Today, I also wish to tell you about some other important points. I will start with the topic of saints. These days this point is often brought to my notice from the letters I receive from my lovers. Some write: “Baba, you often go into seclusion for long periods. Very rarely we get an opportunity to have your sahavas. We are not even allowed to have your darshan for months together. This often makes us feel inclined to visit saints and be in their company.” They also ask me whether they should follow certain instructions given by the saints.
A few days back a wife of one of my devotees wrote to me that a certain person, who called himself a saint, told her that he was ordered by me to guard their house and that he loved me very much. Apart from the truth of this statement, the point which struck me is that if such things were to continue, anybody could approach my devotees and may even demand hundreds of rupees in my name and thus may easily deceive them. To declare whether a man is a real saint or an imitation is my right alone and not yours.
At this point one man interjected, “Baba, we go to saints because we have a feeling that you are in everyone.”
Baba replied:
I am also in a thief and a murderer! Then what is it that prevents you to respect and worship them? If you were really to see me everywhere as I am, there would not arise any need for you to go to saints, or even to come to me to pay your respects.
I have been declaring all the time, age after age, that when I, the Ancient One, assume human form, there are many false prophets who claim themselves to be Avatars. For instance, a week ago I received a letter from Uttar Pradesh. A devotee writes that there are two persons in his town, and each proclaims himself as the Avatar of the Age. This created a great deal of confusion in his mind. Also, in one of the towns in northern India, there is a social worker who claims — and has a genuine feeling of his claim — that he is the Avatar.
I am telling you all these things in detail, for it is my right alone to say so, as all of them are my children. As far as you are concerned, you should neither criticize nor indulge in backbiting [such persons]. If you speak ill of a real saint, it will be harmful for you. You will create dreadful [sanskaric] bindings. You should avoid scandalizing even the so-called mahatmas who call themselves saints, because it is not possible for you to be certain whether they are real or not. The presumptuous saints outwardly act like real saints. You will not be able to differentiate between them — just in the same way that you are not able to differentiate between the masts and mad persons. Yet, what a world of difference lies in their inner states!
Coming back to the point of real saints, I would like you to know that to become a saint is not child’s play. The very word “saint,” when commonly used or applied to anyone, creates a lot of misunderstanding. I will now tell you something that will clear up the misunderstandings regarding saints.
–Date and place: 19 May 1957;  Guruprasad
www.lordmeher.org (Revised 2014), p4167