BE SIMPLE AND GUILELESS, HUMBLE AND ENDURING

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

BE SIMPLE AND GUILELESS, HUMBLE AND ENDURING
All saints and holy men have illumined like the bright full-moon, the dark night of
ignorance of the earth-bound souls by their own brilliant example.
They have been men of very simple nature, devoid of all crookedness and cunningness.
Simplicity and guilelessness are the characteristics of all men of God.
“Unless ye become like little children, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven.” This is the
mystic declaration of Jesus Christ.
All truly great saints knew not how to disbelieve any man. They trusted all beings. This was
one of the most salient traits in their character. They were guileless. They did not have the so-called
shrewdness and cleverness which the worldly man has, which he thinks essential for him to get
along. But to get along where? It is a different question altogether. Whether it is getting along in the

right direction up to heaven or getting along as quickly as possible to perdition or his own ruin, that
is the question. But the so-called shrewdness which the deluded man thinks very necessary for him
to get along, the saints were lacking, and they were not the losers for it. They became worshipful.
They were immortalised because they were guileless. Their nature was pure and simple, crystal
clear, and this is the nature of children. Saints were like children. Childlike simplicity, childlike
guilelessness, childlike innocence and crystal-like purity of heart have ever been the common
attributes of all the saints.
Secondly that universal quality which characterises 999 out of 1,000 of all mankind is
egoism. People are proud. Everyone has his own ego. Man feels “I am something,” and he does not
like to be disregarded. He wants others to recognise him as something, and he wants to assert
himself and this principle of ego, this feeling of one’s own superiority, is found to be totally absent
in all saints. They were humble. They were meek in spirit. They were lowly in spirit.
“Blessed are the lowly in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” The “lowly” not from
the point of money. He may have everything, but in spite of that he feels that he is a speck of dust at
the feet of the Lord. “Lord is everything. I am nothing. Thou art everything my Lord.” This is the
attitude of all holy people, and this total absence of egoism, and the resultant humility—this is also a
universal characteristic of all saints.
Even as egoism is the universal characteristic of the ordinary man in his unregenerate days,
the man who is in the grip of delusion, Maya, even so, the universal characteristic of all saints has
been perfect humility. Blessed are the meek. And the spirit of the same verse is re-echoed by one of
the greatest saints India has produced. He was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabbu. He says, “Trinadapi
Suneechena—one should consider oneself lower than a blade of grass.”
The man of egoism (Ahankara) has not yet learnt this great secret, this truth that Ahankara is
the great bar to true refinement and progress of man. He will argue that if a man does not feel
himself to be something, he will attain nothing and so too much of humility simply spoils one’s life.
But the saints knew better. They knew what was the worth of achievement in this world and
what was the truly worthwhile achievement. And they knew that the ego was the greatest obstacle
for the attainment of all good things which are of lasting worth, and therefore they were humble,
forbearing and forgiving. The lives of saints were full of trials and tribulations. They were
persecuted. They had to bear too much hardship. The Lord put them in the furnace of hardship and
tribulation, suffering and persecution.
Just as gold is put in the furnace to be purified of all dross and to shine as purified metal,
even so, saints are put to much tribulation and suffering, and through all these they manifested three
important qualities.
One was that they accepted all trials and tribulations as the blessings of God and bore them.
Endurance, fortitude, forbearance—these were always and will ever be the characteristic of saints.
O man, endure.

The symbology of Christ being carried to the Calvary brings us this great lesson that man
has to silently bear pains and sufferings and through this endurance and suffering only he comes out
as gold purified of all dross.
In this process of silently enduring all the vicissitudes and painful experiences of life, they
never lost faith. Rather, the more they endured the more were they tried by God and the greater, the
stronger, the firmer their faith became. This was the second great trait in them. “O God! Thou may
send me the worst suffering, but I will not lose faith in Thee, O Lord.” That was the wondrous spirit
they had. They never lost faith in the Lord.
Thirdly they not only forgave them who did them harm, but wished all the good for them.
Have such endurance and be humble, O aspirant!
Whatever happens to you, never lose faith and you are sure to be rewarded with eternal life
and infinite bliss.