Saints, sages, realised souls, vibhutis, and even Avatars are not recognised in their immediate environment. Usually they are recognised after their lives. Persecution is the rule, recognition is the exception. Most of the saints who were exceedingly popular during their lives are easily forgotten by posterity because their popularity was due to their personality and not due to their spirituality. How can we evaluate the spiritual worth of a person? There are two ways. One is to know them by what they are. The other is to know how they impact on our own human lives.
Avatars, vibhutis, minor emanations, geniuses, heroes, leaders seem to be the order. Avatars are known to be messiahs who come down from heaven to deliver a message of God to men. They are charged with a mission by the Godhead. Buddha, Krishna, Rama, and Jesus are called avatars. Avatars can be major or minor ones. A single aspect of a godhead entering a human soul makes him a vibhuti. They appear on earth once in a few centuries. They bring about a revolution in the ways of human life impacting minds or lives. Shankara, Shivaji, Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon have been described as vibhutis or God's emanations. Napoleon said that a man like him appeared in four or three hundred years. He came to consolidate the gains of the French Revolution and offered the rule of law to the whole of Europe. The legal as well as administrative system of all the European nations today is what Napoleon originally devised. Even here, it is customary to speak of major and minor vibhutis or emanations.
Man becomes a genius when the SPIRIT touches his mind. Mind has objective knowledge, i.e. the knowledge of what it sees outside. The higher, wider, completer knowledge belongs to the Spirit. It dwells inside. Man goes inside and touches the Spirit. It comes out of his mind. In the mind, the Spirit emerges as genius. Spirit emerging through the vital - the nerves - makes MAN a Caesar or Shivaji. The Spirit emerging through the vehicle of the body renders man the Son of God.