Acharya Prashant explains that the person who insults you should be considered your friend. They have insulted you so that you may awaken, rise, and become aware. Such people who insult you should be brought close to you by paying them their asking price. They are not pointing out your faults because they find pleasure in giving you pain; they are pointing out your faults so that they can remove your filth, purify you, and make you better. The second category of people who insult are those who do it to hurt you. Towards them, one should be forgiving and indifferent. They should be considered neither good nor bad. You cannot consider them bad because whatever they did ultimately benefited you by exposing your flaw. But their intention was to hurt you; they did not want your well-being. So you cannot consider them good either. All in all, do not consider them anything. Just be indifferent towards them. You should tell them, 'You tried to make me feel bad and hurt, but what you did ultimately benefited me. So I will not call you bad, nor will I hold any malice or feeling of revenge towards you. I have let you go. I don't have to think about you at all. Ultimately, I only benefited from you.' There is a third category of people from whom one must be very, very careful; they are your enemies. These are the people who do not insult you even when you are worthy of insult. They keep you in false dreams and never let you face reality. Even when you have done a very weak or sometimes even a despicable act, they will never present the truth, your reality, before you. They will never show you the mirror. This is because if you get upset with them, their self-interests will be affected. The sad part is that these are the very people who are dearest to us. A true well-wisher, a real friend, will not stand beside you in your wrongdoings; they will be your biggest critic. The one who speaks well of you and gives you respect even when you are deserving of someone telling you a harsh truth, you consider them your enemy. This will be difficult for you.
