Do the saints sitting in Tapas for long years have complete spiritual knowledge?

[Ms. Bhanu Samykya asked: There are few cases of Sādhus and Saints who sit in Tapas or meditation for long years even though their body is getting rotten. Does it mean that they already have complete spiritual knowledge in one of their past births and now doing Tapas with devotion? Or is it because of their strength of desire to attain God or a boon from God? Can normal souls be devoid of pain without being in spiritual path in normal working conditions of body?]

Swāmi Replied:- It is a natural state of penance in which the pain of the body is not realised before the bliss of God. Here, pleasure becomes greater than suffering. When God liberates His climax devotees from all sins by suffering their punishments, God feels pleasure, which is greater than His suffering. Nobody will suffer if the suffering is greater than the pleasure. When you eat a chilli dish, you suffer a lot by shedding tears, vibrating tongue etc. But, you are getting pleasure inside, which is greater than your external suffering. If your pleasure is lesser than your suffering, you will not eat that dish at all! When suffering and pleasure coexist, pleasure is always greater than suffering. If it is vice versa, both will not coexist at all. Similarly, love is the abstract feeling like knowledge and devotion and fascination is the language expressing the feeling-love like practice or Karmayoga. Kṛṣṇa is sitting at the feet of Rādhā and decorating the feet and this is the expressed fascination of the love of Kṛṣṇa. When love and fascination coexist, love is always greater than fascination because any amount of fascination becomes inefficient to express the infinite ocean of love of God.

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