Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Avatar
An Homage by Somar Sundarum Cooppan
Recently I awoke at three-thirty in the morning. I lay awake thinking about the presence of Bhagavan, a unique being on earth at the juncture of the 20th and 21st centuries. As always when I think of Him, my mind grappled with the mystery. I pondered over the immense historical significance that this magnificent person has for the destiny of mankind. Ever since my first encounter with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in December 1978, I have been trying to crystallize my thoughts and feelings about Him. The more I reflect, the more my wonder grows – yielding to adoration and to ego surrender at his lotus feet.
I was ushered into His mystic presence for a group interview on my very first visit to Prasanthi Nilayam. That was the greatest day of my life – and, indeed, probably the best of many lifetimes. He bade me sit close beside Him; as a result, I was privy to all He said and did. Overwhelming and unforgettable, the experience marked the end of the quest for my soul’s ideal guru. The feeling was akin to sitting at the sacred feet of Lord Krishna or of Lord Jesus. Before my first visit, I had listened to two audio tapes: one an astounding 1968 declaration of avatarhood that Sai Baba had made in Bombay, the other a series of bhajans in which He led a gathering of thousands. The voice sounded authoritative and authentic. For my introduction, I relied more on the voice quality than on the written accounts available at that time.
When I went to India to check out my initial impressions, I was convinced of His authenticity. I was touched by the simplicity of His personal life style, by the unmistakable aura of sanctity about Him, by His amazing access to esoteric and practical knowledge, by His disarming charm, and by His muted display of mysterious power over mind and matter. I was also struck by His dedication to the daunting task of the global transformation of human consciousness, which He had taken upon Himself voluntarily. But despite all the evidence, it has taken me 21 years of unbroken association with Him to arrive at the state of feeling that I now have.
I remember a poem of Francis Thompson, The Hound of the Heave, which I plodded through in high school. In it, as in my life, I have seen that we avoid the call of the spirit for so many cherished ideas, so many elements of lifestyle. To follow the call, enduring habits must be undone, the personality refashioned. I was a prime example of human inertia. Yet once I had found the ideal guru and had seen the light at the end of the tunnel, I raced to give up old habits.
What bounty has the universe presented us? What real message does the gift convey to the people of the world? Undoubtedly, the most stupendous historical event of the 20th century is the birth of Sri Sathya Sai Baba – on November 23, 1916, in a remote south Indian village. The divine mission He began at the youthful age of fourteen has expanded at a rapid rate throughout the world during His lifetime. What great happenings are in store for mankind in the third millennium since Jesus Christ?
It is so exciting to be alive now. At 86 years old, I confess I feel anxious that I will leave my body before I have drunk and assimilated all of Him. I would deeply regret discovering on my deathbed that I had neglected to recognize and appreciate some remarkable aspect of the most beautiful and loving person in the universe. Rarely has Divinity bestowed grace upon humanity as liberally as in the manifestation of Himself in Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Others have written entire books on Him. In just a few paragraphs, I will set down my feelings as they surfaced in the early hours of that morning when I awoke at three-thirty. My words will serve as a remembrance and homage to Him at the end of this century.
Those who deny the existence of God or have doubts and lapses of faith – in the reality of a living, conscious, intelligent, purposeful, loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent, eternal Supreme – need to meet the extraordinary incarnation in India. He attracts millions of human souls from all parts of the world; they go to Him as ants to honey. Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a spiritual colossus who, like the multihued rainbow, bridges heaven and Earth, providing a safe passage for us. Those who go to see Him will experience the benign face of God incarnate. The most holy of contemporary spiritual teachers offers living proof that God, as the power of divine consciousness (Shiva-Shakti), resides in the human frame.
To most of us who believe in God, Divinity is still an incomprehensible, invisible, remote, mysterious being. Our relationship with God, the source of all creation, is, at best, tenuous and wavering. The truth does not sink in, even when the scriptures tell us that human souls are divine, imperishable, and made in the image of God. When, to remove all doubts, the compassionate and merciful God steps down from the heavenly realms and becomes a human being like ourselves, we tend to be skeptical. In our skepticism, we deny our essential origin, nature, stature, and destiny.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba makes the awesome revelation that every ordinary human, like Him, is an embodiment of Divinity. The difference between the ordinary man and the avatar is that man, at the present level of evolution of consciousness, is only a divine spark. Sai Baba is the full flame. The spark can be fanned into a flame. That is the perennial wisdom.
The profound message of the coming of God in the human form – as an avatar endowed with the full powers of the formless God – is a declaration of the intent of the creator. He intends humans to evolve to the heights of Divine consciousness, thus becoming co-creators of the universe. We are the universe; the universe is us. Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the person, is a vision of the possibilities of human evolution.
Sri Aurobindo would describe the phenomenon as the ascent of man on the spiral of evolution as supramental beings. Following the high development of the intellect, members of the human species function as mental beings. Evolution will not stop at this level. The spirit within is preparing itself to take a quantum leap into the next mode of functioning. This may seem improbable to some. We might remind ourselves of the potential encoded in a tiny seed. From an acorn unfolds a mighty oak tree. We are seeds of Divinity, endowed with the consciousness, energy source, and creative powers of Divinity. The task the Sai Avatar sets for Himself is to release the imprisoned splendor in mankind.
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the incomparable and tireless world teacher, demonstrates by personal example how humans can live the divine life on Earth, motivated and impelled by the force of unconditional, boundless love. We could not receive a more explicit message: God is love, and love is God. Humans, at their core, are embodiments of divine love.
If the centrality of love in human life – to love and to be loved – is denied or doubted, the timeless God will wait for eons for the awakening of intelligence in the unconscious. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba teaches only one religion: love. The blossoming of love in mankind is the high promise of life, the perfection of human existence. Perfection stands before us in flesh and blood. His message is: dare to be fully human and divine.
OM SAI RAM
