Pride is the Death of Wisdom

What kind of consciousness is predominant in your mind? Are you egotistical? If so, remember that egotism drives wise men and truth away from you. Try to be humble and through the magnetism of humility attract the protecting presence of friends, saints, and God.

Humility is the fertile valley of consciousness where the rain of God’s wisdom falls. As on a mountain peak no rain can gather, so also on a high peak of egotism no waters of knowledge can remain. The egotist refuses to investigate truth and shuts the door of receptivity through which knowledge enters. The humble person, by contrast, is always ready to learn and drinks in knowledge from everyone and everything.

The egotistical person manages to be satisfied with small accomplishments by making them look big to himself. Imagining that he is doing great things, he spends much of his time telling others how great he is, but he does not progress. It is the consciousness of his own inferiority which makes a man hide behind a display of pride.

The person who is absorbed in doing great things, and never speaks of it, is truly humble. It is the divine law that he who pretends to be greater than he is will surely be found out and criticized in the mirror of public opinion, while he who is humble and hides his greatness will be admired.

See God as the Doer

Humility comes from seeing God, not yourself, as the Doer. When you see Him acting through you, how can you be proud of anything you do? I could sit here all day singing my own praises; it would mean nothing to me. I would know that I was giving praises only to God. Humility lies in the heart; it is not a “put-up” job. You must feel that everything you do is accomplished by Him alone, through you. Pride is the death of wisdom.

Blessed are those who are meek and humble in spirit, for humility and meekness create in them a bottomless receptacle of receptivity to Truth. A stone-hard, proud individual rolls down the hill of ignorance and gathers no moss of wisdom, while the humble souls in the valley of eager mental readiness gather the waters of wisdom coming from all human and divine sources.

Science cannot really invent anything. Nor can artists really create anything. Your thoughts are not your own. They come from a universal source: all thoughts are universally not individually rooted. All that man can do is rearrange what is already there. The arts and sciences, like man himself, are not important in the great scheme of things except as they help to unfold the divine plan for the universe. The wise never boast of their own qualities or their own accomplishments, but view them all as belonging to a universal reality. Humility before God is the beginning of true wisdom and understanding. Always, in all things, behold God as the Doer.

Humility is not servility

Some people may consider a downward gaze proper in the presence of the Divine, and anything else a presumption. In fact, however, a downward gaze while praying and meditating takes the mind downward, not upward to God. Downwardness suggests a feeling of unworthiness, when in fact God invites the soul to soar. Stooping suggests a servile attitude also.

Attitudes of unworthiness and servility are negative. They are not at all the same thing as humility. Humility, indeed, begins with self-forgetfulness. True humility uplifts the energy; it doesn’t abase it. Any posture that obstructs that upward flow hinders the development of all ennobling attitudes, including humility

God never speaks of Himself

How did God manifest this universe? Out of Himself. How did God manifest you and me? Out of Himself: He became everything. He did not make things the way you or I might make a table, because He had nothing to make anything out of—only His consciousness existed. You are not your body or personality. You are that Infinite One who is acting through a particular body. He does everything through you.

God is the greatest. There can be no one greater than God. As great as He is, God never speaks of Himself and is ever hidden. God has every power conceivable yet He silently goes about regulating His vast family of the cosmos without any show of His power and excellence, and without seeking any recognition from anyone.

Anyone who knows God is silent and humble like Him. The true devotee is one who, like God, lovingly serves all in utter forgetfulness of self.

God tries to influence his error-stricken children through the humble, all-forgiving personalities of his true saints and devotees. Study their lives. Reach out to them mentally and learn to commune with them. The path they traveled is the path to God. Their lives provide you with a yardstick for your own development. Seek in them the inspiration to strive more earnestly to improve yourself, that you may accomplish worthwhile things in your own life.

The greatest miracle of all

Jesus, knowing God’s will, refused to offer spectacular signs and miracles to prove God’s existence, or his own divinity. Jesus performed miracles of healing, raising the dead, and walking on the sea strictly under divine guidance and permission. He always emphasized that he was strictly doing the will of God who sent him, and said that his disciples were very fortunate to be able to witness such a manifestation of divine powers.

Many great saints (not all, by any means) have performed miracles—including, for their close disciples, the resurrection of their bodies after death. Even so, we must remember that their greatest miracle is not one they performed outwardly: it is the extraordinary example of their lives, lived so beautifully for God, and in Him.

Most saints leave this world in a simple, unpretentious manner like everyone else. They deserve our love and emulation above all for the example they set of humility, of calm acceptance, and of universal love and compassion.

Humility is born of wisdom

Though God is the sole Owner of the cosmos, silently showering us with gifts from life to life, one thing yet remains which He does not own, and which each human heart is empowered to withhold or bestow: our love. The Creator, in taking infinite pains to shroud with mystery His presence in every atom of creation, could have had but one motive: the desire that we seek Him only through free will. With what humility has He concealed the iron hand of omnipotence!

Every quality, mental or spiritual, that can bloom in the garden of the human mind has flowered many times before. No matter whether you are a successful business man, or a powerful politician, or a dictator, or a great reformer, your power is nothing but the reflected power of God.

Let us learn from the fate of others. The only worthwhile accomplishments are not those we achieve outwardly, but the victories we win over ourselves. Let us create inner dwellings of beautiful qualities, erecting them in valleys of humility where gather the rains of God’s mercy and other people’s good wishes for us. Humility is the open gate through which the divine flood of mercy and power flows into receptive souls.

Let your thoughts be inspired not by ego, but by God. Let your thoughts be fragrant and beautiful, not rank and ugly, that the memory you leave behind be felt as a blessing on the earth.