A questioner recounts a recent incident where she tripped and fell, and her immediate reaction was not to check for injury but to quickly stand up, worried if anyone had seen her. She asks Acharya Prashant to explain this behavior. Acharya Prashant explains that this reaction represents the state of humanity. We are not concerned with our own pain, condition, or well-being, but rather with our image in the eyes of others. The pain of falling is one thing, but the pain of someone seeing us fall is far greater. We are not concerned with ourselves, but with what others think of us. Our image in their eyes holds more importance than our actual state. He uses an analogy: a patient told by a doctor to get a cancer test, instead of getting the test, goes around asking others if he has cancer. This is how we are; we seek knowledge about ourselves from others, who in turn get their knowledge from others, creating a cycle of ignorance. He further elaborates that if a person with cancer is told by others that he is fine, he believes it and becomes happy. Conversely, if a healthy person is told by others that he is sick, he believes it and becomes sad. We are in a strange situation where we are enslaved by the opinions of people whom we ourselves consider fools. We successfully deceive them and then value their opinion. This is the state of the ego. The ego's identity is a blind stubbornness. On one hand, it knows nothing that it has learned on its own; on the other, it has a full claim and stubbornness about knowing. The ego's knowledge is not its own; it is borrowed from others. Spirituality, he explains, offers a different path. It doesn't say, "Don't be a slave," but rather, "Be a slave to the Master, not to other slaves." This is the paradox of spirituality: it speaks of surrender and, at the same time, of not bowing down to anyone. It means to surrender to the Master, not to the world. The one who is in constant meditation (Dhyan) is always connected to the Master. For such a person, falling and rising are natural phenomena. The central point is not to be swayed by these ups and downs. If they fall, their concern is not what others will say, but what the Master will say. The Master, however, is not in our minds; the world is. Our minds are filled with worldly thoughts, and that is why we are so concerned with the world's opinion.
