Should one be humble to those who are clearly inferior?

[Samraat Bhismadeva Maurya]

Hari Bol!
All Glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga,

Dandavats everyone!

I hear that one of the many qualities of a vaisnava is that of humility,

Should one be humble to those who are clearly Spiritually inferior to him, i.e. Would it be acceptable for A sanyasi to be humble to a hippy? (Not saying he should be discriminative) If the sanyasi does so, to an untrained personality the humility might be interpreted as a sign of weakness, a lack of pride and self worth, the hippy may take this as an opportunity to degrade the sanyasi further and vaisnava aparadha is a very serious offence.

That was a big example, but is it acceptable for one to not be humble to those who are clearly spiritually inferior to another one.

This is why: I feel like i should learn to be humble, i want to be, most of the day i am at school and near my friends i feel as though, if i be humble to them, they will pounce on that and knowing there verbally aggressive nature....(Just like most others in my school) Yes, most definitely they will

Should i be humble, if so, i am certain i will become a target.


Thank you,

Jai Sri Radhe-Syam!

[markandeya 108 dasa]

Hari Bol Prabhu Ji

Humility is not an easy subject, for the Gaudiya Vaishnava humility is the crucial element of the conscious approach to understand the Supreme. As the saying goes understanding means to Stand Under.

But this is not a weakness but a great strength and can be applied in many ways, I would say the only common feature of humility is absence of any self will or selfishness, and attributes pertaining to those characteristics of self adoration for ones own gain.

The guru for example is always teaching for our benefit not his, sometimes they can chastise and other times praise, but both accounts are done with the same equanimity.

One should never feel puffed up with pride and a false sense of importance. The pure devotee or uttama seeings everything as Gods Lila, everything in it's specif way is serving the supreme whole, all is dharma, no dharmas are outside the complete absolute reality, so how can the devotee feel they know more than the Supreme Whole.

The aspiring Bhakta is working to awaken his natural function of consciousness which is service, as we advance our range of service increases, the pure Vaishnava will serve all beings.

I am sure most advanced sannyasi will feel karuna on seeing a hippy not that being a hippy is totally a bad thing many set up their lives by the codes of peace and love, there are far more worse beings than Hippies :) A true sannyasi and devotee will only feel love and service in relationship to the supreme, pride is never there, or should not be. Its very important to not misunderstand humility as sentiment, even if one is humble he may roar like a lion if need be, as Prabhupada said A Cobra will show his hood if need be.

Ys

Md

[renuka]

Hari Bol!
All Glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga,

Dandavats everyone!

I hear that one of the many qualities of a vaisnava is that of humility,

Should one be humble to those who are clearly Spiritually inferior to him, i.e. Would it be acceptable for A sanyasi to be humble to a hippy? (Not saying he should be discriminative) If the sanyasi does so, to an untrained personality the humility might be interpreted as a sign of weakness, a lack of pride and self worth, the hippy may take this as an opportunity to degrade the sanyasi further and vaisnava aparadha is a very serious offence.

That was a big example, but is it acceptable for one to not be humble to those who are clearly spiritually inferior to another one.

This is why: I feel like i should learn to be humble, i want to be, most of the day i am at school and near my friends i feel as though, if i be humble to them, they will pounce on that and knowing there verbally aggressive nature....(Just like most others in my school) Yes, most definitely they will

Should i be humble, if so, i am certain i will become a target.


Thank you,

Jai Sri Radhe-Syam!


Namaste,

I feel the question here is self contradicting.

If we consider anyone spiritually inferior to us that means we consider ourselves superior...so the question of being humble does not arise as we already feel we are superior and judged another person as inferior...that's pride!

Frankly speaking its is actually very hard to know where anyone stands in the spiritual scale and calling anyone superior or inferior is clearly not evidence based..partly because none of us knows the mind of another

Pride of any kind is a very self centred feeling which eventually leads to prejudice.

Pride is one feeling that can not be shared ..its only felt by the person who feels he has achieved something and that at times this leads to judgmental behaviour which can be detrimental to the spiritual aspirant.

[Samraat Bhismadeva Maurya]

Namaste,

I feel the question here is self contradicting.

If we consider anyone spiritually inferior to us that means we consider ourselves superior...so the question of being humble does not arise as we already feel we are superior and judged another person as inferior...that's pride!

Frankly speaking its is actually very hard to know where anyone stands in the spiritual scale and calling anyone superior or inferior is clearly not evidence based..partly because none of us knows the mind of another

Pride of any kind is a very self centred feeling which eventually leads to prejudice.

Pride is one feeling that can not be shared ..its only felt by the person who feels he has achieved something and that at times this leads to judgmental behaviour which can be detrimental to the spiritual aspirant.

You're right, great answer, i have realized my mistake, thank you.

[brahma jijnasa]

Namaste

Hari Bol!

This is why: I feel like i should learn to be humble, i want to be, most of the day i am at school and near my friends i feel as though, if i be humble to them, they will pounce on that and knowing there verbally aggressive nature....(Just like most others in my school) Yes, most definitely they will

Should i be humble, if so, i am certain i will become a target.

Do not let anyone use your humility (humbleness) against you. If this is the case then do not show humbleness.


regards