Acharya Prashant explains that nothing hurts a small-minded person more than seeing a great person or another small person trying to move towards greatness. This is because smallness is justified by numbers. The moment even one person defies smallness and moves towards greatness, it causes a commotion in the crowd of small ones. They feel humiliated because the conclusion is obvious: if it was possible for one person to move towards greatness, it is possible for everybody. This hurt comes from their own insistence on remaining small, and the thing that makes you blame yourself is the smallness present in you. If you move towards greatness and it hurts people around you, it only means that those people are insistent on remaining small. It also means they do not love you at all; in fact, they are actively vicious towards you. In love, you want the best for the other person without caring for yourself. If someone close to you is moving towards liberation and you feel hurt, it means you are probably that person's worst enemy. An enemy is one who wants to keep you in bondage. When you move towards freedom and someone says you are hurting their expectations, you must investigate their expectations. They are expecting you to remain in bondage. To honor such an expectation is to be a lover of cages, which is dangerous for yourself and everyone else. Conversely, if you are trying to encage yourself and someone stops you with determination, it shows they are a lover of freedom. Get rid of the business of taking care and avoiding hurt, which is just popular culture or "Facebook spirituality." The popular idea that the greatest religion is to not hurt others is flawed. Why not prevent a thief from stealing or a rapist from raping? They would be hurt. There is a cult that follows the principle of "don't hurt." If they are hurt, they will accuse you of sacrilege. This is like speaking as a child does, because this littleness is a sign of immaturity. You are trying to protect that which deserves to be thrown away. Do not be a sissy, always saying, "I get hurt, I need to be handled with kid gloves." You are not a fragile box with nonsense inside that needs protection. The one who avoids hurting the person who gets easily hurt is a bigger culprit. The genuine meaning of care is not to let someone remain what they are or what they pretend to be. If you care for someone, don't let them remain what they are. Each of us deserves to be the highest we can be, liberated from our mean concept of ourselves. That alone is the definition of care.
