Writing for "Goldmine" magazine shortly after Harrison's death in November 2001, Dave Thompson said that "Beware of Darkness" and "Art of Dying" "rate among the finest compositions of Harrison's entire career". In his entry for "All Things Must Pass" in the book "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die", Tom Moon names it as the first of the three "key tracks". He writes that almost every song "offers a different type of ecstasy" and in the case of "the meditative 'Beware of Darkness'", by "follow a halting, patient path toward illumination". In "The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles", Michael Frontani describes it as Harrison's "supreme warning about "maya"", adding that his and Barham's attention to the orchestral arrangement on this and other songs was arguably more significant for the sound of "All Things Must Pass" than Spector's Wall of Sound aesthetic. Further to Harrison's standing as the most spiritually focused Beatle, Frontani continues, the message of the line "Beware of maya" "anchored his artistic and personal life for the next three decades".