THE SAINT AS SEEN BY SHREE SAMARTH

No one becomes unselfish just by merely saying that he is for the people. For selfishness to go one has to get rid of the lust and desires. This never occurs without the worship of the God. Therefore a man who wants to be an unselfish organizer of the people should be under the umbrella of the God. This God is nothing but the Atman inside him. Shree Samarth assures that with constant remembrance and insistent Sadhana the God can very easily be pleased. One shouldn’t ever forget that the God is nothing but the Atman which resides in everything. The corollary of this is if one wants to please the God and unify with him, one should love everyone and everything with the same intensity. Those who are able to do this are also able to disregard the feelings for and of their body and have self realization very quickly; such people get the right from the society itself to advice, preach and direct it on all the matters. Shree Samarth calls these people as the Saints. His view about the Saints is so deeply observant, minutely scrutinizing, broad as broad it can be and highly spiritualistic.
The common man is deeply drowned in the worries of the family life. Even if he succeeds in being happy with it he is confronted with another problem and an increasing worry. This cycle continues. It is difficult for him to get into spiritualism easily. He has to really put in yeoman efforts to pursue the path of spiritualism. It is almost impossible for him to remember the God while he is leading the family life. He therefore has to, with great effort create an atmosphere wherein he can remember the God for some time and try to increase that time to an extent that he remembers the God always. Such an environment can be created by various religious ceremonies, worship, pilgrimage and company of the Saints. These Saints should be able to inspire people to do this and by showering love upon them as they are able to organize them to do it by leading them from the front by their virtues of the feeling of being distant from everything except the truth, candidness, fullest wisdom and having unbound and immeasurable love for the God. Such a Saint is of the liking of Shree Samarth. He is the idol of the society. He does all the work for others’ welfare. The only cause behind all of his deeds is peoples’ happiness and the worship of the God. He shares the grief of others and is happy with the achievements of them. He is always there to help when the need arises. He makes the society wise without harming anyone. Without any expectation he just requests the society to worship the God. His deeds are in accordance with his talks. He experiences everything first and then tells them to others. He is clever enough to recognize the people with vested interests and has the wisdom to divert them on to the path of spiritualism. Even while organizing the people in this way he never ever loses his treasure of self realization. Every now and then he finds time to go into solitude where he gets his batteries recharged for the benefit of the people and there only he gets the much needed rest and the solutions for the problems of the people. He is crafty enough to maintain the fine balance between daily life and spiritualism. Shree Samarth says that he shouldn’t have many laurels but not live without any. He should not for ever live amidst the people but not for ever live in the forest also. He should not divulge the whole secrets by being talkative all the time but should not keep mum also. In the opinion of Shree Samarth, leading the society is a very difficult job. To be successful in that one requires a particular frame of mind. One who lacks it shouldn’t aspire to be one. Such people should only benefit themselves (Of course on the path of spiritualism) which also is not a mean thing. He finally has the view that those who possess these qualities are eligible for Sainthood regardless of their caste or creed or gender. One has to pay a lot of attention to the last line which was a revolutionary thinking considering that Shree Samarth lived in the 17th Century, a time period when even thinking like this was taboo not only in India but all over the world including Europe.