Inside man there is a special, sixth sense that he is unable to develop alone. His spiritual growth is speeded up if he is lucky enough to come into contact with a true saint or enlightened teacher who is willing to teach spirituality to him. How do migrating birds know in which direction they should fly? Somehow they arrive safely at a great distance from the start of their journey. They reach their goal because they follow their inner sense. Likewise, you can reach your spiritual goal. The saint is the one who comes to show you how to use that extraordinary inner sense that takes you back to your spiritual home.

Living in the presence of the saint is a great and rare thing indeed. It is God's wonderful gift to you. Meeting a saint and staying around him or her has altered the course of people's lives. The saint comes to give you living proof that God exists and that Divine Mother comes down to earth for Her children so that they can be with Her. Through the saint She shows you Her boundless love and it becomes tangible. You can truly experience divine love. A small fraction, an infinitesimal part of Divine Mother's pure love and compassion, stands before you embodied as the saint. Very few people realize how gifted they are to be with a saint for a time. Some rare ones, however, use the blessings of the saint to reach within towards the silent and extraordinary power deep inside the heart.

Sometimes the saint may build a retreat. It may seem simple but, at the same time, it is also extraordinary. The place where the saint has lived for some time becomes holy ground because he or she has walked often through its land and stayed in its buildings. The retreat is full of divine vibrations because of the saint's presence. The humble external appearance of the retreat may be deceiving. Life in such a place is miraculous. Those who live there are healed, blessed and spiritually renewed. They live surrounded by the grace of God that is channelled through the saint. Whether he is physically present or not, that grace is always there. The retreat is the gift of the saint to the spiritual aspirants. He allows them into his home. Yet living there can also be a great challenge. He wants his spiritual guests to constantly increase their faith and trust in God and deepen their level of surrender to the divine will.

God's grace flows through the saint like a natural spring. The obstacles to receiving it are within yourself. Silently, the saint guides you towards the Divine. He teaches you and leads you powerfully deep within yourself. Through him you can experience pure Divinity and it can become a real experience for you. He shows you the path to your true heart. He touches your heart so deeply that your very own fountain of pure love wells up and overflows throughout your whole being He allows you to taste the bliss of absolute freedom. He touches your heart more strongly than you have ever experienced in this life and he grants you the understanding of what it can mean to be one with the Divine.

Sometimes the aspirants feel like giving up on the spiritual path and they resist, unwilling to go farther. The saint never stops helping and loving them. He always sends more divine grace and reaches out a helping hand to them, whatever their difficulties may be. Occasionally, you may feel confused and sad because you cannot understand his actions. If you observe closely you will always find that he is the embodiment of selfless love. He is always, always giving. He lives solely for the benefit of others. He does nothing for himself. He cannot, because he continuously forgets himself. He teaches by example and his every action speaks volumes to those who follow the true dharma. His every word is a teaching for someone. He is always working to free you from your imprisonment in the illusion which is the unreality of the external world. He came here only to free you all in a myriad of ways from lifetimes of conditioned beliefs and false values. He destroys the unreal and sets before you the real. Often you cannot understand him and his immense love for each of you. The force of the Divine that flows through him is maybe too powerful for your understanding to grasp.

It is not easy to perform miracles. The saint may do so casually for your sakes, to give you a little personal experience of a tiny part of divine power. He will give you what you ask for and make himself available to everyone for many hours, day after day, year after year until his death. He wants to help everyone who comes to him. He sympathizes, blesses, reassures and with full concentration he prays to God on behalf of everyone. He brings joy to many without thinking at all about his own body or needs.

Some people think that the saint is just a bold madman! This is because he speaks out the truth directly and without fear. If you have the confidence he can help you experience the truth. He has seen the Divine and he wants to reveal the divine energy to many, many people during his lifetime. The saint manifests pure love and the energy of God. He has been given a task directly from the Absolute. Because of his own burning love for Divinity and because of his total surrender, he is able to dedicate every moment to the fulfillment of that task.

I want to lead you all to the Divine. I want you to be free and happy. I want to show you where pure love lives in your Self. I do not want you to just talk or read about this. I want you to have that experience. I want to wake up your sleeping Self. These are the gifts I would like to give you all. I want you to have grace for yourselves.

I am a very lucky human being. A jot of God's great love came into my heart and circulated round my body. It changed me totally. I am so happy that I want to make everyone else happy. I walk and talk. I sing, I joke and sometimes I shout a little! Yet through all these outer expressions I show you the true spiritual path.

I am waiting for you all to take to your true home, back to the Divine. Ask me and I will gladly take you home with me. Now it the time! Are you ready, my loving children? This is my life and my work.
Shanti Shanti Shantihi.

Swami Premananda