Posted on: 11 Feb 2005
[Why have you superimposed your face on that of past incarnations? Will that not shock sincere devotees of other incarnations or religions? No other incarnation in the past did such a thing.]
A friend of Shri Nikhil also asked a similar question and I was thinking of answering this. The original background was different. When some of My devotees were fortunate to have some divine visions on looking at Me, a point was noted by them. In all those visions [of different deities and past incarnations], they all saw My face alone. The devotees who did not have such visions were anxious to hear about the visions from the other devotees. Based on the explanations some devotees decorated My face in different forms so that the other devotees may have some satisfaction of seeing the visions indirectly. Originally these pictures were restricted only to the circle of My devotees. When Universal Spirituality for World Peace was started as a Mission, My devotees suggested using these pictures. I agreed based on one concept, i.e., when the same face is present in all the pictures it would give a psychological impression that the same God appeared in different forms. The face is the real identity of a person. Unfortunately, the pictures of various deities and incarnations that are seen commonly today are only the imaginary drawings of artists. They included different faces in these imaginary paintings. This gives an unconscious impression that the deities and incarnations are quite different from each other and the idea of one God does not appear clearly. I have super imposed My face on the faces of different deities and incarnations for whom real photographs were not available [recent human incarnations, whose photographs are available, have not been superimposed with Swami’s face].
Don’t you think that a real face is better than an imaginary face? My face and the imaginary faces on the pictures are both constituted of the same five elements and there is no difference. I did not agree to super impose My face on the face of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, because His real photograph exists. For this concept of one God, a single face helps. This single real face need not be Mine. In fact you can also super impose your face on the faces of these deities and incarnations to explain the concept of the single God. It is just a pictorial model after all. I will appreciate this equally for two merits.
In the spiritual field the only two impurities, which are the two layers that cover our two eyes, are egoism and jealousy. Nobody is an exception when it comes to these two impurities. Sadhana is only the eye operation to remove these two layers from our two eyes. Only then can one accept the existence of God and finally accept the existence of God in the human incarnation. When the eyes are completely covered by these two layers, one does not accept even the existence of God. If the two layers are partially operated, the human being accepts the existence of God but not the human incarnation. When these two layers are completely removed, the devotee recognizes the human incarnation as Hanuman recognized Lord Rama. Because of these two layers, many people did not recognize the human incarnations. Some recognized and respected them but did not worship them. A few recognized and also worshipped. Sometimes the human incarnations were also killed due to the intensity of these two layers as in the case of Lord Jesus. Lord Mohammed also had to fight with people constantly because He tried to unite the various sub-religions in Islam. Shankara was killed by black magic because He condemned all the sub-religions and united them. Swami Dayananda tried to bring out the real heart of the Vedas and was killed by food poisoning. Therefore, we must carefully watch the various effects of these two layers present within us before we analyze the object. The subjective analysis is very important before the objective analysis. Shankara has told that unless the mind is purified from these impurities (Chitta Suddhi), the recognition of God and finally the recognition of the human incarnation (Jnana Yoga), is not possible.
I have answered not only your question but also the root of your question. In the past the super imposition of the face might not have been done due to the absence of photography and computer graphics. However, when Hanuman did not recognize Lord Krishna to be the same as Lord Rama, Krishna did the same computer graphics by His divine power and super imposed the face of Rama on His face. You may not believe if I say that the same face of Lord Krishna was decorated by the dress of the face of Rama. Due to the change in the dress the face appeared different. You will find this fact in My pictures also. Actually, it is the same face but it appears different due to the different external dresses. Thus the human body is only the external dress and the single actor present in all these roles is the same Lord. Hanuman could not recognize Lord Krishna as Lord Rama only due to this external dress.
When we see a film actor in the role of Rama in the cinema, the devotees look at him as Rama Himself. They do not see the inner actor but only the external role. But some people call him by the name of the actor and they see only the inner actor and not the external role. When the Lord comes as the human incarnation the inner actor is the Lord and the outer role is the human being. This is just reverse of the above example. In the case of the human incarnation the devotees see the Lord who is the inner actor and not the external role, which is the human being. But ordinary people see only the external human being and not the inner actor who is the Lord. Therefore, whether it is the world-drama or a drama in this world, devotees only look at the Lord and other people only look at the human being. When I was decorated in the dress of the Lord, I told My devotees “The Lord is hidden in Me and wants to give fame to this external human being. I am just reversing this point and have brought the inner Lord to the outside in the form of this decoration and hidden Myself inside the decoration. I want to say that the inner hidden Lord must be seen by all of you; He has done all these wonderful things and you must give credit to the Lord alone. The Lord hid the truth and I revealed the truth”.