The Coming One

[Guest guest]

The Coming One

Easter Sunday lecture at The Sri Sathya Sai Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria. April 4,

2004, by Mr. Gilbert Prakash Dada.

Today all over the world, the death and resurrection of The Christ is being

celebrated. The Christ belong to all mankind and as a central figure in the

reconstruction Plan of God, it is important for us to pay attention to His

Life, teaching and great sacrifice. It is also important for us to develop

greater insight than the majority who look up only to the vicarious atonement.

The work of the Christ is much more than the shedding of blood. He sacrificed

his happiness, prosperity, comfort, safety and position; he braved the enmity

of the powerful. He refused to yield or compromise. He renounced the ego,

which is the toughest thing to get rid of. Let us honour Him for these.

The plan of salvation of man rests not on the sacrifice of blood but by

developing love for God and his creation and knowing oneself to be God. This

is all. The old primitive religions insist on the shedding of blood for

atonement and to this day, these practices could be found in all parts of the

world. But the animal to sacrifice is actually within us. We move on two legs

but behave more as animals rather than men. What we have to sacrifice is the

animal of desire, lust, anger, jealousy, ego and pride. This is the animal

within us, and these are to be sacrificed on the altar of the world before we

can enter the Kingdom of God. The shedding of Jesus’ blood was not pleasing to

God. What happened then was only significant to the earth as a burdened mother,

which needed to be freed.

There certainly was mystery regarding the shedding of the blood because the

gospels describe graphically how he was killed and pierced even after he had

died. Blood, so much of it flowed on to the earth. There is one reason for

this: The Christ, which overshadowed Jesus at Baptism, needed to be wrenched

from the blood of Jesus and it was to be complete severance, which required

quick and drastic wrench. The Christ as a ray from the Cosmic Christ (SAI) now

became the indwelling spirit of the earth which Paul said is groaning and

travailing, waiting for the day of liberation, for contrary to accepted

opinion, the sacrifice on Golgotha was not completed with the death of the body

of Jesus; in fact, it was the beginning, the sacrifice will continue till such a

time as we have evolved the love and altruism that will liberate the earth

spirit from the cramping conditions of material existence. In fact, the

extreme darkness, which was said to envelope the earth at the time of death of

Jesus was actually intense light, which blinded all who saw it, The Christ

departing the vehicle He used. He now dwells within the earth as an indwelling

Divine spirit. That was the sacrifice of the Christ: to accept to indwell the

earth until the earth would have matured enough not to require any form of

guidance to progress onto the Goal. The day of liberation of this indwelling

Christ Spirit is near as Our beloved Lord Sai gradually nears the fulfilment of

His mission. Soon, His love will be made manifest in the heart of all mankind.

Soon, it will be difficult for anyone to hate another. Soon all humanity will

live in one brotherhood. When this happens, the work of the Christ will be

completed. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba said: “At that time, the world will be

peaceful. All will be love, love, love everywhere.” This sacrifice therefore is

for the entire humanity and has nothing to do with any particular religion. You

have to work out your salvation by yourself as Paul advised: , now is the

accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Corinthians 6:2 and, ". .

.. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Philippians 2:12.

Let us remember the statement Baba made December of 1972. He said, and I quote:

“There is one point that I cannot but bring to your special notice today. At the

moment when Jesus was merging in the Supreme Principle of Divinity, He said, “He

who sent me among you will come again!”, and he pointed to a lamb. The Lamb is

merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the voice Ba-Ba; the announcement was

the Advent of Baba. “His name will be truth,” Christ declared. Sathya means

Truth. “He will wear a robe of red, a blood red robe.” (Here Baba pointed to

the Robe he was wearing!) He will be short, with a crown(of hair). The lamb is

the sign and symbol of Love. Christ did not declare that he will come again, he

said, “He who made me will come again.” That Ba-ba is this Baba, and Sai, the

short, curly-hair-crowned ed-robed Baba is come. He is not only in this Form,

but, he is in every one of you, as the dweller in the heart. He is there;

short, with a robe of the colour of the blood that fills it.

Let us examine the scriptures for some detail. ,

The prophet met Him and marvelled at Him.He [the prophet] drew near and asked

Him:"What happened to You, my Lord?Why are Your garments red?Your side and

hands pierced?" [isaiah 63:2]"I have mightily trodden the winepress in Sheol.I

have fought the fight alone and was splashed with blood." [isaiah 63:3]

Isaiah had a glimpse of the lonely Sai the One who fights the devil of the

world, the author of all deceits, materialism and godlessness, the prince of

this world and conquers him. Fellow travellers on the Path, there is an

intense war going on in the invisible realms between good and evil. Evil has

got to such grave proportions that God has to descend to restore order. This

is His promise: to protect the good and to restore righteousness. All the

Major incarnations have come with their Shaktis but this Sai came alone with

Shakti kept at His Trikuti always. Sai will win this fight as He told Isaiah:

"I have fought the fight alone and was splashed with blood." [isaiah 63:3].

This also explains the red robe Swami wears.

We have also John one of the apostles of Jesus who on the Island of Patmos was

given a glimpse of things to come. His visions form the last book of the Bible

called Revelations. Let’s all read Chapter 19 verses 11-21.

Here we see Swami, with the sword of truth in His mouth, declaring the truth

fearlessly, that “Man is God”, and “God is Man”. Armed thus, He charges and

moves swiftly across the sky with unequalled splendour, changing the hearts of

men. He dwells in the heart of his devotees, correcting and guiding them.. He

is to be called by any name, for He responds to all names. “I have much more to

say to you, more than you can bear, but when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he

will guide you all into all truth; thus the eternal Charioteer was promised

man.

Sai Baba’s role is to make immanent in all mankind the Universal Sai Spirit,

also known as the Christ love. His is to raise man to the level where his

vibrations tune into the Christ’s. This Love supersedes all laws and all

fears; He will take away all selfishness and restore mankind to the blessings

of brotherhood.

The Father and Son are one, but the Father’s religion, higher even than the

son’s will unite all religions under the sun and do away with nations and their

laws. He does not work directly upon the physical bodies of man but on the

finer vehicles of man, the vital, desire and subtle bodies,. This is why all

the scriptures speak of him as riding a horse. Horses depict restless nature

of the senses and the mind. Krishna likens the senses to horses. The one who

rides these horses is the one who has control over the horses that drag the

world to destruction.

The full picture of the plan of reconstruction of man can only be grasped in its

entirety when the third and final Sai, Prema Sai, emerges. So it is necessary to

look at the work of Sai from Shirdi to Prema. Sathya Sai is the fullness of the

three as he combines the severity of the Father with the mercy of the Mother.

He is the Avatar from whom the final blow to the Evil One must come. Prema Sai

is the glorious Lord of immense love and beauty and His advent will find the

entire world freed of the evil forces of Kali ‑‑the great delusion

caused by our failure to look up to and to have faith in the lifted Godhead

instead of the shadow of this same Godhead.‑‑Whereas the former is

freeing and blissful, the latter is binding and distressing. Remember, this

same serpent, which was active in the great valley of death, murmurings and

confusion, was Life and freedom when it was lifted up for all to see! (Read

the full story in the Bible, Numbers 21:4-8). It will interest you to note that

when this serpentine energy (Kundalini) remains coiled up in the muladhar

chakra, man literally is blind, confused, bound and spiritually dead. But when

Kundalini is raised up, man is freed and liberated!

Sri Sathya Sai paves the way for us all to see this last Sai incarnation. Only

those who prepare themselves through steadfast love and faith, those who now

look up to the lifted up Godhead, will see and live with Prema Sai. Only those

who are impervious to all manner of falsehood will be made disciples and to

reign with Him in the new world, the new paradise that was promised mankind for

ages. So the choice is ours. We can spiritualise our lives through

selflessness, harmlessness, unwavering faith and right speech and be tuned to

the Sai vibrations or to look elsewhere, to chase the shadow, which we will

never grasp because of its intangibility. You must develop faith in Baba and

sustain this faith through satsang, seva and swadhyaya.(Good association,

selfless service and study of spiritual literature). Om Sai Ram.