This was Shri Babaji Bhagwan’s word of caution to those who set foot on the spiritual path: “Do not desire the praise of the world. Would you wish to be praised by the blind? Would you place that worth on yourself which the world sets on you? Are you one with eyes or are you blind yourself? The praise of even one man with eyes carries greater weight than the praise of a thousand without eyes, whose description has no meaning.
“ Why must you seek a certificate of recognition from the people of the world in order to establish your spiritual worth? Is your heart not witness enough?
“ If you have a lakh of rupees with you and someone announces to the world that you have ten lakhs – will that increase the amount you have? And if someone says you have gone bankrupt and have not a single penny – will that cause you any loss? Finally, even if someone correctly says you have one lakh rupees, how will it affect you?
“You must therefore always look at yourselves with your own spiritual eyes. You must so merge yourselves in the bliss of your spiritual state that the praise or jibes of the world have no effect on you. This is the only way to secure your spiritual status. Any person who tries to walk on the spiritual path using the eyes of others has lost the right to walk on that path.
“How blessed are those spiritual souls who walk on the path of righteousness but are reviled by the world for no faults of theirs. The thorns they walk through shall make their flowers more secure; their spiritual state shall not be touched by the criticism of the world.
“One of the greatest enemies of a man on the spiritual path is the praise given to him by the world. It is this which makes him fall when he is weak. On the other hand the disparagement of the world serves to save him.
“Spiritual men prefer criticism and disparagement to praise and honour. If this comes naturally on the path, they welcome it, and there are even times when they deliberately create situations in which criticism and opposition mount against them. They thrive in such an atmosphere.
“If a person is called good by the people of the world will he in reality be good? If a person is called a great intellectual by a child studying in the first grade, will that make such a man an intellectual?
Nek baashi va badat goyand khalk
Beh ke bad baashi va mi goyand nek
If thou be good but the world calls thee bad,
It is better than that thou be bad, and the world calls thee good!
A moth must burn in the flame; it does not care whether the people think of it as good or bad.
If the knowledge of a person in the second class is identical to the knowledge of a person in the first class, then there is in fact no difference between the two. For a difference to exist, the knowledge of the person in the second class must be higher than that of the person in the first class. The personalities who exist on the spiritual plane can never be understood by those who exist on the worldly plane. It is for this reason that the world looks upon them with curiosity and thinks of them as unnatural and extraordinary and even bizarre and eccentric, referring to them at times as magicians or mystics.