When there is a disturbance, a police officer is sent to calm it. When there is a demonstration, a police captain is required. A riot has to be handled by a Chief of Police. But when there is a mutiny, the Inspector General will come in person to restore order.

The severity of the disorder is matched by a plenitude of authority sufficient to eliminate it. Peace is the condition of life, not its goal.

First Century Mediterranean society was a riot. It required the presence of a Chief of Police. The Chief of Police Who was sent in was named Isa. The Latinized version of his name is Jesus.

Our situation today is much worse than that of First Century Mediterranean society. More than a riot, a mutiny is afoot. The Inspector General, Himself, is needed on the scene. The strongest possible medicine is indicated.

The Inspector General is the Avatar of the Lord, the Plenary (Parousia) Incarnation of the Godhead. (Avatar means, 'He Who comes,' 'He Who descends.') He has come before, notably as the Rama and Krishna Avatars. This time, the Inspector General has resolved upon a series of three Incarnations, the Sai Avatars, Whose Careers span the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries.

The first of the series, Sai Baba of Shirdi, was Siva alone. The second of the series, Swami Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, is Siva and Parvathi, the Consort, together. The third of the series, Prema Sai Baba, will be Parvathi, the Consort, alone.

Great Ones, such as Isa (Jesus), and Avatars take birth in the Kshatriya caste, the caste comprising persons deputed to operate the civil authority. Kshatriyas are rulers. They are entitled to make, administer and enforce laws. They have authority to decide upon and engage in penal activity.

Police officers, police captains, Chiefs of Police and Inspectors General are members of the Kshatriya caste. They are rulers. Isa was a member of the caste comprising persons deputed to operate the civil authority. He was a ruler. He was a Chief of Police of the civil authority.

The authority to make and administer laws and to deliver punishment for their breach belongs to Kshatriyas, alone. Others -- Teachers and Priests, Businesspersons and Farmers and Laborers -- do not have this authority, and claiming that they do have it, or trying to exercise it, is for these persons a heinous sin. In fact, it is mutiny.

The foremost responsibility of rulers is to foster Sages in their hermitages. Why is this? Sages are impartial. They give correct advice. Further, they discover the principles of conduct the practice of which ensure a happy, prosperous society.

Sages can come from any caste and do. The castes indicate the activities that are necessary for the smooth running of society. They do not indicate a hierarchy of attainment or respectability, spiritual or otherwise.

There are four castes:

1- Teacher (Brahmin)

2- Ruler (Kshatriya)

3- Producer (Vaisya)

4- Laborer (Sudra)

The castes are universal and immutable, the basic categories of every society. The caste in which one takes birth is established in India by the caste of one's parents and in the rest of the world by one's inner necessity. Really, Providence determines the caste in which one takes birth and, therefore, the duties one must discharge in this life. Providence is gracious: always, caste is matched with inner necessity and comprises the most soteriologically auspicious condition for a person's sojourn on earth.

When everyone is engaged in their own inner necessity (caste), all appear equally important and prosperity prevails. Providence, not government, allots the tasks, and that inwardly. Human wisdom cannot see, much less organize, universal harmony. Divine Wisdom does.

Sages are the first line of education. Education is the foundation of success. So, the fostering of Sages is the first concern of rulers.

After this, rulers have overall responsibility for the welfare of citizens -- each and all of them -- and this is, firstly, responsibility for their spiritual welfare. For, citizens' spiritual welfare is the quid pro quo of their welfare in all other realms, such as the social, economic and political realms.

This means that rulers are responsible for building and maintaining religious institutions and programs in their jurisdictions. After the welfare of Sages, religious institutions and programs are rulers' next most important responsibility.

In this Iron Age (Kali Yuga), religious institutions and programs suffer from chronic debilitation. This occurs by two means, usually operating in concert:

... clergy (teachers) loose faith in the power of Dharma (Proper Conduct) to prevail, and

... rulers allow non-clergy to wrest and usurp the Magisterium (authority to teach) from clergy and to convince the people -- even rulers -- that they are the genuine article.

Isa's entrance into the Sanctuary with scourge and condemnation was part of His duty as a Chief of Police, a ruler. Affairs at the Sanctuary were in apostate or the wrong hands. A riot was on and Isa went to quell it.

Rulers are responsible for correcting such situations. To do so is their Dharma, their duty. In this incident we observe Isa fulfilling a duty of rulers.

Now, viewing Isa's cleansing of the Sanctuary as the action of a priest will not be correct. It was the action of a ruler. This is important to understand.

Isa was not a priest. He was not clergy. He was a ruler. I have pointed out elsewhere that texts (some Psalms, Peter, Hebrews) which link Isa with a priesthood are spurious. Isa was a ruler.

He cleaned the Sanctuary -- even destroyed it stone-by-stone -- because clergy would not keep it upright and rulers employed it in nefarious schemes, such as fleecing citizens. The purpose of the Sanctuary was replaced by improper conduct. Truth had been driven out of the city and into the wilderness.

Isa reversed the standing. He brought truth back from out of the wilderness and drove anti-truth thither. In this, He discharged the civil authority He had by virtue of birth as a Kshatriya, a ruler.

One more doubt may arise. Priests are a society's most visible teachers. But they are not its only ones. One way or another, every person teaches, or should. This is shown in the fact that Sages, who are the world's first-line teachers, come from every caste. In fact, like Great Ones and Avatars, Sages are beyond distinctions of caste.

Saying that Isa (Jesus) did not have authority to teach because He was a ruler would not be correct. Clergy are a society's most visible teachers. But they are not its only ones.

Adwaitha Hermitage
April 1992