This is a list of notable people who have explicitly claimed and are considered by others to be the Avatars of the Supreme Being or of a more limited expansion of Ishvara or other expression of divinity. This list does not include the traditional Dashavatara (ten avatars of Vishnu) of Hinduism.[1]
Claimants[edit | edit source]
- Meher Baba - "I am the Avatar of this Age!"[2] "You know that you are a human being, and I know that I am the Avatar. It is my whole life!"[3] "Irrespective of doubts and convictions, and for the Infinite Love I bear for one and all, I continue to come as the Avatar, to be judged time and again by humanity in its ignorance, in order to help man distinguish the Real from the false."[4][5] He maintained he was the Avatar, God in human form[6]
- Mother Meera - claims to be an avatar of Shakti, the primordial mother goddess.[7] The sense of avatar as mother goddess is unique to the sect of Hinduism called Shaktism.[8][9]
- Sathya Sai Baba - claimed to be an avatar of Shiva and Shakthi.[10]
See also[edit | edit source]
- List of Buddha claimants
- List of Mahdi claimants
- List of messiah claimants
- List of people who have been considered deities
- List of people claimed to be Jesus
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Garuda Purana (1.86.10-11)
- ↑ Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Manifestation, Inc. 1986, by Bhau Kalchuri, p. 6018
- ↑ To Paul Brunton in 1930, Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Manifestation, Inc. 1986, by Bhau Kalchuri, p. 1349
- ↑ The God-Man: The life, journeys and work of Meher Baba with an interpretation of his silence and spiritual teaching, C.B. Purdom, 1964 p. 171
- ↑ Meher Baba's Highest of the High Declaration
- ↑ https://www.oshonews.com/2015/01/09/osho-speaks-on-meher-baba/
- ↑ Adilakshmi Olati, "The Mother", page 4
- ↑ John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, The life of Hinduism, University of California Press, 2006, p. 174
- ↑ Noel Sheth, Hindu Avatāra and Christian Incarnation: A Comparison. 2002. Philosophy East and West (University of Hawai'i Press) pp. 98–125.
- ↑ Sathya Sai Baba "[..] Shiva and Shakthi together at Puttaparthi as Sathya Sai Baba [..] Let Me tell you one more thing: nothing can impede or halt the work of this Avatar." Discourse by Sathya Sai Baba delivered on the occasion of Guru Poornima Day, 6 July 1963
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. Norman C. McClelland. McFarland 2011. ASIN B06WGMT2CS.