Amongst all the incarnations of the Supreme Being, the incarnation of Lord Dattatrey is considered to be the most Superior. Shree Vasudevanand Saraswati alias Shree Tembe swami, who is considered as the incarnation of Lord Dattatrey in modern age said “The incarnation of Lord Dattatrey is considered as the first and foremost of all incarnations of the Supreme-Being. The incarnation of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna acted according to the duties with respect to the four castes and four stages of life. Lord Dattatrey also had oneness with Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, but was superior most in class.”
He was an Avadhoot17 but he was also a Panchashramee[1]. Hence the religious institutes have considered Lord Dattatrey superior to even the religious people of a hermitage. For people in hermitage, Lord Dattatrey is adorable and for Gods, demons and mankind, he is considered very respectable. Nobody had enmity towards him out of hatred since he always loved everyone unbiased. Why would anyone hate him, when his incarnation is not meant to slay anybody?
Lord Dattatrey was an incarnation as a saviour of devotees. Hence the compassionate Lord Dattatrey took birth in the hermitage of the chaste and virtuous Anasuya to uplift the lives of those enduring in the threefold misery in this ocean of worldly affairs, as well as to give them happiness and to fulfil their desires. Without giving up the mission of his incarnation he remained immortal, until the end of Kalpa[2].
Lord Dattatrey is considered as the most dignified incarnation since he is the manifestation of the three Divine powers of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Mahesh. These three divine powers represent the creation, continuance and destruction of this Universe respectively. Sage Vasishtha, the Guru of Lord Rama and Krishna considers Lord Dattatrey as his Guru and honours him greatly by offering a standing obeisance. If a great soul like that of Sage Vasishtha, who is ever free from corporeal existence, is always absorbed in the contemplation of Brahma having detached himself of this worldly existence through worship, adoring and chanting the name of Lord Dattatrey, then ordinary souls like us that are dependent of others for welfare should definitely carry out similar worship and chanting without fail for our own upliftment.
In Satya Yuga[3], Lord Dattatrey took the first incarnation as the son of sage Atri and his virtuous wife Anasuya. He is three headed with six hands and is a constant wanderer. He lives on alms, always recollects and is very kind to his devotees. This is the original incarnation of Lord Dattatrey as described in Mythology.
It is said that Lord Dattatrey normally lived on Girnar Mountain in Gujarat State, but He wandered around the whole day. He would bathe in Kashi (Benaras); perform religious rituals in Panchaleshwar; collect alms in Kolhapur, in Maharashtra State, and sleep at Mahur Gad. Nevertheless, the constant wanderer Lord Dattatrey’s Divine presence is all pervading.
[1] Panchashramee: One who observes the five stages of life of a Brahman
[2] Kalpa: A kalpa is a length of time in Hindu cosmology. It is equal to 4,320 million years, a “day of Brahma” or one thousand Yugas, measuring the duration of the world; a “month of Brahma” is supposed to contain thirty such Kalpas, or 129.6 billion years. According to the Mahabharata, 12 months of Brahma constitute his year, and 100 such years. Fifty years of Brahma’s are supposed to have elapsed, and we are now in the shvetavaraha-kalpa of the fifty-first; at the end of a Kalpa the world is annihilated.
[3] Satya yuga:
The first Yuga or age, the golden age, comprising of one million seven hundred twentyeight thousand years.
In Hindu tradition, the world goes through a continuous cycle of these epochs. Each ascending phase of the cycle from Kali Yuga to Satya Yuga is followed by a descending phase back to Kali Yuga, then another ascending phase and so on. Alternatively, it is sometimes supposed that at the end of the descending Kali Yuga, the world will return to the Satya Yuga, and begin a new decline.
The descent from Satya to Kali is associated with progressively deterioration of Dharma (righteousness) manifested as decrease in length of human life and quality of human moral standards.
The traditional virtues accorded highest value in the four epochs are: Satya Yuga or Krita Yuga – dhyana (meditation), Treta Yuga – yajna (sacrifice), Dvapara Yuga – archana (worship), Kali Yuga – daana (gifts)
In the highest yuga, the great majority of the people can experience spirituality by direct intuitive realization of truth. The veil between the material and the transcendent realms becomes almost transparent. According to Natya Shastra, there is no Natya performances in the Krita Yugabecause it is a period free from any kind of unhappiness or misery. Satya Yuga is also called the Golden Age.
Treta Yuga is the mental age, mental power is harnessed, men are in power, and inventions dissolve the illusion of time. (Inventions are characteristic of both Dvapara and Treta yugas.)
In Dwapara Yuga, science flourishes, people experience the spiritual in terms of subtle energies and rational choices, inventions are abundant, particularly those that dissolve the illusion of distance (between people and between things), and power is mostly in the hands of women. The end of this age is associated with the death of Krishna, and the events described in the Mahabharata.
In the lowest phase, Kali Yuga, most people are aware only of the physical aspect of existence, the predominant emphasis of living is material survival, and power is mostly in the hands of men. People’s relationship with the spiritual is governed predominantly by superstition and by authority.
Temples, wars, and writing are hallmarks of Dvapara and Kali yugas. In the higher ages (Treta and Satya), writing is unnecessary because people communicate directly by thought; temples are unnecessary because people feel the omnipresence of God; wars are rare but they do occur; one such war is described in the Ramayana.
The traditional timescale of the yugas is as follows:
Satya Yuga or Krita Yuga – 1,728,000 years
Treta Yuga – 1,296,000 years
Dvapara Yuga – 864,000 years
Kali Yuga – 432,000 years
Upon conclusion of seventy-one (or sometimes seven)
circuits of this cycle, there is a period equally long during which the world
is inundated; then the cycle begins again.