Only the fake saint conforms to the idea of a saint

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: What about the so-called saints? They’re not real saints but considered to be by society.

Listener (L): I’ve got a beautiful expression about this, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future”.

Acharya Prashant (AP): A saint is nobody special. We are saints. Now that breaks our own image in our mind. We are saints. Why are you not a saint? Prove that you are not a saint. How are you not a saint? Saints are undifferentiable. The Atman is the only Saint. We all are saints. You don’t have to go to a saint and we are also the so-called saints.

When you’re operating from the right centre, you are the Saint. When you’re operating from somewhere else, then you’re the so-called saint.

What if the person called a saint didn’t have words? What if he was not wearing a special robe? What if he was not keeping his hair in a special way? What if he was in normal civilian uniform and you meet him on a train and there are no words, how would you know him as a Saint?

L: Maybe you don’t!

L1: Usually people who are much evolved have a certain energy, certain radiation.