The Yugavatara. Baba, like Buddha, preaches that the Vedic virtues have to be constantly hammered into the ears of the world-community. His method is through miracles. He performs these day in and day out and proclaims that the Vedic teachings have the sanction of God Almighty.

The first five Avataras had firmly established the supremacy of spiritualism over materialism. These by their precept and practice clearly proved that God Almighty exists and that He is the Designer, Controller and Destroyer i.e Transformer of what he has created, and none else. Inert matter has no inherent potentiality to produce anything. It is God Brahman who through His volition starts the process of creation, maintenance and also dissolution. He does not need any material or any other means to accomplish these
processes.

The next three came to re-establish the values already accepted by the society in the earlier incarnations. The powerful elements in the society paying lip-sympathy to these Values, did not follow these themselves. The values by and large are : (1) Faith in God. (2) Godly virtues are: (a) Non violence or Love towards his kith and kin and his neighbors. Man’s all actions should be informed by sweetness of word. (b) Love of truth and detestation of false hood, cheating and injustice (c) non-covetousness or the development of the instinct to enjoy what legitimately belongs to us and not grab what belongs to the others. (d) Development of character, purity of mind and body. (e) Training the mind not to run after the waywardness of the senses. Baba puts this as the training of the mind to instinctively put “ceiling on desires and not suppression of all desires”.

We have noted that to suppress Kartaveerya, Parshurama had to come, to suppress Ravana a Brahmana, Rama had to come and to suppress Jarasandha, Kamsa, Shishupala, Narakasura, Kalayavana and Duryodhana and most of the others of like nature, Krishna had to come.

Buddha had to come to activate the good elements to supress the evil. It is not suficient that you behave justly. Not only must you behave properly, but vociferously condemn the bad and the evil in society. It is the duty of every virtuous man to spread this message louder and clear, and take it to every nook and corner of the globe.

Now let us take stock of the background circumstances against which Baba has come.

The task before Baba-Avatara is manifestly much more complicated than what the earlier Avataras had to face and accomplish.

MATERIALISM HAS RAISED ITS HEAD

Materialism which the first five Avataras tried to oust and replace it by establishing the supremacy of spirituality over it, has again reared its head. Not only this, but it has received respectability by the backing of the scientific community. The main culprit for this situation is the establishment of the Semitic faiths. These faiths advocated the acceptance of dogmatic beliefs in the name of religion. For example Moses the founder of Judaism promulgated the doctrine of ‘Jealous God’. Now God and Jealousy can never coexist.It is not the rational view. But in the name of religion and God, this irrational belief is passed on as a revelation and God, this irrational belief is passed on as a revelation given to His chosen prophet by the God Himself. Coupled with this, Moses advocated the destruction of ‘idols’ of God and bade his followers not to worship these. Infact nobody worships the stone or the wood or any other material of which this icon is made. He or she worships the qualities a particular Godhead is supposed to posses. So the advocacy of destruction of the images, has caused unnecessary conflicts between the sects which advocate image-worship and those which oppose it. Islam in particular has imposed bloody wars on the idolators.

Jesus Christ made the first attempt early in the first century B.C. to replace Jealous God of Moses by his God of Love. But this was set at naught by Paul who in addition to the doctrines of Jealous God and destruction of idols advocated by the earlier prophets, added his own. These are the doctrines of Original Sin and the Judgement Day. With these two irrational beliefs as his weapons in proselytism, he started his missions of mass conversions. Ofcourse his path was not smooth. The missionaries by hook and crook won the paronage of the ruling groups and even by perpetrating heinous crimes, added larger and larger number to their flock. Islam folowed its elder brother in this game of increasing the numbers. Conversation of the followers of God of love, to the God of jealously, is infact a crime against God and humanity. But these religions indulge in it with impurity.

These religious overlords with the help of the ruling groups, forged the oppressive instrument of suppressing even rational beliefs of Bruno the philosopher in 1600 AD, imposing bans on Copernicus and Galileo not to propagate experimentally proved scientific discoveries and so on.

This scientists therefore, dubbed these religious faiths as anti-science. The main religious dogma was belief in some God. The scientists, therefore became anti God too.

This anti religious attitude of the thinking elite and the scientists was very pithily expressed by the authors of the Communst Manifesto Marx and Engels. They gave two slogans to mankind: (1) Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to loose but your chains and (2) Religion is the opium of the masses. Looking to the history and development of Semitie faiths like Christianity and Islam, Marx can not be faulted for coining his second slogan viz, religion is the opium of the masses.
 
But this does grave injustice to the Vedic Dharma. It never advocated irrational beliefs. On the other hand, rationalism is one of the ten basic tenets of Hinduism, the modern name for Vedic faith. The endeavour of the Vedic faith is to establish the supremacy of spiritualism over materialism. In other words the Vedic faith firmly establishes the existence of God Almighty, the Ultimate Reality. The modern scientists also appear to agree to this Vedic theory, when they say that the scientific principle behind this universe is the ‘All in one’ i.e this whole diversified universe has its source in ONE principle.

The descent of Shirdi Sai around 1848 A.D the date of birth of the communist manifesto was just to establish the supremacy of theism the belief in one God over atheism the non belief in any God or just indifference to ‘theism’. He lighted the lamps in water, not once but several times. He performed many other miracles. As we have seen earlier, miracles are superhuman and not supernatural acts.

Shirdi Sai did attract attention of many in the world by his miracles. But because these were equated with yogic powers, not much attention was paid to the principle behind these miracles, namely establishment of theism. Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Vivekananda, Dayananda Saraswati, Aurobindo Ghosha, Mahatma Gandhi and many others advocated strongly their faith in the Vedas. The Marxist clite and the scientific community just turned their deaf ear to their pleadings. Their voice was very dominant in the discussions of the elite groups, till the advent of Sri Satya Sai, the present Avatara.

He has performed thousands and thousands of miracles. These are just solid proofs that God exists. Baba is not a Yogin or a born Siddha. For we know that the powers of the Yogis or the Siddhas are limited. These can not continue for all the moments of the life and for the whole of life. Baba by these superhuman acts gives constant proof that God exists. The scientific community has lost its old confidence that its belief that God does not exist, was unassailable. Even the modern scientists have been stating that all matter in its ultimate analysis is energy wave. Coupled with this is Baba's performance of these miracles. The elite and scientific groups are now investigating what is this phenomenon? What is Baba? Is he really God? The day will not now be far off, when theism will firmly replace atheism.

The three middle avataras in the past had to fight their own cultural groups for their antisocial acts. The present situation is so alarming that corruption in highplaces, the reign of terrorism on international and national levels, the disruption of family life unheard of in human history, permissiveness in sex and the accompanying growth of drugging and crimes, replacement of brain power by muscle and money power, criminalization of politics and what not, are the order of the day.

These and other distortions Baba has to correct. These daunting and difficult problems would unnerve any man of considerable capacity, but not so Baba. He is set out to accomplish (1) theism, (2) root out the anti social elements (3) and carry his message all over the globe

Baba’s miracles, though, have disturbed the scientists, yet they are not coming forward in larger numbers to investigate the Baba phenomenon. They want God to be found in their laboratories. God is the producer of the energy waves, the building blocks of this vast and myriad universe. Baba’s living example would work out the miracle of weaning away the scientific community from their rigid and irrational stand.

The so called rationalists, from their ivory towers issue sermons and declare that the Nature is everything and these is no conscious being who guides the destiny of this universe. This is just a camouflage for their dull witted attitude towards this important problem. They do not want to define nature. Darwin their protagonist has himself stated while replying to his friend and admirer, "Nevertheless you have expressed my inward conviction though far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the universe is not the result of chance. He again wrote to a Dutch student: But I may say that the impossibility of convincing that this grand and wonderous universe, with our concious selves, arose through chance seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God. It is significant that these observations have come from the pen of Darwin who is supposed to have banished God from all thinking processes about creation of the universe, and its further evolution. Darwin was thus not convinced about his own conclusions and scientific principles. He stated: Agnostic would be more correct discription of my state of mind.

Agnosticism stems from a weak and vascillating mind. Lord in Gita puts a curse on these types of individuals. He says: Samshayatma Vinashyati a doubting man comes to his own ruin These doubting Thomases with their words of learned length and thundering sound get lost in their rhetoric. They are neither here nor there. They end their lives with the uneasy feeling that the science as the objective discipline can not be an answer to any psychological problem of man. The poor fellows have not been able to discover God whose seat is in their own hearts.

The stock argument against the existence of God is the misery and inequality we see around. They say that if God is compassionate and impartial, why this misery around? They forget the purpose for which the God has created this universe. God’s design is to have variety all around. It is our daily experience that we get bored by daily routine. The sameness everyday every moment is the main cause of this boredom. God has therefore created this diverse universe with myriad varieties to feast one’s eyes upon. Yet God has given the man the intellect to know his true nature which is God Himself. But forgetting this mission of his life and be happy, he runs after the desires of of his senses. But this way, does not lead man to happiness. This has been categorically stated in our Upanishads and Baba puts this very beautifully. He says put ceiling on desires for you can not end them.

The intellectuals today do not follow this advice. They say that running after ones own desires and trying to satisfy them, would leave no place for boredom. They are unabashed advocates of consumerism. They do not pause to consider whether life would not still be boring after all the desires are satisfied. One interesting example of one Zsa Zsa Gober, a Hungarion beauty queen 53, now settled in California is reported. She was a movie actress and full time celebrity. After running through a string of eight husbands, she was found by a policeman driving her Rolls Royce, with an open bottle of strong wine by her side. She was caught and put in prison. She had beauty, wealth and fredom to do what she liked. With eight husbands, she could not k now what it was to be happy. Bottle of wine, she had to covet to end her
misery.

Free will

God has given free will to man. By it, he can make or mar his life. He has the choice. If he performs bad actions, he will be miserable. If on the other hand, one performs good actions, he will be happy. As you sow, so you reap.

But the question is why, if a man is God, he feels impelled to perform bad deeds. Duryodhana the Kaurava hero puts this point very graphically. He says: Janami Dharmam na cha me pravrittih, janami adharmam na cha me nivrittih! Kenapi deven hridi sthiten yatha niyuktah, asmi tatha karomi!! I know what is righteous behaviour, I know what is evil. I however act according to the dictates of some god who dwells in my heart.

This candid statement of Duryodhana simply means that one can scarcely go against the dictates of the attitudes and aptitudes one is born with. This shows, one is the prisoner of his own actions performed and accumulated in this or in the past lives. But the question does not end here. One has to search its root. If God is the creator, well! He must be the originator of the first Karma or activity of any body who sets on his journey in life. Here the Vedanta philosophers give the categorical answer! No doubt the Lord is the creator, but when he created this universe and breathed life in man, he gave him to choose his way of life. Why did he do so? In order to avoid Sameness every where. He wanted variety. He wanted the universe to be his playground. He laid down the rules of the game and gave freedom to every body to play his role according to his choice. Well! The Vedic seers say, this is the explanation we have heard in our ears from the Lord, when our minds were absolutely pure and not contaminated by any faintest stress of passion. The seers therefore, tell us: Achintyah Khalu Ye bhayahna tantarken chintayet: When intellect can not fathom the hidden truths, use of reasoned argument is futile. Here, only in the mind stilled by yoga practices distilled wisdom dawns. So Free Well is the gift of God to every being. It can not be questioned. It is a fact of life.

Is it really a fact of life? The statement attributed to Duryodhana, noted above shows that Duryodhana, though he knew what was good and evil, yet because of his inborn tendencies determined by his actions in his past lives, was unable to exercise his will over his predetermined nature. Baba has also, said that not a leaf falls except by the will of God. At the same time Baba believes in free will. So the whole problem becomes both curiouser
and curiouser and complicated.

It is quite obvious that if man had not freewill whole talk of his getting liberation by his own efforts would be meaningless. Or as Dr.Hislop has put it: if there were no free will, we would not gain release from the endless turning of wheel of deed and consequence. Even in Duryodhana’s statement, even if he is acting at the behest of some impelling desire within, there is an undercurrent of feeling that had he exercised his free will he would have overcome his evil tendencies. He did not try strongly to resist the temptations of his egoistic pride he was goaded with his inborn tendencies to set the course of his life in a wrong way. He was not prepared to listen to the sane advice of his own conscience not to grab what legitimately belonged to the Pandavas. When his mind was wandering waywardly, he did not try to discipline it by spiritual practices. Instead he devoted all his energies to increase his muscle power to crush Bhima the monument of muscle strength. Bhima was instinctively roused to crush Duryodhana and his hunch men. But he was controlled by the advice of his elder brother Dharmaraja. Duryodhana could have thus been prevented by Dhritarashtra his father and the king. But by his wiles Dhritarashtra goaded Duryodhana to wrong action dictated by his ego. Duryodhana never tried to get over his ego and to act with full force of his conscience and intelligence. Instead he attributed all his acts to God within. All his acts stemmed from his untamed sense desires.

Baba has in a general way graphically described what man has made of man by disregarding the dictates of his conscience. Man has not been true to his conscience. He says:

Instead of transforming his home, his village, his state and his country, and thereby this world into a Prashanti Nilayam the abode of the peace that passeth understanding man has made them all arenas for the wild passions of anger, greed, hatred and violence. Instead of making the senses which are at best very poor guides and informants his servants, he has made them his masters. He has become the slave of ephemeral beauty, evanescent melody, momentary, softness, fragile fragrance and transient taste, He spends all his energies and fruits of all his toil for the satisfaction of the trivial and degrading demands of these untamed underlings. Oh, the pity of it!

If man were to act according to the reasoned dictates of his on conscience, the suffering in the world would vanish at one stroke. It is not brought about by God. It is the result of our own free choices in acting the way we do in this and have done in our past lives.

That there is free will is our daily experience. We cogitate in our minds as to what is the proper course in a particular situation. We succumb to the easy way. Suppose there is a big full of gold lying uncared for, we grab it and argue. It will make me rich. There is nobody to watch and I shall not be caught. But unfortunately for us there is some body around and we get caught and the law leads us to prison house. All our dreams are shattered. Why! Because we did not listen to the same advice of our conscience: Don’t grab what belongs to others. We made a wrong choice of our own free will We reap what we sow. Jesus has said. This statement is the clearest proof that Jesus believed in free choice and past Karma.

Yet the Westerners in the name of Christianity invent Satan and attribute all evil to him. In so doing they forget that thereby they have created a rival for the God the Father in heaven and circumscribed his infinite love. This is a wrong doctrine. God is all LOVE.

Proof for God is also within. Ask the question: Who am I? And find out the answer. I say, this is mine, this I is not body. Had it been so, what happens when we die? Body, our corpse is there. Why does it not get up and act? For clearly I has left. This I is the individual soul, it has left in search of another body, for his present body has become uninhabitable due to disease and consequential death.

It is thus clear that the evil in this world is due to our wrong choices, freely made. It is worth noting here Baba’s answers to Shri R.K. Karanjita, the Editor of Blitz and other publications in Bombay.

Shri Karanjia had asked Baba: why does he not help people in distress by bringing rains in times of drought or creating food where there is famine by means of his Sankalpa Siddhi? Cannot an Avatar help humanity to control the natural forces and prevent calamities like earth quakes, floods, droughts, famine and epidemics?

Such a question haunts the minds of even very intelligent people.They forget that this universe has been produced with a certain design, with a certain purpose. God has createdman as the most intelligent of His creation. He has granted him the gift of free will. He expects man to use his intellect for the betterment of himself and his fellow beings. Well! How can God change his rules of the game in the middle? He is not a whimsical being.

Let us see what is baba’s who claims himself to be God i.e. His Avatara or presence in bodily form answer to such a question, questioning Baba’s very Avatarhood.

Baba States:
This is precisely what I am doing by incarnating the indwelling God inman to overcome such calamities. There are two ways in which an Avatara can help people.An instant solution as against a long term one.

Anyinstant solution would go against the fundamental quality of nature itself as well as the karmic law of cause and effect. Most people live in the material world of their desires and egos which is governed by this law. Thy reap the fruits of their action. This brings about their evolution or devolution. If the Avatara intervenes to instantly solve their problems, it would stop all action, development, even evolution. This solution can be ruled out because it totally negates the natural laws.

“The other and more effective alternative presents a long term solution, whereby the Avatara leads the people themselves to a higher level of consciousness to enable them to understand the truth of spiritual laws so that they may turn towards righteousness sand steadfastly work for better conditions. This will relate them back to Nature and the Karmic law of causation.They would then transcend the cycle of cause and effect, in which today they are involved as victims, and, thereby command and control the natural forces to be able to avert the calamities you mention.

Baba further says:

I have to work through them, so use the indwelling God in them, and evolve them to a higher Reality in order to enable them to master the natural laws and forces. Baba’s endeavor is to raise the level of consciousness of mankind andenable them to command their own destiny. Otherwise the instant cure by Baba’s intervention would make them lazy and dull witted.

Baba elaborates:

“Suffering and misery are the inescapable acts of the cosmic drama. God does not decree these calamities but man invites them by way of retribution for his own evil deeds. This s corrective punishment which induces, man kind to give up the wrong path and return to the right path so that he may experience the God like conditions of Sat Chit Ananda that is an existence of wisdom andbliss. All this is part of the grand synthesis in which the negatives serve to glorify the positive. Thus death glorifies immorality, ignorance glorifies wisdom, misery glorifies bliss, night glorifies dawn.

Karanjia felt that this Hindu orientation of Dharma would conflict with the established religions. Baba’s answer was catergorical No He stated: His objective is the establishment of Sanatana Dharma which believes in one God as propitiated by all the founders of all religions. So none has to give up his religion or deity, but through them worship the one God in all. I have come not to disturb or destroy but to confirm and vindicate every one in his own faith.

There are certain types of materialists who like Baba say, that we should see good, do good and be good. We need not bother whether God exists or not. But this is an argument of the confused mind. Man must know positively that he belongs to the fraternity created by God. He has not to artificially create it in him and develop love for others. The majority of us obey the laws made by the state even though they are in a way artificial. But they reflect the general consensus of the society that they are for its good. Similarly we love our kith and kin and others, for we are bound together by the father and motherhood of God. When this is a positive fact of life, why paint it negatively and ask others to develop it in us. It is already there, activate it.

Baba through his infinite reservoir of love, is trying to establish theism and turning the anti social elements in to his instruments of establishing the influence of righteousness. He through his devotees is also carrying his message of love to every nook and corner of the globe. In this task, his devotees have to play their role effectively.

Sources:
http://www.saibabalinks.org/newsletter/newsletter_saibala_2003_25.htm
http://www.saibabalinks.org/newsletter/newsletter_saibala_2003_24.htm
http://www.saibabalinks.org/newsletter/newsletter_saibala_2003_23.htm