Jai Gurudeva Datta!
Infinity
Lord Dattatreya: How can we explain Supreme Consciousness – the Supreme Consciousness which has no boundaries? Dattatreya is infinity incarnate, or infinity incarnated.
As infinity, Lord Dattatreya is unfathomable. We can’t even explain Him, and though we can assume, we can’t understand. He is the guru of all gurus – the Supreme Guru. He represents the whole created universe and the uncreated universe, which has boundaries that we don’t know. There’s no boundary. So vast, so expanded. And an incarnation which represents that – how do you define it? We cannot define it -it’s very difficult to define.
But Dattatreya is in everybody. When we think about Dattatreya, we immediately think about nature. Dattatreya is in nature. When we start seeing the soul aspect of every being, and when we recognize the life in everything that we see around us, we can see Datta. Dattatreya represents that – an avadhoota completely occupied by himself, within himself.
He exists as a beacon of light or a roadmap to eternity. He is eternity incarnate.
Each of his avatars as well – whether it be Sripada Srivallabha, Narasimha Saraswati, Sai Baba, Akkalkot Swami, Manik Prabhu, or any other avatar of Datta – has no boundaries, there is no barrier. They just exist as guiding factors or as guiding lights. They just exist as you would have them. So you can look at them and find yourself. Or as you are, as you see them. You cannot contain them. You cannot put them into boundaries.
Everlasting
We can worship Datta with a mantra, but is Datta the mantra? He is well beyond the mantra. He is all frequencies. Mantras connect in a particular frequency, but Datta is well beyond that. And just like Sai Baba who is still alive and active a hundred years after he left his physical body, Datta too is always active and will always be active. And his many manifestations – we consider them as Datta avatars because they are representing that kind of frequency which Datta is.
Everything is Datta. Every stone, every pebble, every sand particle. Every particle to every mountain, every being. All that we see is Datta or representation of Datta. That means – life is Datta, death is Datta, emotions are Datta, all the thoughts are Datta. Everything is coming out of him – this is an approximate picture that we can understand.
Omniscient
It is not easy to understand Datta; it is very difficult. He delivered the Dasha Mahavidya or the ten great practices to Parashurama. He delivered them – just like that. He can deliver everything because he’s knowledge incarnate. He’s everything; all things are him. All knowledge is him. So he’s abundance, Datta is abundance.
And Datta is not just a guru. He is a guide, and he is a companion. He is like all avadhootas – totally occupied with their inner world, or totally occupied in Divine Consciousness. There is no world outside for them. So when we look at them like that, we become them.
We have to become them to know them. And when we become them, all our identities vanish. We become totally free. Datta is freedom. Datta is purity. Datta is continuity. Datta has no birth and no death. Datta is everything.
Non-definable
It is not easy to define Datta in any finite terms. And if we even try to attempt defining Datta in finite terms, we will fall flat. We won’t be able to do it. So this is Datta. And the story of his birth etc. is not relevant compared to the stature of the Master – highly powerful with great stature. Everything finite represents the infinite. Datta is infinite. A form is only a representation of something infinite. So we should not be deluded by the form. The form is just for the sake of a presence. A visible, tangible presence, that’s all. That’s why the form.
Yet, Datta is not the form; he is formless. He is well beyond the form. So in order to connect to the formless, we connect to the form through the 33 crore idols that we can worship. These deities we worship are representations of the infinite – they are 330 million aspects of our own existence. Datta is all of those dimensions of possibilities. Datta is everything. All the 330 million are within Datta, and hence, they are within us also. But what we are predominantly – that’s what we worship. What we are predominantly – that’s what we connect to. And that is the understanding that we should have when we look at Datta; He is everything. When we deeply connect to Datta we too become infinity. Dissolution.
The ultimate human possibility is dissolution. Complete dissolving into the Supreme Consciousness, becoming the Supreme Consciousness, becoming the ocean. Datta is the ocean. Datta is the destination. And Datta is everything.
Long live Datta! And long live our awareness. Jai Gurudeva Datta.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Geeta Iyer