BLOG FOR 10/20/2013: DAY OF DECLARATION OF AVATARHOOD BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA October 20, 1940 Dr. Raghavendra S. Prasad, MD October 20, 2013 It is on this day seven decades and three years ago, 73 years ago that a 14 year old high school dropout by name Sathyanarayana Raju of a tiny village of Puttaparthi declared His avatar hood and mission by saying that His devotees are calling. He sang His first bhajan “Maanasa Bhajare Guru Charanam-“. Since that day He became Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to His devotees. He became a Universal person and belonged to all nationalities, religions, races and creeds. His universal message of Oneness and Unity reverberated to the whole world that brought in throngs of devotees from all walks of life, from all countries, from all religions to the tiny remote village of Puttaparthy in Andhra Pradesh. He taught nothing new except for the emphasis on practice of what is already preached by all great religions, in particular Sanatana Dharma. He said that He came to resurrect the Sanatana Dharma to its ancient glory. WHAT IS AN AVATAR? Avatar is a descent of unmanifest, formless, attribute less God-head into human form. This process is called Avatarana (descent). This Godhead in human form is called an Avatar. Among the avatars the ten incarnations of Vishnu are the most popular. These are the ten Avatars of Lord Vishnu and are called Dasāavatārās: Dasāvatārās: 1. Matsya: the fish. 2. Kurma: the tortoise. 3. Varāha: the boar. 4. Nārasimha: the human-lion. 5. Vāmana: the dwarf. 6. Parasurāma: the annihilator of Kshatriyas, Rama with an axe. 7. Lord Rāma: the perfect man, king of Ayodhya 8. Balarāma: elder brother of Krishna. 9. Lord Krishna: the divine statesman. 10. Kalki: the mighty warrior to come. Among these ten, Rāma and Krishna are the major Avatarās and are most popular. Many Hindus look upon Buddha as the Ninth Avatār in place of Balarāma Avatār. Several sages and saints are also considered as Avatārs. Some people consider the ten incarnations (Avatārs) of Vishnu represent evolution of humans from aquatic fish, to turtle, to pig, to Nārasimha (half man and half animal) and finally to human. The purpose of an Avatār is to inspire, transform and liberate large number of people, to destroy evil and evil doers and uphold dharma. Hinduism believes that there is a self corrective mechanism embedded in cosmos, when it is pushed to one extreme or the other. Similar to a pendulum pushed to one side moves back to the center, Dharma is the in-built cosmic order of creative intelligence. When this cosmic order is disrupted, sages and saints in the world pray for the descent of God into the world in human form to destroy unrighteousness (Adharma) and reinstate cosmic order (Dharma). When an individual with purity prays, his prayers are answered. When group of pious people pray together for common benefit of humankind for long period, then God descends as an Avatār to correct Adharma and resurrect Dharma. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita “Yadā yadāhi dharmasya glānirbhavati Bhārata Abhytthānamadharmasya tadātmānam srijāmyaham Gita 4-7 Whenever un-righteousness increases, and evil increases, I descend in human form on to the Earth to restore righteousness. WE ARE ALL AVATARS: Sathya Sai declared that He was an avatar and the purpose of His descent in human form is to elevate us and to make us realize our innate Divinity. He said that He was God and further says that we are all also Gods. The difference is that He knows that He is God while we do not know that we are also God. He says that we are leading a life of forgetfulness (MARAPU) of our innate Divinity and He came to remind (ERUKA) us of our forgotten heritage. He goes on to say that each one of us is also an avatar that is God in human form. We also descended from Godhood to the human level with a spark of Divinity embedded in us, as Atman. The difference is that Sathya Sai knows and we do not. Our job is to realize our innate Divinity and make others realize the same. This is experiencing Oneness, Unity and Divinity. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAI AND US AS AVATARS: While we are from the same source, Sai knows and functions in the awareness of His heritage of Oneness while we do not. His is Karana Janma while ours is Karma Janma. He has no karmic baggage to clear while we do. He was born for a purpose as a result of desire of sages and prayers by sages and saints for resurrection of Dharma, while we are born to wash out our karmic baggage and realize our true heritage and reach home. Sai has nothing to wash out since He was pure all along and only descended for our sake while we descended to cleans ourselves of the karmic baggage. Sai lived in Constant Integrated Awareness of His innate Purity, Unity and Divinity, while functioning as human being in physical form on earth. We live in unawareness of innate Divinity and aspire to realize that innate Divinity through sadhanas prescribed by great souls like Sai. Sai says that there is no difference between Sai in Constant Integrated Awareness (CIA) and devotee in CIA. The devotee with CIA also becomes an avatar like Sai. This is like “I am the light” stage after the stages of “I am in the light”, the “light is in me”. This is the “I and my father are one” stage after the “I am the servant of the God” and after the “I am the son of God” stages. This is the adwiitic stage of the devotee that he ascends to while Sai was always in that adwiitic stage from birth. SIGNIFICANCE OF DASAVATARS TO US AS SADHAKAS: To realize that we are an avatar, we have to pass through the stages of all dasavatars. As fish we need to swim in Divinity, breath in Divinity, sleep in Divinity, eat in Divinity and feel that we have no survival without Divinity. As kurma we should withdraw our senses from the world and slowly start functioning in the world with inner vision. As varaha we should enter into the dirty world, cleans the world of impurities even by getting oneself dirty in the process, as Narasimha we need to conquer our animal tendencies and become human, as Parasurama we should vanquish our rajas and ego, as vamana we should maintain humility though endowed with knowledge, as Rama we should lead a life of Dharma, as Balarama (Mind) we should follow the advice of Krishna (Heart) in us, as Krishna we should develop love and purity that attracts all of creation into oneness, and as Kalki we should be riding above the horse of arishadvargas as warriors in the protection of Dharma with vigilance on an ongoing basis. 1. Matsya: Fish. Live in God (CIA) 2. Kurma: Tortoise. Live in, not off the world with sense withdrawal 3. Varāha: Boar. Cleanse the world even if you get dirty 4. Nārasimha: Animal man Kill animality and resurrect humanity 5. Vāmana: Dwarf. With growing knowledge, be humble 6. Parasurāma: Kshatriya Annihilator Kill Rajasic tendencies and Ego 7. Lord Rāma: Embodiment of Dharma Follow and protect Dharma 8. Balarāma: Elder brother of Krishna Krishna (Heart) to direct Balarama (Mind) 9. Lord Krishna: Embodiment of Love Be Love and world will be attracted to you 10. Kalki: Warrior on horse. Be on guard in ongoing battle for Dharma Thus on this day of Avataric declaration of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, we should realize that we are all also the avatars. As spiritual aspirants and sadhakas, we go through the dasavatars to realize our ultimate goal of human endeavor, realizing the innate Divinity and Oneness in creation. This is what Sathya Sai means when he said that I am God, I know it and you are also God, but you do not know it. He said His purpose of Sathya Sai avatar is to make us realize our innate Divinity. Let us re dedicate ourselves towards attaining this goal.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 00:26:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015