Sathya Sai Baba The World-Avatar Teaching and Revelations

Eternal universal religion enables one to attain this fullness. Very few
have grasped the uniqueness and the importance of this religion. Nowadays,
many elders and political leaders are afraid to utter even the
word "religion" before the gatherings they address. They shape their
lives in accordance with a new order, which has no religious slant
whatsoever. In fact, they have not understood what religion really
means. They do not attempt to discover the significant role of religion.
(...)
The religions we know are all derived from a person or prophet who is
adored as the ideal. Islam has Mohammed, Christianity has Jesus,
Buddhism has the Buddha. But the eternal Divine truth and law (sanatana
dharma) are not derived from or through a person. It is the primal
essence of all faiths. It is the essence of all the messages the prophets
proclaimed. It is welcomed by all mankind, for it welcomes all mankind.
It is therefore to be deplored that some Indians boast selfishly: “The
eternal religion (sanatana dharma) is our religion.” (...)
The principles of the eternal religion are inherent in human consciousness,
and have their impact all over the world. The people of India have
long practiced and experienced them and discovered their value and
validity. They have earned invaluable bliss. Just as atomic science developed
in one country and later spread to other countries, the eternal
faith, developed in India and spread to other countries. Even a material
process like atomic science cannot be held down in one place; in the
same manner, this spiritual science too has spread all over the world.
The eternal religion is bound to overcome today's rampant materialism,
for it can harmonise the secular and the spiritual, into a single way
of life. It can bring man and God into closer kinship. It is based on the
Divine which is the reality of the self. So, it is not limited to one country,
one individual, one period of time, or one sect. It has a variety of procedures,
points of view, disciplines and guidelines, in accordance with
the special features of the region, the age, and the environment. It is
co-eval with man on earth. Though first explicit in India, between the
Himalaya range and the three seas, this faith, has become a world
faith, through its innate strength.
The Divine is manifest in every human being. The religions professed
may be different, the manifestations may differ; but the self which eternal
conduct proclaims is the same in all. "The thousandheaded, thousand-eyed,
thousand-footed person," is the Divine self, approachable
through many paths, expressed in many form. 19.11.80, (25-35/37)
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