Indi­vid­u­als and na­tions are los­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion at the al­tar of their ego and pride. Fam­ily as a unit of so­ci­ety is un­der stress as ego takes over in­di­vid­u­als over pos­ses­sions, looks and wealth. So­ci­ety is un­der the strain of caste, class and re­gions due to a false sense of pride over these by one sec­tion over other. Na­tions refuse di­a­logue and con­flict res­o­lu­tion based on their ego de­rived from the scale and moder­nity of their weaponry and self-pro­claimed ex­alted sta­tus. In all of these, hu­mil­ity and its sweet­ness can play the beau­ti­ful role of a cat­a­lyst and ease the sit­u­a­tion. Spir­i­tu­ally-in­clined Bhupin­der Singh, through his deep love of Guru Nanak, nar­rates how hu­mil­ity has been de­scribed in Gur­bani and how and why it is nec­es­sary to stay hum­ble.

THE FIRST MAS­TER, THE FOUNDER OF THE SIKH WAY OF LIFE, Guru Nanak beau­ti­fully de­scribes hu­mil­ity and its im­por­tance in life.  Guru Nanak Dev Ji has suc­cinctly talked about the sweet­ness of hu­mil­ity in these words:

“ਮਿਠਤੁ ਨੀਵੀ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਗੁਣ ਚੰਗਿਆਈਆ ਤਤੁ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: There is the sweet­ness of hu­mil­ity, O Nanak, it is the essence of all virtues and good­ness.  -Guru Granth Sahib, page 470

The above quote is from the com­po­si­tion where Guru Nanak Ji starts by de­scrib­ing the sweet­ness of hu­mil­ity with the ex­am­ple of its neme­sis, the Sim­mal. It is also called Se­mal (botan­i­cal name: Bom­bax ceiba) and is com­monly known in Eng­lish as Silk Cot­ton Tree. This na­tive In­dian tree bears bright red at­trac­tive flow­ers dur­ing the months of Jan­u­ary to March, with fruits about the size of a Ping-Pong ball. It is a fast-grow­ing tree, that shoots up like a tall ar­row and can have a solid girth of 2 to 3 me­ters. Guru Ji says its beauty at­tracts the birds who come there with hopes. But its fruit is taste­less, flow­ers are un­whole­some, and its leaves are use­less (no nu­tri­tional value).

By pro­vid­ing the ex­am­ple, Guru Ji cau­tions against be­com­ing ma­jes­tic, at­trac­tive, and good look­ing, yet use­less. While some fa­mous and ac­com­plished in life may ap­pear at­trac­tive as a re­source to help us to mit­i­gate our life chal­lenges, but we may be dis­ap­pointed in them. Then Guru Sahib says that hu­mil­ity is sweet­ness, which will not dis­ap­point those who come with hopes and ex­pec­ta­tions.

Guru Ji wants us to in­cul­cate hu­mil­ity and to be­come hum­ble in life. Be­com­ing hum­ble is rec­og­niz­ing that we are not here to see how im­por­tant we can be­come, but to see what dif­fer­ence we can make in the life of oth­ers. Let us try to see to ex­plore this virtue of hu­mil­ity.

What is hu­mil­ity?

“ਹੋਦੈ ਤਾਣਿ ਨਿਤਾਣੀਆ ਰਹਹਿ ਨਿਮਾਨਣੀਆਹ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: They re­main pow­er­less, even while they have power; they re­main hum­ble and meek. -Guru Granth Sahib, page 85

But in re­al­ity, what is the state of hu­mankind? Guru Ji de­scribes it as, “Vir­tu­ous is our talk, but our deeds are evil. Pitch dark (to­tally evil) are our minds, but from our out­ward ap­pear­ance, we pre­sent our­selves as (an­gelic) white.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 85.

In sim­ple words, there is a di­chotomy be­tween our words and deeds, be­cause of ego. Guru Ji wants us to shun our pride and ego in these words:
“ਚਤੁਰ ਸਿਆਣਾ ਸੁਘੜੁ ਸੋਇ ਜਿਨਿ ਤਜਿਆ ਅਭਿਮਾਨੁ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: One who re­nounces ego­tis­ti­cal pride is in­tel­li­gent, wise, and re­fined. –Guru Granth Sahib, Page 297

Where did these traits come from? These are in­trin­sic, as we are born with them.

Guru Ji has de­scribed the con­struct of the hu­mans as:

“ਅਵਗੁਣੀ ਭਰਪੂਰ ਹੈ ਗੁਣ ਭੀ ਵਸਹਿ ਨਾਲਿ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: He (man) is over­flow­ing with faults and de­mer­its, but virtue dwells within him as well.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 936

Guru Ji is shar­ing with us that we hu­mans are pack­aged with both virtues and im­per­fec­tions. Virtues are there as the Cre­ator Him­self dwells within each of us as the soul. Ad­di­tion­ally, im­per­fec­tions or faults are also pre­sent in each of us, as the Cre­ator has im­parted those within the hu­man body too. In­ter­est­ingly, both these co­ex­ist in every­one.

Brim­ming with such con­tra­dic­tions, be­com­ing hum­ble will be a para­dox­i­cal chal­lenge. When we look at the life of Guru Nanak, we can see that he was the epit­ome of hu­mil­ity. His words as en­shrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib, his per­sonal in­ter­ac­tions with oth­ers and his se­lec­tion cri­te­ria for his own suc­ces­sor, re­flect the sig­nif­i­cance of hu­mil­ity. In fact, dur­ing the suc­ces­sor se­lec­tion process dur­ing the Guru pe­riod, the trait of hu­mil­ity was a pre­em­i­nent con­sid­er­a­tion. Here is one quote by Guru Nanak Dev Ji that of­fers his per­sonal per­spec­tive:

“ਨੀਚਾ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਨੀਚੀ ਹੂ ਅਤਿ ਨੀਚੁ ॥
ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕੈ ਸੰਗਿ ਸਾਥਿ ਵਡਿਆ ਸਿਉ ਕਿਆ ਰੀਸ ॥
ਜਿਥੈ ਨੀਚ ਸਮਾਲੀਅਨਿ ਤਿਥੈ ਨਦਰਿ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਖਸੀਸ ॥੪॥੩॥”
Trans­la­tion: Nanak seeks the com­pany of the low­est of the low class, the very low­est of the low. Why should he try to com­pete with the (so-called) great? In that place where the lowly are cared for, there the Bless­ings of Your Glance of Grace rains down.  –Guru Granth Sahib, Page 15

Guru Ji sees no need to com­pete with the elite, af­flu­ent, suc­cess­ful, or those be­long­ing to a higher caste by birth – he is happy with the lowli­est. Guru Ji demon­strated this trait when he spurned the in­vi­ta­tion of elite state of­fi­cial Ma­lik Bhago, in Said­pur but knocked on the door of poor car­pen­ter Lalo -un­in­vited. In the quote as un­der, Guru Ji ad­dressed the sub­ject of caste dis­crim­i­na­tion in these words:

“ਹਉ ਢਾਢੀ ਕਾ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਹੋਰਿ ਉਤਮ ਜਾਤਿ ਸਦਾਇਦੇ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: I am the Lord’s min­strel, of low so­cial sta­tus; oth­ers call them­selves high caste. –Guru Granth Sahib, Page 468

By de­clar­ing him­self as be­long­ing to the low caste, Guru Ji ex­posed the hol­low­ness and fu­til­ity of dis­crim­i­na­tion sim­ply based on birth/​caste/​class. De­spite be­long­ing to the Kha­tri caste, con­sid­ered up­per class in the class hi­er­ar­chy, Guru Ji pro­claimed him­self to be a min­strel, la­belled as a lower caste and dis­crim­i­nated against. By do­ing so, Guru Ji dis­played his true hu­mil­ity and si­mul­ta­ne­ously raised his voice against the prac­tice of the caste sys­tem.

Folly of Pride

Hu­mil­ity and its neme­sis Ego, and pride are within every hu­man be­ing, a uni­ver­sal pres­ence. Ego grows like wild weeds when hu­mil­ity is not nur­tured and cul­ti­vated. The pre-em­i­nence of ego, pride and the haughty na­ture in hu­mans is es­sen­tially de­clar­ing that ‘I am some­thing or some­thing in the mak­ing’. The Pun­jabi words for these traits are ‘houmai’ and ‘han­kaar’. Guru Ji has de­scribed its preva­lence in hu­mans in these words as:

“ਹਉਮੈ ਰੋਗੁ ਮਾਨੁਖ ਕਉ ਦੀਨਾ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: (En­tire) Mankind is af­flicted with the dis­ease of ego­tism.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1140

Guru Ji has made it very clear that pride is the dead­liest vice, by call­ing it a chronic dis­ease by Guru Ji in these words:
“ਹਉਮੈ ਦੀਰਘ ਰੋਗੁ ਹੈ……”
Trans­la­tion: Ego­tism is a chronic dis­ease.   -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 466

Guru Ji calls it a chronic dis­ease as it is so self-de­ceiv­ing; every­one else can see it clearly, yet the per­son him­self is al­ways to­tally blind to it. The mind un­der the in­flu­ence of pride is al­ways self-serv­ing, and want­ing more:

“ਘਣੋ ਘਣੋ ਘਣੋ ਸਦ ਲੋੜੈ ਬਿਨੁ ਲਹਣੇ ਕੈਠੈ ਪਾਇਓ ਰੇ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: More and more, he con­tin­u­ally yearns for more (gripped by pride and at­tach­ment); but un­less he is des­tined to re­ceive, how can he ob­tain it?
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 715

Pride lever­ages minds into be­liev­ing in an ex­ag­ger­ated sense of self, and the term nar­cis­sis­tic has been coined for it. Pride in self trans­lates into prej­u­dice against oth­ers. In Guru Ji words the one gripped by pride is a walk­ing tes­ta­ment of a lu­natic:
“ਜਬ ਇਹੁ ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਕਰਤ ਗੁਮਾਨਾ ॥ ਤਬ ਇਹੁ ਬਾਵਰੁ ਫਿਰਤ ਬਿਗਾਨਾ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: When this mind is filled with pride, then it wan­ders around like a mad­man and a lu­natic.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 235 

Wis­dom of be­com­ing Hum­ble:

Pride and ego con­sume those who pos­sess it, just as ter­mite con­sumes the big tree from in­side by hol­low­ing it. These be­come self-de­struc­t­ing traits. As we can see ego is con­cerned with es­tab­lish­ing who is right, but Hu­mil­ity is con­cerned only with what is right. Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji’s had suc­cinctly summed the wis­dom of be­com­ing hum­ble in these words:

“ਸੁਖੀ ਬਸੈ ਮਸਕੀਨੀਆ ਆਪੁ ਨਿਵਾਰਿ ਤਲੇ ॥ ਬਡੇ ਬਡੇ ਅਹੰਕਾਰੀਆ ਨਾਨਕ ਗਰਬਿ ਗਲੇ ॥੧॥”
Trans­la­tion: The hum­ble be­ings abide in peace; sub­du­ing ego­tism, they are meek. They are very proud and ar­ro­gant per­sons, O Nanak, who are con­sumed by their own pride. ||1||  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 278

Guru Ji ad­vises us to get rid of hubris­tic ego in these words:
“ਭੋਲਿਆ ਹਉਮੈ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਵਿਸਾਰਿ ॥ ਹਉਮੈ ਮਾਰਿ ਬੀਚਾਰਿ ਮਨ ਗੁਣ ਵਿਚਿ ਗੁਣੁ ਲੈ ਸਾਰਿ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: O ig­no­rant one, for­get your ego­tis­ti­cal in­tel­lect. Sub­due your ego and con­tem­plate Him in your mind; gather in the virtues of the Sub­lime, Vir­tu­ous Lord. ||1||Pause||  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1168

We can see Guru Ji is ex­tolling us to ef­face ego. To ef­face ego Guru Ji wants us to en­shrine in our mind the sub­lime virtues of God’s Naam. Naam means re­mem­brance of the ex­is­tence of God in the en­tire cre­ation. The act of re­mem­brance has not re­ceived its due recog­ni­tion as a trans­for­ma­tional tool. That re­mem­brance ef­faces ego, plant­ing, and nur­tur­ing hu­mil­ity in­stead. Thus, the act of re­mem­brance is an act of chis­elling the per­sona by re­mov­ing ego. The act of re­mem­brance af­firms the power of God thus in­creas­ing faith and build­ing pos­i­tive feel­ings. Guru Ji shares with us the ben­e­fits in these words:

“ਸੁਖੁ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਸਿਮਰਨ ਕਾ ਅੰਤੁ ਨ ਪਾਰ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: The peace and joy (that em­anates) from the med­i­ta­tive re­mem­brance of God are lim­it­less.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 263

In or­der to ex­pe­ri­ence those ben­e­fits Guru Ji wants us to in­cul­cate hu­mil­ity in these words:
“ਬੁਧਿ ਗਰੀਬੀ ਖਰਚੁ ਲੈਹੁ ਹਉਮੈ ਬਿਖੁ ਜਾਰਹੁ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: Take wis­dom and hu­mil­ity as your sup­plies and burn away the poi­son of pride. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 399

This is prepa­ra­tion for re­ceiv­ing di­vine grace. Guru Ji has ad­vised that ego is only ef­faced by di­vine grace. He has asked us to seek grace from Almighty. Guru Nanak Dev Ji has clar­i­fied that grace erad­i­cates pride com­pletely. Once ego com­pletely dis­ap­pears the mind be­comes im­mac­u­late:

“ਇਹੁ ਮਨੁ ਨਿਰਮਲੁ ਹਉਮੈ ਮਾਰੀ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: When Ego­tism has been con­quered, then this mind will be­come im­mac­u­late.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1049 
When it be­comes im­mac­u­late then it merges with the Cre­ator God:

“ਹਉਮੈ ਜਾਈ ਤਾ ਕੰਤ ਸਮਾਈ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: If one gets rid of ego, then one merges with Hus­band Lord.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 750 

Cul­ti­vat­ing Hu­mil­ity

Pride is the biggest ob­sta­cle to the in­cul­ca­tion of hu­mil­ity, yet fully in­vis­i­ble to self. So, in­stead of rein­ing in our ego, we en­able it by feed­ing it as we grow in age, as well as be­come suc­cess­ful. Then what should we do to be­come hum­ble? Guru Ji has pre­scribed the method of singing the praises. Guru Ji has not just pre­scribed the path but has pro­vided us with the words and mech­a­nism to ac­com­plish it. The tech­nique pro­vided by Guru Ji is Keer­tan (singing) and words are in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Ji says:

“ਵਾਹੁ ਵਾਹੁ ਕਰਤਿਆ ਮਨੁ ਨਿਰਮਲੁ ਹੋਵੈ ਹਉਮੈ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਜਾਇ ॥
Trans­la­tion: Chant­ing Waaho! Waaho! The mind is pu­ri­fied, and ego­tism de­parts from within.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 515 

Say­ing “Vaahu, Vaahu” is prais­ing and is the only av­enue of ac­cess to God. This is a method that Guru Nanak Ji adopted and en­cour­aged every­one else to prac­tice. Have we not failed to ex­er­cise it? If we had not, then we would have known about its ben­e­fits. Praise is ac­cep­tance of the sit­u­a­tion we find our­selves in. It is ac­cep­tance of one’s own in­ad­e­quacy to han­dle and ask­ing for Di­vine in­ter­ven­tion. It is so pow­er­ful that it brings a par­a­digm shift from me to Him. Its na­ture is to draw our at­ten­tion away from our prob­lems, no mat­ter how over­whelm­ing and lift our gaze to God. Praise changes re­la­tion­ships, hearts, and mind­sets. Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji demon­strated its ef­fi­cacy when Sulhi Khan mounted an at­tack on Guru Ji from La­hore and his Shabads on the sub­ject of at­tach­ing paint to the pic­ture.

Guru Ji cre­ated a foun­tain of praises in form of Sri Guru Granth Sahib for us and sealed it for pos­ter­ity to pre­vent its doc­tor­ing and pla­gia­riz­ing. Guru Ji has not just set the words in po­etic me­ters and strung them on mu­si­cal scales, but also set the style of singing for its op­ti­mal ef­fect on the mind. The re­sult is that these words just don’t reach our ears but can pen­e­trate the deeper core – the soul within, trans­form­ing it. In the process, we wit­ness our own lim­i­ta­tions, while of­fer­ing us a daz­zling dis­play of the mag­nan­i­mous na­ture of God. These words can be­come the cat­a­lyst for our re­siz­ing of our­selves, in the process de­flat­ing our bal­looned ego. The ego is the wall that sep­a­rates us from our Cre­ator God. So, what should we ask from our Guru Ji? Guru Ji even pro­vides an an­swer for that as:

“ਸਾ ਮਤਿ ਦੇਹੁ ਦਇਆਲ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਜਿਤੁ ਤੁਮਹਿ ਅਰਾਧਾ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: Bless me with such un­der­stand­ing, O Mer­ci­ful Lord God, that I might en­gage in Your ado­ra­tion.   -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 678

Let us take the first step to go to Guru Ji, with com­plete faith and in to­tal sur­ren­der. There, the process of trans­for­ma­tion will be ini­ti­ated by lis­ten­ing and be­liev­ing; and both these ac­tiv­i­ties are as­so­ci­ated with the mind alone. When one lis­tens at­ten­tively and starts be­liev­ing, then a sa­cred shrine de­vel­ops within. Thus, aware­ness of pride is the pre­req­ui­site for the hu­mil­ity cul­ti­va­tion process to take place. By in­cor­po­rat­ing these processes with rev­er­ence, progress is made, hu­mil­ity is cul­ti­vated, and one ex­pe­ri­ences cleans­ing of the mind. When one is re­minded that one is lack­ing virtues in­side, it pro­duces an im­me­di­ate hum­bling ef­fect. As the ma­lig­nant growth of ego is cur­tailed, prayer is born and hu­mil­ity blos­soms from within. Such is the hum­ble prayer to the Almighty to bless with virtues. Be­cause with­out virtues, the progress on the path of spir­i­tual evo­lu­tion can­not take place, as Guru Nanak Dev Ji has ad­vised:

“ਵਿਣੁ ਗੁਣ ਕੀਤੇ ਭਗਤਿ ਨ ਹੋਇ ॥”
Mean­ing: With­out virtue, there is no de­vo­tional wor­ship pos­si­ble.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 4 

Guru Ji has shared the fact that the Cre­ator is the reser­voir of virtues, and these can only be ac­quired when one is blessed by Him, in grace. So, this be­comes a start­ing point of re­al­iza­tion of the need of Guru. It is through that re­la­tion­ship the con­nec­tion with Almighty will de­velop, for the jour­ney on the road to hu­mil­ity. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Sheikh Fa­reed Ji has taken the ex­am­ple of a floor mat made of riverbed grass to de­scribe how hum­ble one has to be­come. He says:

“ਫਰੀਦਾ ਥੀਉ ਪਵਾਹੀ ਦਭੁ॥
ਜੇ ਸਾਂਈ ਲੋੜਹਿ ਸਭੁ॥
ਇਕੁ ਛਿਜਹਿ ਬਿਆ ਲਤਾੜੀਅਹਿ॥
ਤਾਂ ਸਾਈ ਦੈ ਦਰਿ ਵਾੜੀਅਹਿ ॥੧੬॥”
Trans­la­tion: Farid, be­come the grass on the path, if you long for the Lord of all. One will cut you down, and an­other will tram­ple you un­der­foot; then, you shall en­ter the Court of the Lord.  -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1378 

To paint a com­plete pic­ture of hu­mil­ity, Farid Ji uses the metaphor of a va­ri­ety of grass that grows on river­banks used to make floor mats. In this ex­am­ple, first, the grass is cut that sym­bol­izes giv­ing up or to­tal sur­ren­der. Then the cut grass gets tram­pled upon to flat­ten it, fi­nally wo­ven into a floor mat. Only then does it qual­ify to be­come the mat that graces the door of the house of Lord, pick­ing up dust from the feet of the devo­tees. When it be­comes the floor­mat at the place of wor­ship, then wor­ship­pers in rev­er­ence pick up dust from it and ap­ply it on their fore­heads. Thus, the grass be­cause of its hu­mil­ity was el­e­vated to be­come an ob­ject of rev­er­ence. In fact, Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji has rec­om­mended a two-pronged at­tack on the ego from his own per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence as:

“ਪ੍ਰਥਮੇ ਤਿਆਗੀ ਹਉਮੈ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ॥ ਦੁਤੀਆ ਤਿਆਗੀ ਲੋਗਾ ਰੀਤਿ ॥”
Mean­ing: First, I re­nounced my ego­is­ti­cal love of the self. Sec­ond, I re­nounced the ways of the world. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 370

Here, Guru Ji is talk­ing about aban­don­ing self-hood, the ego that is af­flict­ing every­one. It is the think­ing of the mind in terms of “I, me, mine” alone. The ego likes to rule over every­one but does not rel­ish the thought of be­com­ing sub­servient to any­one else. That is how slav­ery, caste sys­tems and feu­dal sys­tems made in­roads and were es­tab­lished firmly in so­ci­eties. These were later scorned upon as per­verse and are now slowly work­ing their way out of so­ci­ety.

We all want to be suc­cess­ful in life. Un­for­tu­nately, the gauge of our suc­cess in life comes from the ac­knowl­edge­ment and en­dorse­ment of oth­ers. In or­der to de­clare our suc­cess to the world, we paint our own poster with the brush of a lav­ish lifestyle. That lifestyle is a demon­stra­tion to the world, that we have made it big on the world stage; that we are wor­thy of en­dorse­ment. The in­flu­ence of celebri­ties in our lives can be gauged from the way we try to im­i­tate their lifestyles, dresses, their sense of fash­ion, man­ner­isms, hair­styles, etc.

In fact, if we go to the mag­a­zine sec­tion in book­stores, we can see that celebrity mag­a­zines are do­ing roar­ing busi­ness, but mind-stim­u­lat­ing mag­a­zines have their sales plum­met­ing. Our only ob­jec­tive from all these sense­less im­i­ta­tions is to de­clare to the world that we have joined the elites club. Now we are the glit­terati our­selves. These lav­ish lifestyles are food and nour­ish­ment to the ego. The ego de­sires re­spect and recog­ni­tion from oth­ers. In one short sen­tence, Guru Ji pro­vided a strat­egy to tame ego with a dou­ble pronged at­tack. Guru Ji’s pre­scrip­tion is to give up ego and cease con­form­ing to the norms of the so­ci­ety which only re­sult in ego en­hance­ments. Ac­cord­ing to Guru Ji, by adopt­ing this dou­ble pronged strat­egy, a big trans­for­ma­tion will take place. Faith and hu­mil­ity are gar­nered while the ego is tamed. Then the race to do what every­body else is do­ing takes back­seat.
So, how to pre­pare our­selves to rid the filth of ego? Guru Ji de­clares that the ego is only washed away when the love for God wells up in­side:

“ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੀ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਹਉਮੈ ਮਲੁ ਖੋਇ ॥”
Mean­ing: In the Love of God, the filth of ego is washed away.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 391 

When the filth of ego is washed away, then through the teach­ings of Guru a clear un­der­stand­ing and re­al­iza­tion that the di­vine light is within every­one is enkin­dled. Thus, Guru Ji has clar­i­fied that get­ting rid of the ego is a pre-req­ui­site for cul­ti­vat­ing hu­mil­ity. So, when in the midst of cri­sis and we re­mem­ber God, we have ac­cepted that the dif­fi­cult or un­pleas­ant sit­u­a­tion as God’s plan, whose out­come will be ben­e­fi­cial for our growth. This is con­trary to mere ac­cep­tance of the sit­u­a­tion as fate and be­com­ing com­pla­cent. In­stead, it is an en­deavor to pre­cisely gauge the sit­u­a­tion, and plan for com­men­su­rate course of ac­tion. Such a course of ac­tion leads to dis­so­lu­tion of ego and growth to take place. Guru Nanak Dev Ji has very clearly de­fined those growth ar­eas for hu­man form as:

“ਤਿਥੈ ਘੜੀਐ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਮਤਿ ਮਨਿ ਬੁਧਿ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: The in­tu­itive con­scious­ness, in­tel­lect and un­der­stand­ing of the mind are shaped there. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 7

Guru Ji is talk­ing about de­vel­op­ment not just at in­tel­lec­tual level but the spir­i­tual. Guru Ji has de­fined the four fac­ul­ties where de­vel­op­ment needs to take place as:

1. Thor­ough de­vel­op­ment of aware­ness
2. Ac­quir­ing higher un­der­stand­ing
3. Com­plete evo­lu­tion of per­cep­tion
4. Thor­ough de­vel­op­ment of logic and ra­tio­nal­ity

Guru Ji calls those who em­bark on this jour­ney as “Spir­i­tual War­riors”. These war­riors de­velop these four fac­ul­ties, and a re­al­iza­tion of the One con­scious­ness is be­hind all the forms. Our cur­rent dilemma is with lack of com­plete aware­ness, the higher thought processes and un­der­stand­ing is not in our realm. So, how can these four fac­ul­ties be de­vel­oped? These fac­ul­ties can only be de­vel­oped if hu­mil­ity is cul­ti­vated. Guru Nanak Dev Ji has ad­vised us about it in these words:

“ਸੁਣਿਆ ਮੰਨਿਆ ਮਨਿ ਕੀਤਾ ਭਾਉ ॥ ਅੰਤਰਗਤਿ ਤੀਰਥਿ ਮਲਿ ਨਾਉ ॥”
Mean­ing: By lis­ten­ing and be­liev­ing in rev­er­ence with hu­mil­ity in mind, one cleanses the sa­cred shrine (soul) within. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 4 

Guru Ar­jan Dev Ji has sug­gested:
“ਮਨ ਕੀ ਮਤਿ ਤਿਆਗੀਐ ਸੁਣੀਐ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥”
Mean­ing: So, re­nounce the in­tel­lec­tual clev­er­ness of your mind, and lis­ten to the (di­vine) Teach­ings (from Guru). -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 814 

Guru Ji wants us to be con­vinced with­out a doubt that what­ever Guru Ji’s teach­ings are, they are for our good and to have com­plete faith in them:

“ਜੋ ਗੁਰੁ ਕਹੈ ਸੋਈ ਭਲ ਮਾਨਹੁ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਕਥਾ ਨਿਰਾਲੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥”
Mean­ing: What­ever the Guru says, ac­cept that as good; the ser­mon of the Lord, Har, Har, is unique and won­der­ful. 1. Pause. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 667

It is through the words of the Guru; the ego gets com­pletely erad­i­cated:
“ਗੁਰ ਸਬਦੀ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਹਉਮੈ ਖੋਇ ॥”
Mean­ing: Through the Word of the Gu­ru’s Shabad, ego­tism is erad­i­cated from within. -Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1173

Guru Ji’s words or teach­ings share with us the great­ness, benev­o­lence, in­fi­nite ca­pa­bil­ity, art, and in­tel­li­gence of God, who made the en­tire cre­ation and is sus­tain­ing it con­tin­u­ously. It is again Guru Ji’s teach­ings that make us re­al­ize that our own strength, ca­pa­bil­ity, fac­ul­ties, and in­tel­li­gence are quite lim­ited. Guru Ji’s words per­form the work of a life coach, trans­form­ing life. The out­come is clar­i­fied by Guru Ji as fol­lows:

“ਹੋਇ ਸਗਲ ਕੀ ਰੇਣੁਕਾ ਹਰਿ ਸੰਗਿ ਸਮਾਵਉ ॥”
Trans­la­tion: Be­come the dust of all men’s feet, and so merge with the Lord.
-Guru Granth Sahib, Page 322

Now, this is true ex­alt­ing of the hum­ble. This is the true sweet­ness of hu­mil­ity, a re­sult of God’s grace. The path pre­scribed by Guru is through re­mem­brance and praise of God.

Ref­er­ences:
1. Singh, Bhupin­der. Hu­mil­ity: A Spir­i­tual Jour­ney. Gra­cious Books, Pa­tiala, 2018
2. Pierce, Vir­ginia. The Power of Re­mem­ber­ing.
3. www.Sikhi­tothe­max.com
4. https://​www.foun­da­tionof­praise.org/​pow­er­in­praise.html