Blessed are the empty!

SADHU VASWANI

In an interview with Einstein, published by an “intellectual”, Einstein was asked: “Why is it that pure science, without which there would be no applied science, is flourishing so much in Europe and so little in America?”

Einstein said: “Because the Europeans have something the Americans have not yet learned, and this is appreciation of thought. There is one quality essential for science which some physicists lack.”

“What is that?” the interviewer asked. And Einstein said: “Humility.”

A Krishna-bhakta “deserves the highest reference”, for he is a man of humility. One test of such a man, Chaitanya taught, was that he would never parade his good works — his alms, charity, fast — before others. He would help secretly. His prayers, too, would be offered in secret to Him who heareth in secret. Such a man knows that the secret of spiritual life is to be empty. Blessed are the empty, for they will be filled.