HUMILITY

HUMILITY

"Values make character" - Sri Amma
Bhagavan

A few days back, we were reminded by Bhagavan about the story of Nandanar, the great Bhakta. The weekly teaching of Bhagavan at present reminded me of another characteristic of Nandanar, the great devotee. That was taught to us by Paramacharyaji (Dr Shankar, the childhood friend of Sri Bhagavan who helped Bhagavan to start the Oneness movement).

As Nandanar went to the Shiva temple to have the darshan of the Shivling there, he was not allowed to enter the temple because he did not belong to the forward caste. He prostrated before the temple outside and did the parikrama (rounded the temple- a sacred ritual) of the temple many times. As he did that he was thinking. "Oh, will I be able to see the Lord? How can I see the Lord? Will the Lord give me darshan at least for a few seconds? Will I be entitled for it? How can I have a view from outside?" He had all the passion to see his God, but was also doubtful whether it would happen, how it would happen, etc.

His doubt did not come because he had less faith in his God. His doubt came because of his HUMILITY. Though Shiva did the greatest miracle to bring Nandanar near the temple, Nandanar never felt he himself was a great devotee. He was just where he was, humble enough to realise he was a lesser being and no one before the Lord. He was grateful to Shiva who brought him there but did not feel he was a great devotee that the Lord did the miracle for him. So much was his humilty. It was the HUMILITY of Nandanar that made the Nandi (the calf statue) move from its place, so that Nandanar could have the Lord's darshan. Humality touches God's heart and brings tears to His eyes. So all devotion should be underlined by this humility to touch the Lord's heart.

Simllarly, when we go to the process thinking we have done great things in life or know a lot of things about god and spirituality and sit there with this thinking, we may miss the fast bus to growth and enlightenment. Suppose there is a person in the process who has done a lot of puja or learning and comes with an attitude that 'I am better' and there is another person who knows he has done nothing to get Gods grace but has just come to beg and take the grace (whatever is being given), the latter will get all the Grace while the former will lose a lot because of his self-righteousness.

Thus when we go for Bhagavan's classes or any darshan, if we go with the feeling that we have done a lot of seva and bhakti (devotion), we will get very little. (That little we get is also because of the Lord's compassion). The feeling that we have done a lot of seva and bhakti can make us very self-righteous. We should be careful and aware of it. If we go to any God's darshan with a simple passion to see the Lord and not with a motive to get something, it will be better. That is true bhakti (devotion).

Hence, none of us who is experiencing Sri Bhagavan can assume that we are eligible to get anything, including enlightenment. We might have done a lot of seva (service to god) and accumulated so much of sat-karma during the years. Yet that does not really make us eligible for enlightenment. Ultimately enlightenment will happen to us only because the Lord has decided to give us and the time for it has come and not because we are devotees.

Humility cannot be practiced. Humility can happen if we realise that we are not humble; if we realise we are egoistic; if we realise we are self-righteous; if we realise we are lesser beings with all the faults; if we realise we are like every other human being - a lower being; if we realise that we have a feeling that we are superior beings, etc. To realise all these things, what we need is GREAT INNER INTEGRITY, the courage to see our inner truth openly and candidly without any explanations.

"All effort of the mind is to protect something which is not there" - Sri AmmaBhagavan


This week's Webcast Teaching of Sri Bhagavan to contemplate:
"The AWAKENED One lives in humility. The unawakened one cultivates humility." - Sri Bhagavan

Warm Regards,
Anuradha Chandrashekar, Ahmedabad
093759 48988

A family in ONENESS, of ONENESS, by ONENESS and Committed to world ONENESS