Page 259 - Complete Works of Dr. KCV Volume 1

several gods and seers and saints are considered to be much below the goal sought after, even though all these are not deemed to be illusions or hallucinations or even relative truths.
The having of visions and experiences by itself does not constitute a nearer approach to the Divine Being. All that it denotes is that one is being opened up in different parts for the divine experience of God's presence. As one advances, one's sensitivity is increased profoundly, bringing about a quiet and a peace that is unearthly or divine.
The need for certain kinds of self-torture or penance or some such sufferings is felt by several saints, if not by ordinary people, who would have an impression of the extraordinary humiliations and privations necessary for God-experience. Thus, He has been sought in the solitude of prisons or caves or uninhabited places including fearsome places like the cremation grounds. Sainthood was thought to be a result of martyrdom, or at least of near-martyrdom. This belief has been very common all over the world. It is this willingness to go to the desert and all that, that has been considered to be the hall-mark of sainthood. The Bhagavata states that those whom God loves or desires to give Himself to, from them all riches, etc. will be taken away. Such a denudement is necessary for enjoying loneliness with God. Thus, exclusive devotion to God includes separation from all else. God thus exacts this supreme sacrifice of all else.
Indeed events transpire in the life of the saint which bring about this supreme or splendid isolation from all except God, who becomes more and more the only person occupying his vision and experience. But the question is whether all this is not based on the concept of unnaturalness, that there is a gulf between Nature and God and man's choice is based on the dilemma of "either/or". Martyrdom, as a step in courage, as a decision in favour of God, is quite a necessity as Sri Krsna has shown in the Gita; and all religions had held up the ideal of martyrdom - to die for God and higher values, which is one definition of love.
Evolution, perhaps, demands this act of decision to die rather than sail with the world and its lower, or restricted, views. So much so, penance or tapas was inculcated for purification of the entire physical body and the soul.