SAI BABA - THE LIGHT FROM ABOVE

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Om Sri Sai Ram

THE LIGHT FROM ABOVE

By Swami Sai Sharan Anand

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has, on several occasions, made certain pronouncements about

himself which not only clarify the nature and mystery of his divine advent, but

also deepen the mystery a thousand fold and leave us wondering if he is the

Eternal Absolute, the one God or Sarvadevata Swarup who has descended on earth

like Rama, Krishna, Jesus Christ and Buddha, in the fullness of an avatar to

lead mankind to discover divinity and attain self-realization or Mukti or

liberation. One of his epoch making declarations is contained in his statement

during the world conference of Sri Sathya Sai Seva organization in Bombay on

May 17, 1968 'Why I incarnate’ and 'My Reality'. He has given a firm, concrete

and tangible expression of his advent and mission as an avatar. The

announcements and their

contents are too well known to require a fresh recital. On another occasion he

has said: 'I am infinite, I am immeasurable, I am unique, and I am

incomparable. Equal to myself, I am my own measure, witness and authority.' And

further he states his true identity when he says: 'I am the Satashya Sathyam,

the Truth of Truths. Why has truth come on earth in human form? To plant in the

heart of man the yearning for Truth, to place man on the road to Truth, to help

man to reach Truth by loving instruction and by the final gift of

illumination.’

These are truly gems of pronouncements made by the avatar, which are

self-sufficient, autonomous and complete and can hardly be glossed over. But

the problem is how can the finite, the limited human entity, understand the

infinite, unique and incomparable Godhead? Baba says: You cannot understand my

reality either today or even after thousands of years of austerity or inquiry,

even if all mankind join in that effort. But, very soon, you will be aware of

the bliss showered by the divine principle, which has taken upon itself this

body and this name. And he declares his unity with every sentient thing in the

universe and his identity as the one God: I am not Sathya Sai Baba. This is the

name by which you know me today. All names are mine. I am the one God who

answers the prayers that rise in

human hearts in all languages from all hands, addressed to all forms of deity.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba has come from the beyond, the high heavens above to pitch

his tent on this temporal and time-bound earth of ceaseless flux and change in

order to restore India and the world to its spiritual glory and carry the

message of spirituality through the evangel of love, truth, peace and ahimsa.

He further says that the labors of the avatar in his mission will not fail and

in the end of this manifestation, the earth's age will begin anew and the

golden years return. Many who believe in Baba believe in the divine pledge and

its certainty and inevitability.

Professor V.K. Gokak has put it very nicely and in emphatic terms when he says:

I am one of those who believe in him and the surety of his pledge. The question

may be asked: why? On what grounds? My one answer to that question is: I believe

in Baba and the surety of his pledge, not because I am what I am, but because

Baba is what he is.

It follows from this that it is all a question of faith and belief. If one

believes in the divinity of Baba or has experienced it at first hand, all

doubts and questionings end and it becomes a lot easier to surrender to Baba as

the ultimate and supreme reality. Still the crux of the problem remains in this

age of rank skepticism crass materialism and lost dimension of religion to

develop the supreme continence of affirmation that helps one recognize the

indwelling God in one's heart. It is through the process of devotion and

continual meditation that light dawns upon one's consciousness and faith breaks

in life. The name and thought of God is the lantern that illuminates the dark

recesses of the heart and soul and leads one to the summit of the hill from

where the resplendent face of God is seen.

Commonly speaking, the concept of incarnation is a difficult metaphysical

formulation, which is familiar mostly to the East, that too in Hindu religion.

Lord Krishna has said to Prince Arjuna in the battle-field at Kurukshetra:

Every time virtue wanes in the world and vice and injustice are victorious, I

become visible and thus I appear from age to age for the salvation of the

righteous, the destruction of the wicked and the re-establishment of virtue.

And Sri Sathya Sai Baba echoes the same truth when he says: For the protection

of the virtuous, for the destruction of evil­doers and for the establishment of

righteousness on a firm footing, I incarnate from age to age. Whenever Ashanti

or disharmony overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to

establish the modes of earning Prashanthi (peace) and to re-educate the human

community in the paths of peace.

At the present time, strife and discord have robbed peace and unity from the

family, the school, the community, the society, villages, the cities and the

state. The arrival of the Lord is also anxiously awaited by saints and sages.

Sadhus prayed and I have come. My main tasks are fostering of the Vedas and

fostering of the devotees. Your virtue, your self-control, your detachment,

your faith, your steadfastness, these are the signs by which people read of my

glory.

The one-to-one correspondence between what Krishna meant and what Sai Baba means

is very surprising indeed. For the first time nearly five thousand years after

the time of Krishna's death on February 20, 3102 B.C. when Kaliyuga commenced

that Sri Sathya Sai Baba has appeared as a Poornavatar. It is not possible for

human beings to grasp the full significance of the descent of an avatar in the

phenomenal world for guiding individuals and societies towards spiritual

regeneration. Although much has been written about the concept of the avatar,

there is still a good deal of confusion, incoherence and doubt about the

manifestation of the ultimate and eternal Absolute in human form at crucial and

critical junctures of human civilization and history. Whereas in the perennial

religions of

the East specially Santana Dharma and the Hindu and Buddhistic thought and

tradition, it is accepted as essential and natural phenomenon for the

maintenance and preservation of the moral and spiritual order of the universe

and the laws of the cosmos. The eternal laws of nature, the revolution of

constellation, the dance of the elements, the cycle of seasons, time and flux

are sustained by divine will and the direct manifestation of the supreme

Godhead in phenomenal world, as Professor Gokak has rightly observed.

But these laws of Nature can be transcended whenever a ray, direct from the

Supreme penetrates the universe. This ray is power, will, thought and feeling

combined in a solar flash. The Word, which is at the very root of creation, is

a complex seed symphony of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Love, Delight and Power...

When does the Ray descend? As the Gita says, whenever righteousness is at low

ebb and the unrighteous ride on the crest of the wave, the Ray takes the human

form to establish the reign of Truth again, to protect the good and punish the

wicked.

At this stage, it may be fair to have an idea of the ultimate Absolute that

chooses out of his own Will to descend as a Ray from the reservoir of cosmic

power and energy and take on a temporary habitation on earth. It is the destiny

of mankind, the individual souls and Atma to merge in the universal Atma either

through Jnaana (flawless knowledge) or through meditation or intense Bhakti

(devotion) leading to total surrender and identification with the Supreme Lord

who is both formless and with tangible form. Who is this Supreme Being? All

round we see everything in a state of flux and change. Behind these ever

changing phenomena there must be a permanent base, as the changes cannot take

place in a changing background. The permanent base also must be something

eternal. The stars, planets and elements follow various rules, which must

ultimately be unified and controlled by some

power. This is an eternal and omnipresent power. The ancient Rishis called it as

sat. It must have some purpose and must be leading the universe to some goal and

consciously direct the universe. So, another aspect of this principle would be

the consciousness of everything past, present and future. This Rishis called

cit. We all recognize suffering and pain as essential part of the human

condition and yearn for Ananda or joy continually. Unless the eternal Absolute

itself is bliss unalloyed, it cannot lead others towards bliss. Thus, we can

infer that the supreme principle is sat (pure existence), cit (pure

consciousness) and Ananda (absolute bliss). This is all information that the

sages and seers of the past have handed down to us about God or the Eternal

Absolute.

How does one relate oneself to the eternal absolute who is satchidananda -

Being, Awareness and Bliss. The devotion of the Bhakta does not merely confer

boons affecting material life; it can also compel the formless Godhead to

manifest itself. In the words of C. Balasingham,

The supreme divine power is present everywhere, very much like gravity, as the

invisible supporter and controller of the manifested universe. The various

shrines are like substations connected to a vast power grid and we can tap the

divine power from any substation. The nature and extent of the use of that

power depends on the individual his preparedness and state of development.

Where the devotee prays to the Supreme earnestly in a particular form for a

direct vision, God manifests himself in that particular form.

Thus the idea of a personal God is very convenient and helpful for the purposes

of pointed, intense and total concentration on God in a particular name and

form. In addition to transient manifestations of the Eternal Absolute for brief

periods, we also have avatars or manifestations lasting several years, when God

walks the earth in human form.

Says Mr. Balasingham, the Avatar is only a convenient focus for the operation of

the divine power in a human and tangible way. There have been several avatars in

the past. Krishna, Christ, Buddha are really a few that come readily to mind. In

our times, we have divinity living and moving with us in human form as Bhagawan

Sathya Sai Baba.

Balasingham goes on to say: When we say God or divinity is walking the earth in

human form, what exactly do we mean? We have seen that Absolute or divinity is

vast power that which envelops, permeates and controls the universe, if we

imagine the Absolute as a vast power grid then Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba is a

substation from which that power flows and operates in a visible form. The

physical body of Bhagawan Baba is only an instrument through which divine power

operates. The real Sai Baba is this power and this is the one to which he refers

when he uses the word 1. Baba himself made a distinction between his body and

his power on the Christmas day in 1970: 'My body like all other bodies is a

temporary habitation; but my Power is eternal,

all-pervasive and ever dominate.'

Explaining the point further, Balasingham says: The relationship between the

general divine power and this substation needs elucidation. In the first place,

there is no exclusiveness; there were, are and will continue to be, other

substations through which this vast power of the Absolute operates. Lourdes,

for instance, continues to be a place where miraculous cures occur even after

Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba started his miraculous cures. The difference is that

in Lourdes there is no visible source, no tangible output through which the

power operates. On the other hand, Sai Baba is a visible, moving, talking

substation... Every one of us, according to Hindu philosophy, is a focal point

of this Absolute consciousness. It may be asked what the difference between us

and Sai Baba is? In him the

power flows out unhindered and with full force and power. In us that power is

almost completely muted.

This is a good and plausible explanation of the manifestation of the divine in

human form. Since each one of us is the spark of the same eternal Absolute, the

divine power which is muffled and snuffed out in oneself on account of the

veil of Maya and ignorance of the real self, has to be realized through

constant and continual Sadhana.

Returning to the image of the light or the Ray from the Supreme, the eternal

sunbeam, we find it to be the most appropriate and functional imagery for the

definition of God. Most religious poets have used the imagery of sunlight, the

elemental sunbeam, to express what is inexpressible. Dante in the last canto of

The Divine Comedy describes his feeling of supreme bliss and ineffable ecstasy

when he sees the ultimate reality as a single flame. The light and fire imagery

occurs with great frequency in Four Quartets of T.S. Eliot, culminating in the

last section of Little Gidding: 'The fire and the rose are one.' In the works

of all mystic poets, Vaughan, Rumi and others, the obsessive imagery is that of

light. In the holy Bible, light is described as the synonym of God. The descent

of the divine principle on earth is like the coming of the transcendent sunbeam

to scatter the

darkness and gloom on our planet. Sri Sathya Sai Baba himself says: Generally,

an avatar is described as coming down from a higher status to a lower one. But

no, when the baby in the cradle weeps, wails and clamors for help, the mother

stoops and takes it over in her arms. Her stoop is not described as coming

down.

When asked by a devotee if the idea of descent of God on earth and the ascent

of man to God are different, Baba replied that both are the same. The one for

whom the light descends would inevitably move from darkness to light, from

falsehood to truth, from mortality to immortality. The light in this sense is

redemptive, a sure means of taking mankind to the path of self realization.

Apart from being the transcendent eternal sunbeam, an avatar is sweetness and

light. In the words of Professor Gokak, The avatar moves like a Colossus among

men. The past, present and future lie open to his gaze. What is more, he has

the power of grace. An avatar has sixteen kalas or phases. Five of these he

shares with human beings the five doors of perception sight, hearing, smell,

touch and taste. Another four he shares with human beings-mind, heart,

intelligence, turyavastha or transcendence of intuitive experience. The seven

phases that follow are characteristic of a Poornavatar, an integral avatar:

grace, Anugrah or special grace, the power to create a new order of life in

society, new states of consciousness in individuals or new objects, the power

to support and sustain what is inherently good, which may happen to be

defenseless, the power to destroy what is evil... The Divine itself is a

supreme paradox. He is the One in the many, Spirit and Matter at the same time.

Himself transcendental, the divine has become the universe itself. He is

Infinity which can crowd itself into a little room. Immortality itself; it is

also Death. He is both Time and Eternity. He is Love, but this Love is red in

tooth and claw. Formless, yet the divine is father of all forms.

An Avatar has the four essential attributes of Godhead omniscience,

omnipresence, omnipotence and omni felicity. Thus an avatar comes to usher in

a new age for humanity and take mankind along the path of self realization and

evolution of consciousness.

Sri Sathya Sai, like Krishna, is a full Avatar with all the sixteen kalas. He is

also the Avatar of Love and Truth who has come in order to light the camp of

Love and Truth? A light from above perfected in the triumphant symbol of Love.

Baba prescribes the way in which the Avatar can be used by mankind: The way in

which an Avatar is used for one's liberation and uplift is: watch his every

step, observe his actions and activities, and follow the guiding principle of

which his life is an elaboration. Mark his love, his compassion, his wisdom;

try to bring them into your own life.

As for the avowed role of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, he has, time and again,

reiterated his purpose in no uncertain terms. Long time ago, Lord Krishna came

to foster the forces of peace and love and he had to use the surgery of war in

order to safeguard the dharmic way of life. The battle of Kurukshetra removed

the cancer threatening to wipe out righteousness, peace and harmony as a

powerful and aggressive military caste had grown arrogant and aggressive. To

put an end to their tyranny and flagrant violation of justice and right action,

the Lord himself offered to become the charioteer of Arjuna, the Pandava prince.

And when Arjuna the mighty warrior and archer and Krishna the eternal charioteer

worked together in unison, there was nothing that could not be achieved. All

this happened in the Dwapara Yuga. Even before that in the Treta Yuga, Lord

Rama was

forced to fight the demons and the demon king Ravana who symbolized the

unrighteous way of life.

In the present age, when we are living in an age of crisis, at the edge of a

precipice and a nuclear doom looks so very close and distinctly in the realm of

possibility, one may ask what kind of surgery Sai Baba would take resort to. He

says: 'There is a cancer in the body which must be removed.' The world is the

body of God. Sai Baba who has descended as light from above proposes to employ

a gentler therapy for the purpose. In other words, can the power of light

dispel the black pall and scatter the darkening gloom? In his famous interview

with John Hislop, R.K. Karanjia and a few others, Baba has categorically

assured that the present avatar had come to prevent such a catastrophe. He has

further said that there will not be general or all-pervasive world war though

there might be small wars or skirmishes here and there. He even told Howard

Murphet, if the Governments stood in

the way, the Governments would have to be changed. During the past decade, the

end of the cold war between the two power blocs and agreements about nuclear

disarmament are proofs enough, if proofs are needed, that the Avatar has kept

his promise. Baba has also very succinctly prophesied that early in the next

century, the promised millennium or spiritual regeneration will get under way

and become a living reality. Baba uses a different metaphor when he says,

'White ants are in the tree again. In ancient times, the tree was cut down. Now

we try to save it.' This is another instance of the Lord's infinite compassion

and love for humanity. Baba's another crucial declaration is:

I have come in order to repair the ancient highway, leading man to God. Become

sincere, skilful engineers, overseers and workmen, and join me... and I have

come to sow the seeds of faith, of religion. I have come in response to prayers

of sages, saints and seekers for the restoration of dharma.

Thus, the authenticity of Sri Sathya Sai Baba as the 'lawn of blue light', to

use a phrase from a poem by Professor Gokak, seems to be hundred per cent true.

Millions in India and in far­away countries regard him as a major avatar. What

is more, many regard him as an incarnation of Love, Truth and Purity. Now the

impression is growing fast in Christian countries that Baba is Jesus Christ

come again as prophesied by none other as Christ himself. Most often, he is

regarded as an avatar of Shiva Shakti, that is, the male and feminine aspect of

Godhead. This has gained credence mainly because Sai Baba himself chose to

reveal the reality of a myth and a legend concerning sage Bhardwaj. And then

there is evidence of Sri Sathya Sai Baba's complete identification as an

avatar of that mendicant fakir who lived at Shirdi, Maharashtra, and is believed

to be the incarnation of Shiva. The third Sai Avatar according to Baba's own

testimony and enforced by the boon given to sage Bhardwaj that Shakti would

incarnate as Prema Sai in the state of Karnataka after Sri Sathya Sai Baba

attains Maha Samadhi at the age of ninety-six. So every available evidence

supplements the view that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the Ray from the Supreme come

to fulfill his self? Chosen Avataric role and that the whole humanity would

bathe itself in the effulgence of his love. When the ray from the divine,

absolute centre descends on earth, it sheds its luster and glory the way it

likes that suits his overall plan and mission. Since it is the coming down of

light from above it has no restriction. It is in itself a free agent,

Omnipresent and omnipotent always and at all times. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said

that he has incarnated as a human being in response to the prayer of saints and

sages. He has further elaborated: I have chosen my mother. This is the

prerogative of an avatar to choose his parents. The mother is the recipient of

the first grace of the divine principle. The father earns the privilege, name

and fame for being the father. For ordinary human beings, the parentage, place

and region of birth is predetermined by the karma, merits and demerits of past

lives.

Then, there is the difficult and obvious question of what is called Immaculate

Conception. If the avatar takes human birth out of his own volition or

Sankalpa, the normal biological and genetic laws of biology or procreation do

not hold good. In the immortal epic The Ramayana, it is mentioned that Vishnu

or Narayana decided to incarnate on earth in response to the plaints and

prayers of saints and sages and assured them that he would live on earth for

vishwakalyan or the good of the world and humanity. After making this

declaration, he started thinking where to incarnate and ultimately, choosing

King Dasaratha as his father, he appeared as Rama, the eldest son of the king.

Rama knew that he was not only the offspring of an earthly king, but also the

omnipotent, universal, the one without a second, creator, preserver and

destroyer, the eternal Absolute. In the case of Lord

Krishna also, the Sankalpa or the resolve to manifest in human form was

voluntary. Moved by the great sorrow of the mother earth and her wailing lament

as also by the steep decline and eclipse of dharma Narayana manifested himself

as Krishna, the full avatar for the protection of the good and the virtuous and

destruction of the evil. He was born to Devaki, the consort of Vasudeva, after

she had given birth to seven off springs, all of them were killed, one after

the other, by the demon king Kansha.

All we can say is that the advent of an avatar is outside the purview of all

logic or the known material laws of nature. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said that

he alone is the symbol of all those incarnations who have manifested in time.

He represents the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, the quintessence

of all divinity.

The advent of Lord Buddha is an exemplar of supernormal and miraculous

manifestation. Before incarnating the divine principle latent in him resolved:

'I would take birth as an offspring of a Chandrabanshi Kshatriya family whose

kingdom is in the snow-covered regions of the Himalayas. Queen Mahamaya, the

consort of king Shuddodhana, dreamt on the night of her confinement that a

constellation which was resplen­dent and shining, of the colour of a rose-pearl

sailed in the night sky, stationed on a milk-pure white elephant and subtly

entered her bosom and prince Siddartha fashioned his body right there like a

full-blown moon and appeared on the earth as an avatar.

The example of the advent of Jesus Christ fully supports the theory of

Immaculate Conception and divine birth. Gabriel, an angel sent by the Heavens,

appeared before Mary who was betrothed to Joseph of the tribe of David. The

angel told Mary not to worry or fear over anything because she has already

received the grace of God. The angel further told her that she would conceive

soon and give birth to a son who will be called Jesus. Mary, very upset over

the news, voiced her apprehension, 'How could this be possible? I do not know

any man.' 'Do not harbor such thoughts. You will be ravished by the Holy Ghost

himself and you will give birth to a holy child who will be described as the

Son of God.’

Ramakrishna Paramhansa who had revealed to his closest disciple, Narendra or

Vivekananda that the absolute Ishwar who had appeared as Rama and Krishna has

now incarnated and his tangible concrete presence could be visualized in him.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa had chosen his mother and place of birth. Khudiram

Bhattacharya, who is known as the father of Ramakrishna, gained the distinction

of being the father of Ramakrishna only in name. While visiting a temple at Gaya

where he had gone to offer pind­dan to his ancestors, he saw a dream and heard a

voice from the sky telling him that arayan will be born in his family and offer

him the proud privilege of being called the father of an avatar. Since Khudiram

Bhattacharya had already attained three score years, he prayed to

the powers that be: 'both my house and my heart are too modest and small to

house the Lord of the universe. But the voice of the oracle proved true. When

Khudiram Bhattacharya reached home the first thing his wife Chandramani Devi

told him was that while he had gone to the temple for Darshan, she experienced

a strange phenomenon: a luminous, bright and resplendent ray entered her bosom

and filled her with infinite joy and spread through every vein and

bloodstream and plunged her in perpetual ecstasy.

Finally, the advent of Sri Sathya Sai Baba on earth as Poornavatar conforms to

the self-same pattern and we have the evidence of none other than the chosen

mother of the avatar, Ishwaramma.

N. Kasturi records: One evening Swami was sitting in a circle, surrounded by

some close devotees. One of the devotees was a scholar conversant with the

knowledge of Sasthras and Puranas. He put a plain and direct question: ‘Swami

was your birth a delivery or an entry?' Everyone was stunned by the question.

But Swami, turning towards Ishwaramma, said, 'Tell Ram Sharma what happened on

that day near the well where you had gone even after being cautioned by your

mother-in-law.' Ishwaramma said, 'My mother-in-law has had a dream in which she

saw Sathya Narayana in very clear and concrete visualization. She warned me not

to move about in the village. On that day when I was near the well to fetch

water, I saw a dazzling column of light in the sky moving fast in the direction

where I was. It seemed to me as though the moving column of that celestial light

gracefully entered my

bosom.' Swami cast his glance over the bewildered face of Sri Ram Sharma, smiled

serenely and said: 'This is the answer to your question. My advent was not

delivery in the normal sense of the term. It was an entrance.'

All this substantiates the view that the advent of an avatar defies all logic

and notions of cause and effect, conception and developing embryo, confinement

and delivery. It is a mystique, a supranatural event and rightly so, because

the divine principle, the ultimate Absolute decides to incarnate from time to

time. The light from above dawns on earth and assumes the form of a full-blown

lotus. The advent of the avatar is an epochal event of great significance and

it is suffused with mystery and awe. When the Lord decides to incarnate and

walk the earth for the fulfillment of the mission to redeem mankind, he takes

on the splendor and the beauty of both the human and divine essence, which is

his nature. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has pointed out clearly:

Since I move about with you, eat like you and talk with you, you are deluded

into belief that this is just an instance of common humanity. Be warned against

this mistake. I am also deluding you by my talking with you, by engaging myself

in activities with you. But, any moment, my divinity may reveal itself to you.

You have to be ready, prepared for the moment. Since the divine is enveloped by

humaneness you must endeavor to overcome maya that hides it from your eyes.

We can say in conclusion with a fair amount of certainty that the advent of the

Divine principle has the element of the supernatural, the mysterious and the

miraculous, which the limited and finite consciousness of man cannot

comprehend. Perhaps such a state of consciousness is described by T.S. Eliot in

his poem Gerontion where the feeling of religious awe is transmitted through one

of the richest and most evocative symbols of Christ, the tiger, who comes after

the present withering of values in a calamitous age, suggesting spiritual

regeneration:

Signs are taken for wonders; we would see a sign,

The word within Word, unable to speak a word

Swaddled with darkness, in the juvescence of the year

Came Christ the tiger.

At another place in Burnt Norton, the same poet attempts an imaginative and

emotional reconstruction of the state of beatitude associated with the rising

of the lotus in the dry concrete pool filled with water out of sunlight from

which the lotus rose quietly. The lotus obviously stands for Vishnu incarnating

himself. This is a consummated symbol of the act of creation itself. This

special configuration suggests the permanence of the timeless reality. So, Sri

Sathya Sai Baba is the ray serene, the light, the blazing knot of fire merged

into his personality. Baba himself puts it admirably when he says: No one can

understand my mystery. The best thing you can do is to get immersed into it.

There is no use arguing about pros and cons; dive and know the depth, eat and

know the taste. Then you can discuss me to your heart's content. Develop truth

and love and then you need not even

pray to be granted this and that. Everything will be added unto you unasked.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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