Does Not Claim To Be God

The fourth requirement of the bona fide spiritual master is that, realizing Krsna to be everything, he never poses himself as God, nor does he ever promise his students that they can become God. God is God, and we are His servants eternally. God is infinite, and we are infinitesimal parts of God, inconceivably, simultaneously one and different from God, but we are never God Himself. Actually, the spiritual master, having approached God and having realized how inconceivably great He is, always feels meek and lowly, completely dependent on the Lord for protection. Thus the sage is humble; he is ready to pay his respects even to the ant, and he considers himself the most fallen. This is humility. When the Lord was on earth five hundred years ago, He was known as Patita Pavana, the deliverer of the most fallen. When the great saint Narottama Dasa Thakur approached Him, the Thakur said, "You are the deliverer of the most fallen, so kindly save me first."

Once Srila Prabhupada was in his room in Los Angeles with a few devotees surrounding him, and at one point in the discussions he began to cry, saying, "All I ask of you is to be humble. All we can do is be humble to everyone and in everything that we do. That is all that I ask." Another time Srila Prabhupada went to the temple, and, seeing the throne that the devotees had just made for him, he said, "Oh, I cannot accept this. I am the most fallen, and you have made this for me." He was crying. So a devotee replied, "Oh please, Srila Prabhupada, please accept this as our offering to you." His Divine Grace said, "I have no qualification of my own, but I shall accept it for Krsna."

Then another time a boy made some prasadam (spiritual food) for Srila Prabhupada and was waiting at Srila Prabhupada's door to give it to him. When His Divine Grace appeared, he looked at the prasadam and opened his eyes wide and said, "For me?" After that, the boy who brought the food smiled so hard that he got a headache, and he danced down the street all the way home. Later he said, "Up until that moment I had only theoretically known what humility meant. Now I have practical experience of what humility is; now I understand humility."

Even Lord Caitanya, although He was actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead, never claimed to be God because He wanted to demonstrate the proper behavior for a bona fide spiritual master. When people said that they recognized Him as God, He would cover His ears with His hands and say, "No, don't say that!" He further said that one should chant the holy name of the Lord constantly "in a humble state of mind, thinking himself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than the tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and ready to offer all respects to others." The true spiritual master is always humble. He sees on an equal level a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater, and he offers his services to all. He always points to Krsna, saying, "God is great, and we are very small. Therefore we are not God, so we should surrender to God."