The principle which the saints enliven within themselves, the principle of seeing the Lord in all, beholding the Self in all, and of attaining to a state of absolute desireless non-possession—that is the way to liberation. The Supreme can be achieved only by making these truths live in reality within ourselves. And the forbearance of the saints! The very essence of saintliness is the total effacement of the ego. If you wish to briefly sum up the inner heart of saintliness, it is the total effacement of the ego. That is the perfect emptiness of which Christ spoke when he said, “Empty thyself and I shall fill thee”—a total emptying of ourselves of all “I”-ness and “mine”-ness and of all their offsprings, namely, desire, selfishness, attachment, anger, delusion and greed. From “I” springs “mine”. If there is no “I”, there is no “mine”. “I” is the root thought that separates us from God, and when “I” and “mine” come, there comes selfishness. The “I” wants to possess all things and countless desires spring into life. And when a desire is blocked, anger comes; and if the desire is fulfilled, more desire comes and greed follows because desires are insatiable and cannot be appeased. From desire springs greed—greed to obtain and possess that which is desired. Out of this possession comes clinging, infatuation and delusion. Saints are devoid of “I”.

My Master sings a Mantra: “Adapt, adjust, accommodate; bear insult, bear injury, highest Sadhana”. So, the highest Sadhana of all is to bear insult, to bear injury, which means to become totally devoid of the ego principle, to become humble, to become like a child.

“Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the lowly in spirit.” Why did Jesus say that? He knew what he was speaking about. He did not simply utter useless words. He himself was without ego. Therefore, when he spoke, he spoke words of light from the truth of his being, and when he spoke those words, he was humble, meek and lowly, children also are like that—in their very spontaneity, in their innocence, in their egolessness. Children are humble. You cannot insult a child. They are lowly, they are meek, because they are transparent in their nature—innocent and pure. That is the path that saints choose for their own lives.

We have the example of Ekanath, who was a very great saint of Maharashtra—an embodiment of peace and serenity and humility. He loved all, and naturally, people worshipped him. People flocked to hear his words, even though there were highly learned Pundits living in the same place. Those Pundits could not tolerate this saint. They considered him illiterate and resented his attracting the crowd, with no one coming to seek their advice or listen to them. They plotted to cause Ekanath to do something which would cause the people to turn against him, something which would cause him to lose his temper, to become angry and thus show the people another side of his nature.

So they hired a man, a real rascal, and told him to stand in a certain place where the saint would pass on his way from his bath in the holy river Godavari, carrying a container of water to worship at the shrine. They told this man to fill his mouth with water and when Ekanath passed, to spit it on him. To the Hindu, spittle is polluting; so one must wash even if only bringing the hand in contact with the mouth, and of course, if one were spat upon, he would need to take a bath before entering a shrine.

Ekanath went to the river the following morning to have his bath and fill the vessel with water, and as he was passing the city gate on his way to worship in the shrine, the hired rascal spat upon him. Ekanath looked at the man, bowed his head, walked back and took another bath. This happened not once, not twice, but one hundred and seven times! One hundred and seven times as Ekanath walked through the gate after his bath, this rascal spat upon him. Without a word uttered, without showing any anger, resentment or irritation, the saint just walked back and bathed afresh in the river. For the one hundred and eighth time, as Ekanath approached the gate at which the rascal stood, this man acted as though a thunderbolt had struck him. He trembled and threw himself in the dust at the feet of the saint and begged forgiveness. He said, “I thought I was dealing with a man, but find I am dealing with a god”. This rascal became Ekanath’s servant for the rest of his life.

There was a great king who had profound reverence for holy men and always had a number of them staying as guests in his palace. This practice annoyed his ministers who said to one another, “We serve the king. We give him advice and carry on his administration and are prepared to die for him in times of war; and these penniless vagabonds, with nothing to call their own, seem to be favourites of the king and he concerns himself more with their comfort than with ours”. So they had a conference with the prime minister and told him that this practice must cease.

The prime minister went to the king about this matter, and the king said that he appreciated the feeling of his ministers, but that the prime minister should give an answer out of his own experience. So the king gave him a list of the holy men who were then staying at the palace, and he suggested that the prime minister should invite them and all the ministers to his home for a sumptuous banquet one evening and have them all as overnight guests. The prime minister carried out the instructions given to him by the king and the banquet went on into the small hours of the morning, with much dancing and music. The holy men had all been there to grace the occasion and to give discourses. The king told the prime minister to take a few servants in the early morning, about five or six o’clock, and just splash a little cold water upon each one of the guests to waken them. The prime minister did as instructed and had his servants rudely awaken the holy men first. They quickly wakened saying, “O Rama, Rama, Rama”, “Om Hari Om”. Every holy man wakened thus, uttering the Name of God.

The prime minister noted this and then followed his servants to the sleeping quarters of the ministers, who were also thus awakened. However, every one of them wakened with great cursing, swearing and indignation. At this moment the king appeared on the scene and said, “Now you see what is inside the holy men and what is inside the ministers and now you know why I value the holy men so highly and try to keep their company. To them there is nothing but God; they are filled with God. These ministers, in spite of all their earthly nobility...you have witnessed what is inside of them!” So, saints are filled with God and it is through such that God reveals Himself.