A saint’s holy presence

It is the experience of many, that when one is in the proximity of a saint one can easily turn inward and successfully go into deep meditation. Not just humans, but all forms of life around the sage can live meditatively.
There were some dogs in the Raman ashram who would not touch their food till it became prasad after Raman Maharshi ate a morsel of it. This was tested out by a pandit and it really worked. So he brought some peacocks and let them loose near Raman, but they flew away. Each time they were brought back they continued to fly away. Raman said “It is no use trying to keep them here. They are not ripe in their minds as these dogs.” He further explained that no force or pressure should ever be used in spirituality. Unless one is ready to evolve, no matter how hard you try, the person will run away from it. Those that are easy get sucked into it so compellingly, that no one can stop them.
They are like a ready wick that lights up by the mere presence of a saint. A saint’s holy company in the life of a ripe seeker who is ready for the spiritual flowering ,works like a forest fire that burns down his load of karmabandh (shackles of karma).
Once these karmas are burnt down, the seeker goes beyond the body experience. This is true liberation. As wind and water, one goes beyond shape and form, and beyond all clinging, he flows freely, challenging all boundaries, all limits.
Space holds all in its embrace, yet is not “held” by the embrace of possessions. In the “saanidhya” (mere presence) of a realised master, the student gets to comprehend, to conceive, and to “know” that which cannot be “known”, but only if the student is ripe.
Prarthna Saran, President, Chinmaya Mission Delhi. Email: prarthnasaran@gmail.com