Attaining Humility by Glorifying the Lord

Date: 2005-06-09 Author: L. Harikumar

Hare Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

It is really the amazing act of Paramatma that Kalacakra prabhu wrote about this verse. A few weeks back when we met, he told about this verse and this sunday I was reading this verse and word-word equivalents. Actually this verse lists 40 qualities and this was one of the favourite verses of Sri . In the purport Srila Prabhupada makes a powerful point, "Even if it were possible to count the atoms after smashing the earth into powder, still it would not be possible to estimate the unfathomable transcendental qualities of the Lord.". I got the doubt, "Why only 40 are mentioned here and many other important qualities such as being the Supreme person, being all-pervasive, being the Lord of Vaikuntha etc are not mentioned ?".

In the next few sentences Srila Prabhupada clarifies, "The above statement (verses) of the qualities of the Lord is just to estimate His qualities as far as a human being is able to see Him.". Any common human being even without devotional attitude and scriptural knowledge can perceive these qualities and in this way the Lord attracts them also. And the chief import of all the vedas is to glorify the qualities of God. Sri Madhvacharya quotes a verse from Mahopanishad which states this point.

sarvottamaṁ sarvadoṣavyapetam guṇ̣airaśeṣaiḥ pūrṇamanyam samastāt vailakṣaṇyājñāpayitum pravṛttāḥ sarve vedā mukhyato naiva cānyat

All the Vedas aim at revealing who is all-surpassing, free from all evil, infinite in all attributes and different from all else by reason of His uniqueness. This they do in their direct signification and they teach nothing else.

By glorifying and remembering the qualities of God, we realise the defects in ourselves and become humble. When we become humble we start seeing the good qualities in others which paves the way to salvation. In this connection, there is an interesting story from the life of a great acharya named Parasara bhattar, who comes in the line of Ramanujacharya. He wrote a book called "Bhagavad guna Darpana"(A mirror showing the Lords' qualities) which is a commentary on sahasranama. In that he beautifully explained the Lord's qualities in an unparalleled manner. There was person in Srirangam who used to criticize Sri Bhattar from morning to evening with abusive words. His disciples were very wild at this person but Bhattar forbade them from reacting. There was a big festival in Bhattar's place and he invited that person, fed him with prasadam and gave him lot of gifts. His disciples were surprised and asked him, "Why are you rewarding a person who is a great offender?". Bhattar replied, "My spiritual master gave me two instructions

1. Glorify the transcendental qualities of the Lord everyday 2. Speak about your defects everyday.

The Lord has infinite qualities and speaking them keeps me busy everyday. So I don't have time to speak about my faults. But this person is doing that job for me. So he's helping me in following my Guru's instruction. That's why I reward him".

Thus Bhattar's life is a practical proof that one can attain this level of humility and tolerance by glorifying the Lord's qualities by speaking them, writing them and explaining them to others.

Your servant, L.Harikumar Chennai.