JKP

Who is More Merciful – God or the Saint?

Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat
11 July 2025
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By Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj

Who is More Merciful – God or the Saint? by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj by Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat

Someone once wrote to me with a profound question: ‘God is merciful, and so is the Saint. Then what is the difference between their mercy?'”

This simple inquiry carries deep spiritual significance.  After all, whatever a Saint possesses is granted by God alone. The quality of compassion – dayānand, the bliss of compassion belongs to God in its fullest form. In a limited or partial manner, it may be found in celestial beings or humans, but in totality, it resides only with God.

Out of the four parts of divine compassion, just one part contains the combined mercy of all the gods and humans across countless universes and yet, three parts of that mercy still remain with God alone!

But then again arises the profound question: Between a Saint and God, who is more compassionate? And why?

Let us explore this with reason and scriptural insight. Some say it is the Saint, others say God, and some believe both are equal.

In response, I replied with something that instantly moved the listener deeply.  I said: The power called ‘Kripā’ (Grace) is the same in both God and the Saint. After a soul attains God-realisation, God grants that soul all His eight Divine qualities. Therefore, there is no difference in the infinitude of their Grace.

Where there are limits, there arises the question of greater or lesser.  Where Grace is infinite and boundless, the question of greater or lesser simply does not arise. One may possess a hundred thousand, another several hundred thousand; but when something is truly unlimited, of infinite measure, it becomes meaningless to ask which of the two infinities is greater. Both are infinite, and both possess the same essence – there is no second. Therefore, the Grace (kripā) they both hold is, in truth, one and the same.  That is the second reason.

Yet the way a Saint bestows grace surpasses even that of God Himself. Why? Because a Saint has gone through the suffering that people in the world experience. He has lived through that misery.

God, on the other hand, has never experienced sorrow.  He is eternally Blissful. So, how can He feel sorrow? A Saint, even though now established in Divine bliss, was once one of us. He has endured a lot of blows from the world and has passed through the world’s trials of selfishness, pain and struggle. He too has passed through the 8.4 million species, playing out various worldly roles.

Therefore, a Saint is more compassionate because he relates to the soul’s worldly suffering.  God, being ever-blissful, is unfamiliar with the feeling of pain and suffering. That is why, although the Grace and mercy in both are the same and infinite, the Saint’s act of bestowing that Grace is considered as even more merciful.

And finally, the powers we call dayā (compassion) and kripā (grace) are not two – they are one and the same.

So the question of who is greater does not even arise.