Why the Avathaar comes

31 August 1983, Krishna Jayanthi, Prasanthi Nilayam

Professor Kasturi's English.

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The Eternal Supreme dwells in the temple of the human body as the newborn .

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For this reason, all (divine incarnations) assume the human form. The scriptures have declared that the Divine submits to devotion.

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In the the Lord has declared that in Man He is the power of discrimination, the (intellect). Man cannot achieve greatness by the acquisition of all forms of wealth. It is intelligence that makes man respected. One who does not exercise this power of discrimination is no better than birds or beasts. It is to raise man to a higher level that the Divine comes down as Avathar. Avathar means descent. To stoop down to lift up the child for coddling and to raise man, who is caught up in petty desires and trivial pursuits, Divinity descends to the human level and teaches how man can divinise himself. This is the teaching of the . All the great scriptures, the Bible, the and others have originated for the same purpose. The scriptures, by themselves, cannot redeem man. They serve only as guideposts. They indicate the roads to be taken to realise the Divine.

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Pilgrimages do not wipe out the sins All are , have all the attributes of the Divine. But the (revealed scriptures) have held that the Avathar alone is the complete incarnation, with all the sixteen aspects. Despite His Omnipotence, was easily accessible to the devotee. He submitted Himself to the devotee. When we are filled with devotion, the Lord is ready to serve us as our servant. The Lord is ever prepared to subject Himself to any kind of difficulty or ordeal to protect or help His devotee. Many a devotee has sung songs in praise of and lamented the fact that he had not been fortunate enough to be born during His advent and enjoyed His divine music and witnessed His divine exploits. One devotee has decried the dullwitted disbelievers who cannot shed their petty desires and seek the bliss that comes from devotion to the Divine.

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Many devotees go on pilgrimages to , , or other sacred places in the hope that thereby they will be absolved of their sins. Pilgrimages are not the means to wipe out sins. What is required is purification of the heart and the mind. If the mind is cleansed through (spiritual discipline), Divinity will reveal itself of its own accord. Saint gave the same message when she sang a calling upon the mind to go to the and . The and the she had in mind are not the rivers in Northern India but the inhaling and exhaling breaths in each of us - the and (nerves). The central spot between the brows is the , the place where the and the converge and by concentrating on this spot can be discovered. This spot is described by as cool, pure and undisturbed. Inhaling and exhaling symbolise what one should take in and what one should reject and the holding of the breath () signifies what one should hold on to namely, Divinity. One should take in the pure things and reject the impure.

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The Lord responds to the yearning of the devotees The has laid down three directives: do not be afraid of troubles; do not forget God; do not adore what is false. It is by adhering to these three injunctions that countless devotees all through the ages have sought to realise the Divine through .

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The shows how the Lord responds to the yearning of the devotees and assuages their anguish caused by separation from the Lord. When left for , the (cowherdesses) were languishing in grief, unable to bear the separation. They were all the time looking towards to see when would return. One day, they espied a cloud of dust and imagined that had at last relented and was returning to . They saw a chariot and a man seated in it. The chariot stopped but there was no in it. With their hearts given over to the Supreme Lord, the were not inclined even to look at the strange visitor, who was none other than 's very dear friend, . , who was aware of the agony the were experiencing, had sent to offer them solace and to cheer them up. The moment got down from the chariot, he started delivering a long exhortation to the . "Oh ye ! You are ignorant of the . You have no wisdom. Like silly, dumb persons, you are pining for . If you know the , you will realise that is ever with you. He resides in your hearts. Instead of taking delight in the that dwells within you, you are pining for the physical form of . This is due to your ignorance. I shall teach you the science of for which has sent me."

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and the The did not consider it proper to speak directly to a stranger. They adopted the device of addressing a bee to give their reply to . The said: "Oh bee! These words (of ) are adding fuel to the fire that is burning in us because of separation from . Enough of these words."

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then held out to the the letter had sent to them and said: "Here is 's message to you. At least read that." One gopee immediately said: "Oh bee ! We are illiterate village folk. We are stricken with grief. Show us ." Another gopee wailed: "We are being burnt by the fire of agony caused by 's absence. If we touch His letter, it may be burnt to ashes. We dare not touch it." Yet another gopee said: "The tears from our eyes will stain the pearl-like letters in 's epistle. We cannot endure seeing His message."

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then said: "At least listen to my message. I shall teach you knowledge of ." A gopika answered, addressing the bee, unable to control her grief: "Oh bee, we have only one mind and that has gone with to . If we had four minds, we could turn one to , another to some other subject, and so on. But the only mind we had has been surrendered to . We have no room for any lessons."

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was stupefied when he realised their single minded devotion to . The essence of all the and (ancient sacred scriptures) is single-mindedness. This single-mindedness results in one-pointed devotion to God. reflected within himself that he had not cultivated the single-minded devotion which the had demonstrated. He decided to return to .

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's grief-stricken message to Among the , the foremost devotees of were and . Before left, he heard them address as the and pleaded for a vision of to assuage their grief-stricken hearts. asked , who was lying unconscious on a sand-dune, whether she had any message for . Recovering her senses, thought only of . She cried: Were you a tree, growing upwards, I would cling to you like a creeper; Were you a blossoming flower I would hover over you like a bee; Were you the mountain I would cascade like a river; Were you the boundless sky, I would be in you like a star; Were you the bottomless deep I would merge in you like a river; Where are you, Oh ? Whither have you gone, ! Have you no pity, ! !

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Love of God is the means and the goal On seeing in this piteous state, 's heart melted. He realised that had sent him on this mission to the to make him learn what is true (devotion). realised that had enacted that episode to show to him that even those well versed in the had to learn the inner truth about true devotion from the one-pointed, unalloyed devotion shown by the towards . Love of God is the means and the goal. This was the secret revealed by the . They saw love in everything - in the music of 's flute, which filled the world with love and flooded the parched earth with love. The Divine is in every one. But to realise it, there is only one way. It is to cultivate intense love of God.

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Only that day when one strives to develop such love for God is the day of 's birth. is not born on every day. is born in us when we try to develop divine love as the means to overcome our bonds. To live up to the teachings of is the true way to celebrate His birthday.