Who Is a Saint?
Questioner: If man’s nature is intelligence, then why is ignorance so prevalent and there are very few intelligent people in the world? There have been very few Saints compared to the overall population of mankind. Why is it so?
Acharya Prashant: It cannot really be explained but what is certain is that if a Saint is able to speak to you, it is because you have a Saint within. So, I do not know to what extent we can accurately count the number of Saints we have had. I would rather like to say that — Every person is a Saint; all that we have is Saints.
There are saints that appear as Saints, and there are saints that are waiting to appear as Saints. All’s said and done there is only Sainthood, nothing else. Of course, you can say that there is the Sainthood and there is the waiting. Yes, there is the waiting and waiting means time. So, there is Sainthood and there is time.
The thing is, waiting is nothing. You are waiting for something to happen. Now, is anything happening in the waiting? Waiting means that the happening is postponed. The real thing is just being postponed, not that the Real thing is being substituted with anything Real. It is just being unduly, unnecessarily postponed.
So, of course, one can give a lot of classical, theoretical answers that there is Maya; anyone cannot explain the origin of Maya; or that it is the very desire of the source and one cannot read into the desires of the source; or that, this question can come only as long as the mind is disturbed, when the mind is not disturbed then one does not ask where does disturbance come from. So, I can give all those answers, but I would rather like to give a more useful answer.
The answer is that a Buddha is not rare, or a Kabir is not rare.
Had they been rare how could you have sung of Kabir? And you sing Kabir with such fondness. Very recently you have uploaded a few of your songs, have you not? So, in those moments you are Kabir. You are Kabir.
In other moments, you are waiting to turn Kabir, eagerly waiting. Walking in the street, sitting in your office, driving your car, typing an e-mail, what are you waiting for? You are waiting just for those few moments when you can be Kabir. Is it not happening? Don’t we spend the entire day just in hope of those few moments of sanity? What are those few moments?
Let those moments not remain so rare, support them. When they call you, respond affirmatively. And then, you find that slowly your life is becoming more and more full of Kabir. I am not referring to the man who lived a few centuries back; the weaver. You know what I am referring to? I am referring to the peace that you are in when you are singing Kabir. That peace is what beckons you all the time. That is Kabir.
That is Kabir.
So, there have not been just a few Saints; everybody is a Saint. Some people are Saints in the present and some people are postponed Saints; deferred sainthood, scheduled for the future.
Stop this scheduling business. Let it come to you right now. Let it come to you more and more.
