I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

[Guest guest]

I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

The Divine takes birth in human shape and form with all the limitations common

to humanity, as one of us, so that he can fulfill his self-allotted mission

within some particular self-allotted period of time. Whenever there is the

fading of dharma and the uprising of evil, then the Divine looses forth Himself

into birth. This is of course no ordinary birth into ignorance as we understand

it, but the descent of the illumined Light with all the semblance merely of

ignorance and finiteness. But though the Divine does so limit itself, it does

not at the same time get entangled in the inevitable mechanism of karmic laws

known to ordinary births. The very word avatar itself means a descent: " A

coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the Divine from the

human world or status."

Now the purpose of such a descent is twofold. Not only does the Lord take birth

in human form to uphold dharma, but he further so arranges that by impact with

His presence on earth, man also becomes conscious of his Divinity and seeks to

ascend to the Godhead above him. So that with every birth of the avatar into

the world, millions of people are born anew in the sense that they are made

actively conscious of their Divine potentialities. It is only an incarnation of

this type that declares himself: "I am the way and the truth and the life," and

holding forth before man the example of his pure and blameless life on earth

can inspire him to adopt and assimilate it.

Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi was no ordinary saint, but an avatar even as Christ and

Krishna and Buddha were. His sayings and charters are replete with the

assertion of himself as the supreme Godhead. This is proof enough of his Divine

descent. He often identified himself with Vithoba, with Dattatreya, with Laxmi

Narayana, with Shri Krishna, and many other avatars known to the Hindu

scriptures. Not only was this identification verbal, but it has been the

experience of many devotees that Baba often took on the form and appearance of

several avatars. In fact, to assume the very image and likeness of that

particular Godhead for whom a devotee had veneration was Baba's favorite method

of effecting the devotee's transformation. He often enough declared that he in

his visible human form and the supreme invisible Lord were one and the same

Divine Purushottama. " I am in Gangapur, Pandharpur, and in all places. I am in

every bit of the globe. All the Universe is in me," he said.

On one occasion when a devotee named Uddhava asked him from which purana he

should study, Baba replied significantly, "From that in which I have already

spoken to you," and it transpired that he was referring to the Bhagavad-Gita..

It is abundantly clear from all these declarations that Baba was no ordinary

saint or prophet, but Divinity itself made manifest in order to mold the

thoughts, feelings and actions of man according to his shining example. For it

is not given to ordinary realized beings, great souls though they are, to speak

of themselves in the absolute vein, nor indeed have they ever been known to do

so. These supreme declarations are the prerogatives only of those Divine

Incarnations who are termed avatars. Shri Sai Baba's Divine avatarhood is a

certain conviction in the minds of each and every one of his devotees. This

conviction is based not only on the declarations of the Master as cited before,

but also on the wondrous quality of his deeds and doings. Not the least among

these are the miracles of Sai Baba, the experiences of devotees in all walks of

life, super skeptics among them. Wonderful as these experiences are, it would be

more profitable to view them calmly and in their

proper perspective. For when these miracles of Sai Baba assume a sensational

value in the minds of devotees, they are apt to confuse these persons and make

them forget the great perpetrator of the miracles in the unusual character of

the miracles themselves. If the Master's miracles become more important than

the Master himself, then surely they defeat their own purpose. These miracles,

these experiences, should rather be evaluated as signs of the great Guru's

omnipotence and as sure proof of his Divine descent. They should act as an

incentive to a further understanding of his Divine nature and message. Even so

it is also equally true that to reject this phase of Baba's manifestation is to

limit oneself and arrest one's spiritual growth. A gathering together of all

these wonderful miracles of Sai in an integral understanding of the Master is

the correct approach.

In view of this understanding it would be in the fitness of things to substitute

the word miracles by the more comprehensive term leelas. This exquisite

denomination at once gives to these uncommon experiences of Sai bhaktas the

correct touch of dignity which places them far above the trivialities of a

soothsayer or even above the lesser miracles of a prophet who is not an avatar.

The Divine Leela is one of the most aesthetic aspects of religious philosophy.

It lies in nature of the supreme Purushottama to reveal Himself in the way he

does. His leelas are His manifestations, and since the Lord is all in all,

there can be no miracles from the point of view of the eternal. Sai Baba

therefore does not perform any miracles in this sense. He simply manifests his

leelas in order to sport with his devotees.

(Source: Sai Baba The Saint of Shirdi by Mani Sahukar)

Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger