Why does criticism hurt us so much?
Often, it’s because we want the opposite: honour, approval and validation.
And the more we depend upon one, the more vulnerable we become to the other.
Ancient yoga wisdom offers another possibility — humility.
Not weakness.
Not low self-esteem.
Not allowing people to walk over you.
Humility means becoming free from the anxiety of needing others to honour us.
The Bhagavad-gītā teaches that genuine spiritual awakening changes our entire perspective. We begin to discover that we are not the body, not the mind, and not the constantly changing stories we tell ourselves about who we are.
From that understanding comes a very different kind of strength: the ability to remain steady amid praise and criticism, pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour.
This talk explores how humility, spiritual wisdom and daily meditation can help us gain mastery over the mind — and experience a deeper, more enduring happiness.
Perhaps the greatest victory isn’t conquering the world around us. It’s no longer being controlled by it.
Some verses that were quoted:
What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage. – Bhagavad-gītā 2.69
Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; …… Bhagavad-gītā 13.8-12
Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others. The material conception of life makes us very eager to receive honor from others, but from the point of view of a man in perfect knowledge-who knows that he is not this body-anything, honor or dishonor, pertaining to this body is useless. One should not be hankering after this material deception. – ACBSP Purport Bhagavad-gītā 13.8-12
For one who has conquered the mind, the Supreme Soul is already reached, for he has attained tranquility. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same. Bhagavad-gītā 6.7
Chapters
00:00:00 Spiritual vs. Material Consciousness: Opposites
00:05:08 The Problem with Self-Love and Positive Self-Talk
00:07:55 Qualities of a Transcendentalist
00:14:39 Understanding True Humility
00:23:39 Humility as a Spiritual Superpower: A Nuanced View
00:33:20 Controlling the Mind and Achieving Equanimity
00:43:57 The Lifeline Analogy and the Call to Practice
