1. General views of society on what makes a person a Saint

1A. Criteria to be considered for Sainthood according to various religions

Depending on the religion or faith, there are many criteria that need to be considered in what makes a person a Saint. Also, the criteria to become a Saint for some religions have changed over time. To be considered a Saint various religions stipulate certain attributes or criteria which are included below:

A person must be righteous and virtuous.
The person must be from that particular religion.
Some religions require that the person has to have passed away and attained a place in heaven before they can be considered for Sainthood. Others acknowledge Sainthood as a state that can be achieved while a person is living too.
The person needs to have performed miracles while living and or after death. A miracle after death could include the body of the person not decaying or healings attributed to intercession of the Saint or contact with relics of the Saint.
The person needs to be able to intercede with God on behalf of people.

1B. Process of making a person a Saint

If a person meets the criteria of the religion in question, they generally go through either a formal or informal procedure of being proclaimed (canonized) a Saint. In some cases the formal procedure can last many years.
In most cases, the people conducting this formal or informal process are not Saints but just religious people or people of some standing in the religion or in some cases it is the popular vote of society.
Whichever the religion, people generally bestow the title of Saint only from that religion.
In some cases people become self-proclaimed Saints and also get mass following if they are able to display some supernatural powers gained through some specific spiritual practice.

2. Definition of a Saint according to the science of Spirituality

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2A. Criteria for Sainthood

If one were to view the spiritual maturity or spiritual level of a person on a scale from 1 to 100% where God is 100%, then the spiritual level of an average person in the world today is 20%. According to the science of Spirituality, one becomes eligible for the title of a Saint when one attains a spiritual level of at least 70%, irrespective of his religion or path of spiritual practice.

2A1. What is spiritual level?

As shown in the diagram below, each person is made up of the following.

They are:

The physical body: five senses of touch, taste, sound, smell and sight
The mind consisting of the conscious and sub-conscious mind
The intellect
The subtle ego
The Soul

The first four make up one’s ego or feeling that one is separate from God.

The spiritual level of a person is intrinsically a function of how much of ego or darkness around the Soul has been removed and how much he identifies with the Soul within.
By darkness around the Soul or ego, we mean the tendency of man to identify with the various layers or bodies (shown in the diagram above) that envelops the soul. (This ego is also known as the spiritual ignorance of our true state of existence.)
Initially, even though we may intellectually understand that there is a Soul within us, we cannot perceive it. As we do spiritual practice, this darkness or ego, begins to reduce until we are able to fully identify with the Soul within, at the highest spiritual level.
Therefore, through spiritual practice our spiritual level increases, which is directly related to the extent of dissolution of our ego.

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2A2. Spiritual evolution through spiritual practice

Spiritual evolution or increase in spiritual level of the embodied soul through spiritual practice

A Saint of the 70% level is at the stage in spiritual evolution where, through spiritual practice, the darkness or ego around the soul has almost completely dissolved. As a result, He identifies His existence with the God within and has access to the absolute knowledge. Depending on Their spiritual level i.e. 70%, 80%, 90% etc., They are able to experience higher and more subtle experiences of God.

For a better understanding of what is the difference between a person at the 20% spiritual level and a Saint at a 70% spiritual level, let us explore how they compare against various attributes.

Note:

Spiritual emotion towards God is having an intense awareness about the existence of God in everything, i.e. feeling God’s presence while carrying out day-to-day life activities and experiencing life based on this awareness.
Psychological emotion (bhavna) pertains to emotion rising from the mind.

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2B. How is a person acknowledged as having reached the spiritual level of a Saint?

According to the science of Spirituality, only a person who is a Saint Himself can identify a Saint or say that a seeker of God has reached the level of a Saint i.e. the 70% spiritual level. This is primarily based on the subtle characteristics, rather than any gross characteristics or physical appearances. In the next section, we address some of the misconceptions people have on the definition of a Saint or how one becomes a Saint.

3. Addressing some misconceptions

Based on the definition of a Saint according the science of Spirituality, we would like to address a few misconceptions.

1. A good or religious person or one who performs miracles is a Saint

A Saint is defined by his spiritual level alone. Only when a seeker attains a spiritual level of 70% is He recognized as a Saint by another Saint. The average person, or even a seeker doing spiritual practice, cannot identify a Saint with certainty.

It stands to reason that if we want to measure the depth of a pond with a rope, it needs to be longer than the depth of the pond. Similarly, if one wants to measure the spiritual maturity or level of a Saint, one needs to be a Saint; an average person is not equipped to make the judgement of whether a particular person is a Saint. Sainthood cannot be bestowed upon a person by people below the spiritual level of a Saint.
A child in the 4th grade would not be able to discern the difference of knowledge of a graduate student or a post-doctorate student. Hence, it would be ludicrous to ask the child as to which of the students is more knowledgeable.
We tend to infer whether a person is a Saint based on our thinking of what a Saint should be. This generally leads to a gross misjudgment on our part.
In one’s spiritual journey, one will realize that even a difference of 2-3% in the spiritual level can dramatically change one's perspective of life.
A person can neither attain Sainthood by the wish of his devotees nor can it be obtained by self-proclamation. It is only through sincere efforts taken in spiritual practice that this state is achieved.

2. A person has to be dead to become a Saint

A person does not have to be dead to become a Saint. One can reach the spiritual level of 70% in a single lifetime itself with appropriate spiritual practice done under the guidance of an authority in spirituality who has reached the level of a Guru (a teacher of Spirituality who is above the 70% spiritual level).

3. Sainthood i.e. attaining a spiritual level of 70% is confined to a few select individuals

The good news is that Sainthood i.e. attaining a spiritual level of 70% is not something confined to a few select individuals. Any person on earth with the sincere desire to attain Sainthood has an equal chance of doing so through performing consistent spiritual practice. With the guidance of the Saints, we all can connect with the Soul principle that is our true nature.

4. A Saint can only be from a certain religion

A Saint’s perspective is universal and is not subject to any religion or sect. In addition to this, a Saint does not have to be only from a certain religion. A Saint may be born to a certain religion, but can achieve Sainthood through spiritual practice, He goes beyond organised religion, and can see God (Soul) within every human being; that there are as many paths to God as there are people.

How many Saints are there in the world i.e. spiritually evolved people above the 70% spiritual level?

Spiritual research conducted by SSRF indicates that there are over 5000 Saints in the world with the corresponding spiritual levels.

Number of spiritually evolved people in the world