29th November 2024
Humility leads one to seek the wisdom of others
In ‘The Road to Character,’ David Brooks, says, “Humility is the awareness that there’s a lot you don’t know and that a lot of what you think you know is distorted or wrong.”
He continues, “This is the way humility leads to wisdom. Wisdom isn’t a body of information. It’s the moral quality of knowing what you don’t know and figuring out a way to handle your ignorance, uncertainty, and limitation. Wisdom is not knowledge. It is knowing how to behave when perfect knowledge is lacking.”
It’s interesting to note that wisdom and humility go hand in hand.
In Ravan’s dying moments, Lord Ram asked his brother to approach Ravan and learn some invaluable
wisdom.
Laxman wasn’t very happy, but he couldn’t say no to his elder brother Ram.
This shows two
divine qualities of Ram: his humility and willingness to receive wisdom from any source and any person, even if that be an enemy.
Wisdom can be acquired even from an enemy because every person has something to teach, and
every life has a meaning and purpose.
Ravan may have taken away Sita, but he was wise, and even Gods and Asurs accepted his boundless wisdom.
Attainment of wisdom needs patience and acceptance.
Adi Shankaracharya learnt his lessons on life from a chandal, outcast.
Ram was humble because he was willing to learn, even from the person he defeated and who took away his wife.
There’s a Sanskrit proverb: ‘Prajna vinamrast’ – wisdom is humble.
Wise people say, it’s not only humble, but also
practical as well.
It’s through humility that one achieves wisdom because the first condition to acquire wisdom is to be
humble.
Arrogance doesn’t let wisdom descend upon an individual, Humility opens all doors.
A beautiful story explains this. There were two flowers in a garden. One day, a flower asked the other flower to be in the shade of leaves as the sun was particularly hot. But the other flower said leaves were inferior, and they couldn’t protect.
The flower that advised the other flower to be under the shadow of leaves survived, and the other flower, which thought that leaves were inferior, lost its colour and fragrance because of extreme heat.
It would have survived if it had listened to the wise advice of protecting itself with ‘inferior’ leaves.
We can all benefit by approaching others with an attitude of humility, so that we may continue to learn and grow from one another, broadening our personal perspectives and adding to our wisdom, brick by brick, of living through life experiences.
Be humble, reach out to aquire wisdom & stay blessed forever.