There is equivalence relation between saint and God. According to Hindu this relationship has four contradicting aspects.

1. God enjoys higher status than a Saint.
2. Saint enjoys higher status than God.
3. Saint and God have equal status.
4. All above is incorrect. Saint and God are one and the same.

Let us check one by one.

God is the greatest. No one can be equal to or superior to him including any Saint and hence first point is validated.

Coming to the next point ,God even though present everywhere, we can’t derive any benefit out of him; we can’t see him; we can’t to listen his words; we can’t feel his presence. From the point of view of a soul, it is the Saint who can be seen, can be talked to. He does all the job of making us understand philosophy, removing our doubts, cleaning of the heart, transformation of the heart into divine and filling that heart with eternal bliss. Thus second point is validated that Saint enjoys higher status than God.

Third point is based on the fact that on attaining eternal bliss or God, Saint gets everything that God has – infinite life, infinite knowledge, infinite happiness and hence it said that both of them are equal.

On attaining God , all actions of a saint are controlled directly by God while our actions are controlled by Maya which operates with the power of God. Thus for a saint, direct doer is God and not the soul, it is said that God and Saint are one and the same, which means there is no question of two personalities doing the work. All actions of a saint are actions of God. Thus they are one and the same. Thus the forth point is true that Saint and God are one and the same.
Therefore a prayer says ‘ Saint is God in person.’ Hence saint’s actions are divine. Krishn says, ‘Those, who are devoted to a saint who is my devotee, are dearer to me than those who directly worship me.’ But it is not that easy to get a genuine saint. What to do then? Watch the next post.