7
7
2
2
1
1
.
.
I
I
N
N
T
T
R
R
O
O
D
D
U
U
C
C
T
T
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I
O
O
N
N
T
T
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A
A
N
N
I
I
N
N
C
C
A
A
R
R
N
N
A
A
T
T
I
I
O
O
N
N
1.4 Incarnation & Innovation
Only those that are proficient in the Shaastras can recognise an Avathaar
and test the credentials; only they can taste the joy showered by the Incarnation.
1
The passage here perhaps provides some further justification, native to my primary
source material, for my declared attempt to understand Sathya Sai Baba’s avatar
persona in the light of historical precedents. Sathya Sai Baba specifically claims
that the Śāstras (“scriptures”
2
) delineate characteristics of the avatars, and that
there is a traditional precedent for this claim itself (see p.234 below) only serves to
highlight this. Moreover, we will see that some specific characteristics that draw
upon traditional precedents are claimed by Sathya Sai Baba (or at least attributed
to him by his followers)
3
. Bassuk (1987b:87) notes, for instance, that Sathya Sai
Baba is believed to have ‘circular mark[s] the Samku [conch] [and] Chakram
[wheel], on the soles of his feet’, and Sathya Sai Baba’s biographer R. Padmanaban
(2000:328) cites an early devotee’s recollection of this:
Baba would often go swimming… When He would emerge from the river and sit on
the sands, He used to show others his tender Feet. Those who swam along with Him
had this to say—under His soles one could see the impressions of a conch and a
wheel—traditional insignia associated with Lord Vishnu.
However dismissive we might be of the reality of the phenomenon described here,
it is clear that Sathya Sai Baba and his devotees present his divine persona as being
sanctioned by its accordance with traditional ideas
4
.
This is not, however, universally the case. As we will see, there are instances in
which Sathya Sai Baba makes statements that deliberately contrast with, or even
contradict, traditional understandings. Statements that we might call “innovative”.
Some of his views on the very idea of the avatar exemplify this. “Avatar” is an An-
glicization of the (north) Indian word “avatār”, from the Sanskrit “avatāra”—the
etymology of which, Parrinder (1970 :19) nicely explicates:
An avatāra is a descent, a ‘down-coming’ (from a verb tṛī [=tṝ], to cross over, at-
tain, save, with the prefix ava, down; and so ava-tṛī [=ava-tṝ], descend into, appear,
become incarnate). The Avatar is an appearance of any deity on earth, or descent
from heaven, but is applied especially to the descents or appearances of Vishnu.
1
Sathya Sai Baba (17-10-1961) S2 16:73
2
NB This is to take śāstra in a very general sense (see p.234 below) and to ignore the oral origins of
most of the works connoted by this term, but I can think of no more adequate translation.
3
See, especially, Section 4.2 below.
4
NB Kṛṣṇa is said to have ‘lotus flowers and wheels on his palms’ and other signs on his feet
(Prabhupada, 1982, 158). See also Gustav Roth (1987), and p.139,n.17 below.
1
1
.
.
4
4
I
I
n
n
c
c
a
a
r
r
n
n
a
a
t
t
i
i
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o
n
n
&
&
I
I
n
n
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n
o
o
v
v
a
a
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t
i
i
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7
7
3
3
Usually, Sathya Sai Baba’s ideas accord with this; he writes, for example, that:
Avathaar 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 [(31-8-1983) S16 23:124-125].
Interestingly, however, we find that he sometimes refutes the very possibility of a
‘descent’ of God:
There is no such thing as God “descending” on earth or leaving it…. Rama, Krishna,
Allah, Zoroaster, Buddha and Sai Baba… all these names represent the One Atma.
True worship consists in regarding all the forms as one and worshipping the Divine
in the form of Love and Truth [(23-11-1988) S21 33:267, 268].
This exemplifies what I have opted to call a “spiritualization” of traditional ideas—
through Sathya Sai Baba’s affinity for non-dualistic theology. It is also another
“ethicization” of traditional understandings—the human forms (or philosophi-
cal/devotional qualities) that traditional avatar ideas generally ascribe to the divine
are here denied in favour of the ethical qualities “Love and Truth”.
This last point highlights a major theme in Sathya Sai Baba’s understanding of
what comprises an avatar. As an alternative to the term avatar, he often uses the
word ‘swaruupa’ (i.e. svarūpa, usually translated in Sathya Sai Baba’s discourses as
“Embodiment”
5
), and he frequently speaks of himself as an embodiment of various
ethical or spiritual qualities, e.g.: ‘love’ (prema)
6
, ‘truth’ (satya)
7
, ‘bliss’ (ānanda)
8
.
There is certainly some traditional basis for such claims; Noel Sheth (2002:99-
100,n18) notes for example that ‘the Nimbarka school’ (founded by an eponymous
theologian, c.12
th
century
CE
) includes in its typology of avatars: ‘Svarūpāvatāras,
that is, avatāras who are the manifestation of God himself in his being (sat), con-
sciousness (cit), and bliss (ānanda)’. Also perhaps comparable here are traditional
passages which describes Kṛṣṇa as ‘jñāna-svarūpam’—the “embodiment of wis-
dom”
9
, and ‘the embodiment of the supreme Brahman… parabrahma-svarūpi-
ṇam’
10
. But there is a shift in purpose from these traditional forms to those em-
ployed by Sathya Sai Baba; he emphasizes the ethical, rather than the traditionally
favoured ontological or metaphysical connotations of these terms
11
. Thus he tells
5
NB Svarūpa literally means “own-form”, and also can have the sense of “true nature”.
6
Sathya Sai Baba (2-12-1961) S2 27:146; cf. (2-9-1991) S24 23:257
7
E.g. Sathya Sai Baba (7-9-1966) S6 22:116, cf. (23-11-1985) S18 25:167
8
E.g. Sathya Sai Baba (23-11-1979) S14 43:279
9
Brahma-Purāṇa 180:11
10
Viṣṇu-Purāṇa 5.13.22, cited and translated by Matchett (2001), p.98.
11
On sat, cit, ānanda, see p.236 below. Jñāna in this context is primarily an attribute of divinity