And then there is the same spiritual pride manifest in the form of I am purer than others. In India, in Sanskrit language, in every language, there is a special word is used. And you know what is that word? It is Shuchibaitva. I am very clean. See, even though I am putting on the same unwashed cloths of taking bath, but the fellow, see that fellow never takes a bath. Whereas I am taking bath and you are stinking. It is worse than animals, worse than pigs. And yet you are priding and that you are taking bath. So you are very pure, etc. In how many ways Mahamaya can delude us? Only she knows. Only through her grace we can come out of it. So this attitude, I am purer than others and most of the religious people. That is what Jesus Christ was pointing out. You hypocrites, even the most ordinary religious person is far superior to you in spirituality. Ostentatiously you are priding yourself that I am a great religious person. I occupy the position of a religious teacher and yet what you do from morning till evening is nothing but behaving like a demon of which we are going to come very soon. So if anybody thinks I am purer than others, in what sense are you pure? The God in you is the God in all. If you have not known this, you have known nothing. How can there be any difference? It is all one. Every being is the temple of the Most High. If you can see that, good. If not, spirituality has yet to come to you. Who said this? Swami Vivekananda. But we need not think that all pride is inimical and dangerous. This is another aspect of our discussion on pride. There is a form of pride which is spiritual, which is positive and highly helpful in spiritual life. This spiritual pride is the result of the grace of God. So Ramakrishna says, the ego of a devotee begets no pride. It doesn't create ignorance. On the contrary, it helps one realize God. Haven't you heard Ram Prasad's song? He used to say, whom do I fear in this world? Whom, whose sovereign is the Divine Mother? When the Divine Mother herself is protecting me, who dares to harm me? How can I be hurt? Keep such a pride always awake in your mind. If you must have pride, then feel like Vibhishana, who said, I have touched the feet of Rama with my head. I will not bow this head before anyone else. Ramakrishna adds a very beautiful incident in the Mahabharata. Of course, we don't get it in the Vyasa Mahabharata, but Ramakrishna must have got it from some local Mahabharata. But it serves the purpose, that is important. What are we going to say? See, after finishing the war, after conquering all the enemies, Yudhishthira was advised to perform a great sacrifice. And in that sacrifice, because he had performed that Rajasuya Yagna, he had to be bowed down. So what happened? Vibhishana, it is a belief among Hindus, that Vibhishana, who was the contemporary of Sri Rama, is even now, he is alive. There are five beings who are called Chiranjeevis. One of them is Hanuman, one of them is Ashwathama, one of them is this Vibhishana. So this Vibhishana, he was invited. He was the emperor of Lanka. This is only a story. Don't believe it. So he came and he was honoured as the greatest devotee of Sri Rama. And then the time has come, everybody has to bow down. You are the greatest of Kshatriyas, warriors, because you had performed this Rajasuya Yagna. And everybody was bowing down. That is when Vibhishana said, that I have touched the feet of Rama with my head and I will not bow this head before anyone else. Krishna understood. This is not pride. This is only nobody is greater than Rama. Then Krishna himself made Sastang Pranam to Yudhishthira in front of everybody, acknowledging the superiority of Yudhishthira. And Vibhishana knew, he is Rama only, reincarnated in the form of Krishna. As soon as Vibhishana saw that, and crown and all, he falls at the feet of Yudhishthira. Because if Rama could do that in the form of Krishna, and who am I not to do it? This is called the positive spiritual type of pride. This kind of spiritual pride also helps us overcome frustration and depression. How is this kind of spiritual pride going to help us? So there was a disciple of Swamiji and at one time he was in doldrums and he was in a very depressed mood. And then he must have written a letter to Swamiji that I am a goner and nobody can save me. And then Swami Vivekananda wrote to him. And then he says, the disciple who was feeling low, if you are feeling like this, then think like this. Swamiji was advising his disciple, since you are thinking I am low, change your thinking, think like this. Whose child am I? I associate with him. And shall I have such a weak-mindedness and lowness of spirits, stamping down such weakness of mind and heart, stand up saying, I am possessed of heroism, I am possessed of a steady intellect, I am a knower of Brahman, a man of illumination. I am the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. I am the disciple of Swami Vivekananda. And if my Guru is such a great Brahman, who in hell can harm me? What can this do? And you see, Swamiji has written to one of his favourite disciples who was also perhaps feeling like that. Go to the very bottom that anybody can go down, but I will come flying to you, catch hold of the tuft of your hair and lift you up and there is no power on earth which can prevent me doing this. This is called spiritual pride. So it helps us remembering, okay, by myself I am nothing, but my Guru is also, my Ishta Devata is so-and-so, what can harm me? I am a child of God, I am a child of the Divine Mother. That's what Swami Vivekananda is telling. Be fully conscious of your dignity by remembering I am the disciple of so-and-so who is the companion in life of Sri Ramakrishna, the conqueror of lust and wealth. This will produce a good effect. He who has entered this pride has no awakening of Brahman within him. There is a curious tradition in India that if somebody is criticising one's Guru, either one should give him some nice blows if necessary and shut him up or run away from the place. Why? Because often there is a curious psychology is there. If someone is criticising my Guru and if I believe that this criticism is a good, right criticism, then the effect will be that am I such a stupid fellow with all my intelligence I elected this kind of Guru. So it is not that the Guru's ego is hurt, it is my ego is hurt. Similarly the opposite, if someone is praising my Guru, oh my Guru is such a great soul, so I also must be a great soul because I had that intelligence to choose him as my Guru. We have to be very very cautious not to fall into such psychological traps. Even, there is a saying, even if my teacher, my Guru is the worst sinner in the world, he visits toddy shops, he visits public houses but as far as I am concerned he is God incarnate for me. This kind of faith alone helps us progress in spiritual life. So the next question that comes is do we have that kind of harmful pride? Are we aware of our pride? The answer to the first question is for both questions actually, no, no is the answer. Are we having pride? Of course you are having pride. How do you know? Because are you a realized soul? Only an aware of Atman, he is free from all these things, body consciousness, mind consciousness, identity with the body mind, etc. Not to speak of all other identities. Second answer is that are we at least aware, okay, I have this pride but what is spirituality? To become intensely aware. Otherwise what happens? Either I go on being ignorant all my life or if it goes too much I will be taken to a psychiatrist or a psychologist and then pay heavy price and then he will ferret out these are the negative ideas, negative thoughts which are stopping, which are greatest obstacles for your further progress. If it is right kind of pride, do you know what is the result? The result is the right kind of pride produces right kind of happiness and if it is unspiritual pride to that extent whatever we may be, whatever we may have, it produces exactly the same opposite effect that is unhappiness. Our health will not be alright, our knowledge will be wrong knowledge and our happiness will be complete suffering even though billions of people would be very happy to be in our shoes. So are we aware of our pride? Do we suffer from pride and vanity? Yes, many of us are blissfully unaware of our pride, egotism and vanity. A little self-enquiry is sure to confirm that we suffer excessively from pride etc. Not only that, when we take to spiritual life we become what we call sensitive plants. We become highly sensitive even if an innocent remark or consciously or unconsciously made slightest criticism puts us off and for days and months we may be suffering from badly hurt pride. We take offense. That means we are not open to truth and surely we are suffering from this disease called pride. Pride is a deadly poison. No one likes a proud person. Have you ever come across? Look around and say whom is it that you hate much? Only a proud person. No one likes a proud and vain person. Pride makes others unhappy and resentful towards us. It also makes us miserable, hampers our happiness and creativity and bars our progress in spiritual life. Until we recognize and take steps to eradicate this demon of pride there is no hope of progress in any field of life. So the crucial $64,000 question what is it? How to get rid of this pride? Getting rid of pride, getting rid of egotism, getting rid of selfishness they all amount to the same. How do we get rid of pride and vanity? The best antidote to pride and vanity is the practice of humility. The practice of humility opens all doors to peace, prosperity and truth in this world as well as the other world. Humility and its practice will be discussed. Now, practice of humility. Humility is the foundation of all virtues. When a person wants to construct a huge building what is it that first he does? He goes on digging deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper the earth. That is called humility. Go on removing all excessive earth. Lay the very foundations upon this strong foundation of humility. The stronger, the deeper the humility. The stronger the humility the stronger is the foundation upon which this spiritual edifice can be constructed. Sri Ramakrishna says Do you know my attitude? As for myself, I eat, drink and live happily. The rest, my Divine Mother knows. Indeed, there are three words that breathe my flesh. Guru, Master and Father. There is only one Guru and that is Satchitananda, God. He alone is the teacher. My attitude towards God is that of a child towards its mother. One can get human Gurus by the million. All want to be teachers but who cares to be a disciple. There is a very popular and beautiful saying in North India. Chela mile lakh lakh lakhs, hundreds of thousands of Gurus, Gurus are available. Ek na mile chela. So lakh lakh Guru mile Ek mile chela. Lakhs of Gurus are available. Everybody, even most sincerely advises other people but the person himself never practices. We are all great in giving free advice especially to our friends and family members, everybody, but who cares to be a disciple. Sri Ramakrishna has beautiful stories regarding to this but I will not go into those things. Remember, the disciple who came to a Guru and asked, what do you do? I just sit and teach now and then. What do the others do? They all work whole hard day, very hard work. So, what do you want to become? I want to become a Guru. It is a beautiful parable. Go through it. Girish Chandra Ghosh used to say that Sri Ramakrishna conquered the world by humility. He was a personification of humility. In order to destroy the vanity born of noble descent and to acquire true humility he cleaned very carefully with his own hands the places which are absolutely shunned as unclean by others. All saints by nature are humble. Humility means a personification of humility. Pride, an excessive belief in one's own abilities, a high regard for oneself and one's ability and the opposite of it is called humility. Humility is the very opposite of pride, vanity and egotism. It is the only virtue which can destroy egotism, root and branch. And until one gets rid of pride and egotism there is no chance of progressing in spiritual life. That means there is no chance of enjoying peace and happiness. If we do not consciously try to get rid of egotism life will do that for us in a painful way. Unfortunately, so many of us are made to learn these great lessons through painful experiences. God has given us eyes, the power of observation and that great skill called finding fault with others. If we can also use that same power of observation and find out how others, happy people, what is it that makes them happy then we can learn great lessons from them. Humility is the greatest destroyer of egotism. Quoting Tulsi Das, Swami Brahmanji says, Tulsi Das is a liar. If God cannot be realized by truthfulness, obedience and motherly attitude towards other women. Commenting on the above saying, Brahmanandaji says, do you know what obedience is? It's humility. When the right kind of humility comes, egoism is destroyed and God is realized. Speaking of humility, what does Christ has to say? He says, learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart. Whosoever will be cheap among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man came to serve. In the last today, before he was betrayed, Jesus Christ was accepted by his twelve disciples as a son of God, means as an incarnation of God. He washed their feet and then he says, if I, your teacher, can wash your feet, how much more should you practice humility and selflessness? We all heard about Newton. When people praised him for his knowledge, Newton used to say, I have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then, finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Following Newton, Sri M, the chronicler of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna also used to say the same thing. He used to say that one cannot realize God until the ego is completely destroyed. And Sri Ramakrishna used to illustrate this beautifully through the analogy of a bullock. Egotism is so injurious to man that as long as it is not eradicated, there is no salvation for him. Look at the young calf and the troubles that come upon it through egotism. As soon as it is born, it starts crying, Ham Hai, I am, I am. The result of its egotism is that when it grows up, it is yoked to the plough to drag heavily loaded carts or used in cultivating the rough land. But still, in spite of all this punishment, the animal doesn't lose its egotism. For drums are made of its hide and these drums produce a same sound of Ham, Ham, Hai, Hai. The creature doesn't learn humility. But at last, a cart and carter comes and he makes an instrument out of the bow strings, out of its entrails. It is then that animal's intestines sing out Tu Hai, Tu Hai, You are, Thou art, I must go and give place to the Thou. And this is not achieved until man becomes spiritually awakened. When a man becomes perfect, he becomes truly humble and tender. But the opposite also we have to take. As we become more and more humble and tender, we are also approaching perfection. And Shri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example. What is the state which a Siddha, perfect man attains? In Sanskrit, this word Siddha has got two meanings. Siddha means a person who has attained perfection. Siddha means when a fruit or a vegetable or a leaf is perfectly boiled. So Shri Ramakrishna says, as a potato or brinjal becomes soft and pulpy, when it gets boiled, so a man when he becomes a Siddha is seen to be all humility and tenderness. Humility or humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness and vanity. Now humility versus worthlessness. This is a psychological beautiful understanding we have to come about. Being humble, however, doesn't mean feeling worthless or having a low opinion of oneself. It doesn't mean one should have an inferiority complex. It certainly does not mean one should compare oneself unfavorably with others. There is a beautiful saying, no pride is pride that expresses the glory of the soul. No humility is humility that humiliates the self. I read out again. No pride is pride that expresses the glory of the soul. The greatest expression of the glory of the soul and that is the most wonderful manifestation of pride. But humility that humiliates the self, that means himself, is the worst type of humility. No humility is a humility that humiliates the self. Ramakrishna says, many a man with a show of humility says I am like an earthworm groveling in the dust. In this way, going on thinking in this way, they always become in course of time nothing more than earthworms. Let not despondency ever enter into your heart. Despair is the greatest enemy in the path of progress. There is a beautiful saying, as a man thinks, so he becomes. So humility is a quality by which a man has a modest estimate of his own worth but submits himself to God and others. A humble person respects himself, respects others because he recognizes the innate divinity, latent potentialities of all beings. Humility is a quality achieved with great effort and spiritual practice. Prayer and the repetition of the holy name of God are of help in acquiring the humility. We must also finally distinguish between humility and timidity. In most cases, our humility is only another form of timidity and ineffectuality. We are cowed down by the immensity of powers playing around us and feel that we cannot play up to such greatness. But an aspirant of God must not be cowed by worldly powers. He must rise above them. So, how to practice humility? The practice of humility involves certain practices. First, one should never have a base or inferior opinion of oneself. One should have a healthy rational self-respect. Two, one should respect all creation at the manifestation of God. The Indian custom of greeting others with Namaste, salutation to the Lord within you is a great custom. Three, one should never criticize or find fault with anyone because criticizing or find faulting is the greatest enemy of humility. All that the essence of finding fault is I am great and you are not. Four, one should never feel jealous of others. However humble may be our outward behavior, entertaining jealousy indicates we are inwardly conceited and intolerant. Fifth, one should be open-minded to receive the truth from whatever sources or from whomsoever it comes. Remember the story of Shankaracharya. He learnt the greatest lesson from a chandala. So, we should be open-hearted to receive truth from whatever source it comes. Six, one should strive to unfold one's latent talents and use them in the realization of the Lord. Not to do so is unspiritual. Finally, seven, one should never forget humility means seeing God in everything. A person endowed with these attributes enjoys happiness and peace. In conclusion, the Lord says, This is Shankaracharya's commentary. Absence of that, too much of rigor to ourselves. That is absence of the feeling of once being too honorable. All those who are born of spiritual qualities, they are born with these qualities. What kind of qualities? Divine qualities. And, if anybody is born of these qualities and strives to improve them, he is sure to make progress. Hey, Bharata dynasty, who is worthy of excellence, that one, you are born with that, he is going to tell in the future, but we have to strive our level best to acquire these 26 qualities. We have taken a lot of time, but hopefully in the future, we will sail through because the opposite of these qualities is what is called demonic qualities. And then, why should we know about it? So that beforehand, if we know this quality is unspiritual quality, we can avoid them. We will discuss these things in our next class. Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna