List of avatar claimants explained

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

• 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]
• Kalki Bhagawan and Amma Bhagawan - This couple from South India claim to be the Kalki avatar of Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi respectively.^[11]
• Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri, Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), is regarded by his followers as the “reincarnation of Krishna” and the “Tenth Avatar” and the “Immaculate Manifestation of Krishna” according to Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.^[12] He is also regarded as the fulfillment of the Messianic expectations of the other prophetic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism).

See also

• 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

Further reading

• Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma. Norman C. McClelland. McFarland 2011. .

Notes and References

1. [Garuda Purana]
2. Meher Prabhu: Lord Meher, The Biography of the Avatar of the Age, Meher Baba, Manifestation, Inc. 1986, by Bhau Kalchuri, p. 6018
3. 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
4. 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
5. http://www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/hoftheh.html Meher Baba's Highest of the High Declaration
6. Web site: Osho speaks on Meher Baba Osho News.
7. Adilakshmi Olati, "The Mother", page 4
8. John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, The life of Hinduism, University of California Press, 2006, p. 174
9. Noel Sheth, Hindu Avatāra and Christian Incarnation: A Comparison. 2002. Philosophy East and West (University of Hawai'i Press) pp. 98–125.
10. 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
11. Web site: 2019-11-01. The Cult of Kalki Bhagavan. 2021-12-29. Open The Magazine. en-GB.
12. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 1944, The Baha'i Publishing Trust, pgs 94 & 95