Ravinder Grover
In Bhagavad-Gita, the Avatar of the Dwapara Age, Lord Sri Krishna, declares:
“Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya Glanirbhavathi Bharatha ,
Abhyukthanam adharmasya Thadathmanam Srujamyaham.”
“Parithranaya Sadhunam Vinashaya cha Dhushkrutham
Dharma samsthapanarthaya Sambhavami Yuge Yuge”
“Whenever there is a decline of Righteousness and rise of evil, the Lord incarnates from time to time to uphold Righteousness, to protect the Virtuous and to uproot the evil”
There are certain periods in the history of mankind when we witness epoch-making Divine events with our own eyes. The most astounding event of this century is the Advent of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The fulfilment of the assurance…….. given more than 5000 years ago at the beginning of the Kali Age thus became a reality on the 23rd of November 1926 when Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Avatar of the Age, was born at Puttaparthi, Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, India.
The word ‘Avatar’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Avataranam’ means ‘Descent’. In other words, formless God takes a form and descends upon the Earth as an expression of His boundless love and affection towards humanity. The Avatar is mysterious, yet delightful blend of Individual Consciousness and the Divine Consciousness. HE behaves in a human way so that mankind can feel kinship with Him, but rises to His Super-Human heights so that mankind can aspire to reach those heights. Though Avatars may appear in different forms at different times, places and circumstances, yet they are all the manifestations of the One Supreme Lord.
Sri Sathya Sai Avatar walked on Earth with no destructive weapon in HIS possession, like the Kodanda (Bow) of Rama or the Sudarshana Chakra (Discus) of Sri Krishna. He relied on Education than Elimination; Instruction than Destruction. The good were encouraged to become better, the better to enter the region of the best and the blessed. The bad were encouraged to shed the coil of cowardice, which kept them in fear
On 20 October 1940, at the age of 14, Sri Sathya Sai Baba declared to his parents that he had come to this world with a mission to re-establish the principle of Righteousness, to motivate Love for God and Service to Fellow Man. Since then, he had consistently called on all mankind to “Love All, Serve All” and asserted that the essence of all scriptures is “Help Ever, Hurt Never”
HIS mission was further amplified in a letter He wrote to His brother Sheshama Raju on 25th May 1947, “I have a task to foster all mankind and ensure for all of them lives full of bliss. I have a vow: To lead all who stray away from the straight path, again into goodness and save them. I am attached to a work that I love: to remove the sufferings of the poor and grant them what they seek”.
The world has witnessed HIM as LOVE WALKING ON TWO FEET on all fronts of human activity, such as, Spiritual, Educational and Service. When God undertakes any activity directly, its expansion is unlimited and the beneficiaries innumerable. The Primary School He started to fulfill the desire of Mother Easwaramma, has grown into a full-fledged university. The small hospital opened to meet the medical exigencies of the village has now become a massive world class hospital. The water projects are providing the pure drinking water to millions across these regions.
Through his speeches and writings, HE had offered an absolute ocean of knowledge and guidance on all aspects of spiritual, religious, and value-oriented living. HE said that it is not necessary to drink the whole ocean to know its taste, that it is not necessary to read all scriptures to live a life of joy, peace, and love. It is enough to put into practice one aspect of spiritual teaching.
“I am God. And you too are God. The only difference between you and Me is that while I am aware of it, you are completely unaware.” HE said that we are all embodiments of God —we are God— and that the chief goal of our lives as humans is to realize that we are God, to experience that we are Divinity, to achieve “enlightenment“. He emphasised that “there is no escaping it; all creatures have to reach God some day or other, by the long route or by the short route.” Indeed, in His discourses to devotees, He addressed them as “Embodiments of the Divine Atma”.
For whole of HIS physical presence Sri Sathya Sai had ceaselessly worked day-in and day-out for accomplishing His Divya Sankalpa (Divine Will) of transforming evils into virtues, destructive attitudes into constructive actions, negativity into positivity, diversity into unity, competition into cooperation, hatred into love, false-hood into truth, non-violence into peace, work into worship and wisdom, pollution into purity and finally animal behaviour into humanity and divinity.
A few drops of the ocean of Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings, an attempt to encapsulate its essence, Sathya Sai Baba urged mankind to:
- Believe in God – for there is only ONE GOD for all mankind, though He may be called by many names.
- Follow sincerely their respective religions and live their daily lives in consonance with the teachings of good behaviour and morality.
- Respect all other religions – for no religion advocates the negative and lower qualities of man.
- Perform selfless service to the poor, the sick, and the needy without thought of reward or fame.
- Cultivate in their lives the values of truth, divine love, right conduct, peace, and nonviolence and promote these values among all.
- Be patriotic and respect the laws of the country in which they live.
The Avatar unified all of humanity by propagating the Unity of Faiths. HE said, “Each religion is a different road to the same goal, viz. Salvation”. HE insisted upon spirituality over religion. HE had united the faiths through the replacement of Religion by Spirituality, Rituals by Service and Scriptures by Educare.
Millions of devotees from all walks of life worship Him as an ‘Avatar’. Thousands gather every day at Puttaparthi for His blessings, where He moved in his physical body for over eight decades amongst devotees blessing them and providing spiritual support and comfort. No Avatar has done like this before, walking amongst the masses, counselling them, guiding them, consoling them, uplifting them, directing them along the path of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa . True to His declaration “My Life is My Message”, HE said,
“Sathya is My Message,
Dharma is My Practice,
Shanti is My Nature,
Prema is My Form.
Follow these and You are Mine, I am Yours”.
