There are only one hundred thousand Sat-purushas or Marden-e-Khuda (Men of God) in the whole of the universe. They are those on the Spiritual Path who have achieved control over their ego-life and who, with utter disregard to life, expose themselves to hardships in the name of, and for the sake of, God. It is not because these men and women of God find their lives to be any less precious than that of the average man or woman who, as a rule, is only too anxious to maintain a hold over the fast-slipping human life. Their indifference is due to the fact that to them their love for God is far greater than their own limited existence. It is not just a question of giving up a life "here" in order to gain a better life "there." To them nothing else remains worth while to be had or wished for, save their love for God.

In Vedanta and Sufism the certainty of God-Realization or Self-Experience is fully expounded. The Vidnyan or "I am God" state has to be actually experienced to be realized. After aeons, only one out of the hundred thousand wayfarers of the Path attain God-Realization. But in spite of the rarity of Perfection and the rigours involved in its attainment, every human being is perfectly capable of achieving it—in fact, is inevitably bound to do so, eventually. The knowledge of such a glorious certainty should cause man optimism rather than pessimism.

The God-conscious Majzoobs are conscious of nothing save the "I am God " state (Aham Brahma Asmi or Anal Haq). They are oblivious of their bodies, which continue to exist in all the three spheres, gross, subtle and mental. Being in the Eternal and Infinite Vidnyan Bhumika their bodily existence is automatically and spontaneously sustained by their own Divinity. For some time after merging into the "Sun," they actually remain alive in the world; they continue to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, and do what an ordinary man can do.

They are truly the "Living Dead," for they are dead to the world, and yet to themselves are alive for all time. They are the Perfect Ones who have consumed death itself; and about whom Kabir says:

"'Tan tyage, tan rahe; tan rakhe, tan jai.

Yehi achamba hamne dekha, mada kal ko khai."

i.e. "Give up the body and it will remain; try to retain it and it will go."

The marvel of it is that the truly "Dead" annihilate death itself.