Posted on: 10 Feb 2006
Revelation of the Human Incarnation:
[Just before departing for Mumbai, Mr. Antony asked Swami “Why don’t You declare Yourself clearly as the present human incarnation”?]
Swami replied “Buddha did not even speak about God and hence there is no question of the topic of the human incarnation in His regard. Therefore, Buddha was safe. Mohammed denied the concept of human incarnation and declared Himself as only the Messenger of God. Anybody can be become a Messenger and therefore, Mohammed was also safe. Lord Krishna emphasized on the concept of human incarnation throughout the Gita, but Krishna told that He was the human incarnation only to Arjuna and not to any other person. Therefore, Krishna was also safe. Jesus told that He was the human incarnation by telling that He and His Father were one and the same. He told this to many people and the news spread everywhere. This statement is in Bible and the Bible is His message given to the public. For this statement He was brutally killed.
Now, if I state the same in the present time, crucifixion may not happen due to the improved legal system, but people will laugh at Me and say that I am mad and that I should be admitted into a mental hospital. Of course this does not mean that I have accepted and stated that I am the human incarnation. However for now, let us assume that I am the human incarnation. Let this not be taken as My declaration. This only means that no human incarnation will declare Himself as God after the crucifixion of Jesus. Since that incident, God is terribly afraid of making such a declaration. Therefore, even if I am the real human incarnation I will not declare it. If I am not the human incarnation I should not declare it in any case. Therefore, in any case I cannot declare this.
The identification of human incarnation is the most complicated subject because of several hurdles in it. The first hurdle is that people are generally affected by ego and jealousy. A human being never likes to accept another human form as God. Even if some human being conquers his ego and jealousy and accepts it, it is only temporary. It is impossible to completely smash one’s ego and jealousy. You can only reduce them temporarily. When Krishna taught the Gita, Arjuna accepted Lord Krishna as the Lord, but just after eighteen days, Krishna asked Arjuna to get down from the chariot. Arjuna was reluctant because he expected Krishna, the driver, to first get down and then only would Arjuna the owner of the chariot get down. It was the question of the prestige of the owner of a chariot in the presence of his soldiers. Just within eighteen days, ego and jealousy grew in Arjuna and he forgot that Krishna was the Lord. By the eighteenth day he treated Krishna as a mere chariot driver. Therefore, only one in thousands will even accept the concept of human incarnation. Even if one accepts this concept, he likes to limit it to the past dead human incarnations only. Unless one conquers his ego and jealousy completely, one cannot accept the present human incarnation standing before his naked eyes. Therefore, only one in thousands accepts this concept of present human incarnation and starts to search for the address of the present human incarnation. This is told in the Gita as “Manushyanaam Sahasreshu….” Thus this verse refers to the devotees who are searching for the human incarnation in their time. This verse does not refer to all devotees who search for God because there are many people who are theists and seek God. This verse says further “Kaschit Maam Vetti….” This means that only one in such devotees can identify the present human incarnation. This means that although you have conquered your jealousy and ego and although you are searching for the living human incarnation, there are several hurdles before you can identify Him. What are these hurdles?
As I told you the first hurdle is your own ego and jealousy. You may say that you have conquered them and therefore you are searching for the present human form of Lord. Although you have conquered your ego and jealousy, your victory is only temporary. Ego and jealousy are the two sleeping snakes in your heart. They will rise at any time and bite you. Therefore, you must try for a permanent conquest and destroy them forever. Then only is the first hurdle removed. Assuming that you have destroyed them, before you reach Him, there are still several hurdles to be crossed. These hurdles are the priests of temples, the preachers of ethics and puranas, and scholars, who preach philosophy. They will not allow you to proceed on your path and brainwash you on your way. These people are against the present human incarnation. If you reach the present human incarnation, they will lose their income and fame from devotees. They are earning money and fame by singing the glory of the past human incarnations. In fact, while Jesus was alive, these people were His main enemies and the reason is very very clear. People started following Jesus, who opposed the collection of money in the church. These people killed Jesus, who was obstructing their income and fame. Even after the death of Jesus these people misinterpreted the statement of Jesus that He would come again. Jesus meant that He would come again and again in every human generation to give the same divine opportunity to every generation because He was the impartial God.
If this meaning were accepted, the income and fame of the priests, preachers and scholars would be obstructed in every generation. Therefore, these people misinterpreted the meaning of this statement by saying that Jesus will come only at the end of the world. When the world is destroyed even if Jesus comes, there will no problem. By this interpretation they have cleared their way of business till the end of the world. This interpretation is convenient even for the followers of these priests and scholars because of their inherent ego and jealousy which prevents them from accepting the living human incarnation. Therefore, there was cooperation from both sides.
Assume that you have passed this hurdle also. The next hurdle is false human incarnations who will trap you for the same reason of their own income and fame. Of course these false incarnations are based on the will of God only. He tests your scriptural knowledge by which alone you have to identify the real human incarnation. They are just like the wrong answers present in a multiple-choice question. The same examiner, who gives the right answer, creates the wrong answers also to test the power of your discrimination. Proper discrimination results only if you digest scriptural knowledge with perfect logical analysis. Only then can you eliminate the fraud incarnations like wrong answers. Poundraka Vasudeva was such a false incarnation, who looked like Narayana, wearing the same dress and bearing the same weapons. Krishna did not have the same dress since He wore His own special peacock feather on His head. Instead of weapons He carried a flute. Both these are not worn by Lord Narayana. The main identification of Lord Krishna is only the Gita. The Veda says that the Lord is characterized by His own special divine knowledge, which cannot be preached by any other human being in that generation (Satyam, Jnanam…, Prajnanam Brahma). The fraud incarnations are like artificial diamonds, which resemble the original diamond in many properties. The artificial diamonds glitter with seven colors just like the original diamond. But, the refractive index of the original diamond is very high and a scientist alone can identify it. The false incarnations also preach knowledge. But the power of the knowledge of the real incarnation is very very high. You, aided with your intellectual logical faculty (Buddhi), can only be convinced and freed from all doubts by such special divine knowledge (Prajnanam…).
A person who was very close to Me posed a big problem through a question. He told Me “I have analyzed your divine knowledge after hearing the knowledge of several divine preachers. My inner self is completely convinced by only your knowledge. This means you are the human incarnation. But my doubt is that this procedure of identifying the human incarnation was given by You and the result of the identification also points to You”. Then I replied “I have given you the procedure as given by the sacred scripture, the Veda. I have also given equal position to your logical analysis before you accept that procedure. The scripture along with your logical analysis gives the correct result. If the result points to Me, what can I do? Should I change the scripture? Or should I say that there should be no logical analysis? Just to avoid the result from pointing to Me, should I say that the person who does not convince your inner self is the human incarnation? You can apply your logic and if there is a logical question during the analysis of the scripture, I can answer that. If you are convinced by all means, I cannot help it”.
If the scripture and the logical analysis had led to identifying that person himself as the human incarnation, he would have jumped with joy. If some other human being had turned out to be the human incarnation, at least he would have been silent. But, since the result happens to be Me, whom he is seeing everyday, the problem came. Therefore, the repulsion caused by jealousy and ego will always follow you in your spiritual journey and you can be trapped by it at any time.
Assume that you have crossed this hurdle also and caught the original human incarnation. Up to this point only the first half of the cinema is over. From this point onwards the second half of the cinema starts, which is more complicated. The real human incarnation will not encourage and accept your identification easily. He will try to mislead you from the truth. When you observe His external physical body, it exhibits the same properties of any human body like hunger, thirst, disease, birth, death etc. This itself is sufficient to throw you off. Here you must analyze that God is in that human body and God is not that human body. You must understand the line in the Gita “Manusheem Tanumasritam”, which means that God has entered the human body. God-in-flesh also means the same. God is not the flesh. This analysis is given by the Gita itself clearly in the verse “Avyaktam Vyaktim apannam”. This verse means that the unimaginable (Avyaktam) did not become imaginable (Vyaktam). This means that the unimaginable God entered the imaginable body. Therefore, the unimaginable God did not become imaginable, which means that God did not become the human body. By this analysis you can cross this hurdle. The external gross body (Sthula Shareera) shows these properties and is like the shirt. The shirt of a king is as good as the shirt of a beggar in its properties. Just because the shirt is the same the king is not the beggar. Similarly, since the gross body of the human incarnation is similar to the gross body of an ordinary human being, the Lord is not the human being. If you cross this hurdle, there is the next hurdle, which is the inner subtle body consisting of the three qualities. The subtle body of the human incarnation also exhibits the same three qualities as any other human being. The subtle body (Sukshma Shareera) is common to both the human incarnation and the human being. Again with the help of the same analysis given above, you should cross this hurdle too. As you should not mistake the Lord to the gross body, so also should you not mistake Him to be the subtle body. Therefore, you should not mistake the Lord by His exhibited three qualities (Triguna Maya).
Sometimes, the Lord tries to mislead you by exhibiting bad qualities (Rajas and Tamas). Generally, there is an impression that the Lord has only good qualities (Sattvam). Here you must analyze that He is beyond the three qualities and that He is neither good nor bad. The Gita says that the Lord is beyond these three qualities (Nachaham teshu). Assume that you have crossed this second hurdle also. The next hurdle is the final. This third item in any human being is the causal body (Karana Shareera) or called as soul, which is pure awareness. This soul in any human being is also beyond the three qualities or subtle body as said in the Gita (Gunebhyascha Param). The Advaita Scholars are trapped at this point. In the above verse the Lord is said to be above the three qualities (of Maya) and in the present verse the soul in the human being is also said to be above the three qualities (of Avidya). Though both Maya and Avidya are made of three qualities, Maya and Avidya are qualitatively similar but differ quantitatively. Both Maya and Avidya arise due to the self-ignorance. When God forgets Himself, Maya arises, which is the creation. When the individual soul forgets itself, Avidya arises as in a dream. Both the creation and the dream are made of the three qualities and arise due to self-ignorance. But there is a vast quantitative difference between the Creation and the dream of an individual. You can pass through the imaginary wall in your daydream. But you cannot pass through the real wall in the world. If you cross Avidya you can attain yourself. If you crossed Maya you could attain God. But you can never cross Maya as told in the Gita (Mama Maya Duratyaya). Of course the liberated soul, who is fully blessed by God can cross Maya (Maya metam tarantite). But by crossing Maya the liberated soul cannot become God because God is the Creator, Ruler and Destroyer of Maya. By crossing a river or the sea, you cannot create, control or destroy the river or sea. Therefore, even the liberated soul, who has crossed the Maya cannot not become God. How can this ordinary soul who can only cross Avidya become God? Therefore, even Hanuman, who jumped over the sea, did not claim himself as God. Can this Advaita scholar, who can barely jump over a tiny sewage canal, become God? Of course the soul, which is beyond Avidya, can be called as Brahman. The word Brahman is very loosely used in its original sense. Brahman means the greatest. The soul is the greatest among all the items of creation and can be called as Brahman. If you argue that the word Brahman is to be used strictly only for God, then how come the Scripture Veda is also called as Brahman? The Veda is an item of creation because it was generated by God and therefore, the Veda is not the Creator (Asya Mahato…). Therefore, the word Brahman cannot be strictly limited to God alone. The Veda is called as Brahman in the Gita (Brahma Akshara Samudbhavam). In this verse the Gita says that the Veda is produced by God. Therefore, when you have used the word Brahman for one item of creation, why can it not be used for another item in creation? The Veda is called as Brahman because it is the greatest in the category of Scriptures because it is the only scripture, which is protected from pollution or corruption as it was passed on only through recitation for several generations.
Similarly, in the category of the items of creation the pure awareness (soul), which is the finest form of nervous energy, can be called as Brahman. Therefore, the soul can be Brahman but it cannot be called God (Ishwara). You cannot have even a qualitative similarity between the soul and God, because God is completely unimaginable and the soul is imaginable by shrewd analysis. The Veda says that the soul is an imaginable item for the sharp intellectual (Drusyate Tvagraya). This pure awareness (soul) is clearly seen through advanced instruments by a scientist. Therefore, by such careful analysis you can cross this final hurdle and conclude that God is beyond the soul or pure awareness also.
In the human incarnation the gross body appears to be a limited human body but actually that limited body itself is the world simultaneously. This truth can be known only by insight. Lord Krishna showed His limited body itself as the infinite cosmos to the inner eye of Arjuna. The subtle body in the human incarnation is the Maya which is the three qualities that pervade all over the universe. This means that the Avidya in the human incarnation is simultaneously Maya. The soul present in the human incarnation is the Mula Maya simultaneously. This is the most complicated aspect of the human incarnation, which can be never understood even by sages. It becomes the unimaginable concept because this little human body of the Lord standing on a small place on the earth itself is the entire infinite cosmos. The Lord showed the entire creation in His mouth, standing on a small place in a village. But the entire earth was in the mouth of the Lord and this scene was also present on the earth present in His mouth. By this itself, you can understand that God is unimaginable. Thus in the case of the human incarnation only is Avidya the same as Maya, the limited human body the same as the world and the soul the same as Mula Maya.
In the case of an ordinary human being such a wonderful concept does not exist. In the case of the human being, the soul is a tiny particle of Mula Maya, Avidya is a small part of Maya and the gross body is a small part of the world. The ordinary human being is just a composite of the outermost coat (gross body), the shirt (subtle body) and the inner most in-shirt (causal body). There is no fourth person inside this composite. This composite of the three is dancing by the power of God, which is called as the Mula Maya or the pure awareness, which appeared in the beginning of Creation. Therefore, the soul or human being is controlled by Maya (Maya Vashikrutah). This Mula Maya along with its will (Maya) and its modification (Creation) is under the control of God (Vashikruta Mayah). This is the difference between the human being (Jeeva) and God (Ishwara). In the human incarnation the fourth item, God exists who is wearing the in-shirt, shirt and coat. The human being is a composite of three items whereas the human incarnation is a composite of four items. The Veda says that God is the fourth item (Turiya) and the three covering bodies are Vishwa (gross body), Taijasa (subtle body) and Prajna (causal body). Therefore, the identification of real human incarnation called as Brahma Jnana or Brahma Vidya is the most subtle and complicated subject, which you can understand only by careful analysis and a lot of patience. The Gita says that one can identify this son of Vasudeva (Lord Krishna) as the Lord only after continuous efforts through several births (Bahunaam Janmanamante). Identification of God as a statue is very very easy. Identification of God as the Formless One is also easy to understand based on a simile like space or air, which are formless and all-pervading. The energetic forms of God like Vishnu, Shiva, etc., are also easy to digest because no human being develops repulsion towards such energetic forms since no ego or jealousy arise in that case. The problem of ego and jealousy along with all the above hurdles arise only for human beings when they try to recognize the human incarnation. If the human being does not identify the human form of God here, such a human being also cannot identify the energetic form of God in the upper world because of the same repulsion of likes. As the human body repels the human form here, the soul covered by an energetic body in the upper world rejects the energetic form of God also for the same reason. Therefore, such a human being is lost forever as said in the Veda (Ihachet Avedeet…).