Articles tagged as Humility

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  The Way of the Vaishnavas

  Sankirtana Das is a longtime resident of the New Vrindaban Community and an award-winning author and storyteller. His most recent book, Hanuman’s Quest, is acclaimed by scholars and has received a Storytelling World Resource Honors. For more info about his work see www.Mahabharata-Project.com

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  How Does Humility Differ From Low Self-esteem?

  For us to persevere through life’s various challenges, we need the fundamental conviction that we can make a difference.

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  How to Grow Small

  Spiritual life is an invitation to opposites. It’s the acceptance of both matter and spirit, it’s the notion that less is more, it’s the experience of being in control and not.

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  Humility Transforms a Protest Against God Into a Prayer to God

  When we face perplexities or adversities, we may protest, “Why is this happening to me?” And if we accept God as the supreme controller, we may protest against him, “Why are you letting this happen?”

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  The Knowledge of the Arrogant Defeats the Purpose of Knowledge

  Humility means to acknowledge that reality is bigger than our conceptions.

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  Proud Block

  Pride is a formidable block on the road of spirituality. When it rears its ugly head it’s painstakingly obvious – to ourselves and others

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  Inability to Stand Others’ Weaknesses Is Our Weakness

  When we are good at something, we can easily spot others’ weaknesses in that area. For example, if we are good at language, our attention automatically zooms to others’ grammatical shortcomings.

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  The Best Policy

  One of the biggest criteria for deepening our spirituality is the strength to be open and honest. Instead, however, we are often closed and pretentious. In the name of saving our face, we kill our soul.

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  Sensitively Strong

  When surface approaches of sensitivity and strength are founded upon a sincere selflessness, balancing the two emotions becomes effortless and natural. When our underlying motivation is to genuinely help someone, and that becomes the universal reference point, then we can confidently and unhesitatingly embrace whatever approach will facilitate growth.

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  Soft Love

  Don’t be surprised to catch yourself playing ‘God’ even when you know better. The scientist wants the credit of universal explanation. The philosopher bathes in the credit of insight, originality and wisdom. The celebrity enjoys the credit of fame, fortune and adoration. The politician wants the credit of power and control. Even an ‘average Joe’ will clutch onto something unique which, at least he thinks, makes him stand out from the crowd.

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  Criticized? – Clarify, Counter, or Ignore?

  In life, few things are as hurting as criticism. Even more excruciating is unwarranted criticism, that is, criticism based on misunderstandings or untruths. We tend to respond to such criticism in one of three broad ways.

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  Good to Talk

  The average person spends 23 days a year on the phone. Ironically, we seldom use them for the purpose they were invented – to audibly speak to people.

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  Inside Job

  The ungrateful, inappropriate and irrational ways in which people act can infuriate us to no end. We deal with our anger by letting it loose (passionate and vengeful outbursts) or locking it up (emotionally disconnecting). Both expressions, however, are indicative of our own shortcomings.

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  Advanced Insignificance

  In front of an ocean we realise how tiny we are! In the same way, as one advances in their relationship with God, their genuine appreciation and admiration of His character and qualities grows exponentially.

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  Double-edged Sword

  Srila Prabhupada repeatedly stressed that real education is character development. His name reminds us of the balance we have to strike – “Bhaktivedanta: knowledge with devotion.”

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  Nemesis in a Bag of Peanuts

  The notion of having power over others may provide a temporary gratification, but it starts to unravel pretty soon.

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  Humility in Leadership

  Generally, when we hear the term "humility," we imagine an individual who lacks confidence, is weak and unsure of themselves and in general is a pushover.

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  i-Gnore

  Good advice is easy to give but hard to take. As soon as we’re offered those words of wisdom, the defence systems kick in and the mind reels off a thousand justifications.

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  Individual and Social Growth

  We all wish to grow both individually and socially. Unfortunately, we sometimes adopt unwittingly an approach that backfires on both fronts.

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  Quietly Confident

  Real confidence comes from humility. We realise our inherent limitations, but gain firm conviction from knowing that the all-powerful will of providence is on our side.

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  Failed Success
  They say failures are stepping stones to success. Lately, however, I’ve been thinking how success can be a slipping stone to failure! Swami Prabhupada once commented how he faced two great tests in his life. At one point he was stripped of everything, left penniless, with no fixed abode. Later in life, however, he achieved unimaginable recognition as a powerful spiritual leader.
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  Why Is God Not Humble?
  Why does Krishna brag so much in the Bhagavad-gita, proclaiming that he alone is the Supreme, that his glories have no end and that everything attractive is a spark of his splendor? Why is he not humble?
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  How Can You Tell How Humble Someone Is?
  Measuring humility is one of the most difficult aspects of its study. Several approaches have been suggested, such as well-validated self-report measures like the Values in Action Inventory.
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  Least But Not Last
  I recently heard a woman say, “least but not last.” She meant to say the usual, “last but not least,” but somehow, due to a slip of the lip, or perhaps because of some mild form of dyslexia, she inverted the words in this somewhat humorous way. And this got me thinking about humility, which people sometimes confuse with low self-esteem, thus viewing it as an inferior quality. To think of oneself as “least” is the last thing one would want to do.