Chapter VIII

"The Avathara Purushas have no merit or demerit accumulated in former births, which like ordinary mortals they have to pay off in this birth. Theirs is a Leela, a birth taken on. The goodness of the good and the wickedness of the bad provide the reasons for the Avathara of the Lord. For example, take the Avathara of Narasimha. The merit of Prahlada and the wickedness of Hiranyakasipu combined to cause it. As a result of the coming of the Lord, the good will be happy and the bad will suffer. The Avathara, however, has no joy or grief, even when it is enveloped in the body it has assumed. The Avathara is not constituted of the five elements; it is Chinmaya not Mrinmaya, spiritual not material; it can never be disturbed by egoism or the sense of "mine" and "thine"; it is untouched by the delusion born of ignorance. Though men may mistake an Avathara as just human, that does not affect the nature of the embodiment; It has come for a task and it is bound to accomplish it."

"I shall tell you what that task is. It is protecting the Sadhus, punishing the wicked and supporting Dharma. By Sadhus, I do not mean monks and ascetics, who are indicated generally by that word. It means Sadhu-guna, goodness, uprightness, virtue; and these can be possessed by animals and even insects. Really speaking, the promotion of Sathwa guna is the best means of fostering Sadhus. The Avathara is the embodiment of this sacred Guna and so It fosters it, wherever it is found; but since Sanyasins are striving to earn it, they are called Sadhus and supposed to be specially blessed by the attention of the Lord."

"But they are not the only Sadhus. All those who follow Sadachara, who have Sad-seela, who adhere to Sathya, who yearn for the Sannidhi (presence) of Sarveswara (the Lord), who observe Sad-dharma, who consider Sarvajana (all) as Samaana (equal); all of them are Sadhus. Such characteristics are found among the animals and birds even. In the Ramayana, Jatayu was saved as a result of this Guna. That is the reason why the elephant was blessed and the monkeys were given a chance to serve and be blessed with His grace. The same reason prompted the Lord to bless the squirrel. A Sadhu is not made by a string of beads, an ochre robe and a stick in the hand. The clothes one wears and the language one has on the tongue do not decide who is a Sadhu and who is not; it is the Guna that settles it. All animals have the potentiality to be good; so fostering goodness in all is the best means of ensuring the welfare of the world."