A Vow of Love
Excerpt from the Last Chapter in The Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar
Within the word Avatar is another secret Sanskrit word that guides us to the next level of our development. The word is vrata, made from the same letters as Avatar. Vrata means “a vow or commitment”—a giving of our word that then governs and directs our behavior. This is the healing medicine for the irresponsible use of free will by humans. Animals are what they are by nature and instinct, but humans advance or degrade ourselves according to the greater vision that we bind ourselves to through a conscious and purposeful vow.
It is often said that “it isn’t what you know, it’s whom you know.” The Vedas say both are crucial. Our knowing of the ritam (the Laws of Nature) allows us to cooperate with Mother Nature and create a more harmonious life and world. Learning to know the Devas, the divine helpers in the Material Nature, gives us excellent role models of divine service, which leads us toward deeper compassion and enlightenment. However, there remains within us a potential that can be activated only by an association with someone who inspires us to be the most noble person we are capable of being. If, as the film Avatar points out, at our worst we are mining the world for Unobtanium, then the Avatar comes bearing the medicine of Divine inspiration, the “Restorium.”
Once we form the link to the Transcendental and the bond with the Person of the Avatar, then we take a vrata that our lives will be dedicated to living up to the noble ideals expressed in the lives of the Avatars. That vow becomes the new guiding principle in our lives. Imagine a world filled with souls who live in the service of all beings, inspired by the loving example of the Avatar.
What we need are heroes and heroines. We need great souls, mahatmas, who only want the good of all, and who do everything with an ear to the lips of the Divine voice of the Avatar. Our Avatar moment is realized when we live with and for the good of all beings in mind and heart. The Avatar moment of our world will be realized if we can all serve one another and evolve together in divine cooperation. This is the hope of the Avatars and the secret of the messages They left during Their appearance among us.
It is my sincere wish that Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar will provide tools of knowledge that help you live and be your most authentic self—whatever your worldview—and that this book will inspire and encourage you to help solve personal, local, and global dilemmas through greater consciousness, cooperation, and integrity.
The Avatars are unequivocal about one thing: with the correct vision, we can, starting today, begin to fulfill the promise of Hope that remains in Pandora’s Box and, most important, in the deepest, kindest, most courageous parts of our own hearts.
In guiding you, I offer my eternal gratitude and deepest respect to the extraordinary elders of so many Indigenous cultures from whom I have learned and, of course, to my gurus and teachers in India who shared with me the real treasures of the Avatar tradition in the hope that we yet can learn to live in greater joy and compassion on Mother Earth.
Jai Sri Krishna
