Can one be spiritual while remaining in society?

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an enlightened being says,
The mind constantly needs nourishment. It needs pressure. It needs to remain busy. The mind could behave badly when you are alone. However, those who have acquired my Gnan remain detached and unaffected in the worldly life and experience solitude of the Self even amidst an extreme crowd. In crowds, the mind gets its food and thereby gets engrossed in its own work; and at that time, the Self is all alone dwelling in its eternal bliss.

A poet has sung :
Solitary in a crowd, engulfed in a dream world …
Listener ‘I’ am and the singer ‘I’ am too

When you travel in an overcrowded local train in Bombay, during the evening rush hour, you get pushed and shoved from all directions. At that time the mind, the intellect, the chit and the ego are all overwhelmed and they soon get engaged in their own functions. That is when ‘You’ (the Pure Soul) can really enjoy ‘seeing’ and ‘knowing’ everything in an independent state (to see and know being the prime functions of the Soul). At such times ‘You’ (the Pure Soul) become alone and that is when it is fun to know and see everything.

The greater the crowd (in spiritual language, each entity is to be known by the Soul), the more the power of the Knower (You as a Soul are the Knower) blossoms. Therefore, when one is in a huge crowd, the Knower within, gets a tremendous scope to flourish; the Knower will express fully! The greater the scope, the more the power increases. Some people abandon everything and run away to the forest for solitude, but the real pleasure is amongst a crowd. It is when there is a crowd in the outside, a crowd in the inside, a crowd everywhere, that the Pure Soul becomes alone. There, it does not identify itself with anything.

However, this is possible only after acquiring the knowledge of the Self (Self-Realization)!

There is infinite bliss within you, but you do not know how to uncover it and experience it. There is only one kind of bliss but the society has created so many different levels. You can only experience true bliss when you understand the true reality of this world. How long are you going to live in this imaginary and perceived happiness?

That is the kind of world this is. Once trapped, it is difficult to get out. Only a Gnani Purush can pull you out. The world is a trap of wrong beliefs and illusions. Only upon elimination of the wrong beliefs is release possible. But how can you get rid of the wrong beliefs and the illusion? It happens only when the Gnani awakens you by shaking you from your deep sleep of ignorance. No one else can do that. Without His help, the more you try to be free, the more you bind yourself.

What causes bondage of the Soul (the Self)?
Ignorance.
So what will liberate it?
The opposite of what binds it – knowledge.
It has been said about the Gnani : ‘The Gnani bestows the knowledge of the pure Self (Soul), takes away the ego and the worldly attachments: He alone is the Original pure circumstance who has liberated me from wandering life after life: I bow to the compassionate One!’

A meeting with the Gnani is the only circumstance, the basic instrument, which helps one realize the pure Soul through the separation of ‘I’ and ‘My’ within. In other words, the Gnani makes you acquire the pure Self and renounce the ‘I’ and ‘my’. That is why the Gnani is said to be the main instrument and the only pure circumstance for acquiring ultimate liberation!

To know more: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/science-of-spirituality/