Lives of Saints

by Annemarie Ruthenberg

It is not so quite easy for a little devotee to describe something of the life of Great Holy Men. They seem to be like common men in Their outer form, but They are much more. A True Saint is a denizen of the Highest Spiritual Realms from where He comes down to take us along with Him to His celestial abode. He comes directly from the Kingdom of God and is, as a man, an ideal man. In Him shines the Sun of Spirituality. No one can know Him fully, as He is far beyond the limitations of the physical, astral and causal bodies; He is far beyond all propensities or instincts, beyond the five elements as well as beyond mind and matter.

Saints are One with God and come into this world to fulfil His will, because man can only be taught by a man. They attract all such souls as come into Their sphere of influence, and work out Their Divine Mission by personal instruction and guidance. They bestow Their Love, Grace and compassion on all those who aspire for it. A Saint is much more than what He seems to be. He may look like any other person, but He is beyond all comprehension, apprehension and conception. He is a Master-Soul in human form. We can only speak of Him from our limited intellectual level, as we cannot comprehend Him Who is the limitless Ocean of Truth and God’s elect, while we are only weak human beings who can never judge His Godly Greatness. Only Master-Souls can tell us of Themselves or of Their Masters and Their greatness.

The outer life of Saints may be different in various countries, but Their Inner Experience of God is ever one and the same. No True Saint will give us only some theoretical knowledge of God without giving the practical experience too. Saints lead a retired (secluded), modest and humble life. Their whole life is selfless service for the suffering humanity. They don’t sleep much and work most of Their time for Their disciples and human brethren. Full with Godly Compassion, they sometimes overtake the karmic burdens of Their disciples on Themselves to help Their children. Only a Saint can know a Saint. Saints never do miracles, although Their whole life is a great wonder. On the human plane, They appear as limited as we are, but in the Spiritual Regions They are limitless and infinite as God Himself. They may seem poor, but They are rich in God’s infinitude.

However difficult it may be to find a True Saint or Godman, it it not impossible to single Him out from the rest. Such True Saints are rare, unobtrusive in Their humility and reluctant to declare Themselves by spectacular miracles or court Their public limelight. A True Saint is a Living Embodiment of what He teaches. He is unattached to worldly objects and is never covetous. He gives His teachings and instructions as a free gift of nature and never seeks anything in return. He maintains Himself by His own labours and does never live on the offerings of others. He earns His own livelihood and befriends the needy. He explains the real nature of existence, instructs us about the True Values of life and initiates the aspirants into the science of the soul. He grants ineffable wisdom and leads us on the Path Godwards. The True Master-Saint is the intercessor between God and men as Hw links men to the Holy Word. Without Him no one can find salvation. There is a great difference between the so-called religious teachers of the world and the True Saints. The latter act as the Divine Pole through which works God, the Source of All-Life.

The Master-Soul combines in His person all that the scriptures contain and much more besides. He may be unlettered, but He is the most learned of all. He is a Living Embodiment of all that is truly religious. He is an awakened soul, transcending time and space and causation, and holding the past, present and future in His hands. He is competent to work simultaneously on all planes. In His person, He is at once Guru Dev or a Radiant Master-Soul working in the higher supra-mundane planes, and a Satguru, the veritable Lord controlling and sustaining the universe itself in all its stages. His teachings show a practical way out of the dense matter, for the knowledge that a genuine teacher imparts is direct and immediate and comes from an actual experience of the soul apart from the senses. His words being directly charged with the spirit currents, sink directly into the soul and leave no doubt about the why and wherefore of things.

A True Saint is already born as Saint and comes into this world with Spiritual Knowledge directly from His birth. Nevertheless, He also must adopt a Master of Truth for the sake of form and there is no Saint witout his Divine preceptor, for Light comes only from Light as life comes from life. A Real Saint is only One Who is entitled and able to teach the Naam or Shabd theoretically and to give a practical experience. He alone is competent to initiate us and to enlighten the Life-Principle of Shabd already alying within us in a latent form. No one else can do this except the True Master-Saint. While True Saints always live in the conscious awareness of Shabd or the Word all other living beings are not conscious of it and have no idea of it at all, if the Master-Saint does not manifest it within them at the time of initiation.

As Saints are egoless, They are the fit instruments of God’s Will and Power. and in relation to the world, they are God Personified or polarised God Who come into this world in the garb of man to guide and to help the suffering humanity. He can pass into the subtle and higher regions at will and can lead the disciples according to their Spiritual Progress on the Path. A Master-Saint is our father as our best friend, our brother and our teacher, and finally our Satguru Who gives us salvation and takes us Home. The work of imparting actual Spiritual Instructions can only be done by True Living Master, as the esoteric mysteries cannot be fully explained in writing, so that the Holy Scriptures of the past Masters and Their teachings although They awakened our interest in the Spiritual Matters and exhorted us to begin the search for a Living Master, cannot really help us to contact the Holy Naam or Shabd within us. Only the Living Master can establish this contact within us and can help the spirit in his various difficulties on his journey from plane to plane. It is the Saint’s first and foremost work to the link the erring and searching souls with God by means of Shabd or Word which carries the spirit to its native Home. As He is a child of Light, He sheds His Light like a lighthouse over tempestuous seas throughout the world. And like a good shepherd He has to look after and to tend many sheep. The Master-Saint teaches us how to withdraw from the body and to contact the Sound-Current, the Holy Word within and how to do the right Simran of the Charged Words. He points out the stillpoint within us at the eye-focus and grants us the Charged Names for consolidating our outgoing sensory currents at this centre behind and between the eyebrows, so as to attune ourselves to the Eternal Source of Life. The Holy Shabd is the Divine Principle which alone can release us from the meshes of the mind and matter.

As far as the Saint works on the physical plane, He must assume a human form through which He can impart the Spiritual Instructions. Otherwise, man cannot understand Him. But when He has disengaged a human spirit from the various sheaths and coatings, He also assumes His subtle form and works through it. Since He has a personal knowledge and actulal experience of the journey He performs so often at every day, He not only gives us a first-hand experience of the Kingdom of God, but plans also our itinerary for the journey and books our passage Homeward. And He also accompanies and guides us and does not rest, until He escorts us directly to the Home of our Godly Father. By actual guidance and help, the Master Himself steers us safely from plane to plane and explains us the dangers of the unknown and untrodden Spiritual Realms. A Master of Truth is fully conversant with all mysteries of Spirituality and, therefore His testimony carries weight and his Charged Words drive us Home and prove effective.

Master-Souls are living in the world, but Their spirit is ever in the high heavens; They live within a human body, but They are not bound to it, as Their spirit soars high above. In this world, They live like any other individual. But although living in the world they are not of the world. A Saint may look like a man, but He is perfect in every respect and has Godly Authority. In all His greatness, He works as the lowliest of the low and humblest of the humble. His sway extends to purely Spiritual Regions lying beyond all human limitations of time, space and causation. He can at will leave His physical body and go into spiritual planes to which He has access.

While common men come into the world and must leave it under the irresistible force of karmic pressure, Saints come into and go out of the world – quite different from men – of their own free will. They can, therefore, assist us in our last hour on this earth, and we need not have any fear, as our Master Guru will never leave nor forsake us, until we shall have reached the Home of our Godly Father under His Everlasting and True Guidance.

Never can we really judge the life of such Great Saints, as we only can see with our small worldly eyes, and what we see, are only cuttings. We only can thank God, that He gave us the great fortune and Grace to meet a Master-Saint, and we have to thank our Master for all His help and assistance, for all Love and Grace we may experience in every minute of our life, and we can and must try to deal always according to His commandments, for that is the only way to show Him our Love and devotion.

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The child disciple is always safe in the loving protection of the Master and is destined to grow stronger and stronger from day to day.

Kirpal Singh