Supremacy of 

Rishis
(Sages)
over Saints and Devas

     Disciple: We would request you to tell us about Manu, the archetypal teacher.

        Guru: The created World is marked for its end after fourteen Manvantaras.  I shall come back
to this later.

    We have to touch upon another matter before that. What I am about to say has not been said
before by scholars or the wise men of the Manu tradition. This has been revealed to us here in
Santhigiri Ashram. We have experienced the various manifestations of the Trimurti. They are not
fantasies. All these forces are real. Even low demonic forms are real. We have witnessed and
experienced this reality.

    The Dwapara and the Treta ages -previous ages- were ages of miracle and the focus has been on
such manifestation, not on human spiritual effort. The prevalent misconception among the Hindus
now is that if a deva,  is actualized there is nothing that cannot be achieved.

     Disciple: Why do you say this is a misconception?

        Guru: Tradition describes in detail often through the skills of poets or the visions of seers, the
stories of these forces, Devendra, Ganapati, etc.  to perfection. These stories are enshrined in
temple traditions and are accessible to the laity. Some of these stories however imply that human
sages are spiritually more evolved than the devas, the deities worshipped within
the Trimurti belief. Take the story of the curse on Devendra for example which centers around the
temple at Sucheendram. And we are told too about Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the Trimurti, who,
listening to the promptings of their consorts, fell under the curse of a sage’s wife and were
divested of their astral powers. There have been many sages whose lives illustrate this point.

      Gunamkudi Mastan, Naranathu Bhrantan, Pakkanar, Nandanar and Tiruvalluvar were great

sages. That they were sages is evident if we examine their life stories. But the Hindu scribes have
befuddled these stories and identified them conveniently with the Trimurti belief. In this
perspective the deva becomes capable of making or wrecking a human being’s life with a single
blessing or a single curse. The past Dwapara and the Treta ages were ages of miracle and the focus
in the Kali Age has remained wrongly on such manifestation, rather than spiritual effort. The limits
of human destiny are thus defined through the miracles of the devas. The lives of the sages, also
were chronicled in the manner of the devas. If these legends are subjected to meticulous
questioning, the priestly class would resist analysis and attribute everything to maya,  cosmic
illusion.

    We could believe that with the coming of the Aryans into India, many good things happened
here. But this good is not evident now probably because of the passage of time or of the deceit by
spiritual leaders who attempted to overturn the Will of the Almighty. Whatever be the reason,
most people today are like animals benighted and penned.

     Disciple: The deceit of the spiritual leaders?