(Sept 3,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Descent of God for the Ascent of Man

Avatara - Descent of God for the Ascent of Man

Divine Life Society Publication: The Purpose of Avatara by Swami Krishnananda

Gurudev Swamiji Sivananda Maharaj

Sanatana Dharma has the capacity to include everything in itself because of its universality. It sees God everywhere. The idea of Avatara makes this concept easy of understanding. Avatara means coming down. It is the descent of God into the world. How can God descend when He is universal? Then, what is Avatara? It is not so much like a person coming down the steps; it is grander and more profound. Avataras, as generally understood, are possible only when there is a collective cry of humanity for redeeming humanity from some calamity. Then such Avataras, as the Ten Avataras, come. We also have lesser Avataras, like Sankara, Sivananda etc, called Amsavataras.

It is impossible to think of God as He is. Avatara is the connecting link between the ordinary human nature and the divine. Avatara is the manifestation of God through Mula Prakrati. That is why we have to worship Avatara, though God is everywhere and can be worshipped as such.

Literally, Avatara means descent or manifestation, as also told in the Gita. When the need for the higher life is felt more, the Avatara becomes necessary. The farther we are from God, the greater is the need we feel for the higher life. When humanity drifts too much from Truth, the Avatara becomes very necessary.

God tolerates our mistakes to some extent. When we go too far, He comes with a rod to correct us. Just as a mother allows her child to play and go here and there, but when the child is about to fall into a pit she runs to help it, God manifests when it is necessary to correct mankind. The Avatara comes when evil is too much or when sattva is too much – when we are in a high state of spiritual consciousness. In both cases, he comes. Avatara is divinity manifested into prakriti to draw humanity. It is the grace of God on man. It is the descent of God for the ascent of man, as Sri Gurudev put it.

Excerpts from:

The Purpose of Avatara by Swami Krishnananda
 

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(Apr 30,2013) Vairagya -True Renunciation by Swami Krishnananda

True Renunciation

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 2: Sadhana – The Spiritual Way by Swami Krishnananda

Easily do we mistake the principle of vairagya, the great discrimination. So many sadhus are there, so many vairagis are there, who have renounced everything. You may ask a vairagi:  what are the things that you have renounced?

The immediate, quick reply may be: "I possess nothing. I have left everything that I had earlier. I have left the world; therefore, I have completed my renunciation."

Standing on the ground that is the earth, you are saying that you have renounced it. The world blows a breeze of various types on your personality every moment, saying that you cannot renounce the world, unless you renounce yourself first, so that the renunciation may become complete.

But where is the meaning in renouncing one's own self? If the self is renounced, what remains? This difficulty will suddenly take possession of our own selves. There is really no such thing as renunciation of anything, because nothing in the world really belongs to you. How can you renounce a thing which has not actually become your property? Are you renouncing somebody else's belongings? The world is not under your control; therefore, how will you renounce it?

Here, renunciation has to be understood in the spirit that is within it. Renunciation is not an abandonment in the literal sense of the word, but a spirit that is maintained within – a spirit of not belonging to anything, and a spirit of nothing actually belonging to one's own self. In this process of the determination of the spirit, the world stands united with you because of the fact that you are made of the same substance as the world of nature.

All humanity is inside you, with you, within you, and has taken possession of you. The principle of every individual in the world is inside you also, so that on different occasions you can manifest the character of any person in this world.

We cannot think in this manner because our education is purely empirical, outwardly motivated, and physically conditioned. But you stand a master of all things by renunciation, in the sense of belonging to the whole world – the world belonging to you, and you yourself belonging to the world. The world stands renounced within itself. You become a world individual. Such renunciates are world masters, because they are self-masters. When the taste for things ceases, you have conquered the world.

Can any one of you feel convinced within yourself that you are a world individual? "I do not merely belong to the world; nor the world belongs to me. I will stand as a meeting point of the world and the individuality of everybody." Unthinkable is this situation. A master-mind we call such people; a super-man, an incarnation, an avatara – all sorts of names and nomenclatures are attributed to such achievements in a person who ceases to be a person and is at the same time a super-person.

Such renunciation precedes the understanding that is required to practise yoga, which is real sadhana.

 Continue to read:

On Mind Control – from Sadhana-The Spiritual Way by Swami Krishnananda

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
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If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org