Saas Vs Saap

Hello Uncle ,
Saints , in my understanding , were people who gave up all the worldly wealth / desires to help the needy and led a life with minimum to no desires unlike us , normal humans . If we take religion out of the picture , saints would largely be spending their life for the betterment of the downtrodden , for spiritual enlightenment or so i assumed .

I grew up with out ever following or visiting any saint or guru with my family. Probably thats why i never developed any attachment or sense of association towards any guru nor did i ever missed it or realized any need for it . Which was neither good nor bad to me.

But I observed two saints somewhat closely , one during my growing up years and other after marriage .
I will not take their names here , both with huge following , humongous mutts , 7 star facilities in those mutts , one who got convicted and other is still going strong.

The common thing that i observed was they each had people from a particular section , class , region , religion and culture who followed them and whom they tried to please to increase their tribe . Often at the expense of others .

The first one , because of our school dean's huge trust in this saint , we would also be made to visit his mutt every year. Every year during winter we would have a 10 day camp when lakhs of devotees from nearby villages would be hauled to the ashram in hundreds of school buses and the entire area would be closed for the public. Happened to hear his speeches where he would joke/criticize people who didnt visit/follow him , political establishments or any topic that would arouse emotions . He eventually got convicted and his ashram aka empire perished.

Then , I observed a well known saint who my marital family follows . I never knew about him or heard about him earlier ever. I remember the shocked , disgusted looks i got when my lack of knowledge about him became public.I believed Not following him all these years did nothing wrong to me . But since my H and his family is a huge follower of him , I used to tag along with them to his discourses whenever he would visit U.S . Mostly every year.I used to think that a saint is above religion and regional sentiments . But after hearing series of his discourses during his visits here, I felt that even they cater to the feelings of people who largely belong to a particular community , region and sometimes language /state too. I stopped believing in his greatness when in one of the speeches he mentioned that north indians are more rude as compared to south indians based on his observations while traveling in trains . I thought saint should be above this . Specially when there are people like my H and his family who blindly/completely believe in what they have to say as set in stone . Few more of such comments I heard too. I never understood the reason why saints do not have a pan india following across all regions /communities even within one religion atleast. Example , if a saint in andhra/telangana has to take up a project , he would largely seek donations from telugu speaking people because somewhere he thinks that others would not donate as much . a saint in gujarat wanting to construct a temple would get support from fellow state mates but not as much from outside the state. a saint in tamil nadu would not have comparable followers outside of the state. In which case, saints try to retain the followers they have , often by crowd pleasing . This crowd pleasing takes away the very essence of sainthood from these saints.


I dont undermine the positive influence ,a saint who can act as a mentor in ones life ,can bring about. Such a saint , if one finds and follows ,would help in tiding through the tough times that life brings upon us with peace. Such great men and women would be saints in its true meaning.

Please excuse my poor writing on such a serious topic . Specially on this topic , i have so many thoughts but i may not have been coherent in putting it through.

 

@Caughtinbetween
You called a spade a spade.
2. Asrams providing asylums to cheats who remain well wishers of the mutt head so that they too would get a cut.
3. You had spoken here from your own experience or observation.
4. Divinity has nothing to do with ultra modern saints.
Thanks and regards.
God you are in saints despite their intent or intentions.

 

Yes sir , you are right with all the points mentioned above . I remember during my younger days , saints would truly be following austerity before preaching it . And gurus would be limited in number , knowledgeable and credible. Not sure if Its only me who heard about so many saints in the last few years or with advent of social media they are more talked about now , or if now we have so many saints who took deeksha in the past decade or so. This going by the saints we see on tv each morning , almost like each channel got one dedicated for them only. this reminds me of another saint from tv channels who suggested ils family that because we did a 5000rs santana prapti homam we got a girl child , had we gone for a 50000rs putra prapti homam we would have had a boy .
i really think that saints/gurus who enjoy huge following have an equally huge responsibility towards the society as well because those people follow that guru as a path to attain salvation or getting close to god. In such cases gurus have to be extremely careful in what they preach because people trust their words blindly .

 

This reminds me two things.
2. In Harold Robbins last novel he describes how using radio broadcast the protagonist of the story makes huge amounts. According to this novel/author, It was in Us , atheists used to this method disguise themselves as saviour - seek donations from gullible and checks received in postal address with box number.

3. In the Ramayana, it is told King Dasaratha to beget heir performed putra Kameshti yagam and lo thru his three wives he got four sons only. But in modern chennai, karu urpathi mayiam are doing business and manyare reported to be fruitful.

4. My friend’s son was poor in maths and science scoring below average at academic level. A saint advised him to do a particular Pooja called yagam or homam. The saint got enriched overnight by about ₹5000 but his son ran away from home only return as an actor in films doing odd roles.

5. People believe in these gimmicks and this belief produces new crop of saints with management degrees behind them. Bhaskar xxxx in T Nagar advised a son of my friend to have a rakshai that would cost only ₹2000 and would be delivered after performing with it an intense mandala Pooja for 48 days by a team of Purohitar’s. She promised within a fortnight of wearing this, son would get job of his liking in Far East mostly in Singapore or Wellington. He fell for it only to get poorer by few thousands. I advised that boy to follow his instinct what type of job he loves doing and pursue it. He did that and own his own shop believe he is running a beauty parlour.

6. Instead of believing in themselves and doing hard work, some choose to prefer lazy methods to attain their goals.

God lives in (in)humans.

 

Thanks for sharing. This is often aired in Tv channels that caters only for humour loving viewers.
Regards.

 

Dear Viswa,
Yesterday I had occasion to go through your 'Saas Vs Saa(m)p '.It has been written with a serious intent,with the titles humorously interpreted by a few members.
After reading the intellectual comments, I have nothing to add or supplement.
But as Madam Rihana said the word 'saint' itself needs to be defined or redefined as it has got many connotations in different religions specially in Christianity.
We have read about so many saints and siddhas.
Pattinaththaar in Tamil nadu was a great siddha purusha and the famous lines that transformed him into a saint
" Kaatharuntha oosiyum vaaraathu kaan kadai vazhikke"( even the eyeless needle won't help in the last days"

I am reminded of an anecdote in his life.
It was the harvest season.The field was full of paddy stocks spread over here and there.It was a hot afternoon. A sanyasi was sleeping on the uneven surface laying his head on an elevated surface of mud.Two girls were going that way with pots to fetch water.
The 1stgirl:"Look; this man seems to be a learned sanyasi. How sad! he is sleeping on a paddy field."
2nd girl: "I don't think so. In his mind he wishes to recline on a pillow comfortably. That is why he has kept his head on an elevated plane."
The girls went away. The sanyasi who overheard the conversation felt ashamed,got up and shifted his head from the elevated muddy spot.
The two girls were now returning from the river.
1st girl:"Look at the man. Now he is sleeping on the uneven land.He is a real sanyasi."
2nd girl: "I don't think so. He attaches importance to the opinion of others. Look, on listening to our comments he has changed his posture."

Nobody is free from gossips.
The sanyasi was none other than the famous'PATTINATHTHAAR'
It is extremely difficult to live the life of a saint notwithstanding strength of mind and determined
convictions.That is why real saints are a rarity.
jayasala 42

There is definite but slow improvement in the health of my husband.Now my full concentration is on his recovery by strict regimen of medicines, physiotherapy exercises etc etc.By grace of God he should recover at least to the extent of attending to his needs inside the house.
jayasala42