humility is an expression of our original state

I understood through the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and the words of my beloved Spiritual master that God is Just and how He deals with us is also Just. What I experience today is because of my own past activities. I learnt that we should humble ourself completely in front of God. In the beginning I did not quite understand humility...not that I do now but I am starting to understand the surface of humility. What it means to be humble.

If I stole something from someone and people called me a thief and if I accept it I thought it to be humility. However, in this world we steal but we do not accept we have stolen. We consume resources unlimitedly from Mother Nature but we do not have the decency to pay back. We do not accept we are constantly stealing from God. I thought, spiritually speaking, I will accept that God supplies my wants and hence I will be humble. This sort of humility which is based on self-righteousness is actually false-pride. I am more concerned of exhibiting my self-righteousness than anything. So even now when someone criticizes I get disturbed because I think thats not me or I did not do this because I am self-righteous. I was correct in my dealings...like this I approach humility in a business mood.

If we study Krishna philosophy, great saints accept faults not of their own and suffer for others mistakes. They pray to the Lord citing their lowly position and that they do not have any good qualities.  Despite their saintly position they pray from their heart that they feel so helpless, useless and beg for the Lord's mercy. Are they pretending, are they trying hard to be humble, are they acting saintly? The truth is genuine humility is that which reflects our true position in front of God. Our true position is that we are insignificant&negligible in front of God and His creation. So when someone actually does harm us, a truly saintly person will remain humble not finding fault with the abuser but rather meditate on his insignificant position in front of God and God's mercy on him.

Therefore humility is not born out of self-righteousness, it is an expression of our original state of existence - small and insignificant in front of God and His creation. The more we become humble, the more we are approaching our original state and vice versa.

Hare Krishna