If you are worried, grieved or even discouraged by the malicious stupidities that men say about you, you will not advance far on the way. And such things come to you, not because you are unlucky or because your lot is not a happy one, but because, on the contrary, the Divine Consciousness and the Divine Grace take your resolution seriously and allow the circumstances to become a touch-stone on your way, to see whether your resolution is sincere and whether you are strong enough to face the difficulties.
Therefore, if anyone sneers at you or says something that is not very charitable, the first thing you should do is to look within yourself for whatever weakness or imperfection has allowed. such a thing to happen and not to be disconsolate, indignant or aggrieved, because people do not appreciate you at what you think to be your true value; on the contrary, you must be thankful to the Divine Grace for having pointed out to you the weakness or imperfection or deformation that you must correct.
