The images of saints

It is interesting that for one hundred years a phenomenon happened in families. People slowly took the pictures or images of saints from the walls and replaced them with images of "movie stars" and political heroes. This showed a significant change in the consciousness of humanity. And as they brought to their home more worldly images, the morality of the world gradually degenerated.

People thought that the images or pictures of the saints were outmoded or outdated, and that they could not play any role in the modern technological , scientific world.

The images of saints were rare sources of inspiration for the general public. They were the symbols of purity, transformation, labor, dedication, devotion, gratitude, and sacrifice. They symbolized the bridge between the mundane world and the supermundane world, the subjective world of love, joy, and transcendence.

In removing the pictures of the saints, such a source of inspiration and energy evaporated. Instead they were replaced with "stars" who strongly affected the children of the new generations. A majority of them learned from these images how to hate, how to kill, how to smoke, how to drink, how to use violence, how to commit murder, how to divorce, how to fool around, how to destroy families, how to destroy buildings, cars, and bridges, how to hate religious figures, and even how to hate sanctuaries.

The new generations worshipped those modern "saints" and as they worshipped them, they imitated the lives of those modern heroes and even literally identified with them. The images of real saints were taken away from their hearts, and the source of higher inspirations for them was generally over.

Who are the saints? Factually they are the ideal of the people's soul. Every one of us in our soul aspires to beauty, purity, joy, freedom.

All these aspirations accumulate and incarnate with the soul. Saints are the path that leads us to our higher nature, to our spiritual realms, giving us guidance, inspiration, and courage in our daily difficulties and problems. To be cut from such a source of influence results in the condition that we have in the world.

Those who aspire to be heroes and saints eventually develop all the characteristics of saints and heroes and are born into humanity.

Some people think that it is impossible to be a saint in the conditions that we have. Saints have always been born in the most adverse conditions, but in spite of impossible conditions their shone their light and built the path of liberation for millions of souls. It is even true to say that the adverse conditions of life not only increased their radioactive beauty but became also a means to spread their influence all over the world.

Esoterically, a saint is one who has passed through the Initiation of Transfiguration. Unless he is an Initiate of Transfiguration, he cannot shine the divine light that is within him through all his lower vehicles. Thus a saint is a radioactive diamond of divine light.

Saints are not only religious people. They are also politicians, educators, philosophers, artists, scientists, and economists.

Actually in a few decades the worship of saints will start again and increase, but such a worship will not be for the "salvation of our souls." Such a worship will be a process of cultivation and actualization of those divine characteristics which the saints have. It will be an intellectual, spiritual worship, a worship that will lead us to the source of courage, knowledge, inspiration, energy, endurance, fearlessness, and persistence and will equip us to render extraordinary service for the race called "humanity."

The images of saints are not images of persons but symbols of higher realities and evidences of higher achievements.


-Torkom Saraydarian
Teachings of Great Ones