On this most auspicious day when the absolute consciousness, the Brahman, chose to crystalize Himself and descend on the earth as Sathya Sai, let us hear what Swami had to say on His avatar himself.
The following scan is by his 'official
biographer' and close devotee, N. Kasturi, who summed up the extent of SB's
claims of Godhead:-
About the meaning of the word Avatar, Swami says,
There is nothing infra-dig about the descent, as Bhagavan
points out. He says,
No blemish attaches to the Divine as a result of the
descent. There is no diminution in Divine power either. Let us say there is a
child playing on the ground. If the mother feels it is beneath her dignity to
bend, and tells the child to leap into her arms, the child cannot do so.
The mother does not ask the child to do such an impossible
thing. Instead, full of love, the mother stoops and lovingly picks up the
child. Likewise, the Lord incarnates assuming a human form to bless and rescue
those who cannot rise to the level of the Divine. Incarnation is an act of
benediction.
What about the name ‘Sai Baba’ of the present Poorna
Avatar? Swami has this to say:
The name ‘Sai Baba’ means ‘Divine Mother and Divine Father’.
Like a mother, I will be tender and soft and give you happiness, and like a
father, I will punish you when needed. Through these methods I shall take you
to a high level.
Why does God incarnate? No doubt Krishna has already
outlined the reasons, but Swami goes deeper into the subject. He says,
To elevate man to the level of Supreme Consciousness, God
has to incarnate as man. God has to speak to man in his own style and language.
He has to teach mankind the methods that it can adopt and practice. Birds and
beasts need no Divine incarnation to guide them for they have no inclination to
stray away from their respective duties. Man alone forgets the goal of life.
In other words, God comes to play the role of a teacher and
a Guru. As Swami elaborates,
The essential quality of an Avatar is to teach you to make
good and proper use of your thought, word and deed. Depending on the conditions
and the environment in the country, the Avatar will teach and show the right
use of the Divine faculties gifted to man.
In earlier incarnations, the Lord physically annihilated the
evil. What about this time? Swami has the answer:
In this Kali Age, the wicked have to be reformed and
reconstructed through Love and Compassion. That is why this Avatar has come
unarmed. The Avatar has come with the Message of Love.
Swami continues:
My objective is to establish unity in mankind, to reveal the aspect of the Divinity latent in man, and that God must be the only goal in life. It is also My duty to make you realize the kind of relationship that should exist between fellow human beings.
My objective is to establish unity in mankind, to reveal the aspect of the Divinity latent in man, and that God must be the only goal in life. It is also My duty to make you realize the kind of relationship that should exist between fellow human beings.
This is something very important, and all of us would do
well to remember it. The first item on the agenda of this Avatar is to
make each and every one of us realise our intrinsic Divine nature. Swami goes
on to add,
There is considerable change in human outlook that I have to
bring about. No one can stop Me or deter Me from fulfilling these tasks for
which I have come, namely the establishment of the one unchanging Truth. In
this task, you have a part to play.
Because the Avatar has a human form, man thinks
(mistakenly of course) that the Avatar too is just another human being.
In this context, Swami points out that,
When Narayana (Supreme God) takes the form of a man
and wants to help humanity, He will act like a man. Just because God comes in
human form, it is no excuse for man to be indifferent. He must realise that all
the Poorna Avatars are incarnations of the same Formless, Eternal,
Supreme Consciousness and the Cosmic, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient
God.
Swami conveys this idea in the following manner. He says:
Here is a quote from a remarkable discourse given by
Bhagavan during the Summer Course in 1974. This Discourse appears as Chapter 16
of Part II of the Proceedings and is entitled: WHO IS SAI BABA? In this,
Bhagavan says:
Inherent beauty and attractiveness are obvious in His
playing and in His singing. These are the aspects of Shiva Shakti that
is immanent in Him. How is it possible for anyone to understand Sathya Sai
merely from His external Form?
One very important characteristic of an Avatar is
that He is totally selfless. Divinity knows no selfishness. God is ever
compassionate, ever ready to sacrifice, and is totally free from desires. As
Baba puts it,
There is no desire in Sai. Where is the space for desire in
Sai? Everything is already Mine! Sai does not think. My will is instantly
realized. Whatever it may be, it immediately appears.
To put it all simply, no one can understand the Avatar
and His actions. As Baba once declared,
If Balarama (the brother of Krishna) himself could not
understand Me, how can you?!
Indeed. So it is a futile exercise to try to understand
Bhagavan and analyse His actions. Instead, one must concentrate on His
teachings, absorb them, and follow them. We must appreciate that God has come
on earth as man for an exalted purpose. We must not, even if it be unknowingly,
trivialise the Divine Mission by asking Swami for trinkets. Swami of course
does not mind. He gives us all that we ask for, even if they are useless. Why
does He do so? Swami Himself has given the answer. He says,
I readily give you what you want, so that one day you may
want what I have come to give you.
And what is it that He is so eager to give us? The very same
thing that He gave to Arjuna five thousand and odd years ago on the battle
field - the Knowledge of the Universal Self or Atmavidya. That is what
the Avatar has come to give us and that really is what we must seek
earnestly from Him. And once we have that, our lives too, just like the
Avatar’s, will transform into a saga of perennial bliss.
LOVE.
