The modest woman will ever keep within limits, through her innate sense of propriety. She becomes automatically aware which behaviour is proper and which is improper. She will stick only to virtuous deeds and behaviour. Modesty is the test of a woman's grandeur. If a woman has no modesty she is injuring the interests of womanhood itself, besides undermining her own personality. She is like a fragranceless flower, which the world does not cherish or honour, or even approve. The absence of modesty makes life, for a woman, however rich in other accomplishments, a waste and a vacuum. Modesty lifts her to the heights of sublime holiness. The modest woman wields authority in the home and outside, in the community as well as in the world.

Some might interrupt and ask: "But, women who have swallowed all the compunctions of modesty are being honoured today! They strut about with heads erect and the world honours them not a whit less." I have no need to acquaint myself with these activities of the present-day world. I do not concern myself with them. They may be receiving honour and respect of a sort, but the respect is not authorised or deserved. When honour is offered to the undeserving, it is tantamount to insult; to accept it when offered is to demean the very gift. It is not honour, but flattery that is cast on the immodest by the selfish and the greedy. It is like spittle dirty and unpleasant.

Of course, the modest woman will not crave for honour or praise. Her attention will always be on the limits which she would not transgress. Honour and praise come to her unasked and unnoticed. The honey in the flower or lotus does not crave for bees; they do not plead with the bees to come. Since they have tasted the sweetness, they themselves search for the flowers and rush in. They come because of the attachment between themselves and sweetness. So, too, is the relationship between the woman who knows the limits and the respect she evokes.

If a frog sits on a lotus and proclaims that fact to the world, does it mean that it knows the value of the beauty or the sweetness of that flower? Has it tasted any of these? It may flatter the lotus but, has it at least recognised what it contains? The honour and respect given to woman today is of this type, rendered by people who do not know what to appreciate and how. They do not know the standards of judgement, they have no faith in the ultimate values, they do not respect the really good and great; how can we call the thing they offer as "honour" or "respect"? It can only be called "a disease" or at best, "etiquette", that is all.