Ramana Maharshi About Greatness Of Humility

1) One’s greatness increases to the extent one becomes humble. The reason why God is Supreme to such an extent that the whole universe bows to Him,is His sublime state of humility in which the deluded ego never rises unknowingly.

2) For a wise aspirant who seeks to gain true greatness,it is best to pay his homage [namaskarams] to others until complete egolessness is achieved. On the other
hand, it is indeed dangerous for him to accept homage from others.

3) A devotee asked Sri Bhagavan, “What is your feeling when hundreds of people come and do pranams to you?” Without hesitation,

Sri Bhagavan replied: “First I do my namaskarams to each one of them as soon as they enter this room, and then only they do so. Subsiding one’s ego is the right and real form of doing namaskarams. Do I not have more chances each day to do such namaskarams than anyone who comes here?”

4) The hollow and flimsy straw floats high on the surface of the sea, while the heavy pearl lies low at the bottom of the sea. Likewise, though the worthless one is positioned above, he is really low, and though the great one is positioned below, he is never low.

Sadhu Om: The last two lines of this verse are verse 973 of Tirukkural, the 3rd verse in the chapter entitled ‘Greatness’.

One day, some devotees contrived to send away from the presence of Sri Bhagavan a person who adamantly wanted a seat no less high than that of Sri Bhagavan.

Guessing what had happened,Sri Bhagavan at once remarked, pointing his finger above
his head, “Oh, you are very happy in driving him away; but what will you do with this one?” Just above the head of Sri Bhagavan,there was a monkey sitting on the branch of a tree stretching its tail towards him! The devotees felt repentant for their mistake.Is not this incident a direct and practical explanation of this verse?

Source: GURU VACHAKA KOVAI The Light of Supreme Truth or THE COLLECTION OF GURU’S SAYINGS translated from original Tamil By Sadhu Om and Michael James

Guru Vachaka Kovai is the biggest collection of Bhagavan’s spoken teachings that was thoroughly checked and revised by him during his lifetime. As such it has a unique place in the Ramana literature.