Who is a Saint?

1. Introduction slide

In this tutorial we explain the spiritual concept of who can be considered a Saint according to the science of spirituality. If you would like to view this presentation in full screen mode please click on the full screen button on the bottom right hand side.

2. Following Saints through the centuries

For centuries, the world has revered various spiritual masters and has considered them as Saints.

3. Different attributes for Sainthood

Various religions and cultures stipulate different attributes or criteria for Sainthood to be bestowed upon someone.

4. Common ground for Sainthood

After conducting a brief study with regard to this, we found that there were some generic criteria that prompted people from various religions to consider a person as a Saint.

• The first is that a person must be righteous and virtuous.
• The person must be from that particular religion. In other words people from one religion will not generally accept a Saint from another religion and this is based purely on the fact that he is from another religion.
• Some religions require that the person has to have passed away and attained a place in heaven before they can be considered for Sainthood. However others acknowledge Sainthood as a state that can be achieved while a person is living too.
• A Saint for some, needs to have performed miracles, while living and also after death. A miracle after death could include the body of the person not decaying. It could also mean healings that have occurred after saying a prayer to a Saint and where it is believed that the Saint has interceded with God. In some cases a person is miraculously healed after coming into contact with a relic of the Saint. Thus it is important that the Saint needs to have the power to intercede with God on behalf of the devotee.

5. The process of making of a Saint

Now we will touch upon some popular ways of how a Saint is proclaimed.

• Formal / Informal process: If a person meets the criteria of the religion in question, they generally go through either a formal or informal procedure of being proclaimed a Saint. This formal process in the Roman Catholic Church for example is known as canonization. In some cases this formal procedure can last for many years.

• People conducting are not Saint’s themselves: In most cases, the people conducting this formal or informal process of proclaiming a Saint are not Saints themselves but just religious people or people of some standing in the religion.
• Popular vote of society: In some cases it is just the popular vote of society.
• Religion centric: Whichever the religion, people generally bestow the title of a Saint on a person only from that religion. They do not generally consider that there could possibly be a Saint from another religion or culture.
• Display of supernatural powers: In some cases people become self-proclaimed Saints and they also get a mass following if they are able to display some supernatural powers gained through some specific spiritual practice.

6. Definition of a Saint according to the science of spirituality

If one were to view the spiritual maturity or spiritual level of a person on a scale from 1 to 100% where God is 100%, then through spiritual research using advanced sixth sense we have found that the spiritual level of an average person in the world today is around the 20% mark.

We have also found through spiritual research that over 80% of the world’s population is below the 35% spiritual level.

According to the science of Spirituality, one becomes eligible for the spiritual state of Sainthood when one attains a spiritual level of at least 70%, irrespective of his religion or path of spiritual practice.

7. What are we comprised of?

Now you must be wondering what is spiritual level.

As human-beings we are made up of the following aspects, they are the:

• The physical body (sthuladeha): This includes our physical being and the five senses of touch, taste, sound, smell and sight.
• The mind or mental body (manodeha) which consists of both the conscious and sub-conscious mind. The mind is the source of all our feelings and emotions.
• The intellect or causal body (karandeha) which gives us the ability to process information.
• The subtle-ego or supracausal body (mahakarandeha) which gives us the feeling of being separate from God
• And lastly the soul (atma) which is the God Principle within each one of us.

What is ego? Now the first four make up our ego or feeling that we are separate from God. The Soul is the divine or the God Principle within each of us. According to spiritual science, the Soul is our real state of Consciousness.

8. What decides spiritual maturity, spiritual evolved-ness or spiritual level?

The ‘evolved-ness’ or spiritual maturity or spiritual level of a person is how much they identify with, or have an experience of, the Soul within and conversely how much they dissociate their identity from their five senses, mind and intellect that they are born with, in short their ego.

9. More information on a Saint

A Saint is therefore a person who has a very low ego as they experience God within themselves and see others as the God principle within them.

10. How one can reach Sainthood

The only way to raise one’s spiritual level is by doing progressively higher levels of spiritual practice that needs to conform to the six basic principles of spiritual practice. These principles have been explained in detail in other tutorials in the SSRF classroom and I urge everyone to have a look at it.

Thank you for joining us and we look forward to meeting you in our next online lecture.