(KKS at Serbian summer camp 2011, the class an hour before departing)
Transcribed by Matsya das
The conclusion which I would like to offer before I leave all of you this year is as follows:
All that remains for us to do now is to fix, to fix the spirit of a saintly person in our hearts. The first step in becoming a saintly person is to make commitment of becoming a saintly person. Then deep down in heart some darkness remains, but by more and more absorbing in the behaviour of a saintly person, day by day we would become more saintly. So we should fix ourselves and say,
Yes! Yes! I’m going to be a saintly person! And I’m going to help others to become saintly persons. I’ll try to become a sadhu in that way.
And in that way we are boarding the train to the spiritual world. And that is ultimately the purpose of our sangas all over the world. It is for that purpose that Srila Prabhupada made this wonderful movement. The movement which is meant to be transparent to the spiritual world.
This is not a small point which I’ve made, therefore think about this very deeply, that we need to become saintly persons. And some persons will say,
Yes, yes! I will become, I will become… tomorrow!
I will become, I will become! After this lecture, I will start…
Or after the breakfast… 
But no, become now… right now, this very moment. If someone wants to fix himself, it is now. And that fixing is not done once. It is done all the time, now. Always in the present we have to fix ourselves, in each situation. That is the way to be saintly. And if we do that we’ll see that our whole life, in the long term, will be transformed by this quality of saintliness.
You can view the video below or visit Vimeo
3 Comments
maybe you’d like to watch the whole lecture. Guru Maharaja speaks strongly about what does it mean to be a saint. here is the link
as far as i can tell, it starts by faith, which leads to knowledge which leads to service which leads to fixing the mode of goodness which leads to executing prescribed duties without attachment which leads to even more goodness which leads to humility which leads to ascending above all that. my understanding is that Guru Maharaja spoke about this path and every step of the path is the meaning of being a saint, now. that can be found in many places in the Bhagavatam, but perhaps the 13th chapter of 11th canto speaks most directly about what does it mean to be saintly and how to achieve that (Krsna) consciousness.
in addition, BG 12.9 and 13.8-12 can also prove helpful.
hope that helps…
I will add this video to the blog soon.
….but what does it mean to be a saint?