It is arrogance to humble oneself

Once, Krishna pretended to be suffering from intense and unbearable headache! He acted that role quite realistically. He wound warm cloth around His Head and rolled restlessly in bed. His eyes were red and He was in evident distress. The face too appeared swollen and pale. Rukmini, Satyabhama and the other queens rushed about with all kinds of remedies and palliatives. But they were ineffective. At last, they consulted Narada and he went into the sick room to consult Krishna Himself and find out which drug would cure Him.

Krishna directed him to bring — what do you think the drug was? — the dust of the feet of a true Bhakta (A devotee who has selfless love for God). In a trice, Narada manifested himself in the presence of some celebrated Bhaktas of the Lord. But they were too humble to offer the dust of their feet to be used by their Lord as a drug!

That is also a kind of egoism. “I am low, mean, small, useless, poor, sinful, inferior” — such feelings also are egoistic. When the ego goes, you do not feel either superior or inferior. No one would give the dust wanted by the Lord.  They were too worthless, they declared. Narada came back disappointed to the sickbed. Then, Krishna asked him, “Did you try Brindavan where the Gopis live?” The Queens laughed at the suggestion and even Narada asked in dismay, “What do they know of Bhakti?” Still, the sage had to hurry thither.

When the Gopis heard He was ill and that the dust of their feet might cure Him, without a second thought they shook the dust of their feet and filled Narada’s hand with the same. By the time Narada reached Dwaraka, the headache had gone. It was just a five-day drama, to teach that self-condemnation is also egoism and that the Lord’s command must be obeyed without demur by all Bhaktas.