The following is taken from the text Aham Sphurana, 7th July 1936. Please see here to find out more about this text:
Questioner: Yes, some say Aurobindo is the Avatar of the age, while others say it is Meher Baba; still others say it was the late Sai Baba. Yet others maintain that Sri Krishna was the last Avatar in the Anthropomorphic form, before Kalki Avatar arrives at the time of Cosmic Dissolution. For others it is Buddha, Ramakrishna or Confucius. Will Bhagavan tell us in what way His experience of consciousness is superior to that of these, since, allegedly, they seem to be mere Avatars, and not Jnanis? And really who is the Avatar corresponding to this Era in Mankind’s history, a particularly tumultous one – Germany has announced her intention to rearm herself, an indication of the belligerent attitude of the National Socialist Government? Surely an Avatar is necessary from age to age to look after the world to ensure that mankind’s evil-doing collectively remains lesser than his acts of benignness? Jnanis do not act in the world, except to ensure the merest existence of the physical body, is that not so? So, where is the Avatar who is going to look after our poor mortal selves- and also the world?
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi: Experience of Consciousness, if genuine, naturally precludes ‘others’; thus there is nothing superior or inferior, because there is no second, no other, nothing foreign or alien to or apart from the One Immutable Absolute Self – so the question of comparison is, simply, nullity.
All True Masters are ONE, not because they identify themselves with something in common, but because commonly the faculty of identification [of one thing with another] does not exist in any of them. As for Avatars, each one sees an Avatarapurusha [Tom: purusha means person] according to his own mental convictions and predispositions – to establish the finality of one’s own viewpoint admist others will result only in fruitless skirmishes. You may continue to believe in whatever pleases your own fancy, but expecting corroboration from others for your weltanschauung [Tom: world view] of the universe will serve only to increase your sense of mental unrest and agitate the mind further.
Q.: So the idea of the Avatarapurusha, God-manifest/God-incarnate, who comes down from age to age, is just… a fallacy, only as good as a fairy-tale? Do not the Holy books of the various faiths speak of these blessed beings, whom we might worship – since manifestation makes available a form to worship – so that we might elevate ourselves to the zenith of spiritual perfection and purity, puissance and divinity? Jesus, Mahomet, Zoraster, Buddha – what about them? Specifically does not Krishna say, parithranaya sadhunam… etc.? How can these considerations be ignored?
B.: Your mental predilections and proclivities foist upon you the erronous idea that there is a God outside your Self, and that He sends down messengers to guide you and show you the way to reach Him. If you keep on journeying, you will never reach. Therefore, I say, enough searching – call off the search and be yourself, nothing more. The great masters – each in his own tongue, but each from the same Heart – yearned to give you this message only – BE YOUR SELF.
The Masters you mentioned, and others, each doubtless had – and has and continues to have always – his specific, special or unique role in man’s spiritual evolution, but the zenith spoken of by you will certainly not be reached by discussing the question, ‘How can all of these Mahanubhavars be right? On what points do they contradict themselves? Is it not our imminent task-on-hand to clear up these apparent contradictions and seeming mutual inconsistencies? Will that not endow us with special spiritual merit?’ Men waste entire lifetimes – fruitlessly – like this. This effort, if harnessed fully to keeping one’s Latchiyam [Tom: aim or target or goal] fixed entirely on Self or Reality, would have resulted in Mukthi long ago. Instead, countless lives have been frittered away on account of these wrong and foolish ideas about reaching Truth by using the Buddhi or the resoning faculty, when, in fact, precisely subsidence of that faculty results in revelation of Self or Reality. What a pity.
Q.: It is still not clear. The Avatara Purusha – is he just a mental concept like the gandharvas, rakshasas, bhutas, etc.? Has not this tangible world witnessed the advent of many such great men, Bhagavan himself not excluded?
B.: The trouble arises when we use their teachings to satisfy our intellectual palate and appetite. To the unwise, it does not occur to try and practise, instead of using it as a subject of discussion at gatherings of philosophers and metaphycists.
Therefore I say – Do not try to write essays on it. Do not try to present articles of great erudition on it. Do not try to gain followers for your newly discovered maxim or device-of-apotheosis or precept-of-ancient wisdom. Do not conceptualise it mentally and then, getting trapped in those very concepts, moan and complain that you ‘see no progress’. Do not go on discussing or talking about it. Do not tell yourself, ‘First I shall obtain intellectual mastery over the technique and subsequently shall begin the application thereof.’
Instead – plunge into the practice HERE and NOW; stick to the teachings of any one Mahanubhavar, and all will come right in the end.
Masters are there only to show you the way – man fogs the fulfilment of their purpose by merely theorising or intellectualising about their respective lives, advents and teachings, such as asking – Is this one or that one a Siddhapurusha, Muktha-purusha or an Avatara-purusha? Of course these are your mental concepts only. In fact, the Master, being not at all different from the formless Absolute seated in the tabernacle of the Sacred Heart of Man, is really synonymous with your own True Self – why seek him anywhere else?
Q.: For myself I am now convinced, but I am worried about the hopeless spiritual condition of the world, which seems to be enveloped in profuse darkness. When will all the people of the world wake up to the fact that they are living in the ghastly darkness of ignorance, and understand that the world around them is a dream, so that they can obtain genuine illumination? What about those unfortunate ignorant millions of the world, who have never met a genuine Sadhguru in their life? Supposing their prarabdha-karma dictates that they spend the entireity of their lives being relentlessly tossed around in the evil sea of avidya maya, as a result of the Guru’s accquaintance never coming to transpire- what then? For how many lifetimes more will their ordeal of ignorance have to last, and when at last would such unfortunate ones meet their Guru- so that through Him their redemption could be vouchsafed for certain? Such unfortunate persons, never having had the extreme good fortune of meeting B. during his blessed sojourn on this Earth, which, owing to his stay here has become itself a sanctified land, must needs count themselves exceedingly unlucky- what, therefore, would Bhagavan have them do? What can they do? What will be their fate?
B.: The fate of each one depends upon his merit. Take care of yourself and others can take care of themselves.
This answer was evidently not to the questioner’s liking. He seemed to toy with the idea of placing forth additional arguments before Bhagavan as to why mercy ought not to be showered in profusion upon the ‘ignorant’ masses of the world, until Chadwick pacified him with the following words:-
“Bhagawan has said that when longing for God or intensity of meditation has reached a feverish intensity/pitch, the Guru automatically manifests before the devotee.”
Even then, the man seemed about to say something, when the Hall’s attention was riveted by Bhagavan’s voice suddenly reading from Scripture the words of a Jewish Carpenter no less a genius in the realm of Spirit, the heartthrob of many a lonley, man-forsaken soul yearning for Divine acceptance –
“Ask, ye shall receive; Seek, ye shall find; Knock, it shall be opened unto thee.”
Tom Das 