Sage is more about an awareness of emptiness than enlightenment. I have seen Sages moving very slowly because once you renounce the world, you are more into feminine than masculine. Sage means freedom, it’s free you from conditioning and renouncement will be happening on the peripheral. I have seen people living inside the family, go to the temple and pray for freedom. Actually, you have the freedom once you move out of the family and society but people want to stay inside and want to enjoy all comforts but with freedom. These comforts bring miseries to life.

I understand, If you pray to see the god. What happens is, you unconsciously invite some problem in occupation and family. First the problem in occupation makes you quit and lose the job. then it will add problems into the family.  You will renounce family and move out to an ashram or temple or move like a beggar. Begging brings your ego to diminish and now you are totally living in the concept called ‘alone’ and fit to enter the kingdom of God. To meet god you don’t need status but you alone needed. 

You will be invited by surrounding people to visit their house for blessing. This is a symptom you are near to bliss but others can feel your vibration and constantly visit for your advice but the awareness of bliss by you is not bliss. You have to forget yourself to become a Sage. The experience of sage was nothing but the one with nature coz he can connect his both inner woman and inner man. The union can bring great insight. The Sage can experience the soul of others rather than their sexual identity. If a male or female visits him, he can experience their soul instead of identity. The sage moves above the condition of the mind. 

An anecdote, A friend of a monk is a contractor and asked the monk to come for help to a business man for obtaining the contract. On the way, he has himself promising the monk that he will donate 50% profit to the monastery. He got the contract but he told the monk he can give 25% only and later he told 15%. Finally he agreed to share for monk 10% of the profit. Finally Monk replied, “You keep this coz It looks you don’t know how much you want.”