Dharma Incarnate – Part II
~ Continued from February 2016 ~
The Declaration
Our Lord declared, on the first day of the Navaratri [nine nights] festival in 1967, that He was God incarnate. While addressing the vast concourse of devotees before the hoisting of the Prasanthi flag, He said,
“When moral codes lose their mastery—
to curb mankind and cure them;
When vice and wickedness bring ruin to man—
to cleanse and purify;
When good men pine amidst cruelty—
to guard and save, give solace deep;
When God’s words are twisted,
tarnished into rites—to reform, reveal.
To lighten the burden of the world,
To keep the word, the plighted troth,
God, the ever‑full, free, has come.
(It can’t be said in plainer terms!)
Sinking and floating on the trivial sea of living,
Man shrieks and wails in despair, to gain the shore;
If he but yearns and prays, the giver of peace and joy,
Sathya Sai, the life‑boat, is here to save.
What do these words mean? They mean that our Lord, Baba, has come to suppress immorality, to restore and to foster the good, to teach mankind the secrets of spiritual progress and guide man toward the realization of his identity with God. These are the many phases of the revival of dharma [right conduct].
On another occasion Baba declared, “Truth is my reality; My name itself is truth. What I preach is truth. I am truth, the truth of truth. Today, the world is torn by the storms of injustice, immorality, and inflated ego. I have come to establish beneficial mores, pure habits and attitudes, and good activities, so that dharma might be re‑established.”
Our Lord is the embodiment of truth, of dharma. Only the physician who knows the genesis and nature of the illness can prescribe the remedy. Similarly, only He who knows the inner mystery of dharma can establish it. Baba is restoring dharma, in ways and through means that are beyond our comprehension. He alone knows how and when, He reinforces it and restores it to health and vitality. We can only witness and wonder, watch and revere.
Vedic Study
Baba encourages and is reviving the study of the Vedas and the ancient scriptures. He lays great emphasis on Indian culture, and its basic tenets. Baba practices these tenets and preaches about them. He has founded a Vedic school; every Dassara [festival] He arranges a yajna, [sacrificial worship] strictly in conformity with Vedic injunctions. Baba wrote in the `Yajna Vedika’: “The Vedas have to be revived not only for the acquisition of grace here and hereafter, but also, with the aim of developing reverence to Vedic injunctions, the fostering of dharma, and the promotion of Vedic studies. When these are accomplished, the world will gain peace and prosperity. The Vedas are the source of all that is right. That is the reason why it is said, “study the Vedas, every day.” In the Gita [Song of the Lord], the Lord said, “I am the One who is known through the Vedas.” Baba brings Vedic scholars from all parts of India to attend Dassara and other festivals, to take part in the proceedings and to give discourses.
In the curriculum for the Summer Course on Indian Culture and Spirituality for about 300 college students from all over India, our Lord included not only the sacred texts of all religions and the epics of India, but also lectures on Ayurveda [Indian system of medicine], astrology, and yoga. The pundits [spiritual teachers] who delivered discourses on these traditional fields of learning were blessed by Baba and given tokens of grace. Every day over the month‑long course, Baba gave discourses on the quintessence of the Vedas, Upanishads, and Shastras [scriptures], along with lessons on dharma.
The Heritage
Our Lord instills dharma in the hearts of young and old through other means as well. The phenomenal advances made in science and technology in recent times has made man more intelligent, but less wise and less humble. In the name of progress, man is running along the road to barbarism and terror. Only Baba has the might and compassion to lead mankind back to the height from which it has fallen. Baba has established schools and colleges to equip man with the skill to attain peace and joy—peace that will survive bitterness and defeat, and joy that can survive the ups and downs of fortune. The vast heritage of wisdom accumulated by the sages of India is presented to students in these institutions. Boys and girls are taught in separate colleges and the ideal of motherhood is emphasized in the women’s colleges.
Sai is in every being; He is the inner motivator of all that lives. Therefore, if we harm another, we harm Sai and if we serve another, we serve Him. This is the faith that one gets by experiencing the Lord and His omnipresence and omnipotence. Baba establishes the dharma of seva [service] by asking us to serve the poor, the diseased, the distressed, and the downfallen efficiently, but without publicity, propaganda, and fund‑raising. Baba inspires and teaches this seva-yoga through the children in Bal Vikas groups, the youth in Seva Dal units, the women in Mahila Vibhags [activities organized for women only], and the adult men in Seva Samitis [volunteer corps] all over the world.
Baba insists that the Bal Vikas children be told stories from the Vedas, the Upanishads, the epics, and Puranas. He wants them to learn bhajans, and enact plays from the stories of Rama, Krishna, and the saints and sages. Baba Himself has set an example by writing such plays and training boys to enact them!
His life as message
Baba says, “My life is My message.” He has impressed on us that dharma is the development of love, forbearance, discipline, simplicity, sincerity, fraternity, and reverence. Baba isthe supreme exemplar of these qualities. He is always active in his self‑imposed task of showering grace. From dawn to dusk, He remains busy ministering to those who are torn by anxiety, fear, pain, panic, doubt, disease, desire, and agony of one sort or another. He knows no distinction of status, wealth, age, or scholarship. All are bathed in His love and dharma flows from Him.
Let us remind ourselves that our Lord has no duty to perform, no benefit to gain. He has no compulsion to engage in activity. He is the master of all; He owns all, and has nothing to gain or lose. He says, in the Gita, “There is nothing I need; there is nothing I don’t have; there is nothing I need to do. Yet I engage Myself in activity!” Why does He toil ceaselessly? It is only for our benefit.. In the Rajasuya Yaga celebrated by the eldest of the Pandavas, what role did Lord Krishna play? He could have sat there as the Lord. But He took on the task of welcoming the guests and showing them to their seats in order to teach man how guests have to be received and respected. Similarly, Baba teaches us with every action of His every day.
Shower of grace
Another means by which Baba establishes dharma is by showering His grace so that we develop faith in God. He showers His grace on all whether one believes in Him or not, whether one is devoted to Him or not, and even if one lives in a distant corner of the world. We are drawn to Him only by His grace through a book, picture, or a conversation. With His grace He cures illnesses, and rescues us from all the problems of life.
Four Pillars
Baba teaches us the four great principles of life: satya, dharma, shanti, and prema (truth, righteousness, peace, and love). He has often told us that if we keep these four as guidelines in life, we cannot deviate from the right path. It is very important to observe and practice these principles for they are the four pillars that support the mansion of life, without which the mansion is bound to crumble and fall apart.
You may do all the required worship flawlessly to the God installed in the temple but if you don’t follow dharmic principles then all worship is of no use. Bhishma [from Mahabharata] is said to have told Dharmaja, the eldest of the Pandava brothers, the quintessence of dharma: “The expounders of dharma are ignorant of its fundamentals and so, are leading men astray. Earnest seekers are confused by conflicting accounts and teachings. Therefore, listen and I shall tell you the basic tenets of the mode of living: ahimsa (non-violence), dana (charity), satya (truth), and krodha-vivarjitam (refraining from anger)—these are the four cardinal principles of dharma.”
In this Kali Age, man is weak in body, mind and spirit. Realizing this tragedy, Baba in His infinite compassion calls on us to eschew redundant rites and to rely on namasmarana [repetition of the Lord’s name] as the constant ritual, and satya‑dharma-shanti‑prema as the lodestars of daily living.
In the Treta Age, Sri Rama was extolled as “Vigrahavan Dharma” (Dharma incarnate). Now, in this Kali Age, Sai Rama [Baba] is the Vigrahavan Dharma.
~Vidwan S. V. Rama Sarma
Translated from Telugu
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, May 1973
