Are the spiritually enlightened more respectable than ordinary people?
“Respectability” is in the mind’s eye – either that of another or of oneself. An “enlightened” one is very ordinary and has no inclination to appear otherwise because to do so is an ego driven propensity. To be enlightened is to no longer identify with the ego and its need to appear “respectable” in its own eyes or in the eyes of another. Without ego dictating how to appear to others and how to maintain its own image of itself there is just a deep relaxation with whatever appears and no desire to impress others with former ego gratifiying images.
If the term refers to people who are considered “spiritually enlightened” by simply being very knowledgeable about the history of religions and the participants, then such people have the same range of respectability as everyone else. If “spiritually enlightened” means, correctly, those who have awakened to their connectedness to God and the rest of humanity, then their independence from reliance on material things, power, and position would remove the need for them to do anything less than respectable.
