Bhagavad Gita 3.21
यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः । स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते ॥
yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ | sa yat pramāṇaṃ kurute lokas tad anuvartate ||
Translation
Whatever a great man does, that other men do; whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world follows.
Reflection
Who has been taking permission from the way you live, while you thought no one was watching?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
The verse the chapter is famous for outside it. Whatever the foremost does, the rest copy. Whatever standard he sets, the world follows. Pramāṇa, the measure, the proof. Shankara reads this as the public function of conduct: your action becomes a teaching whether you intended it as one or not. Aurobindo: the man who pretends his behavior is private has not yet looked at how the people around him watch. The student is not just being asked to fight for his own sake. He is being asked to recognize that what he does, the rest take as permission.