Sri 108 S. B. Saraswati has attained to what among the Hindoos is called the “state of perfection.”  It is a state which other Hindoos reach by being born again and again, and over and over again into this world, through one re-incarnation after another—­a tiresome long job covering centuries and decades of centuries, and one that is full of risks, too, like the accident of dying on the wrong side of the Ganges some time or other and waking up in the form of an ass, with a fresh start necessary and the numerous trips to be made all over again.  But in reaching perfection, Sri 108 S. B. S. has escaped all that.  He is no longer a part or a feature of this world; his substance has changed, all earthiness has departed out of it; he is utterly holy, utterly pure; nothing can desecrate this holiness or stain this purity; he is no longer of the earth, its concerns are matters foreign to him, its pains and griefs and troubles cannot reach him.  When he dies, Nirvana is his; he will be absorbed into the substance of the Supreme Deity and be at peace forever.

The Hindoo Scriptures point out how this state is to be reached, but it is only once in a thousand years, perhaps, that candidate accomplishes it.  This one has traversed the course required, stage by stage, from the beginning to the end, and now has nothing left to do but wait for the call which shall release him from a world in which he has now no part nor lot.  First, he passed through the student stage, and became learned in the holy books.  Next he became citizen, householder, husband, and father.  That was the required second stage.  Then—­like John Bunyan’s Christian he bade perpetual good-bye to his family, as required, and went wandering away.  He went far into the desert and served a term as hermit.  Next, he became a beggar, “in accordance with the rites laid down in the Scriptures,” and wandered about India eating the bread of mendicancy.  A quarter of a century ago he reached the stage of purity.  This needs no garment; its symbol is nudity; he discarded the waist-cloth which he had previously worn.  He could resume it now if he chose, for neither that nor any other contact can defile him; but he does not choose.

There are several other stages, I believe, but I do not remember what they are.  But he has been through them.  Throughout the long course he was perfecting himself in holy learning, and writing commentaries upon the sacred books.  He was also meditating upon Brahma, and he does that now.

White marble relief-portraits of him are sold all about India.  He lives in a good house in a noble great garden in Benares, all meet and proper to his stupendous rank.  Necessarily he does not go abroad in the streets.  Deities would never be able to move about handily in any country.  If one whom we recognized and adored as a god should go abroad in our streets, and the day it was to happen were known, all traffic would be blocked and business would come to a standstill.