To practice selflessness is to practice humility

The spiritual sojourn demands firstly a humble nature. Countless saints from different spiritual paths have extolled and displayed the virtue of humility, serving as a reminder for us to practice it in our daily lives.

But how can we tell if we are indeed humble? A correct understanding of humility is necessary to practice it.

Let us first review what a lack of humility looks like.

Some signs include an exaggerated opinion of the self and an attitude that is domineering, demanding, opinionated, and aggressive. Other characteristics include a strong sense of ambition and selfishness, as well as constantly treating others as unworthy of one’s time and attention. Finally, those lacking humility have a strong resistance to any form of constructive feedback aimed to correct these glaring faults.

So, self-glorification or overestimation of oneself is most certainly not humility.

What about people who constantly belittle themselves before others? Do a timid nature, constant insecurity, and an inability to defend oneself in the face of dissent constitute humility? Self-deprecation, or having a low outward estimation of oneself, is often confused for a humble disposition. The same is true of the people pleaser, who will go to great lengths of self-sacrifice for even the tiniest morsel of external validation.

It is critical to remember that humility is neither an underestimation nor an overestimation of one’s abilities and position.

Simply put, it entails being who you are without pretense, which means acknowledging your factual position.

Specifically, it is a fact that everyone has faults before they are relieved from Maya by the grace of God and Guru. Similarly, it is also a fact that all of our talents and abilities have the power of God behind them. If God were to take back this power, we would be nothing more than an empty husk.

Verily human nature tends to vacillate between self-glorification and self-deprecation. The former is pride, and the latter is in fact a false humility. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that the ego swells seeing somebody below oneself and gets punctured when seeing somebody above oneself. Such pride or jealousy is the nature of the ego or “Ahankara”, and it is impossible to overcome but by the grace of God. Between these two extremes, it can be very tricky to maintain a true state of humbleness.

But how do we avoid these two extremes?

C.S. Lewis put it beautifully when he declared, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

The earnest spiritual aspirant may genuinely try to be humble. However, so long as the aspirant’s ego is constantly associated with that desire for humility, he or she will find no success.

Even when we pray for humility, the consciousness remains self-centered. We obsess over our faults and worry about our “selves” not being humble enough, whereas humility encourages us to take the focus away from ourselves. How can we accomplish this? – by raising the object of our affection above ourselves and serving it.

Humility is selflessness. It is the essence of love.

This is why it is such an important requirement on the spiritual path. Jesus Christ demonstrated his humility through his selfless love as a servant of God and his execution of divine will at all costs – beginning with public ridicule and leading to his eventual crucifixion.

When we put the desires of God and Guru before ourselves in deed, then we are correctly practicing humility. And gradually, with their grace, our faults will begin to diminish this way, rather than through any of our futile egocentric attempts. This is not to say that we should not introspect – however, there is a thin line between introspection and self-obsession.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu famously stated:

jivera svarupa haya krishnera nitya-dasa

Every soul is an eternal servant of God

The true servant obeys the master completely, no matter what the circumstance. At the same time, the servant does not expect any measure of personal gain from his or her actions and moreover is not concerned with personal loss in the course of carrying out the master’s will.

Only by internally acknowledging our true position as the servants of God – through a life of service and not self-service – can we start practicing true humility.