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Swami, a unique avatar

   Man can seek and realize God, but what happens when God seeks the realized man? That man is called a siddhar, the one who has accomplished perfect sadhana. Swami is one such, a great siddhar. That is the truth.

   When one reads the above sentence, one might think that it sounds brazen. God has taken many avatars according to hindu philosophy and has come down to earth as an ordinary human being time and again to establish dharma and righteousness like the Rama and Krishna avathars. Lord Krishna Himself uttered the following to Arjuna in the great epic Bhagavad Gita —
   'Arjuna, whenever righteousness is on the decline and unrighteousness is in the ascendant then I body Myself forth...
   For the protection of the virtuous for the extirpation of evil doers for establishing dharma on a firm footing I am born from age to age...' Gita IV-8

   According to Swami, in Kali Yuga, God would not come down as an avatar. God would seek the person who is himself God. Godly men can not be explained or described in words. The very purpose of human life is to strive relentlessly to realize the Self or God within oneself and thus attain enlightenment. All of us are aware of this fact. But what happens when God, in Devi form appears before an ordinary human being and gets merged in him? When confronted with this possibility, most would neither relish this fact nor understand the real truth behind it. The answer to this riddle is embodied in Swami. He is living proof, a living answer to the riddle. We have already seen how Goddess Chothanikkara Devi granted divya darshanam in the form of an ordinary woman to Swami and merged in him. After being in contact with Swami, cherishing the divine interactions and experiences with him for the past thirteen years receiving his grace and blessings, I think I have understood this ultimate truth. I strongly felt that the blessings and guidance of Swami should be shared with all those who have not had the opportunity to be with him. With this goal in mind, I felt the need to write about Swami. It has been my long cherished desire to depict, to the best of my ability, his super human power and greatness in the form of a book. It is his grace which drives me relentlessly in this undertaking. Why do I choose to personify him as a unique avatar? As you read this chapter, it is my conviction that you will begin to see the truth and appreciate Swami's uniqueness.

   In the present age, we have heard some divine souls who guide and teach mankind to lead a life of peace, love and moral happiness. These enlightened souls include great saints such as Sathya Sai Baba, Mata Amrithanandamayi among others. There are other fake godmen, who take advantage of the people's superstitions and illiteracy and cheat them. They collect huge amounts of money and making victims of innocent, fallible people by inculcating a false fear of the unknown in them. They threaten suffering men and women to perform rituals as atonement for sins they supposedly committed.

   Swami's ways are unique. He neither demands nor expects money or offerings from anyone who comes to meet him. His doctrines are simple and novel. When devotees meet him for the first time, he enquires whether they were continuing worship of the family deity. Some people may not even be aware of their family deity. On such occasions, with his divine vision and Devi's grace, Swami would pinpoint their family deity and advise them to visit and worship that deity at the earliest opportunity and offer whatever possible to that deity in line with their means and desire. If a visit to the deity is not within the devotees' means, he advises them to tie a one rupee coin in a yellow cloth and keep it in their prayer room and pray to the deity to bless them and fulfill their desires.

   Swami rarely gives any strict instructions, especially to first timers. He charms devotees with his unconditional love and slowly starts moulding the personality of the devotee with strict discipline to make them aware of their real goal in life. When a devotee pays his obeisance at his lotus feet, Swami knows what is best for him and blesses him accordingly. After being with the devotees for a couple of minutes, he sometimes advises them to go and worship Lord Siva in a temple on Mondays and perform milk abhishekam to it. To others, he may advise going on Thursdays to a Hanuman temple and worship the Lord with butter and a garland of tulsi leaves. He directs some to visit a Devi temple and worship Her with turmeric powder or kumkum. What is noteworthy is that he never compels the devotee to visit and perform their worship only in a specific temple or in a particular place. He advises them to go to any temple which is near and convenient, enroute to office for example. If someone adorns him with an expensive sari or shawl as an offering, he immediately gives it away to some other devotee standing near him as per Devi's divine command. Whenever anyone donates any sum of money on their own accord, he uses the money only for temple work.

   There is no NO in Swami's dictionary. He always insists on positive thinking. One should face life's challenges with a positive attitude and then approach Swami to shower his grace for fulfillment rather than waver in one's thoughts and approach Swami indecisively for a way out. Swami stresses on not having negative thoughts. He teaches us that the most vital thing in life is to have complete faith in oneself and try to understand the real I. He asks us to meditate on the fact that the Almighty is within ourselves and He is everywhere. Try to see, hear and feel God's presence everywhere and at all times. Feel the power that is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

   Swami always says that if we really understand what we are and have full confidence in ourselves, all our day-to-day problems will get solved in no time. Repeated and continuous self enquiry into the nature of I will destroy wrong assumptions and will enable one to discover that the real I in each and every one of us is limitless and eternal, beyond time, space and matter. We have only worn a dress of mortal body. We are here only to enact a role in the drama of life until the mortal body perishes. Not realizing this, we foolishly attach undue importance to our material life and mortal bodies and through action and reaction, come across many hurdles. We grow to be totally unaware of the fullness of consciousness because of the veil of the powerful illusory world.

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