Saint - Who is a saint?

[Guest guest]

I found following article - what do you think?

10 Saint - Mahapurush

10.1 Who is a saint

Saint also called “Mahapurush” is a person whose senses, mind and intellect are divine and has received divine happiness, love, etc.

 

Two criteria of saint are:

1. “Shrotriya”,

2. “Brahma-nishtha”

 

Shrotriya means knowing all scriptures by heart without having to read them. Brahma-nishtha means a person who personally sees God through divine eyes all the time everywhere. One who has become divine can see God because God is divine and cannot be seen by material eyes. And one who is divine has access to all divine knowledge and so knows all scriptures. No one can actually defeat a saint in any material knowledge also. However, generally speaking, he will not exhibit material knowledge.

 

The saint is not even slightly affected by any material force, Maya, although it may appear so. Therefore, he or she can behave in a very materialistic way without being impacted by material forces or He can behave in a very straight and simple manner.

 

God himself personally performs all actions of a saint. It is important to note that all actions of God and saints are “leela” pastimes and meant only for the benefit of “jeev” (jeev kaliyan).

 

“Jeev” can become a saint. When we “jeev” become saint through saadhana – practice of devotion, then “jeev” is called “saadhan-siddh mahapurush”. Individuals from internal divine energy of God i.e. “paraa” are saints from eternity and are called “nitya parikar” – eternal associates or “nitya-siddh mahapurush”, since they were always saints. Even after becoming a saint, “Jeev” cannot reach that level.

 

A saint can open the spiritual file of any “jeev” to see his spiritual status and what are the good things or bad things going to happen in his life. Just as God knows you inside out, better than you know yourself, even a saint knows you equally well. He can customize his advice to individuals based on individual spiritual graph and prarabdh (destiny). It is important to note that a saint prefers not to provide material benediction beyond the karmic destiny of an individual.

 

10.2 What does the saint do for the aspirant

1. The saint teaches you how to reach your divine goal, guides you and helps you along the way.

2. The saint has remote communication with you and knows or can find out what you are doing or thinking.

3. The saint gives customized instructions based on your “sanskars”, “prarabdha” and your personal spiritual graph. Therefore, his instructions will be unique to your situation and personality.

4. The saint fights with your negative materialistic “sanskars”.

5. The saint destroys your material attachments, sins and sinful reactions of your actions.

6. The saint grants deep spiritual knowledge and devotion to God.

7. The saint shows you God and you can see God eye to eye, the way He can see.

8. The saint makes your senses, mind and intellect divine when the time is ripe.

9. The saint knows you inside out – sanskars, every action you performed in past and present lives, prarabdh etc., but he may put you to test to show how clean you are from inside “antahkaran” and where you stand in devotion.

 

10.3 How to look for a saint

One cannot find a saint by searching. Tulsidas says: “Binu Hari Kripa, mile nahi santa”. Without the grace of God, one cannot find saint. To acquire grace, one must perform sadhana bhakti and cry out to God in submission and sincerely request God to arrange your meeting with a saint. Then, when the hunger is strong and genuine and spiritually ready, God will create circumstances by which you will hear or read about a saint and you should then put in efforts to meet him/her. This is the only way. Until one finds a saint – who has seen God and is well versed in all scriptures, one should continue performing sadhana bhakti and requesting God sincerely.

It is impossible for any “jeev” to recognize a saint, without the saint’s desire to reveal him self. With two people going to the same saint at the same time, it is possible that one recognizes the saint and the other does not.

 

10.4 What it feels like when meeting a saint

#1 Criteria is the aspirant’s readiness. An aspirant will be attracted to the saint to the extent he/she has cleansed his/her “antahkaran” by constant spiritual practices in this and previous lives. One may feel no attraction or deep attraction at the first meeting, also depending on the “sanskars” that have risen at that particular time and the fluctuations and varying proportions of the three qualities of Maya – goodness “satva”, passion “rajas” and ignorance “tamas”. However, when the good “sanskars” are rising and you remember the saint you met, you will feel strong attraction towards the saint, deep peace and love within yourself, something divine – something that you have not felt before. You may feel that all your worries/responsibilities are over. You may even start weeping or feel shivers or you may get aromatic fragrance. You will get the feeling of fulfillment and content and feel light. It feels much better than even winning a lottery of $1 million or any material achievement one can think of.

 

10.5 What must one do when one meets a saint

1. Accept him or her as your spiritual / divine master / guru and true senior friend and well wisher. He is the one who will help you and take you to God.

2. Do not try to imitate him and his actions.

3. Ignore his actions. Do not be mindful of his actions.

4. Observe him performing “kirtan” or chanting and observe the love he has for divinity.

5. Observe expressions of peace, tranquility and happiness on his or her face.

6. Develop faith in him.*

7. Listen to his teachings.

8. Ask philosophical questions.

9. Serve him whole-heartedly with mind (visualize that you are serving him), with your body (fan him, cook for him, etc.) and wealth (provide money). But, please remember that he does not need any of these from you. You need to do this so that he can destroy the sinful reactions of your past actions and attachments to material forces of Maya.

 

10. Take instructions from him and follow his instructions and warnings.

Accepting a saint as Guru and following his instructions and warnings are key to reaching the goal of divinity.

Once, when Udhav, friend and devotee of Krishna, asked who is greater, Guru or God. Krishna replied: Know the guru to be my own self. Never think unfavorably about him. Do not use material intellect to comprehend his divine actions, for all forms of God dwell in him.

Here Krishna is referring to Guru as that person whose all actions are divine. This is possible only for that Guru who is a saint, because saint is divine.

Archaryam maam vijaaniyaan naavmanyeta karhichit,

Na martya budhayya suyet, sarvdev mayo guruh (Shrimad Bhagvatam)

 

10.6 Grace of Guru / God

It is the nature of Guru/God to grace and grace everyone equally. It is spontaneous or automatic for them. But how much grace one receives depends on the extent spirituality his/her mind has attained through spiritual endeavors in present and previous lives. Sometimes, we do not feel the grace also because of our bad “sanskars”.

It is their grace that makes us divine. We must always remember this and feel indebted to Guru / God.

Guru & God continuously watch our efforts and help us towards attaining divinity. It is important to note that we can see God only when we become saints ourselves. However, saints are available to us. He is the one who cleanses us and makes us ready for God. And since God performs all actions of a saint, one must have faith and reverence in Guru as much as one has in God.

Guru / God automatically provide prema bhakti to an aspirant who has reached the peak of Bhav Bhakti, and make him / her divine.

 

10.7 Attachment to Guru

Since Guru is divine, the result of attachment to Guru is divine. Attachment to Guru should helps in the final goal to love and serve God himself as a subordinate to Guru.

 

10.8 What if the guru I have, is not a saint

Attachment to Guru who is not a saint is not considered very good as the results will not be purely divine. Attach yourself to God with sadhana and request God to arrange for a meeting with a saint. But, surely do not be attached to materialistic person.

 

10.9 On leaving an accepted Guru

One can have thousands of gurus, vedic scriptures does not consider anything wrong in it. However, one should not have any ill feelings towards any Guru or think or comment negatively on any of them. This is a serious transgression. However, it is better to have a guru, who is a saint, and whose method of teaching appeals to you. It is definitely better to have a guru who is a saint rather than having one who is not a saint. One should be careful about leaving a guru and it should be done discretely and not to offend anyone.