Sathya Sai Baba as Avatar: "HIs Story" and the History of an Idea
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6 6 . . 2 2 K K e e e e p p i i n n g g u u p p A A p p p p e e a a r r a a n n c c e e s s 3 3 8 8 9 9 scenes of failures and defeats’ 42 ; his ‘task will go on, from victory to victory’ 43 .
Perhaps we might think that Parrinder has, after all, picked up on some general sense (or theological potential) of such an interpretation of the avatar? But, even in Sathya Sai Baba’s case, appearances have often been to the contrary—with his having been bedridden for a week with a stroke (see p.107 above) and having “taken on” dozens of other “illnesses” and “accidents” (see, e.g., p.36 above) over the years. His current wheelchair-bound state is but the latest in a long line of (apparent) misfortunes. Furthermore, contrary to Parrinder’s assertion that ‘The Godhead …does not in the least mind assuming temporarily an active role on the phenomenal plane’, Sathya Sai Baba says: ‘Some of you may imagine that it is a source of joy for the Lord to take a human form. If you are in this state, you will not feel so’ 44 . Given the “misfortunes” just mentioned, this is hardly surprising, and, on this note, it is perhaps meet for us to consider Parrinder’s fourth character- istic of the avatars: ‘The Avatars finally die’. This “characteristic” completes Parrinder’s denial that the avatar doctrines are docetic, and seems to me to be an appropriate place for us to finish this section (and, in effect, this chapter and this study as a whole—after this, I will present my final conclusions). Parrinder (1970:121-122) writes: Krishna was fatally wounded in the foot by an arrow from the hunter Jaras (‘old age’), before ascending to heaven. Rāma walked into a river, a symbol of death. His wife Sītā descended into her mother Earth…. Death came when the purpose of the Avatar’s coming was accomplished…. The end of the mortal episode must be com- pleted, for if it is real it is only occasional. There is truth in all of this, but, as with Parrinder’s other attempts to deny that the avatars are understood in a docetic manner, there are problems here. Bhāgavata- Purāṇa 11:31.5-9 portrays Kṛṣṇa, not as dying, but merely as having ‘closed his lo- tus eyes in samādhi (meditation) with a view to avoid the expected requests of the gods to visit their respective regions’ before ascending to his own celestial realm 45 ,
tation—writing that the ‘Lord’s form, constituted of pure Sattva [i.e. śuddha- sattva], disappeared. His apparent form was only an outward semblance of his 42 (19-6-1974) http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume12/sss12-38.pdf [12-7-2007] 43 http://f5.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/YDlBQ39ilnl_rjWuzRZ9KPiFXqF11dZqkt_AUl0uXNCuVbeKaKfA6t0 CNWWxJ2bNaorOXw0NvUkgbmQjum1t/Swami%27s%20declarations%20about%20His%20Divinity .doc [3-5-2007] 44 Sathya Sai Baba (26-11-1964) S4 40:239 45 Tagare, part 5 (1978), pp.2119-2120. 3 3 9 9 0 0 6 6 . . D D I I S S C C U U S S S S I I O O N N O O F F A A D D E E S S C C E E N N T T real form’ 46 . And, even in the Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa (7:100.10), Rāma enters the river and is said to have “entered the effulgent supreme abode 47 , body-and-all” (viveśa vaiṣṇavam tejaḥ saśārīraḥ). Indeed, rivers—contrary to Parrinder’s asser- tion—are symbolically viewed in most Hindu contexts as ‘fords’ (tīrtha) between heaven and earth, and thus more as symbols of ascension than death 48 . Moreover, what is important in the case of Sītā is clearly not that she dies, but that she re- turns to her place of origin, over which she then presides as co-ruler with her mother, the Earth Goddess 49 . Furthermore, the departures of both Rāma and Kṛṣṇa are portrayed as great spectacles attended by legions of gods and men alike—who, in Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11:31.8,10, for example, are ‘left dazed in utter astonishment’, and ‘wonderstruck’ by the event 50 . Such descriptions are clearly intended portray the passing of the avatars as being of a different order from those of ordinary mortals. And Sathya Sai Baba’s views accord with the general sense of this: Rama and Krishna did not shed their bodies in the human way. Rama stepped into river Sarayu and vanished. …Similarly, Krishna went to Dwaraka. Uddhava saw Krishna sitting under a tree, and then Krishna suddenly disappeared. The bodies of divine incarnations will not fall in the hands of mortals. Indeed, he goes on to draw a moral from this to the effect that his devotees: ‘are deluded into the belief that I am a human being’, further asserting: ‘Since I eat like you, play with you and sing with you, you are deluded into the belief that I am a human being like you. It is sheer ignorance to think of Me in that way.’ 51 Clearly, this is analogous to Docetism (as described on p.378 above). Furthermore, whilst Parrinder (1970:122) claims above in regard to the avatars that: ‘The end of the mortal episode must be completed, for if it is real it is only occasional’, we find Sathya Sai Baba denying even this—he says: You must note that Swami’s life is in His own hands and not in those of anyone else. 46 Tagare, part 5 (1978), p.2117. NB For some other, similar, examples see Sheth (2002), p.109. 47 NB vaiṣṇavam (neuter) = ‘a partic. prodigy or omen (belonging to or occurring in the [paraṃ di- vam] or upper sky)’ [MW], but the narrative context here makes it clear that he has repaired to his heavenly realm, and there is obviously pun here, for vaiṣṇava (masculine)=“pertaining to Viṣṇu”. 48 NB The river Styx, flowing from the world of the dead in Greek mythology, of which Parrinder is perhaps thinking, does have an analogue in some Hindu traditions—but this is not the paradigmatic river in most of these traditions, this status being accorded, rather, to the Ganges—which is believed to have descended from the heavens (and to be a gateway for a return thereto to this day). 49 See, e.g., Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 7:88.13. 50 Tagare, part 5 (1978), p.2120 51 Sathya Sai Baba (17-05-2002) SSB 2002 3:48,49 Yüklə 5,66 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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