The science of humility

Humility is the cornerstone of spiritual life. I was meditating on why humility is stressed so much in spiritual life. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prayed one should be humble and then tolerant. Humility precedes tolerance in His prayer. If we deeply think why, we can understand there can be no tolerance without humility. In other words, by being humble other good qualities such as tolerance, compassion, unconditional service, love to all living entities etc develops within one’s heart. Therefore, cultivating humility is the defining growth factor in one’s spiritual life.

Is humility a mere sentiment or a made up emotion one carries as one is experienced in spiritual life or is it a natural product of realizing one’s constitutional position with God? It is said in the Vedas that jivatmas (individual souls) are anu (infitesimal) in nature and God is Vibhu (infinite) in nature. So in comparison to God we are very tiny.

It is often cited that individual souls are like the sun rays and God is like the sun. Modern science defines individual sun rays by the property called photons. In other words, photons are the elementary particles in visible light of which sun is the source. Let us briefly analyze the property of a photon in comparison to a sun. It is said that a photon technically has no mass which means it exerts no pressure on anything. Modern science declares that photons have no mass and the sun has a mass of 1.98892 x 10 to the power of 30 kilograms. Though the photon has no mass, it has energy and momentum. The energy carried by a single photon particle is around 4 x 10 to the power of -19 joules. On the other hand, each square meter of area on earth facing the sun receives about 1380 joules per second (nearly 2 horsepower) from the sun. My point of it all is a single particle of photon in reality is absolutely insignificant in comparison to the sun. However, if the photon imagines itself to be the sun, there is no more foolishness than that as the above physical properties speaks for itself. Similarly, individual souls are like the photons where we have absolutely no power and control over anything.

Therefore the individual souls in reality are very very tiny in comparison to God who is all powerful and great. If we understand this concept, then we can appreciate the concept of humility. In other words, humility is not a made up sentiment or an artificial display but it is our original constitutional position which is infitesimal in relation to God’s infinite position. So to the degree we realize our original nature of anu and God’s nature of vibhu, to that degree we can call ourselves humble and after that it will not be a forced emotion anymore but a happy place where we will eternally be situated in our original constitutional nature in relationship to God. Henceforth humility is the cornerstone in Krishna Consciousness because one cannot be conscious of Krishna constantly if one does not position oneself appropriately in relation to Krishna. Once we come to this realization of anu (our true nature and position), then our tolerance, compassion, service and love to all living entities will be unlimited. On the contrary, if we think we are something other than anu, then we have false ego and that blocks our unlimited ability to serve and love.

Hare Krishna