{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28262/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28262","id":"gutenberg_28262","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28262","summary":null,"tags":["Avatars (Religion)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Theosophy"],"text":"Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Bryan Ness, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                                AVAT\u00c2RAS\n\n              FOUR LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE TWENTY-FOURTH\n                       ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE\n                     THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AT ADYAR,\n                         MADRAS, DECEMBER, 1899\n\n\n\n                                   BY\n\n                              ANNIE BESANT\n\n\n\n                           _ENGLISH EDITION_\n\n\n\n\n                    Theosophical Publishing Society\n                      3 Langham Place, London, W.\n                                  1900\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                         PAGE\n\nLECTURE I.--\n\nWHAT IS AN AVAT\u00c2RA?                                        7\n\nLECTURE II.--\n\nTHE SOURCE OF AND NEED FOR AVAT\u00c2RAS                       31\n\nLECTURE III.--\n\nSOME SPECIAL AVAT\u00c2RAS                                     65\n\nLECTURE IV.--\n\nSHR\u00ce KRISHNA                                              95\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nAVAT\u00c2RAS.\n\nFIRST LECTURE.\n\n\nBROTHERS:--Every time that we come here together to study the\nfundamental truths of all religions, I cannot but feel how vast is the\nsubject, how small the expounder, how mighty the horizon that opens\nbefore our thoughts, how narrow the words which strive to sketch it for\nyour eyes. Year after year we meet, time after time we strive to fathom\nsome of those great mysteries of life, of the Self, which form the only\nsubject really worthy of the profoundest thought of man. All else is\npassing; all else is transient; all else is but the toy of a moment.\nFame and power, wealth and science--all that is in this world below is\nas nothing beside the grandeur of the Eternal Self in the universe and\nin man, one in all His manifold manifestations, marvellous and beautiful\nin every form that He puts forth. And this year, of all the\nmanifestations of the Supreme, we are going to dare to study the holiest\nof the holiest, those manifestations of God in the world in which He\nshows Himself as divine, coming to help the world that He has made,\nshining forth in His essential nature, the form but a thin film which\nscarce veils the Divinity from our eyes. How then shall we venture to\napproach it, how shall we dare to study it, save with deepest reverence,\nwith profoundest humility; for if there needs for the study of His works\npatience, reverence and humbleness of heart, what when we study Him\nwhose works but partially reveal Him, when we try to understand what is\nmeant by an Avat\u00e2ra, what is the meaning, what the purpose of such a\nrevelation?\n\nOur President has truly said that in all the faiths of the world there\nis belief in such manifestations, and that ancient maxim as to\ntruth--that which is as the hall mark on the silver showing that the\nmetal is pure--that ancient maxim is here valid, that whatever has been\nbelieved everywhere, whatever has been believed at every time, and by\nevery one, that is true, that is reality. Religions quarrel over many\ndetails; men dispute over many propositions; but where human heart and\nhuman voice speak a single word, there you have the mark of truth, there\nyou have the sign of spiritual reality. But in dealing with the subject\none difficulty faces us, faces you as hearers, faces myself as speaker.\nIn every religion in modern times truth is shorn of her full\nproportions; the intellect alone cannot grasp the many aspects of the\none truth. So we have school after school, philosophy after philosophy,\neach one showing an aspect of truth, and ignoring, or even denying, the\nother aspects which are equally true. Nor is this all; as the age in\nwhich we are passes on from century to century, from millennium to\nmillennium, knowledge becomes dimmer, spiritual insight becomes rarer,\nthose who repeat far out-number those who know; and those who speak with\nclear vision of the spiritual verity are lost amidst the crowds, who\nonly hold traditions whose origin they fail to understand. The priest\nand the prophet, to use two well-known words, have ever in later times\ncome into conflict one with the other. The priest carries on the\ntraditions of antiquity; too often he has lost the knowledge that made\nthem real. The prophet--coming forth from time to time with the divine\nword hot as fire on his lips--speaks out the ancient truth and\nilluminates tradition. But they who cling to the words of tradition are\napt to be blinded by the light of the fire and to call out \"heretic\"\nagainst the one who speaks the truth that they have lost. Therefore, in\nreligion after religion, when some great teacher has arisen, there have\nbeen opposition, clamour, rejection, because the truth he spoke was too\nmighty to be narrowed within the limits of half-blinded men. And in such\na subject as we are to study to-day, certain grooves have been made,\ncertain ruts as it were, in which the human mind is running, and I know\nthat in laying before you the occult truth, I must needs, at some\npoints, come into clash with details of a tradition that is rather\nrepeated by memory than either understood or the truths beneath it\ngrasped. Pardon me then, my brothers, if in a speech on this great topic\nI should sometimes come athwart some of the dividing lines of different\nschools of Hindu thought; I may not, I dare not, narrow the truth I have\nlearnt, to suit the limitations that have grown up by the ignorance of\nages, nor make that which is the spiritual verity conform to the empty\ntraditions that are left in the faiths of the world. By the duty laid\nupon me by the Master that I serve, by the truth that He has bidden me\nspeak in the ears of men of all the faiths that are in this modern\nworld; by these I must tell you what is true, no matter whether or not\nyou agree with it for the moment; for the truth that is spoken wins\nsubmission afterwards, if not at the moment; and any one who speaks of\nthe Rishis of antiquity must speak the truths that they taught in\ntheir days, and not repeat the mere commonplaces of commentators of\nmodern times and the petty orthodoxies that ring us in on every side and\ndivide man from man.\n\nI propose in order to simplify this great subject to divide it under\ncertain heads. I propose first to remind you of the two great divisions\nrecognised by all who have thought on the subject; then to take up\nespecially, for this morning, the question, \"What is an Avat\u00e2ra?\"\nTo-morrow we shall put and strive to answer, partly at least, the\nquestion, \"Who is the source of Avat\u00e2ras?\" Then later we shall take up\nspecial Avat\u00e2ras both of the kosmos and of human races. Thus I hope to\nplace before you a clear, definite succession of ideas on this great\nsubject, not asking you to believe them because I speak them, not asking\nyou to accept them because I utter them. Your reason is the bar to which\nevery truth must come which is true for you; and you err deeply, almost\nfatally, if you let the voice of authority impose itself where you do\nnot answer to the speaking. Every truth is only true to you as you see\nit, and as it illuminates the mind; and truth however true is not yet\ntruth for you, unless your heart opens out to receive it, as the flower\nopens out its heart to receive the rays of the morning sun.\n\nFirst, then, let us take a statement that men of every religion will\naccept. Divine manifestations of a special kind take place from time to\ntime as the need arises for their appearance; and these special\nmanifestations are marked out from the universal manifestation of God in\nHis kosmos; for never forget that in the lowest creature that crawls the\nearth I'shvara is present as in the highest Deva. But there are certain\nspecial manifestations marked out from this general self-revelation in\nthe kosmos, and it is these special manifestations which are called\nforth by special needs. Two words especially have been used in Hinduism,\nmarking a certain distinction in the nature of the manifestation--one\nthe word \"Avat\u00e2ra,\" the other the word \"A\u00b4vesha.\" Only for a moment\nneed we stop on the meaning of the words, important to us because the\nliteral meaning of the words points to the fundamental difference\nbetween the two. The word \"Avat\u00e2ra,\" as you know, has as its root\n\"tri,\" passing over, and with the prefix which is added, the \"ava,\"\nyou get the idea of descent, one who descends. That is the literal\nmeaning of the word. The other word has as its root \"vish,\"\npermeating, penetrating, pervading, and you have there the thought of\nsomething which is permeated or penetrated. So that while in the one\ncase, Avat\u00e2ra, there is the thought of a descent from above, from\nI\u00b4shvara to man or animal; in the other, there is rather the idea of an\nentity already existing who is influenced, permeated, pervaded by the\ndivine power, specially illuminated as it were. And thus we have a kind\nof intermediate step, if one may say so, between the divine\nmanifestation in the Avat\u00e2ra and in the kosmos--the partial divine\nmanifestation in one who is permeated by the influence of the Supreme,\nor of some other being who practically dominates the individual, the Ego\nwho is thus permeated.\n\nNow what are the occasions which lead to these great manifestations?\nNone can speak with mightier authority on this point than He who came\nHimself as an Avat\u00e2ra just before the beginning of our own age, the\nDivine Lord Shr\u00ee Krishna Himself. Turn to that marvellous poem,\nthe _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_, to the fourth Adhy\u00e2ya, Shlokas 7 and 8; there He\ntells us what draws Him forth to birth into His world in the manifested\nform of the Supreme:\n\n[Sanskrit:\n\nyadA yadAhidharmasya GlAnirBavati BArata |\n\naByutthAnamadharmasya tadAtmAnaM sRujAmyaham ||\n\nparitrANAya sAdhUnAm vinAsAyacaduShkRutAm ||\n\ndharmasaMsdhApanArthAya saMBavAmi yuge yuge ||]\n\n\"When Dharma,--righteousness, law--decays, when\nAdharma--unrighteousness, lawlessness--is exalted, then I Myself come\nforth: for the protection of the good, for the destruction of the evil,\nfor the establishing firmly of Dharma, I am born from age to age.\" That\nis what He tells us of the coming forth of the Avat\u00e2ra. That is, the\nneeds of His world call upon Him to manifest Himself in His divine\npower; and we know from other of His sayings that in addition to those\nwhich deal with the human needs, there are certain kosmic necessities\nwhich in the earlier ages of the world's story called forth special\nmanifestations. When in the great wheel of evolution another turn round\nhas to be given, when some new form, new type of life is coming forth,\nthen also the Supreme reveals Himself, embodying the type which thus He\ninitiates in His kosmos, and in this way turning that everlasting wheel\nwhich He comes forth as I\u00b4shvara to turn. Such then, speaking quite\ngenerally, the meaning of the word, and the object of the coming.\n\nFrom that we may fitly turn to the more special question, \"What is an\nAvat\u00e2ra?\" And it is here that I must ask your close attention, nay, your\npatient consideration, where points that to some extent may be\nunfamiliar are laid before you; for as I said, it is the occult view of\nthe truth which I am going to partially unveil, and those who have not\nthus studied truth need to think carefully ere they reject, need to\nconsider long ere they refuse. We shall see as we try to answer the\nquestion how far the great authorities help us to understand, and how\nfar the lack of knowledge in reading those authorities has led to\nmisconception. You may remember that the late learned T. Subba Rao in\nthe lectures that he gave on the _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_ put to you a certain\nview of the Avat\u00e2ra, that it was a descent of I\u00b4shvara--or, as he said,\nusing the theosophical term, the Logos, which is only the Greek name for\nI\u00b4shvara--a descent of I\u00b4shvara, uniting Himself with a human soul. With\nall respect for the profound learning of the lamented pandit, I cannot\nbut think that that is only a partial definition. Probably he did not at\nthat time desire, had not very possibly the time, to deal with case\nafter case, having so wide a field to cover in the small number of\nlectures that he gave, and he therefore chose out one form, as we may\nsay, of self-revelation, leaving untouched the others, which now in\ndealing with the subject by itself we have full time to study. Let me\nthen begin as it were at the beginning, and then give you certain\nauthorities which may make the view easier to accept; let me state\nwithout any kind of attempt to veil or evade, what is really an Avat\u00e2ra.\nFundamentally He is the result of evolution. In far past Kalpas, in\nworlds other than this, nay, in universes earlier than our own, those\nwho were to be Avat\u00e2ras climbed slowly, step by step, the vast ladder of\nevolution, climbing from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, from\nanimal to man, from man to J\u00eevanmukta, from J\u00eevanmukta higher and higher\nyet, up the mighty hierarchy that stretches beyond Those who have\nliberated Themselves from the bonds of humanity; until at last, thus\nclimbing, They cast off not only all the limits of the separated Ego,\nnot only burst asunder the limitations of the separated Self, but\nentered I\u00b4shvara Himself and expanded into the all-consciousness of the\nLord, becoming one in knowledge as they had ever been one in essence\nwith that eternal Life from which originally they came forth, living in\nthat life, centres without circumferences, living centres, one with the\nSupreme. There stretches behind such a One the endless chain of birth\nafter birth, of manifestation after manifestation. During the stage in\nwhich He was human, during the long climbing up of the ladder of\nhumanity, there were two special characteristics that marked out the\nfuture Avat\u00e2ra from the ranks of men. One his absolute bhakti, his\ndevotion to the Supreme; for only those who are bhaktas and who to their\nbhakti have wed gny\u00e2na, or knowledge, can reach this goal; for by\ndevotion, says Shr\u00ee Krishna, can a man \"enter into My being.\"\nAnd the need of the devotion for the future Avat\u00e2ra is this: he must\nkeep the centre that he has built even in the life of I\u00b4shvara, so that\nhe may be able to draw the circumference once again round that centre,\nin order that he may come forth as a manifestation of I'shvara, one with\nHim in knowledge, one with Him in power, the very Supreme Himself in\nearthly life; he must hence have the power of limiting himself to form,\nfor no form can exist in the universe save as there is a centre within\nit round which that form is drawn. He must be so devoted as to be\nwilling to remain for the service of the universe while I\u00b4shvara Himself\nabides in it, to share the continual sacrifice made by Him, the\nsacrifice whereby the universe lives. But not devotion alone marks this\ngreat One who is climbing his divine path. He must also be, as I\u00b4shvara\nis, a lover of humanity. Unless within him there burns the flame of love\nfor men--nay, men, do I say? it is too narrow--unless within him burns\nthe flame of love for everything that exists, moving and unmoving, in\nthis universe of God, he will not be able to come forth as the Supreme\nwhose life and love are in everything that He has brought forth out of\nHis eternal and inexhaustible life. \"There is nothing,\" says the\nBeloved, \"moving or unmoving, that may exist bereft of me;\"[1] and\nunless the man can work that into his nature, unless he can love\neverything that is, not only the beautiful but the ugly, not only the\ngood but the evil, not only the attractive but the repellent, unless in\nevery form he sees the Self, he cannot climb the steep path the Avat\u00e2ra\nmust tread.\n\n[Footnote 1: _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_, x. 39.]\n\nThese, then, are the two great characteristics of the man who is to\nbecome the special manifestation of God--bhakti, love to the One in whom\nhe is to merge, and love to those whose very life is the life of God.\nOnly as these come forth in the man is he on the path that leads him to\nbe--in future universes, in far, far future kalpas--an Avat\u00e2ra coming as\nGod to man.\n\nNow on this view of the nature of an Avat\u00e2ra difficulties, I know,\narise; but they are difficulties that arise from a partial view, and\nthen from that view having been merely accepted, as a rule, on the\nauthority of some great name, instead of on the thinking out and\nthorough understanding of it by the man who repeats the shibboleth of\nhis own sect or school. The view once taken, every text in Shruti or\nSmriti that goes against that view is twisted out of its natural\nmeaning, in order to be made to agree with the idea which already\ndominates the mind. That is the difficulty with every religion; a man\nacquires his view by tradition, by habit, by birth, by public opinion,\nby the surroundings of his own time and of his own day. He finds in the\nscriptures--which belong to no time, to no day, to no one age, and to\nno one people, but are expressions of the eternal Veda--he finds in them\nmany texts that do not fit into the narrow framework that he has made;\nand because he too often cares for the framework more than for the\ntruth, he manipulates the text until he can make it fit in, in some\ndislocated fashion; and the ingenuity of the commentator too often\nappears in the skill with which he can make words appear to mean what\nthey do not mean in their grammatical and obvious sense. Thus, men of\nevery school, under the mighty names of men who knew the truth--but who\ncould only give such portion of truth as they deemed man at the time was\nable to receive--use their names to buttress up mistaken\ninterpretations, and thus walls are continually built up to block the\nadvancing life of man.\n\nNow let me take one example from one of the greatest names, one who knew\nthe truth he spoke, but also, like every teacher, had to remember that\nwhile he was man, those to whom he spoke were children that could not\ngrasp truth with virile understanding. That great teacher, founder of\none of the three schools of the Ved\u00e2nta, Shr\u00ee R\u00e2m\u00e2nuj\u00e2ch\u00e2rya, in his\ncommentary on the _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_--a priceless work which men of every\nschool might read and profit by--dealing with the phrase in which Shr\u00ee\nKrishna declares that He has had [Sanskrit: bahUnijanmAni]\n\"many births,\" points out how vast the variety of those births had been.\nThen, confining himself to His manifestations as I\u00b4shvara--that is\nafter He had attained to the Supreme--he says quite truly that He was\nborn by His own will; not by karma that compelled Him, not by any force\noutside Him that coerced Him, but by His own will He came forth as\nI'shvara and incarnated in one form or another. But there is nothing\nsaid there of the innumerable steps traversed by the mighty One ere yet\nHe merged Himself in the Supreme. Those are left on one side,\nunmentioned, unnoticed, because what the writer had in his view was to\npresent to the hearts of men a great Object for adoration, who might\ngradually lift them upwards and upwards until the Self should blossom in\nthem in turn. No word is said of the previous kalpas, of the universes\nstretching backward into the illimitable past. He speaks of His birth as\nDeva, as N\u00e2ga, as Gandharva, as those many shapes that He has taken by\nHis own will. As you know, or as you may learn if you turn to\n_Shr\u00eemad-Bh\u00e2gavata_, there is a much longer list of manifestations than\nthe ten usually called Avat\u00e2ras. There are given one after another the\nforms which seem strange to the superficial reader when connected in\nmodern thought with the Supreme. But we find light thrown on the\nquestion by some other words of the great Lord; and we also find in one\nfamous book, full of occult hints--though not with much explanation of\nthe hints given--the _Yoga V\u00e2sishtha_, a clear definite statement that\nthe deities, as Mah\u00e2deva, Vishnu and Brahm\u00e2, have all climbed upward to\nthe mighty posts They hold.[2] And that may well be so, if you think of\nit; there is nothing derogatory to Them in the thought; for there is but\none Existence, the eternal fount of all that comes forth as separated,\nwhether separated in the universe as I\u00b4shvara, or separated in the copy\nof the universe in man; there is but One without a second; there is no\nlife but His, no independence but His, no self-existence but His, and\nfrom Him Gods and men and all take their root and exist for ever in and\nby His one eternal life. Different stages of manifestation, but the One\nSelf in all the different stages, the One living in all; and if it be\ntrue, as true it is, that the Self in man is\n\n[Sanskrit: prajo nityaH SasvatoayaMpurANo]\n\n\"unborn, constant, eternal, ancient,\" it is because the Self in man is\none with the One Self-existent, and I\u00b4shvara Himself is only the\nmightiest manifestation of that One who knows no second near Himself.\nSays an English poet:\n\n     Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.\n\n[Footnote 2: Part II., Chapter ii., Shlokas 14, 15, 16.]\n\nThe Self is in you and in me, as much as the Self is in I\u00b4shvara, that\nOne, eternal, unchanging, undecaying, whereof every manifested existence\nis but one ray of glory. Thus it is true, that which is taught in the\n_Yoga V\u00e2sishtha_; true it is that even the greatest, before whom\nwe bow in worship, has climbed in ages past all human reckoning to be\none with the Supreme, and, ever there, to manifest Himself as God to the\nworld.\n\nBut now we come to a distinction that we find made, and it is a real\none. We read of a P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra, a full, complete, Avat\u00e2ra. What is the\nmeaning of that word \"full\" as applied to the Avat\u00e2ra? The name is\ngiven, as we know, to Shr\u00ee Krishna. He is marked out specially\nby that name. Truly the word \"p\u00fbrna\" cannot apply to the Illimitable,\nthe Infinite; He may not be shown forth in any form; the eye may never\nbehold Him; only the spirit that is Himself can know the One. What is\nmeant by it is that, so far as is possible within the limits of form,\nthe manifestation of the formless appears, so far as is possible it came\nforth in that great One who came for the helping of the world. This may\nassist you to grasp the distinction. Where the manifestation is that of\na P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra, then at any moment of time, at His own will, by Yoga\nor otherwise, He can transcend every limit of the form in which He binds\nHimself by His own will, and shine forth as the Lord of the Universe,\nwithin whom all the Universe is contained. Think for a moment once more\nof Shr\u00ee Krishna, who teaches us so much on this. Turn to that\ngreat storehouse of spiritual wisdom, the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_, to the\nAshvamedha Parva which contains the Anug\u00eet\u00e2, and you will find that\nArjuna after the great battle, forgetting the teaching that was given\nhim on Kurukshetra, asked his Teacher to repeat that teaching once\nagain. And Shr\u00ee Krishna, rebuking him for the fickleness of his\nmind and stating that He was much displeased that such knowledge should\nby fickleness have been forgotten, uttered these remarkable words: \"It\nis not possible for me to state it in full in that way. I discoursed to\nthee on the Supreme Brahman, having concentrated myself in Yoga.\" And\nthen He goes on to give out the essence of that teaching, but not in the\nsame sublime form as we have it in the _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_. That is one\nthing that shows you what is meant by a P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra; in a condition\nof Yoga, into which He throws Himself at will, He knows Himself as Lord\nof everything, as the Supreme on whom the Universe is built. Nay more;\nthrice at least--I am not sure if there may have been more cases, but if\nso I cannot at the moment remember them--thrice at least during His life\nas Shr\u00ee Krishna He shows himself forth as I\u00b4shvara, the\nSupreme. Once in the court of Dhritar\u00e2shtra, when the madly foolish\nDuryodhana talked about imprisoning within cell-walls the universal Lord\nwhom the universe cannot confine; and to show the wild folly of the\narrogant prince, out in the court before every eye He shone forth as\nLord of all, filling earth and sky with His glory, and all forms human\nand divine, superhuman and subhuman, were seen gathered round Him in the\nlife from which they spring. Then on Kurukshetra to Arjuna, His beloved\ndisciple, to whom He gave the divine vision that he might see Him in\nHis Vaishnava form, the form of Vishnu, the Supreme Upholder of\nthe Universe. And later, on his way back to Dv\u00e2rak\u00e2, meeting with\nUtanka, He and the sage came to a misunderstanding, and the sage was\npreparing to curse the Lord; to save him from the folly of uttering a\ncurse against the Supreme, as a child might throw a tiny pebble against\na rock of immemorial age, He shone out before the eyes of him who was\nreally His bhakta, and showed him the great Vaishnava form, that of\nthe Supreme. What do those manifestations show? that at will He can show\nhimself forth as Lord of all, casting aside the limits of human form in\nwhich men live; casting aside the appearance so familiar to those around\nHim, He could reveal himself as the mighty One, I\u00b4shvara who is the life\nof all. There is the mark of a P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra; always within His grasp,\nat will, is the power to show Himself forth as I\u00b4shvara.\n\nBut why--the thought may arise in your minds--are not all Avat\u00e2ras of\nthis kind, since all are verily of the Supreme Lord? The answer is that\nby His own will, by his own M\u00e2y\u00e2, He veils Himself within the limits\nwhich serve the creatures whom He has come to help. Ah, how different He\nis, this Mighty One, from you and me! When we are talking to some one\nwho knows a little less than ourselves, we talk out all we know to show\nour knowledge, expanding ourselves as much as we can so as to astonish\nand make marvel the one to whom we speak; that is because we are so\nsmall that we fear our greatness will not be recognised unless we make\nourselves as large as we can to astonish, if possible to terrify; but\nwhen He comes who is really great, who is mightier than anything which\nHe produces, He makes Himself small in order to help those whom He\nloves. And do you know, my brothers, that only in proportion as His\nspirit enters into us, can we in our little measure be helpers in the\nuniverse of which He is the one life; until we, in all our doings and\nspeakings, place ourselves within the one we want to help and not\noutside him, feeling as he feels, thinking as he thinks, knowing for the\ntime as he knows, with all his limitations, although there may be\nfurther knowledge beyond, we cannot truly help; that is the condition of\nall true help given by man to man, as it is the only condition of the\nhelp which is given to man by God Himself.\n\nAnd so in other Avat\u00e2ras, He limits Himself for men's sake. Take the\ngreat king, Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma. What did he come to show? The ideal Kshattriya,\nin every relation of the Kshattriya life; as son--perfect as son alike\nto loving father and to jealous and for the time unkind step-mother. For\nyou may remember that when the father's wife who was not His own mother\nbade him go forth to the forest on the very eve of His coronation as\nheir, His gentle answer was: \"Mother, I go.\" Perfect as son. Perfect as\nhusband; if He had not limited Himself by His own will to show out what\nhusband should be to wife, how could He in the forest, when S\u00eet\u00e2 had\nbeen reft away by R\u00e2vana, have shown the grief, have uttered the piteous\nlamentations, which have drawn tears from thousands of eyes, as He calls\non plants and on trees, on animals and birds, on Gods and men, to tell\nHim where His wife, His other self, the life of His life, had gone? How\ncould he have taught men what wife should be to husband's heart unless\nHe had limited Himself? The consciously Omnipresent Deity could not seek\nand search for His beloved who had disappeared. And then as king; as\nperfect king as He was perfect son and husband. When the welfare of His\nsubjects was concerned, when the safety of the realm was to be thought\nof, when He remembered that He as king stood for God and must be perfect\nin the eyes of His subjects, so that they might give the obedience and\nthe loyalty, which men can only give to one whom they know as greater\nthan themselves, then even His wife was put aside; then the test of the\nfire for S\u00eet\u00e2, the unsullied and the suffering; then She must pass\nthrough it to show that no sin or pollution had come upon Her by the\nfoul touch of R\u00e2vana, the R\u00e2kshasa; then the demand that ere husband's\nheart that had been riven might again clasp the wife, She must come\nforth pure as woman; and all this, because He was king as well as\nhusband, and on the throne the people honoured as divine there must only\nbe purity, spotless as driven snow. Those limitations were needed in\norder that a perfect example might be given to man, and man might learn\nto climb by reproducing virtues, made small in order that his small\ngrasp might hold them.\n\nWe come to the second great class of manifestations, that to which I\nalluded in the beginning as covered by the wide term A\u00b4vesha. In that\ncase it is not that a man in past universes has climbed upward and has\nbecome one with I\u00b4shvara; but it is that a man has climbed so far as to\nbecome so great, so perfect in his manhood, and so full of love and\ndevotion to God and man, that God is able to permeate him with a portion\nof His own influence, His own power, His own knowledge, and send him\nforth into the world as a superhuman manifestation of Himself. The\nindividual Ego remains; that is the great distinction. The _man_ is\nthere, though the power that is acting is the manifested God. Therefore\nthe manifestation will be coloured by the special characteristics of the\none over whom this overshadowing is made; and you will be able to trace\nin the thoughts of this inspired teacher, the characteristics of the\nrace, of the individual, of the form of knowledge which belongs to that\nman in the incarnation in which the great overshadowing takes place.\nThat is the fundamental difference.\n\nBut here we find that we come at once to endless grades, endless\nvarieties, and down the ladder of lesser and lesser evolution we may\ntread, step by step, until we come to the lower grades that we call\ninspiration. In a case of A\u00b4vesha it generally continues through a great\nportion of the life, the latter portion, as a rule, and it is\ncomparatively seldom withdrawn. Inspiration, as generally understood, is\na more partial thing, more temporary. Divine power comes down,\nilluminates and irradiates the man for the moment, and he speaks for the\ntime with authority, with knowledge, which in his normal state he will\nbe unable probably to compass. Such are the prophets who have\nilluminated the world age after age; such were in ancient days the\nBr\u00e2hmanas who were the mouth of God. Then truly the distinction was\nnot that I spoke of between priest and prophet; both were joined in the\none illumination, and the teaching of the priest and the preaching of\nthe prophet ran on the same lines and gave forth the same great truths.\nBut in later times the distinction arose by the failure of the\npriesthood, when the priest turned aside for money, for fame, for power,\nfor all the things with which only younger souls ought to concern\nthemselves--human toys with which human babies play, and do wisely in so\nplaying, for they grow by them. Then the priests became formal, the\nprophets became more and more rare, until the great fact of inspiration\nwas thrown back wholly into the past, as though God or man had altered,\nman no longer divine in his nature, God no longer willing to speak words\nin the ears of men. But inspiration is a fact in all its stages; and it\ngoes far farther than some of you may think. The inspiration of the\nprophets, spiritually mighty and convincing, is needed, and they come to\nthe world to give a new impulse to spiritual truth. But there is a\ngeneral inspiration that any one may share who strives to show out the\ndivine life from which no son of man is excluded, for every son of man\nis son of God. Have you ever been drawn away for a moment into higher,\nmore peaceful realms, when you have come across something of beauty, of\nart, of the wonders of science, of the grandeur of philosophy? Have you\nfor a time lost sight of the pettinesses of earth, of trivial troubles,\nof small worries and annoyances, and felt yourself lifted into a calmer\nregion, into a light that is not the light of common earth? Have you\never stood before some wondrous picture wherein the palette of the\npainter has been taxed to light the canvas with all the hues of\nbeauteous colour that art can give to human sight? Or have you seen in\nsome wondrous sculpture, the gracious living curves that the chisel has\nfreed from the roughness of the marble? Or have you listened while the\ndiviner spell of music has lifted you, step by step, till you seem to\nhear the Gandharvas singing and almost the divine flute is being played\nand echoing in the lower world? Or have you stood on the mountain peak\nwith the snows around you, and felt the grandeur of the unmoving nature\nthat shows out God as well as the human spirit? Ah, if you have known\nany of these peaceful spots in life's desert, then you know how\nall-pervading is inspiration; how wondrous the beauty and the power of\nGod shown forth in man and in the world; then you know, if you never\nknew it before, the truth of that great proclamation of Shr\u00ee\nKrishna the Beloved: \"Whatever is royal, good, beautiful, and\nmighty, understand thou that to go forth from My Splendour\";[3] all is\nthe reflection of that tejas[4] which is His and His alone. For as there\nis nought in the universe without His love and life, so there is no\nbeauty that is not His beauty, that is not a ray of the illimitable\nsplendour, one little beam from the unfailing source of life.\n\n[Footnote 3: _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_, x. 41.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Splendour, radiance.]\n\n\n\n\nSECOND LECTURE.\n\n\nBROTHERS:--You will remember that yesterday, in dividing the subject\nunder different heads, I put down certain questions which we would take\nin order. We dealt yesterday with the question: \"What is an Avat\u00e2ra?\"\nThe second question that we are to try to answer, \"What is the source of\nAvat\u00e2ras?\" is a question that leads us deep into the mysteries of the\nkosmos, and needs at least an outline of kosmic growth and evolution in\norder to give an intelligible answer. I hope to-day to be able also to\ndeal with the succeeding question, \"How does the need for Avat\u00e2ras\narise?\" This will leave us for to-morrow the subject of the special\nAvat\u00e2ras, and I shall endeavour, if possible, during to-morrow's\ndiscourse, to touch on nine of the Avat\u00e2ras out of the ten recognised as\nstanding out from all other manifestations of the Supreme. Then, if I am\nable to accomplish that task, we shall still have one morning left, and\nthat I propose to give entirely to the study of the greatest of the\nAvat\u00e2ras, the Lord Shr\u00ee Krishna Himself, endeavouring, if\npossible, to mark out the great characteristics of His life and His\nwork, and, it may be, to meet and answer some of the objections of the\nignorant which, especially in these later days, have been levelled\nagainst Him by those who understand nothing of His nature, nothing of\nthe mighty work He came to accomplish in the world.\n\nNow we are to begin to-day by seeking an answer to the question, \"What\nis the source of Avat\u00e2ras?\" and it is likely that I am going to take a\nline of thought somewhat unfamiliar, carrying us, as it does, outside\nthe ordinary lines of our study which deals more with the evolution of\nman, of the spiritual nature within him. It carries us to those far off\ntimes, almost incomprehensible to us, when our universe was coming into\nmanifestation, when its very foundations, as it were, were being laid.\nIn answering the question, however, the mere answer is simple. It is\nrecognised in all religions admitting divine incarnations--and they\ninclude the great religions the world--it is admitted that the source of\nAvat\u00e2ras, the source of the Divine incarnations, is the second or middle\nmanifestation of the sacred Triad. It matters not whether with Hindus we\nspeak of the Trim\u00fbrti, or whether with Christians we speak of the\nTrinity, the fundamental idea is one and the same. Taking first for a\nmoment the Christian symbology, you will find that every Christian tells\nyou that the one divine incarnation acknowledged in Christianity--for in\nChristianity they believe in one special incarnation only--you will find\nin the Christian nomenclature the divine incarnation or Avat\u00e2ra is that\nof the second person of the Trinity. No Christian will tell you that\nthere has ever been an incarnation of God the Father, the primeval\nSource of life. They will never tell you that there has been an\nincarnation of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the\nSpirit of Wisdom, of creative Intelligence, who built up the\nworld-materials. But they will always say that it was the second Person,\nthe Son, who took human form, who appeared under the likeness of\nhumanity, who was manifested as man for helping the salvation of the\nworld. And if you analyse what is meant by that phrase, what, to the\nmind of the Christian, is conveyed by the thought of the second Person\nof the Trinity--for remember in dealing with a religion that is not\nyours you should seek for the thought not the form, you should look at\nthe idea not at the label, for the thoughts are universal while the\nforms divide, the ideas are identical while the labels are marks of\nseparation--if you seek for the underlying thought you will find it is\nthis: the sign of the second Person of the Trinity is duality; also, He\nis the underlying life of the world; by His power the worlds were made,\nand are sustained, supported, and protected. You will find that while\nthe Spirit of Wisdom is spoken of as bringing order out of disorder,\nkosmos out of chaos, that it is by the manifested Word of God, or the\nsecond Person of the Trinity, it is by Him that all forms are builded up\nin this world, and it is specially in His image that man is made. So\nalso when we turn to what will be more familiar to the vast majority of\nyou, the symbology of Hinduism, you will find that all Avat\u00e2ras have\ntheir source in Vishnu, in Him who pervades the universe, as the\nvery name Vishnu implies, who is the Supporter, the Protector, the\npervading, all-permeating Life by which the universe is held together,\nand by which it is sustained. Taking the names of the Trim\u00fbrti so\nfamiliar to us all--not the philosophical names Sat, Chit, A\u00b4nanda,\nthose names which in philosophy show the attributes of the Supreme\nBrahman--taking the concrete idea, we have Mah\u00e2deva or Shiva,\nVishnu, and Brahm\u00e2: three names, just as in the other religion we\nhave three names; but the same fact comes out, that it is the middle or\ncentral one of the Three who is the source of Avat\u00e2ras. There has never\nbeen a direct Avat\u00e2ra of Mah\u00e2deva, of Shiva Himself. Appearances? Yes.\nManifestations? Yes. Coming in form for a special purpose served by that\nform? Oh yes. Take the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_, and you find Him appearing in the\nform of the hunter, the Kir\u00e2ta, and testing the intuition of Arjuna, and\nstruggling with him to test his strength, his courage, and finally his\ndevotion to Himself. But that is a mere form taken for a purpose and\ncast aside the moment the purpose is served; almost, we may say, a mere\nillusion, produced to serve a special purpose and then thrown away as\nhaving completed that which it was intended to perform. Over and over\nagain you find such appearances of Mah\u00e2deva. You may remember one most\nbeautiful story, in which He appears in the form of a Chand\u00e2la[5] at the\ngateway of His own city of K\u00e2sh\u00ee, when one who was especially\novershadowed by a manifestation of Himself, Shr\u00ee Shankar\u00e2ch\u00e2rya, was\ncoming with his disciples to the sacred city; veiling Himself in the\nform of an outcaste--for to Him all forms are the same, the human\ndifferences are but as the grains of sand which vanish before the\nmajesty of His greatness--He rolled Himself in the dust before the\ngateway, so that the great teacher could not walk across without\ntouching Him, and he called to the Chand\u00e2la to make way in order that\nthe Br\u00e2hmana might go on unpolluted by the touch of the outcaste;\nthen the Lord, speaking through the form He had chosen, rebuked the very\none whom His power overshadowed, asking him questions which he could not\nanswer and thus abasing his pride and teaching him humility. Such forms\ntruly He has taken, but these are not what we can call Avat\u00e2ras; mere\npassing forms, not manifestations upon earth where a life is lived and a\ngreat drama is played out. So with Brahm\u00e2; He also has appeared from\ntime to time, has manifested Himself for some special purpose; but there\nis no Avat\u00e2ra of Brahm\u00e2, which we can speak of by that very definite and\nwell understood term.\n\n[Footnote 5: An outcaste, equivalent to a scavenger.]\n\nNow for this fact there must be some reason.\n\nWhy is it that we do not find the source of Avat\u00e2ras alike in all these\ngreat divine manifestations? Why do they come from only one aspect and\nthat the aspect of Vishnu? I need not remind you that there is but\none Self, and that these names we use are the names of the aspects that\nare manifested by the Supreme; we must not separate them so much as to\nlose sight of the underlying unity. For remember how, when a worshipper\nof Vishnu had a feeling in his heart against a worshipper of\nMah\u00e2deva, as he bowed before the image of Hari, the face of the image\ndivided itself in half, and Shiva or Hara appeared on one side and\nVishnu or Hari appeared on the other, and the two, smiling as one\nface on the bigoted worshipper, told him that Mah\u00e2deva and Vishnu\nwere but one. But in Their functions a division arises; They manifest\nalong different lines, as it were, in the kosmos and for the helping of\nman; not for Him but for us, do these lines of apparent separateness\narise.\n\nLooking thus at it, we shall be able to find the answer to our question,\nnot only who is the source of Avat\u00e2ras, but why Vishnu is the\nsource. And it is here that I come to the unfamiliar part where I shall\nhave to ask for your special attention as regards the building of the\nuniverse. Now I am using the word \"universe,\" in the sense of our solar\nsystem. There are many other systems, each of them complete in itself,\nand, therefore, rightly spoken of as a kosmos, a universe. But each of\nthese systems in its turn is part of a mightier system, and our sun, the\ncentre of our own system, though it be in very truth the manifested\nphysical body of I\u00b4shwara Himself, is not the only sun. If you look\nthrough the vast fields of space, myriads of suns are there, each one\nthe centre of its own system, of its own universe; and our sun, supreme\nto us, is but, as it were, a planet in a vaster system, its orbit curved\nround a sun greater than itself. So in turn that sun, round which our\nsun is circling, is planet to a yet mightier sun, and each set of\nsystems in its turn circles round a more central sun, and so on--we know\nnot how far may stretch the chain that to us is illimitable; for who is\nable to plumb the depths and heights of space, or to find a manifested\ncircumference which takes in all universes! Nay, we say that they are\ninfinite in number, and that there is no end to the manifestations of\nthe one Life.\n\nNow that is true physically. Look at the physical universe with the eye\nof spirit, and you see in it a picture of the spiritual universe. A\ngreat word was spoken by one of the Masters or Rishis, whom in this\nSociety we honour and whose teachings we follow. Speaking to one of His\ndisciples, or pupils, He rebuked him, because, He said in words never to\nbe forgotten by those who have read them: \"You always look at the things\nof the spirit with the eyes of the flesh. What you ought to do is to\nlook at the things of the flesh with the eyes of the spirit.\" Now, what\ndoes that mean? It means that instead of trying to degrade the spiritual\nand to limit it within the narrow bounds of the physical, and to say of\nthe spiritual that it cannot be because the human brain is unable\nclearly to grasp it, we ought to look at the physical universe with a\ndeeper insight and see in it the image, the shadow, the reflection of\nthe spiritual world, and learn the spiritual verities by studying the\nimages that exist of them in the physical world around us. The physical\nworld is easier to grasp. Do not think the spiritual is modelled on the\nphysical; the physical is fundamentally modelled on the spiritual, and\nif you look at the physical with the eye of spirit, then you find that\nit is the image of the higher, and then you are able to grasp the higher\ntruth by studying the faint reflections that you see in the world around\nyou. That is what I ask you to do now. Just as you have your sun and\nsuns, many universes, each one part of a system mightier than itself, so\nin the spiritual universe there is hierarchy beyond hierarchy of\nspiritual intelligences who are as the suns of the spiritual world. Our\nphysical system has at its centre the great spiritual Intelligence\nmanifested as a Trinity, the I\u00b4shvara of that system. Then beyond Him\nthere is a mightier I\u00b4shvara, round whom Those who are on the level of\nthe I\u00b4shvara of our system circle, looking to Him as Their central life.\nAnd beyond Him yet another, and beyond Him others and others yet, until\nas the physical universes are beyond our thinking, the spiritual\nhierarchy stretches also beyond our thought, and, dazzled and blinded by\nthe splendour, we sink back to earth, as Arjuna was blinded when the\nVaishnava form shone forth on him, and we cry: \"Oh! show us again\nThy more limited form that we may know it and live by it. We are not yet\nready for the mightier manifestations. We are blinded, not helped, by\nsuch blaze of divine splendour.\"\n\nAnd so we find that if we would learn we must limit ourselves--nay, we\nmust try to expand ourselves--to the limits of our own system. Why? I\nhave met people who have not really any grasp of this little world, this\ngrain of dust in which they live, who cannot be content unless you\nanswer questions about the One Existence, the Para-Brahma, whom sages\nrevere in silence, not daring to speak even with illuminated mind that\nknows nirv\u00e2nic life and has expanded to nirv\u00e2nic consciousness. The more\nignorant the man, the more he thinks he can grasp. The less he\nunderstands, the more he resents being told that there are some things\nbeyond the grasp of his intellect, existences so mighty that he cannot\neven dream of the lowest of the attributes that mark them out. And for\nmyself, who know myself ignorant, who know that many an age must pass\nere I shall be able to think of dealing with these profounder problems,\nI sometimes gauge the ignorance of the questioner by the questions that\nhe asks as to the ultimate existences, and when he wants to know what he\ncalls the primary origin, I know that he has not even grasped the\none-thousandth part of the origin out of which he himself has sprung.\nTherefore, I say to you frankly that these mighty Ones whom we worship\nare the Gods of our system; beyond them there stretch mightier Ones yet,\nwhom, perhaps, myriads of kalpas hence, we may begin to understand and\nworship.\n\nLet us then confine ourselves to our own system and be glad if we can\ncatch some ray of the glory that illumines it. Vishnu has His own\nfunctions, as also have Brahm\u00e2 and Mah\u00e2deva. The first work in this\nsystem is done by the third of the sacred great Ones of the Trim\u00fbrti,\nBrahm\u00e2, as you all know, for you have read that there came forth the\ncreative Intelligence as the third of the divine manifestations. I care\nnot what is the symbology you take; perchance that of the _Vishnu\nPur\u00e2na_ will be most familiar, wherein the unmanifested Vishnu\nis beneath the water, standing as the first of the Trim\u00fbrti, then the\nLotus, standing as the second, and the opened Lotus showing Brahm\u00e2, the\nthird, the creative Mind. You may remember that the work of creation\nbegan with His activity. When we study from the occult standpoint in\nwhat that activity consisted, we find it consisted in impregnating with\nHis own life the matter of the solar system; that He gave His own life\nto build up form after form of atom, to make the great divisions in the\nkosmos; that He formed, one after another, the five kinds of matter.\nWorking by His mind--He is sometimes spoken of as Mahat, the great One,\nIntelligence--He formed Tattvas one after another. Tattvas, you may\nremember from last year, are the foundations of the atoms, and there are\nfive of them manifested at the present time. That is His special work.\nThen He meditates, and forms--as thoughts--come forth. There His\nmanifest work may be said to end, though He maintains ever the life of\nthe atom. As far as the active work of the kosmos is concerned, He gives\nway to the next of the great forces that is to work, the force of\nVishnu. His work is to gather together that matter that has been\nbuilt, shaped, prepared, vivified, and build it into definite forms\nafter the creative ideas brought forth by the meditation of Brahm\u00e2. He\ngives to matter a binding force; He gives to it those energies that hold\nform together. No form exists without Him, whether it be moving or\nunmoving. How often does Shr\u00ee Krishna, speaking as the supreme\nVishnu, lay stress on this fact. He is the life in every form;\nwithout it the form could not exist, without it it would go back to its\nprimeval elements and no longer live as form. He is the all-pervading\nlife; the \"Supporter of the Universe\" is one of His names. Mah\u00e2deva has\na different function in the universe; especially is He the great Yog\u00ee;\nespecially is He the great Teacher, the Mah\u00e2guru; He is sometimes called\nJagatguru, the Teacher of the world. Over and over again--to take a\ncomparatively modern example, as the _Gurug\u00eet\u00e2_--we find Him as Teacher,\nto whom P\u00e2rvati goes asking for instruction as to the nature of the\nGuru. He it is who defines the Guru's work, He it is who inspires the\nGuru's teaching. Every Guru on earth is a reflection of Mah\u00e2deva, and it\nis His life which he is commissioned to give out to the world. Yog\u00ee,\nimmersed in contemplation, taking the ascetic form always--that marks\nout His functions. For the symbols by which the mighty Ones are shown in\nthe teachings are not meaningless, but are replete with the deepest\nmeaning. And when you see Him represented as the eternal Yog\u00ee, with the\ncord in His hand, sitting as an ascetic in contemplation, it means that\nHe is the supreme ideal of the ascetic life, and that men who come\nespecially under His influence must pass out of home, out of family, out\nof the normal ties of evolution, and give themselves to a life of\nasceticism, to a life of renunciation, to share, however feebly, in that\nmighty yoga by which the universe is kept alive.\n\nHe then manifests not as Avat\u00e2ra, but such manifestations come from Him\nwho is the God, the Spirit, of evolution, who evolves all forms. That is\nwhy from Vishnu all these Avat\u00e2ras come. For it is He who by His\ninfinite love dwells in every form that He has made; with patience that\nnothing can exhaust, with love that nothing can tire, with quiet, calm\nendurance which no folly of man can shake from its eternal peace, He\nlives in every form, moulding it as it will bear the moulding, shaping\nit as it yields itself to His impulse, binding Himself, limiting Himself\nin order that His universe may grow, Lord of eternal life and bliss,\ndwelling in every form. If you grasp this, it is not difficult to say\nwhy from Him alone the Avat\u00e2ras come. Who else should take form save the\nOne who gives form? who else should work with this unending love save\nHe, who, while the universe exists, binds Himself that the universe may\nlive and ultimately share His freedom? He is bound that the universe may\nbe free. Who else then should come forth when special need arises?\n\nAnd He gives the great types. Let me remind you of the\n_Shr\u00eemad-Bh\u00e2gavata_, where in an early chapter of the first Book, the\n3rd chapter, a very long list is given of the forms that Vishnu\ntook, not only the great Avat\u00e2ras, but also a large number of others. It\nis said He appeared as Nara and N\u00e2r\u00e2yana; it is said He appeared as\nKapila; He took female forms, and so on, a whole long list being given\nof the shapes that He assumed. And, turning from that to a very\nilluminative passage in the _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_, we find Him in the form of\nShr\u00ee Krishna explaining a profound truth to Arjuna.\n\nThere He gives the law of these appearances: \"When, O son of Pritha, I\nlive in the order of the deities, then I act in every respect as a\ndeity. When I live in the order of the Gandharvas, then I act in every\nrespect as a Gandharva. When I live in the order of the N\u00e2gas, I act as\na N\u00e2ga. When I live in the order of the Yakshas, or that of the\nR\u00e2kshasas, I act after the manner of that order. Born now in the order\nof humanity, I must act as a human being.\" A profound truth, a truth\nthat few in modern times recognise. Every type in the universe, in its\nown place, is good; every type in the universe, in its own place, is\nnecessary. There is no life save His life; how then could any type come\ninto existence apart from the universal life, bereft whereof nothing can\nexist?\n\nWe speak of good forms and evil, and rightly, as regards our own\nevolution. But from the wider standpoint of the kosmos, good and evil\nare relative terms, and everything is very good in the sight of the\nSupreme who lives in every one. How can a type come into existence in\nwhich He cannot live? How can anything live and move, save as it has its\nbeing in Him? Each type has its work; each type has its place; the type\nof the R\u00e2kshasa as much as the type of the Deva, of the Asura as much as\nof the Sura. Let me give you one curious little simple example, which\nyet has a certain graphic force. You have a pole you want to move, and\nthat pole is on a pivot, like the mountain which churned the ocean, a\npole with its two ends, positive and negative we will call them. The\npositive end, we will say, is pushed in the direction of the river (the\nriver flowing beyond one end of the hall at Adyar). The negative pole is\npushed--in what direction? In the opposite. And those who are pushing\nit have their faces turned in the opposite direction. One man looks at\nthe river, the other man has his back to it, looking in the opposite\ndirection. But the pole turns in the one direction although they push in\nopposite directions. They are working round the same circle, and the\npole goes faster because it is pushed from its two ends. There is the\npicture of our universe. The positive force you call the Deva or Sura;\nhis face is turned, it seems, to God. The negative force you call the\nR\u00e2kshasa or Asura; his face, it seems, is turned away from God. Ah no!\nGod is everywhere, in every point of the circle round which they tread;\nand they tread His circle and do His will and no otherwise; and all at\nlength find rest and peace in Him.\n\nTherefore Shr\u00ee Krishna Himself can incarnate in the form of\nR\u00e2kshasa, and when in that form He will act as R\u00e2kshasa and not as Deva,\ndoing that part of the divine work with the same perfection as He does\nthe other, which men in their limited vision call the good. A great\ntruth hard to grasp. I shall have to return to it presently in speaking\nof R\u00e2vana, one of the mightiest types of, perhaps the greatest of, all\nthe R\u00e2kshasas. And we shall see, if we can follow, how the profound\ntruth works out. But remember, if in the minds of some of you there is\nsome hesitation in accepting this, that the words that I read are not\nmine, but those of the Lord who spoke of His own embodying; He has left\non record for your teaching, that He has embodied Himself in the form of\nR\u00e2kshasa and has acted after the manner of that order.\n\nLeaving that for a moment, there is one other point I must take, ere\nspeaking of the need for Avat\u00e2ras, and it is this: when the great\ncentral Deities have manifested, then there come forth from Them seven\nDeities of what we may call the second order. In Theosophy, they are\nspoken of as the planetary Logoi, to distinguish them from the great\nsolar Logoi, the central Life. Each of These has to do with one of the\nseven sacred planets, and with the chain of worlds connected with that\nplanet. Our world is one of the links in this chain, and you and I pass\nround this chain in successive incarnations in the great stages of life.\nThe world--our present world--is the midway globe of one such chain. One\nLogos of the secondary order presides over the evolution of this chain\nof worlds. He shows out three aspects, reflections of the great Logoi\nwho are at the centre of the system. You have read perhaps of the\nseven-leaved lotus, the Saptaparnapadma; looked at with the higher\nsight, gazed at with the open vision of the seer, that mighty group of\ncreative and directing Beings looks like the lotus with its seven leaves\nand the great Ones are at the heart of the lotus. It is as though you\ncould see a vast lotus-flower spread out in space, the tips of the seven\nleaves being the mighty Intelligences presiding over the evolution of\nthe chains of worlds. That lotus symbol is no mere symbol but a high\nreality, as seen in that wondrous world wherefrom the symbol has been\ntaken by the sages. And because the great Rishis of old saw with the\nopen eye of knowledge, saw the lotus-flower spread in space, they took\nit as the symbol of kosmos, the lotus with its seven leaves, each one a\nmighty Deva presiding over a separate line of evolution. We are\nprimarily concerned with our own planetary Deva and through Him with the\ngreat Devas of the solar system.\n\nNow my reason for mentioning this is to explain one word that has\npuzzled many students. Mah\u00e2vishnu, the great Vishnu, why\nthat particular epithet? What does it mean when that phrase is used? It\nmeans the great solar Logos, Vishnu in His essential nature: but\nthere is a reflection of His glory, a reflection of His power, of His\nlove, in more immediate connection with ourselves and our own world. He\nis His representative, as a viceroy may represent the king. Some of the\nAvat\u00e2ras we shall find came forth from Mah\u00e2vishnu through the\nplanetary Logos, who is concerned with our evolution and the evolution\nof the world. But the P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra that I spoke of yesterday comes\nforth directly from Mah\u00e2vishnu, with no intermediary between\nHimself and the world that He comes to help. Here is another distinction\nbetween the P\u00fbrn\u00e2vat\u00e2ra and those more limited ones, that I could not\nmention yesterday, because the words used would, at that stage, have\nbeen unintelligible. We shall find to-morrow, when we come to deal with\nthe Avat\u00e2ras Matsya, K\u00fbrma, and so on, that these special Avat\u00e2ras,\nconnected with the evolution of certain types in the world, while\nindirectly from Mah\u00e2vishnu, come through the mediation of His\nmighty representative for our own chain, the wondrous Intelligence that\nconveys His love and ministers His will, and is the channel of His\nall-pervading and supporting power. When we come to study Shr\u00ee\nKrishna we shall find that there is no intermediary. He stands\nas the Supreme Himself. And while in the other cases there is the\nPresence that may be recognised as an intermediary, it is absent in the\ncase of the great Lord of Life.\n\nLeaving that for further elaboration then to-morrow, let us try to\nanswer the next question, \"How arises this need for Avat\u00e2ras?\" because\nin the minds of some, quite naturally, a difficulty does arise. The\ndifficulty that many thoughtful people feel may be formulated thus:\n\"Surely the whole plan of the world is in the mind of the Logos from the\nbeginning, and surely we cannot suppose that He is working like a human\nworkman, not thoroughly understanding that at which He aims. He must be\nthe architect as well as the builder; He must make the plan as well as\ncarry it out. He is not like the mason who puts a stone in the wall\nwhere he is told, and knows nothing of the architecture of the building\nto which he is contributing. He is the master-builder, the great\narchitect of the universe, and everything in the plan of that universe\nmust be in His mind ere ever the universe began. But if that be so--and\nwe cannot think otherwise--how is it that the need for special\nintervention arises? Does not the fact of special intervention imply\nsome unforeseen difficulty that has arisen? If there must be a kind of\ninterference with the working out of the plan, does that not look as if\nin the original plan some force was left out of account, some difficulty\nhad not been seen, something had arisen for which preparation had not\nbeen made? If it be not so, why the need for interference, which looks\nas though it were brought about to meet an unforeseen event?\" A natural,\nreasonable, and perfectly fair question. Let us try to answer it. I do\nnot believe in shirking difficulties; it is better to look them in the\nface, and see if an answer be possible.\n\nNow the answer comes along three different lines. There are three great\nclasses of facts, each of which contributes to the necessity; and each,\nforeseen by the Logos, is definitely prepared for as needing a\nparticular manifestation.\n\nThe first of these lines arises from what I may perhaps call the nature\nof things. I remarked at the beginning of this lecture on the fact that\nour universe, our system, is part of a greater whole, not separate, not\nindependent, not primary, in comparatively a low scale in the universe,\nour sun a planet in a vaster system. Now what does that imply? As\nregards matter, Prakriti, it implies that our system is builded out\nof matter already existing, out of matter already gifted with certain\nproperties, out of matter that spreads through all space, and from which\nevery Logos takes His materials, modifying it according to His own plan\nand according to His own will. When we speak of M\u00fblaprakriti, the\nroot of matter, we do not mean that it exists as the matter we know. No\nphilosopher, no thinker would dream of saying that that which spreads\nthroughout space is identical with the matter of our very elementary\nsolar system. It is the root of matter, that of which all forms of\nmatter are merely modifications. What does that imply? It implies that\nour great Lord, who brought our solar system into existence, is taking\nmatter which already has certain properties given to it by One yet\nmightier than Himself. In that matter three gunas exist in\nequilibrium, and it is the breath of the Logos that throws them out of\nequilibrium, and causes the motion by which our system is brought into\nexistence. There must be a throwing out of equilibrium, for equilibrium\nmeans Pralaya, where there is not motion, nor any manifestation of life\nand form. When life and form come forth, equilibrium must have been\ndisturbed, and motion must be liberated by which the world shall be\nbuilt. But the moment you grasp that truth you see that there must be\ncertain limitations by virtue of the very material in which the Deity\nis working for the making of the system. It is true that when out of His\nsystem, when not conditioned and confined and limited by it, as He is by\nHis most gracious will, it is true that He would be the Lord of that\nmatter by virtue of His union with the mightier Life beyond; but when\nfor the building of the world He limits Himself within His M\u00e2y\u00e2, then He\nmust work within the conditions of those materials that limit His\nactivity, as we are told over and over again.\n\nNow when in the ceaseless interplay of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, Tamas\nhas the ascendancy, aided and, as it were, worked by Rajas, so that they\npredominate over Sattva in the foreseen evolution, when the two\ncombining overpower the third, when the force of Rajas and the inertia\nand stubbornness of Tamas, binding themselves together, check the\naction, the harmony, the pleasure-giving qualities of Sattva, then comes\none of the conditions in which the Lord comes forth to restore that\nwhich had been disturbed of the balanced interworking of the three\ngunas and to make again such balance between them as shall enable\nevolution to go forward smoothly and not be checked in its progress. He\nre-establishes the balance of power which gives orderly motion, the\norder having been disturbed by the co-operation of the two in\ncontradistinction to the third. In these fundamental attributes of\nmatter, the three gunas, lies the first reason of the need for\nAvat\u00e2ras.\n\nThe second need has to do with man himself, and now we come back in both\nthe second and the third to that question of good and evil, of which I\nhave already spoken. I\u00b4shvara, when He came to deal with the evolution\nof man--with all reverence I say it--had a harder task to perform than\nin the evolution of the lower forms of life. On them the law is imposed\nand they must obey its impulse. On the mineral the law is compulsory;\nevery mineral moves according to the law, without interposing any\nimpulse from itself to work against the will of the One. In the\nvegetable world the law is imposed, and every plant grows in orderly\nmethod according to the law within it, developing steadily and in the\nfashion of its order, interposing no impulse of its own. Nay, in the\nanimal world--save perhaps when we come to its highest members--the law\nis still a force overpowering everything else, sweeping everything\nbefore it, carrying along all living things. A wheel turning on the road\nmight carry with it on its axle the fly that happened to have settled\nthere; it does not interpose any obstacle to the turning of the wheel.\nIf the fly comes on to the circumference of the wheel and opposes itself\nto its motion, it is crushed without the slightest jarring of the wheel\nthat rolls on, and the form goes out of existence, and the life takes\nother shapes.\n\nSo is the wheel of law in the three lower kingdoms. But with man it is\nnot so. In man I\u00b4shvara sets himself to produce an image of Himself,\nwhich is not the case in the lower kingdoms. As life has evolved, one\nforce after another has come out, and in man there begins to come out\nthe central life, for the time has arrived for the evolution of the\nsovereign power of will, the self-initiated motion which is part of the\nlife of the Supreme. Do not misunderstand me--for the subject is a\nsubtle one; there is only one will in the universe, the will of\nI\u00b4shvara, and all must conform itself to that will, all is conditioned\nby that will, all must move according to that will, and that will marks\nout the straight line of evolution. There may be swerving neither to the\nright hand nor to the left. There is one will only which in its aspect\nto us is free, but inasmuch as our life is the life of I\u00b4shvara Himself,\ninasmuch as there is but one Self and that Self is yours and mine as\nmuch as His--for He has given us His very Self to be our Self and our\nlife--there must evolve at one stage of this wondrous evolution that\nroyal power of will which is seen in Him. And from the A\u00b4tm\u00e2 within us,\nwhich is Himself in us, there flows forth the sovereign will into the\nsheaths in which the A\u00b4tm\u00e2 is as it were held. Now what happens is this:\nforce goes out through the sheaths and gives them some of its own\nnature, and each sheath begins to set up a reflection of the will on its\nown account, and you get the \"I\" of the body which wants to go this way,\nand the \"I\" of passion or emotion which wants to go that way, and the\n\"I\" of the mind which wants to go a third way, and none of these ways\nis the way of the A\u00b4tm\u00e2, the Supreme. These are the illusory wills of\nman, and there is one way in which you may distinguish them from the\ntrue will. Each of them is determined in its direction by external\nattraction; the man's body wants to move in a particular way because\nsomething attracts it, or something else repels it: it moves to what it\nlikes, to what is congenial to it, it moves away from that which it\ndislikes, from that from which it feels itself repelled. But that motion\nof the body is but motion determined by the I\u00b4shvara outside, as it\nwere, rather than by the I\u00b4shvara within, by the kosmos around and not\nby the Self within, which has not yet achieved its mastery of the\nkosmos. So with the emotions or passions: they are drawn this way or\nthat by the objects of the senses, and the \"senses move after their\nappropriate objects\"; it is not the \"I,\" the Self, which moves. And so\nalso with the mind. \"The mind is fickle and restless, O\nKrishna, it seems as hard to curb as the wind,\" and the mind\nlets the senses run after objects as a horse that has broken its reins\nflies away with the unskilled driver. All these forces are set up; and\nthere is one more thing to remember. These forces reinforce the r\u00e2jasic\nguna and help to bring about that predominance of which I spoke; all\nthese reckless desires that are not according to the one will are yet\nnecessary in order that the will may evolve and in order to train and\ndevelop the man.\n\nDo you say why? How would you learn right if you knew not wrong? How\nwould you choose good if you knew not evil? How would you recognise the\nlight if there were no darkness? How would you move if there were no\nresistance? The forces that are called dark, the forces of the\nR\u00e2kshasas, of the Asuras, of all that seem to be working against\nI\u00b4shvara--these are the forces that call out the inner strength of the\nSelf in man, by struggling with which the forces of A\u00b4tm\u00e2 within the man\nare developed, and without which he would remain in Pralaya for\nevermore. It is a perfectly stagnant pool where there is no motion, and\nthere you get corruption and not life. The evolution of force can only\nbe made by struggle, by combat, by effort, by exercise, and inasmuch as\nI\u00b4shvara is building men and not babies, He must draw out men's forces\nby pulling against their strength, making them struggle in order to\nattain, and so vivifying into outer manifestation the life that\notherwise would remain enfolded in itself. In the seed the life is\nhidden, but it will not grow if you leave the seed alone. Place it on\nthis table here, and come back a century hence, and, if you find it, it\nwill be a seed still and nothing more. So also is the A\u00b4tm\u00e2 in man ere\nevolution and struggle have begun. Plant your seed in the ground, so\nthat the forces in the ground press on it, and the rays of the sun from\noutside make vibrations that work on it, and the water from the rain\ncomes through the soil into it and forces it to swell--then the seed\nbegins to grow; but as it begins to grow it finds the earth around. How\nshall it grow but by pushing at it and so bringing out the energies of\nlife that are within it? And against the opposition of the ground the\nroots strike down, and against the opposition of the ground the growing\npoint mounts upward, and by the opposition of the ground the forces are\nevolved that make the seed grow, and the little plant appears above the\nsoil. Then the wind comes and blows and tries to drag it away, and, in\norder that it may live and not perish, it strikes its roots deeper and\ngives itself a better hold against the battering force of the wind, and\nso the tree grows against the forces which try to tear it out. And if\nthese forces were not, there would have been no growth of the root. And\nso with the root of I'shvara, the life within us; were everything around\nus smooth and easy, we would remain supine, lethargic, indifferent. It\nis the whip of pain, of suffering, of disappointment, that drives us\nonward and brings out the forces of our internal life which otherwise\nwould remain undeveloped. Would you have a man grow? Then don't throw\nhim on a couch with pillows on every side, and bring his meals and put\nthem into his mouth, so that he moves not limb nor exercises mind. Throw\nhim on a desert, where there is no food nor water to be found; let the\nsun beat down on his head, the wind blow against him; let his mind be\nmade to think how to meet the necessities of the body, and the man\ngrows into a man and not a log. That is why there are forces which you\ncall evil. In this universe there is no evil; all is good that comes to\nus from I\u00b4shvara, but it sometimes comes in the guise of evil that, by\nopposing it, we may draw out our strength. Then we begin to understand\nthat these forces are necessary, and that they are within the plan of\nI\u00b4shvara. They test evolution, they strengthen evolution, so that it\ndoes not take the next step onward till it has strength enough to hold\nits own, one step made firm by opposition before the next is taken. But\nwhen, by the conflicting wills of men, the forces that work for\nretardation, to keep a man back till he is able to overcome them and go\non, when they are so reinforced by men's unruly wishes that they are\nbeginning, as it were, to threaten progress, then ere that check takes\nplace, there is reinforcement from the other side: the presence pf the\nAvat\u00e2ra of the forces that threaten evolution calls forth the presence\nof the Avat\u00e2ra that leads to the progress of humanity.\n\nWe come to the third cause. The Avat\u00e2ra does not come forth without a\ncall. The earth, it is said, is very heavy with its load of evil, \"Save\nus, O supreme Lord,\" the Devas come and cry. In answer to that cry the\nLord comes forth. But what is this that I spoke of purposely by a\nstrange phrase to catch your attention, that I spoke of as an Avat\u00e2ra of\nevil? By the will of the one Supreme, there is one incarnated in form\nwho gathers up together the forces that make for retardation, in order\nthat, thus gathered together, they may be destroyed by the opposing\nforce of good, and thus the balance may be re-established and evolution\ngo on along its appointed road. Devas work for joy, the reward of\nHeaven. Svarga is their home, and they serve the Supreme for the joys\nthat there they have. R\u00e2kshasas also serve Him, first for rule on earth,\nand power to grasp and hold and enjoy as they will in this lower world.\nBoth sides serve for reward, and are moved by the things that please.\n\nAnd in order, as our time is drawing to a close, that I may take one\ngreat example to show how these work, let me take the mighty one, R\u00e2vana\nof Lanka,[6] that we may give a concrete form to a rather difficult and\nabstruse thought. R\u00e2vana, as you all know, was the mighty intelligence,\nthe R\u00e2kshasa, who called forth the coming of Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma. But look back\ninto the past, and what was he? Keeper of Vishnu's heaven,\ndoor-keeper of the mighty Lord, devotee, bhakta, absolutely devoted to\nthe Lord. Look at his past, and where do you find a bhakta of Mah\u00e2deva\nmore absolute in devotion than the one who came forth later as R\u00e2vana?\nIt was he who cast his head into the fire in order that Mah\u00e2deva might\nbe served. It is he in whose name have been written some of the most\nexquisite stotras, breathing the spirit of completest devotion; in one\nof them, you may remember--and you could scarcely carry devotion to a\nfurther point--it is in the mouth of R\u00e2vana words are put appealing to\nMah\u00e2deva, and describing Him as surrounded by forms the most repellent\nand undesirable, surrounded on every side by pis\u00e2chas and bh\u00fbtas,[7]\nwhich to us seem but the embodiment of the dark shadows of the burning\nghat, forms from which all beauty is withdrawn. He cries out in a\npassion of love:\n\n    Better wear pis\u00e2cha-form, so we\n    Evermore are near and wait on Thee.\n\n[Footnote 6: Ceylon.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Goblins and elementals.]\n\nHow did he then come to be the ravisher of S\u00eet\u00e2 and the enemy of God?\n\nYou know how through lack of intuition, through lack of power to\nrecognise the meaning of an order, following the words not the spirit,\nfollowing the outside not the inner, he refused to open the door of\nheaven when Sanat Kum\u00e2ra came and demanded entrance. In order that that\nwhich was lacking might be filled, in order that that which was wanting\nmight be earned, that which was called a curse was pronounced, a curse\nwhich was the natural reaction from the mistake. He was asked: \"Will you\nhave seven incarnations friendly to Vishnu, or three in which you\nwill be His enemy and oppose Him?\" And because he was a true bhakta, and\nbecause every moment of absence from his Lord meant to him hell of\ntorture, he chose three of enmity, which would let him go back sooner\nto the Feet of the Beloved, rather than the seven of happiness, of\nfriendliness. Better a short time of utter enmity than a longer\nremaining away with apparent happiness. It was love not hatred that made\nhim choose the form of a R\u00e2kshasa rather than the form of a Rishi.\nThere is the first note of explanation.\n\nThen, coming into the form of R\u00e2kshasa, he must do his duty as R\u00e2kshasa.\nThis was no weak man to be swayed by momentary thought, by transient\nobjects. He had all the learning of the Vedas. With him, it was said,\npassed away Vaidic learning, with him it disappeared from earth. He knew\nhis duty. What was his duty? To put forward every force which was in his\nmighty nature in order to check evolution, and so call out every force\nin man which could be called out by opposing energy which had to be\novercome; to gather round him all the forces which were opposing\nevolution; to make himself king of the whole, centre and law-giver to\nevery force that was setting itself against the will of the Lord; to\ngather them together as it were into one head, to call them together\ninto one arm; so that when their apparent triumph made the cry of the\nearth go up to Vishnu, the answer might come in R\u00e2ma's Avat\u00e2ra and\nthey be destroyed, that the life-wave might go on.\n\nNobly he did the work, thoroughly he discharged his duty. It is said\nthat even sages are confused about Dharma, and truly it is subtle and\nhard to grasp in its entirety, though the fragment the plain man sees be\nsimple enough. His Dharma was the Dharma of a R\u00e2kshasa, to lead the\nwhole forces of evil against One whom in his inner soul, then clouded,\nhe loved. When Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma came, when He was wandering in the forest, how\ncould he sting Him into leaving the life of His life, His beloved S\u00eet\u00e2,\nand into coming out into the world to do His work? By taking away from\nHim the one thing to which He clung, by taking away from Him the wife\nwhom He loved as His very Self, by placing her in the spot where all the\nforces of evil were gathered together, so making one head for\ndestruction, which the arrow of Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma might destroy. Then the mighty\nbattle, then the struggle with all the forces of his great nature, that\nthe law might be obeyed to the uttermost, duly fulfilled to the last\ngrain, the debt paid that was owed; and then--ah then! the shaft of the\nBeloved, then the arrow of Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma that struck off the head from the\nseeming enemy, from the real devotee. And from the corpse of the\nR\u00e2kshasa that fell upon the field near Lanka, the devotee went up to\nGoloka[8] to sit at the feet of the Beloved, and rest for awhile till\nthe third incarnation had to be lived out.\n\n[Footnote 8: A name for one of the heavens.]\n\nSuch then are some of the reasons by, the ways in which the coming of\nthe Avat\u00e2ra is brought about. And my last word to you, my brothers,\nto-day is but a sentence, in order to avoid the possibility of a mistake\nto which our diving into these depths of thought may possibly give rise.\nRemember that though all powers are His, all forces His, R\u00e2kshasa as\nmuch as Deva, Asura as much as Sura; remember that for your evolution\nyou must be on the side of good, and struggle to the utmost against\nevil. Do not let the thoughts I have put lead you into a bog, into a pit\nof hell, in which you may for the time perish, that because evil is\nrelative, because it exists by the one will, because R\u00e2kshasa is His as\nmuch as Deva, therefore you shall go on their side and walk along their\npath. It is not so. If you yield to ambition, if you yield to pride, if\nyou set yourselves against the will of I\u00b4shvara, if you struggle for the\nseparated self, if in yourselves now you identify yourself with the past\nin which you have dwelt instead of with the future towards which you\nshould be directing your steps, then, if your Karma be at a certain\nstage, you pass into the ranks of those who work as enemies, because you\nhave chosen that fate for yourself, at the promptings of the lower\nnature. Then with bitter inner pain--even if with complete\nsubmission--accepting the Karma, but with profound sorrow, you shall\nhave to work out your own will against the will of the Beloved, and feel\nthe anguish of the rending that separates the inner from the outer life.\nThe will of I\u00b4shvara for you is evolution; these forces are made to\nhelp your evolution--_but only if you strive against them_. If you yield\nto them, then they carry you away. You do not then call out your own\nstrength, but only strengthen them. Therefore, O Arjuna, stand up and\nfight. Do not be supine; do not yield yourself to the forces; they are\nthere to call out your energies by opposition and you must not sink down\non the floor of the chariot. And my last word is the word of Shr\u00ee\nKrishna to Arjuna: \"Take up your bow, stand up and fight.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHIRD LECTURE.\n\n\nThe subject this morning, my brothers, is in some ways an easy and in\nother ways a difficult one; easy, inasmuch as the stories of the\nAvat\u00e2ras can be readily told and readily grasped; difficult, inasmuch as\nthe meaning that underlies these manifestations may possibly be in some\nways unfamiliar, may not have been thoroughly thought out by individual\nhearers. And I must begin with a general word as to these special\nAvat\u00e2ras. You may remember that I said that the whole universe may be\nregarded as the Avat\u00e2ra of the Supreme, the Self-revelation of I\u00b4shvara.\nBut we are not dealing with that general Self-revelation; nor are we\neven considering the very many revelations that have taken place from\ntime to time, marked out by special characteristics; for we have seen by\nreferring to one or two of the old writings that many lists are given of\nthe comings of the Lord, and we are to-day concerned with only some of\nthose, those that are accepted specially as Avat\u00e2ras.\n\nNow on one point I confess myself puzzled at the outset, and I do not\nknow whether in your exoteric literature light is thrown upon the point\nas to how these ten were singled out, who was the person who chose them\nout of a longer list, on what authority that list was proclaimed. On\nthat point I must simply state the question, leaving it unanswered. It\nmay be a matter familiar to those who have made researches into the\nexoteric literature. It is not a point of quite sufficient importance\nfor the moment to spend on it time and trouble, in what we may call the\noccult way of research. I leave that then aside, for there is one reason\nwhy some of these stand out in a way which is clear and definite. They\nmark stages in the evolution of the world. They mark new departures in\nthe growth of the developing life, and whether it was that fact which\nunderlay the exoteric choice I am unable to say; but certainly that fact\nby itself is sufficient to justify the special distinction which is\nmade.\n\nThere is one other general point to consider. Accounts of these Avat\u00e2ras\nare found in the Pur\u00e2nas; allusions to them, to one or other of them,\nare found in other of the ancient writings, but the moment you come to\nvery much detail you must turn to the Paur\u00e2nic accounts; as you are\naware, sages, in giving those Pur\u00e2nas, very often described things as\nthey are seen on the higher planes, giving the description of the\nunderlying truth of facts and events; you have appearances described\nwhich sound very strange in the lower world; you have facts asserted\nwhich raise very much of challenge in modern days. When you read in the\nPur\u00e2nas of strange forms and marvellous appearances, when you read\naccounts of creatures that seem unlike anything that you have ever heard\nof or dreamed of elsewhere, the modern mind, with its somewhat narrow\nlimitations, is apt to revolt against the accounts that are given; the\nmodern mind, trained within the limits of the science of observation, is\nnecessarily circumscribed within those limits and those limits are of an\nexceedingly narrow description; they are limits which belong only to\nmodern time, modern to men, in the true sense of the word, though\ngeological researches stretch of course far back into what we call in\nthis nineteenth century the night of time. But you must remember that\nthe moment geology goes beyond the historic period, which is a mere\nmoment in the history of the world, it has more of guesses than of\nfacts, more of theories than of proofs. If you take half a dozen modern\ngeologists and ask each of them in turn for the date of the period of\nwhich records remain in the small number of fossils collected, you will\nfind that almost every man gives a different date, and that they deal\nwith differences of millions of years as though they were only seconds\nor minutes of ours. So that you will have to remember in what science\ncan tell you of the world, however accurate it may be within its limits,\nthat these limits are exceedingly narrow, narrow I mean when measured by\nthe sight that goes back kalpa after kalpa, and that knows that the\nmind of the Supreme is not limited to the manifestations of a few\nhundred thousands of years, but goes back million after million,\nhundreds of millions after hundreds of millions, and that the varieties\nof form, the enormous differences of types, the marvellous kinds of\ncreatures which have come out of that creative imagination, transcend in\nactuality all that man's mind can dream of, and that the very wildest\nimages that man can make fail far short of the realities that actually\nexisted in the past kalpas through which the universe has gone. That\nword of warning is necessary, and also the warning that on the higher\nplanes things look very different from what they look down here. You\nhave here a reflection only of part of those higher forms of existence.\nSpace there has more dimensions than it has on the physical plane, and\neach dimension of space adds a new fundamental variety to form; if to\nillustrate this I may use a simile I have often used, it may perhaps\nconvey to you a little idea of what I mean. Two similes I will take each\nthrowing a little light on a very difficult subject. Suppose that a\npicture is presented to you of a solid form; the picture, being made by\npen or pencil on a sheet of paper, must show on the sheet, which is\npractically of two dimensions--a plane surface--a three dimensional\nform; so that if you want to represent a solid object, a vase, you must\ndraw it flat, and you can only represent the solidity of that vase by\nresorting to certain devices of light and shade, to the artificial\ndevice which is called perspective, in order to make an illusory\nsemblance of the third dimension. There on the plane surface you get a\nsolid appearance, and the eye is deceived into thinking it sees a solid\nwhen really it is looking at a flat surface. Now as a matter of fact if\nyou show a picture to a savage, an undeveloped savage, or to a very\nyoung child, they will not see a solid but only a flat. They will not\nrecognise the picture as being the picture of a solid object they have\nseen in the world round them; they will not see that that artificial\nrepresentation is meant to show a familiar solid, and it passes by them\nwithout making any impression on the mind; only the education of the eye\nenables you to see on a flat surface the picture of a solid form. Now,\nby an effort of the imagination, can you think of a solid as being the\nrepresentation of a form in one dimension more, shown by a kind of\nperspective? Then you may get a vague idea of what is meant when we\nspeak of a further dimension in space. As the picture is to the vase, so\nis the vase to a higher object of which that vase itself is a\nreflection. So again if you think, say, of the lotus flower I spoke of\nyesterday, as having just the tips of its leaves above water, each tip\nwould appear as a separate object. If you know the whole you know that\nthey are all parts of one object; but coming over the surface of the\nwater you will see tips only, one for each leaf of the seven-leaved\nlotus. So is every globe in space an apparently separate object, while\nin reality it is not separated at all, but part of a whole that exists\nin a space of more dimensions; and the separateness is mere illusion due\nto the limitations of our faculties.\n\nNow I have made this introduction in order to show you that when you\nread the Pur\u00e2nas you consistently get the fact on the higher plane\ndescribed in terms of the lower, with the result that it seems\nunintelligible, seems incomprehensible; then you have what is called an\nallegory, that is, a reality which looks like a fancy down here, but is\na deeper truth than the illusion of physical matter, and is nearer to\nthe reality of things than the things which you call objective and real.\nIf you follow that line of thought at all you will read the Pur\u00e2nas\nwith more intelligence and certainly with more reverence than some of\nthe modern Hindus are apt to show in the reading, and you will begin to\nunderstand that when another vision is opened one sees things\ndifferently from the way that one sees them on the physical plane, and\nthat that which seems impossible on the physical is what is really seen\nwhen you pass beyond the physical limitations.\n\nFrom the Pur\u00e2nas then the stories come.\n\nLet me take the first three Avat\u00e2ras apart from the remainder, for a\nreason that you will readily understand as we go through them. We take\nthe Avat\u00e2ra which is spoken of as that of Matsya or the fish; that\nwhich is spoken of as that of K\u00fbrma or the tortoise; that which is\nspoken of as that of V\u00e2r\u00e2ha, or the boar. Three animal forms; how\nstrange! thinks the modern graduate. How strange that the Supreme should\ntake the forms of these lower animals, a fish, a tortoise, a boar! What\nchildish folly! \"The babbling of a race in its infancy,\" it is said by\nthe pandits of the Western world. Do not be so sure. Why this wonderful\nconceit as to the human form? Why should you and I be the only worthy\nvessels of the Deity that have come out of the illimitable Mind in the\ncourse of ages? What is there in this particular shape of head, arms,\nand trunk which shall make it the only worthy vessel to serve as a\nmanifestation of the supreme I\u00b4shvara? I know of nothing so wonderful in\nthe mere outer form that should make that shape alone worthy to\nrepresent some of the aspects of the Highest. And may it not be that\nfrom His standpoint those great differences that we see between\nourselves and those which we call the lower forms of life may be almost\nimperceptible, since He transcends them all? A little child sees an\nimmense difference between himself of perhaps two and a half feet high\nand a baby only a foot and a half high, and thinks himself a man\ncompared with that tiny form rolling on the ground and unable to walk.\nBut to the grown man there is not so much difference between the length\nof the two, and one seems very much like the other. While we are very\nsmall we see great differences between ourselves and others; but on the\nmountain top the hovel and the palace do not differ so very much in\nheight. They all look like ant-hills, very much of the same size. And so\nfrom the standpoint of I\u00b4shvara, in the vast hierarchies from the\nmineral to the loftiest Deva, the distinctions are but as ant-hills in\ncomparison with Himself, and one form or another is equally worthy, so\nthat it suits His purpose, and manifests His will.\n\nNow for the Matsya Avat\u00e2ra; the story you will all know: when the great\nManu, Vaivasvata Manu, the Root Manu, as we call Him--that is, a Manu\nnot of one race only, but of a whole vast round of kosmic evolution,\npresiding over the seven globes that are linked for the evolution of the\nworld--that mighty Manu, sitting one day immersed in contemplation, sees\na tiny fish gasping for water; and moved by compassion, as all great\nones are, He takes up the little fish and puts it in a bowl, and the\nfish grows till it fills the bowl; and He placed it in a water vessel\nand it grew to the size of the vessel; then He took it out of that\nvessel and put it into a bigger one; afterwards into a tank, a pond, a\nriver, the sea, and still the marvellous fish grew and grew and grew.\nThe time came when a vast change was impending; one of those changes\ncalled a minor pralaya, and it was necessary that the seeds of life\nshould be carried over that pralaya to the next manvantara. That would\nbe a minor pralaya and a minor manvantara. What does that mean? It\nmeans a passage of the seeds of life from one globe to another; from\nwhat a we call the globe preceding our own to our own earth. It is the\nfunction of the Root Manu, with the help and the guidance of the\nplanetary Logos, to transfer the seeds of life from one globe to the\nnext, so as to plant them in a new soil where further growth is\npossible. As waters rose, waters of matter submerging the globe which\nwas passing into pralaya, an ark, a vessel appeared; into this vessel\nstepped the great Rishi with others, and the seeds of life were\ncarried by Them, and as They go forth upon the waters a mighty fish\nappears and to the horn of that fish the vessel is fastened by a rope,\nand it conveys the whole safely to the solid ground where the Manu\nrebegins His work. A story! yes, but a story that tells a truth; for\nlooking at it as it takes place in the history of the world, we see the\nvast surging ocean of matter, we see the Root Manu and the great\nInitiates with Him gathering up the seeds of life from the world whose\nwork is over, carrying them under the guidance and with the help of the\nplanetary Vishnu to the new globe where new impulse is to be given\nto the life; and the reason why the fish form was chosen was simply\nbecause in the building up again of the world, it was at first covered\nwith water, and only that form of life was originally possible, so far\nas denser physical life was concerned.\n\nYou have in that first stage what the geologists call the Silurian Age,\nthe age of fishes, when the great divine manifestation was of all these\nforms of life. The Pur\u00e2na rightly starts in the previous Kalpa,\nrightly starts the manifestations with the manifestation in the form of\nthe fish. Not so very ridiculous after all, you see, when read by\nknowledge instead of by ignorance; a truth, as the Pur\u00e2nas are full\nof truth, if they were only read with intelligence and not with\nprejudice.\n\nBut some of you may say that there is confusion about these first\nAvat\u00e2ras; in several accounts we find that the Boar stands the first;\nthat is true, but the key of it is this; the Boar Avat\u00e2ra initiated that\nevolution which was followed unbrokenly by the human; whereas the other\ntwo bring in great stages, each of which is regarded as a separate\nkalpa; and if you look into the _Vishnu Pur\u00e2na_ you will find\nthere the key; for when that begins to relate the incarnation of the\nBoar, there is just a sentence thrown in, that the Matsya and K\u00fbrma\nAvat\u00e2ras belong to previous kalpas.\n\nNow if we take the theosophical nomenclature, we find each of these\nkalpas covers what we call a Root Race, and you may remember that the\nfirst Root Race of humanity had not human form at all but was simply a\nfloating mass able to live in the waters which then covered the earth,\nand only showing the ordinary protoplasmic motions connected with such a\ntype of life and possible at that stage of its evolution. It was a seed\nof form rather than a form itself; it was the seed planted by the Manu\nin the waters of the earth, that out of that humanity might evolve. But\nthe general course of physical evolution passed through the stage of the\nfish; and geology there gives a true fact, though it does not\nunderstand, naturally, the hidden meaning; while the Pur\u00e2na gives you\nthe reality of the manifestation, and the deeper truth that underlies\nthe stages of the evolving world.\n\nThen we find, tracing it onward, that this great age passes, and the\nworld begins to rise out of the waters. How then shall types be brought\nforth in order that evolution may go on? The next great type is to be\nfitted either for land or for water; for the next stage of the earth\nshows the waters draining gradually away, and the land appearing, and\nthe creatures that are the marked characteristic of the age must exist\npartially on land and partially in water. Here again there must be\nmanifestation of the type of life, this time of what we call the reptile\ntype; the tortoise is chosen as the typical creature, and while the\ntortoise typifies the type to be evolved, reptiles, amphibious creatures\nof every description, swarm over the earth, becoming more and more\nland-like in their character as the proportion of land to water\nincreases. There is meanwhile going on, in the \"imperishable sacred\nland,\" a preparation for further evolution. There is one part of the\nglobe that changes not, that from the beginning has been, and will last\nwhile the globe is lasting; it is called the \"imperishable land.\" And\nthere the great Rishis gather, and thence they ever come forth for\nthe helping of man; that is the imperishable sacred land, sometimes\ncalled the \"sacred pole of the earth.\" Pole itself exists not on the\nphysical plane but on the higher, and its reflection coming downward\nmakes, as it were, one spot which never changes, but is ever guarded\nfrom the tread of ordinary men. There took place a most instructive\nphenomenon. The type of the evolution then preceding, the Tortoise, the\nLogos in that form, makes Himself the base of the revolving axis of\nevolution. That is typified by Mand\u00e2ra, the mountain which, placed on\nthe tortoise, is made to revolve by the hosts of Suras and Asuras, one\npulling at the head of the serpent, and the other at the tail--the\npositive and negative forces that I spoke of yesterday. So the churning\nbegins in matter, evolving types of life. The type is ever evolved\nbefore the lower manifestation, the type appears before the copies of it\nare born in the lower world. And how often have the students of the\ngreat Teachers themselves seen the very thing occur; the churning of the\nwaters of matter giving forth all the types of the many sorts and\nspecies that are generated in the lower world; these are the archetypes,\nas we call them, of classes and creatures, always produced in\npreparation for the forward stretch of evolution. There came forth one\nby one the archetypes, the elephant, the horse, the woman, and so on,\none after another, showing the track along which evolution was to go.\nAnd first of all, Amrita, nectar of immortality, comes forth, symbol\nof the one life which passes through every form--and that life appears\nabove the waters the taking of which is necessary in order that every\nform may live.\n\nWe cannot delay on details; I can only trace hastily the outline,\nshowing you how real is the truth that underlies the story, and as that\ngradually goes on and the types are ready, there comes the whelming of\nthe world under the waters, and the great continents vanish for a time.\n\nThen comes the third Avat\u00e2ra, the V\u00e2r\u00e2ha. No earth is to be seen; the\nwaters of the flood have overwhelmed it. The types that are to be\nproduced on earth are waiting in the higher region for place on which to\nmanifest. How shall the earth be brought up from the waters which have\noverwhelmed it? Now once again the great Helper is needed, the God, the\nProtector of Evolution. Then in the form of a mighty Boar, whose form\nfilled the heaven, plunging down into the waters that He alone could\nseparate, the Great One descends. He brings up the earth from the lower\nregion where it was lying awaiting His coming; and the land rises up\nagain from below the surface of the flood, and the vast Lemurian\ncontinent is the earth of that far-off age. Here science has a word to\nsay, rightly enough, that on the Lemurian continent were developed many\ntypes of life, and there the mammals first made their appearance. Quite\nso; that was exactly what the sages taught thousands upon thousands of\nyears ago; that when the Boar, the great type of the mammal, plunged\ninto the waters to bring up the earth, then was started the mammalian\nevolution, and the continent thus rescued from the waters was crowded\nwith the forms of the mammalian kingdom. Just as the Fish had typified\nthe Silurian epoch, just as the Tortoise had started on its way the\ngreat amphibian evolution, so did the Boar, that typical mammal, start\nthe mammalian evolution, and we come to the Lemurian continent with its\nwonderful variety of forms of mammalian life. Not so very ignorant after\nall, you see, the ancient writings! For men are only re-discovering\nto-day what has been in the hands of the followers of the Rishis for\nthousands, tens of thousands of years.\n\nThen we come to a strange incarnation on this Lemurian continent:\nfrightful conflicts existed; we are nearing what in the theosophical\nnomenclature is the middle of the third Race, and man as man will\nshortly appear with all the characteristics of his nature. He is not yet\nquite come to birth; strange forms are seen, half human and half animal,\nwholly monstrous; terrible struggles arise between these monstrous forms\nborn from the slime as it is said--from the remains of former\ncreations--and the newer and higher life in which the future evolution\nis enshrined. These forms are represented in the Pur\u00e2nas as those of\nthe race of Daityas, who ruled the earth, who struggled against the Deva\nmanifestations, who conquered the Devas from time to time, who subjected\nthem, who ruled over earth and heaven alike, bringing every thing under\ntheir sway. You may read in the splendid stanzas of the Book of Dzyan,\nas given us by H. P. B., hints of that mighty struggle of which the\nPur\u00e2nas are so full, a struggle which was as real as any struggle of\nlater days, an absolute historical fact that many of us have seen. We\nare instructed over and over again of a frightful conflict of forms, the\nforms of the past, monstrous in their strength and in their outline,\nagainst whom the Sons of Light were battling, against whom the great\nLords of the Flame came down. One of these conflicts, the greatest of\nall, is given in the story of the Avat\u00e2ra known as that of\nNarasimha--the Man-Lion. You know the story; what Hindu does not know\nthe story of Prahl\u00e2da? In him we have typified the dawning spirituality\nwhich is to show in the higher races of Daityas as they pass on into\ndefinite human evolution, and their form gives way that sexual man may\nbe born. I need not dwell on that familiar story of the devotee of\nVishnu; how his Daitya father strove to kill him because the name\nof Hari was ever on his lips; how he strove to slay him, with a sword,\nand the sword fell broken from the neck of the child; how then he tried\nto poison him, and Vishnu appeared and ate first of the poisoned\nrice, so that the boy might eat it with the name of Hari on his lips;\nhow his father strove to slay him by the furious elephant, by the fang\nof the serpent, by throwing him over a precipice, and by crushing him\nunder a stone. But ever the cry of \"Hari, Hari,\" brought deliverance,\nfor in the elephant, in the fang of the serpent, in the precipice, and\nin the stone, Hari was ever present, and his devotee was safe in that\npresence: how finally when the father, challenging the omnipresence of\nthe Deity, pointed to the stone pillar and said in mocking language: \"Is\nyour Hari also in the pillar?\" \"Hari, Hari,\" cried the boy, and the\npillar burst asunder, and the mighty form came forth and slew the Daitya\nthat doubted, in order that he might learn the omnipresence of the\nSupreme. A story? facts, not fiction; truth, not imagination; and if you\ncould look back to the time of those struggles, there would seem to you\nnothing strange or abnormal in the story; for you would see it repeated\nwith less vividness in the smaller struggles where the Sons of the Fire\nwere purging and redeeming the earth, in order that the later human\nevolution might take place.\n\nWe pass from those four Avat\u00e2ras, every one of which comes within what\nis called the Satya Yuga of the earth--not of the race remember, not the\nsmaller cycle, but of the earth--the Satya Yuga of the earth as a whole,\nwhen periods of time were of immense length, and when progress was\nmarvellously slow. Then we come to the next age, that which we call the\nTreta Yuga, that which is, in the theosophical chronology--and I put the\ntwo together in order that students may be able to work their way out in\ndetail--the middle of the third Root Race, when humanity receives the\nlight from above, and when man as man begins to evolve. How is that\nevolution marked? By the coming of the Supreme in human form, as V\u00e2mana,\nthe Dwarf. The Dwarf? Yes; for man was as yet but dwarf in the truly\nhuman stature, although vast in outer appearance; and He came as the\ninner man, small, yet stronger than the outer form; against him was\nBali, the mighty, showing the outer form, while V\u00e2mana, the Dwarf,\nshowed the man that should be. And when Bali had offered a great\nsacrifice, the Dwarf as a Br\u00e2hmana came to beg.\n\nIt is curious this question of the caste of the Avat\u00e2ras. When we once\ncome to the human Avat\u00e2ras, They are mostly Kshattriyas, as you know,\nbut in two cases. They are Br\u00e2hmanas, and this is one of them; for He\nwas going to beg, and Kshattriya might not beg. Only he to whom the\nearth's wealth should be as nothing, who should have no store of wealth\nto hold, to whom gold and earth should be as one, only he may go to beg.\nHe was an ancient Br\u00e2hmana, not a modern Br\u00e2hmana.\n\nHe came with begging bowl in hand, to beg of the king; for of what use\nis sacrifice unless something be given at the sacrifice? Now Bali was a\npious ruler, on the side of the evolution that was passing away, and\ngladly gave a boon. \"Br\u00e2hmana, take thy boon,\" said he. \"Three steps\nof earth alone I ask for,\" said the Dwarf. Of that little man surely\nthree steps would not cover much, and the great king with his world-wide\ndominion might well give three steps of earth to the short and puny\nDwarf. But one step covered earth, and the next step covered sky. Where\ncould the third step be planted, where? so that the gift might be made\ncomplete. Nothing was left for Bali to give save himself; nothing to\nmake his gift complete--and his word might not be broken--save his own\nbody. So, recognising the Lord of all, he threw himself before Him, and\nthe third step, planted on his body, fulfilled the promise of the king\nand made him the ruler of the lower regions, of P\u00e2t\u00e2la. Such the story.\nHow full of significance. This inner man--so small at that stage but\nreally so mighty, who was to rule alike the earth and heaven--could for\nhis third step find no place to put his foot upon save his own lower\nnature; he was to go forward and forward ever; that is hinted in the\nthird step that was taken. What a graphic picture of the evolution that\nlay in front, the wondrous evolution that now was to begin.\n\nAnd I may just remind you in passing that there is one word in the _Rig\nVeda_, which refers to this very Avat\u00e2ra, that has been a source of\nendless controversy and dispute as to its meaning; there it is said:\n\n    Through all this world strode Vishnu; thrice His foot He planted and\n        the whole\n    Was gathered in His footstep's dust. (I. xxii., 17.)[9]\n\n[Footnote 9: See also I. cliv., which speaks of His three steps, within\nwhich all living creatures have their habitation; the three steps are\nsaid to be \"the earth, the heavens, and all living creatures.\" Here Bali\nis made the symbol of all living things.]\n\nThat too is one of the \"babblings of child humanity.\" I know not what\nfigure the greatest man could use more poetical, more full of meaning,\nmore sublime in its imagery, than that the whole world was gathered in\nthe dust of the foot of the Supreme. For what is the world save the dust\nof His footsteps, and how would it have any life save as His foot has\ntouched it?\n\nSo we pass, still treading onwards in the Treta Yuga, and we come to\nanother manifestation--that of Parashur\u00e2ma; a strange Avat\u00e2ra you may\nthink, and a partial Avat\u00e2ra, let me say, as we shall see when we come\nto look at His life and read the words that are spoken of Him. The Yuga\nhad now gone far and the Kshattriya caste had risen and was ruling,\nmighty in its power, great in its authority, the one warrior ruling\ncaste, and alas! abusing its power, as men will do when souls are still\nbeing trained, and are young for their surroundings. The Kshattriya\ncaste abused its power, built up in order that it might rule; the duty\nof the ruler, remember, is essentially protection: but these used their\npower not to protect, but to plunder, not to help but to oppress. A\nterrible lesson must be taught the ruling caste, in order that it might\nlearn, if possible, that the duty of ruling was to protect and support\nand help, and not to tyrannise and plunder. The first great lesson was\ngiven to the kings of the earth, the rulers of men, a lesson that had to\nbe repeated over and over again, and is not yet completely learnt. A\ndivine manifestation came in order that that lesson might be taught; and\nthe Teacher was not a Kshattriya save by mother. A strange story, that\nstory of the birth. Food given to two Kshattriya women, each of whom was\nto bear a son, the husband of one of them a Br\u00e2hmana; and the two\nwomen exchanged the food, and that meant to bring forth a Kshattriya son\nwas taken by the woman with the Br\u00e2hmana husband. An accident, men\nwould say; there are no accidents in a universe of law. The food which\nwas full of Kshattriya energy thus went into the Br\u00e2hmana family, for\nit would not have been fitting that a Kshattriya should destroy\nKshattriyas. The lesson would not thus have been so well taught to the\nworld. So that we have the strange phenomenon of the Br\u00e2hmana coming\nwith an axe to slay the Kshattriya, and three times seven times that axe\nwas raised in slaughter, cutting the Kshattriya trunk off from the\nsurface of the earth.\n\nBut while Parashur\u00e2ma was still in the body, a greater Avat\u00e2ra came forth\nto show what a Kshattriya king should be. The Kshattriyas abusing their\nplace and their power were swept away by Parashur\u00e2ma, and, ere He had left\nthe earth where the bitter lesson had been taught, the ideal Kshattriya\ncame down to teach, now by example, the lesson of what should be, after the\nlesson of what should not be had been enforced. The boy R\u00e2ma was born, on\nwhose exquisite story we have not time long to dwell, the ideal ruler, the\nutterly perfect king. While a boy He went forth with the great teacher\nVisv\u00e2mitra, in order to protect the Yog\u00ee's sacrifice; a boy, almost a\nchild, but able to drive away, as you remember, the R\u00e2kshasas that\ninterfered with the sacrifice, and then He and His beloved brother\nLakshmana and the Yog\u00ee went on to the court of king Janaka. And there, at\nthe court, was a great bow, a bow which had belonged to Mah\u00e2deva Himself.\nTo bend and string that bow was the task for the man who would wed S\u00eet\u00e2,\nthe child of marvellous birth, the maiden who had sprung from the furrow as\nthe plough went through the earth, who had no physical father or physical\nmother. Who should wed the peerless maiden, the incarnation of Shr\u00ee,\nLakshm\u00ee, the consort of Vishnu? Who should wed Her save the Avat\u00e2ra of\nVishnu Himself? So the mighty bow remained unstrung, for who might string\nit until the boy R\u00e2ma came? And He takes it up with boyish carelessness,\nand bends it so strongly that it breaks in half, the crash echoing through\nearth and sky. He weds S\u00eet\u00e2, the beautiful, and goes forth with Her, and\nwith His brother Lakshmana and his bride, and with His father who had come\nto the bridal, and with a vast procession, wending their way back to their\nown town Ayodhya. This breaking of Mah\u00e2deva's bow has rung through earth,\nthe crashing of the bow has shaken all the worlds, and all, both men and\nDevas, know that the bow has been broken. Among the devotees of Mah\u00e2deva,\nParashur\u00e2ma hears the clang of the broken bow, the bow of the One He\nworshipped; and proud with the might of His strength, still with the energy\nof Vishnu in Him, He goes forth to meet this insolent boy, who had dared to\nbreak the bow that no other arm could bend. He challenges Him, and handing\nHis own bow bids Him try what He can do with that. Can He shoot an arrow\nfrom its string? R\u00e2ma takes this offered bow, strings it, and sets an arrow\non the string. Then He stops, for in front of Him there is the body of a\nBr\u00e2hmana; shall He draw an arrow against that form? As the two R\u00e2mas stand\nface to face, the energy of the elder, it is written, passes into the\nyounger; the energy of Vishnu, the energy of the Supreme, leaves the form\nin which it had been dwelling and enters the higher manifestation of the\nsame divine life. The bow was stretched and the arrow waiting, but R\u00e2ma\nwould not shoot it forth lest harm should come, until He had pacified His\nantagonist; then feeling that energy pass, Parashur\u00e2ma bows before R\u00e2ma,\ndiviner than Himself, hails Him as the Supreme Lord of the worlds, bends\nin reverence before Him, and then goes away. That Avat\u00e2ra was over,\nalthough the form in which the energy had dwelt yet persisted. That is why\nI said it was a lesser Avat\u00e2ra. Where you have the form persisting when the\ninfluence is withdrawn, you have the clear proof that there the incarnation\ncannot be said to be complete; the passing from the one to the other is the\nsign of the energy taken back by the Giver and put into a new vessel in\nwhich new work is to be done.\n\nThe story of R\u00e2ma you know; we need not follow it further in detail; we\nspoke of it yesterday in its highest aspect as combating the forces of\nevil and starting the world, as it were, anew. We find the great reign\nof R\u00e2ma lasting ten thousand years in the Dvapara Yuga, the Yuga at the\nclose of which Shr\u00ee Krishna came.\n\nThen comes the Mighty One, Shr\u00ee Krishna Himself, of whom I\nspeak not to-day; we will try to study that Avat\u00e2ra to-morrow with such\ninsight and reverence as we may possess. Pass over that then for the\nmoment, leaving it for fuller study, and we come to the ninth Avat\u00e2ra as\nit is called, that of the Lord Buddha. Now round this much controversy\nhas raged, and a theory exists current to some extent among the Hindus\nthat the Lord Buddha, though an incarnation of Vishnu, came to\nlead astray those who did not believe the Vedas, came to spread\nconfusion upon earth. Vishnu is the Lord of order, not of\ndisorder; the Lord of love, not the Lord of hatred; the Lord of\ncompassion, who only slays to help the life onward when the form has\nbecome an obstruction. And they blaspheme who speak of an incarnation of\nthe Supreme, as coming to mislead the world that He has made. Rightly\ndid your own learned pandit, T. Subba Row, speak of that theory with the\ndisdain born of knowledge; for no one who has a shadow of occult\nlearning, no one who knows anything of the inner realities of life,\ncould thus speak of that beautiful and gracious manifestation of the\nSupreme, or dream that He could take the mighty form of an Avat\u00e2ra in\norder to mislead.\n\nBut there is another point to put about this Avat\u00e2ra, on which, perhaps,\nI may come into conflict with people on another side. For this is the\ndifficulty of keeping the middle path, the razor path which goes neither\nto the left nor to the right, along which the great Gurus lead us. On\neither side you find objection to the central teaching. The Lord Buddha,\nin the ordinary sense of the word, was not what we have defined as an\nAvat\u00e2ra. He was the first of our own humanity who climbed upwards to\nthat point, and there merged in the Logos and received full\nillumination. His was not a body taken by the Logos for the purpose of\nrevealing Himself, but was the last in myriads of births through which\nhe had climbed to merge in I\u00b4shvara at last. That is not what is\nnormally spoken of as an Avat\u00e2ra, though, you may say, the result truly\nis the same. But in the case of the Avat\u00e2ra, the evolving births are in\nprevious kalpas, and the Avat\u00e2ra comes after the man has merged in the\nLogos, and the body is taken for the purpose of revelation. But he who\nbecame Gautama Buddha had climbed though birth after birth in our own\nkalpa, as well as in the kalpas that went before; and he was incarnated\nmany a time when the great Fourth Race dwelt in mighty Atlantis, and\nrose onward to take the office of the Buddha; for the Buddha is the\ntitle of an office, not of a particular man. Finally by his own\nstruggles, the very first of our race, he was able to reach that great\nfunction in the world. What is the function? That of the Teacher of Gods\nand men. The previous Buddhas had been Buddhas who came from another\nplanet. Humanity had not lived long enough here to evolve its own son to\nthat height. Gautama Buddha was human-born. He had evolved through the\nFourth Race into this first family of the A\u00b4ryan Race, the Hindu. By\nbirth after birth in India He had completed His course and took His\nfinal body in A\u00b4ry\u00e2varta, to make the proclamation of the law to men.\n\nBut the proclamation was not made primarily for India. It was given in\nIndia because India is the place whence the great religious revelations go\nforth by the will of the Supreme. Therefore was He born in India, but His\nlaw was specially meant for nations beyond the bounds of A\u00b4ry\u00e2varta, that\nthey might learn a pure morality, a noble ethic, disjoined--because of the\ndarkness of the age--from all the complicated teachings which we find in\nconnection with the subtle, metaphysical Hindu faith.\n\nHence you find in the teachings of the Lord Buddha two great divisions;\none a philosophy meant for the learned, then an ethic disjoined from the\nphilosophy, so far as the masses are concerned, noble and pure and\ngreat, yet easy to be grasped. For the Lord knew that we were going into\nan age of deeper and deeper materialism, that other nations were going\nto arise, that India for a time was going to sink down for other nations\nto rise above her in the scale of nations. Hence was it necessary to\ngive a teaching of morality fitted for a more materialistic age, so that\neven if nations would not believe in the Gods they might still practise\nmorality and obey the teachings of the Lord. In order also that this\nland might not suffer loss, in order that India itself might not lose\nits subtle metaphysical teachings and the widespread belief among all\nclasses of people in the existence of the Gods and their part in the\naffairs of men, the work of the great Lord Buddha was done. He left\nmorality built upon a basis that could not be shaken by any change of\nfaith, and, having done His work, passed away. Then was sent another\ngreat One, overshadowed by the power of Mah\u00e2deva, Shr\u00ee Shankar\u00e2ch\u00e2rya,\nin order that by His teaching He might give, in the Advaita Ved\u00e2nta, the\nphilosophy which would do intellectually what morally the Buddha had\ndone, which intellectually would guard spirituality and allow a\nmaterialistic age to break its teeth on the hard nut of a flawless\nphilosophy. Thus in India metaphysical religion triumphed, while the\nteaching of the Blessed One passed from the Indian soil, to do its noble\nwork in lands other than the land of A\u00b4ry\u00e2varta, which must keep\nunshaken its belief in the Gods, and where highest and lowest alike must\nbow before their power. That is the real truth about this much disputed\nquestion as to the teaching of the ninth Avat\u00e2ra; the fact was that His\nteaching was not meant for His birthplace, but was meant for other\nyounger nations that were rising up around, who did not follow the\nVedas, but who yet needed instruction in the path of righteousness; not\nto mislead them but to guide them, was His teaching given. But, as I\nsay, and as I repeat, what in it might have done harm in India had it\nbeen left alone was prevented by the coming of the great Teacher of the\nAdvaita. You must remember, that His name has been worn by man after\nman, through century after century; but the Shr\u00ee Shankar\u00e2ch\u00e2rya on whom\nwas the power of Mah\u00e2deva was born but a few years after the passing\naway of the Buddha, as the records of the Dw\u00e2rak\u00e2 Math show\nplainly--giving date after date backward, until they bring His birth\nwithin 60 or 70 years of the passing away of the Buddha.\n\nWe come to the tenth Avat\u00e2ra, the future one, the Kalki. Of that but\nlittle may be said; but one or two hints perchance may be given. With\nHis coming will dawn a brighter age; with His coming the Kali Yuga will\npass away; with His coming will also come a higher race of men. He will\ncome when there is born upon earth the sixth Root Race. There will then\nbe a great change in the world, a great manifestation of truth, of\noccult truth, and when He comes then occultism will again be able to\nshow itself to the world by proofs that none will be able to challenge\nor to deny; and He in His coming will give the rule over the sixth Root\nRace to the two Kings, of whom you read in the _Kalki Pur\u00e2na_. As we\nlook back down the past stream of time we find over and over again two\ngreat figures standing side by side--the ideal King and the ideal\nPriest. They work together; the one rules, the other teaches; the one\ngoverns the nation, the other instructs it. And such a pair of mighty\nones come down in every age for each and every Race. Each Race has its\nown Teacher, the ideal Br\u00e2hmana, called in the Buddhist language the\nBodhisattva, the learned, full of wisdom and truth. Each has also its\nown ruler, the Manu. Those two we can trace in the past, in Their actual\nincarnations; and we see Them in the third, the fourth, and fifth Races;\nthe Manu in each race is the ideal King, the Br\u00e2hmana in each race is\nthe ideal Teacher; and we learn that when the Kalki Avat\u00e2ra shall come\nHe shall call from the sacred village of Shamballa--the village known to\nthe occultist though not to the profane--two Kings who have remained\nthroughout the age in order to help the world in its evolution. And the\nname of the Manu who will be the King of the next Race, is said in the\n_Pur\u00e2na_ to be Moru; and the name of the ideal Br\u00e2hmana who will\nbe the Teacher of the next Race is said to be Devapi; and these two are\nKing and Teacher for the sixth Race that is to be born.\n\nThose of you who have read something of the wondrous story of the past\nwill know that the choosing out of the new Race, the evolving of it, the\nmaking of a new Root Race, is a thing that takes centuries, millenniums,\nsometimes hundreds of thousands of years; and that the two who are to be\nits King and Priest, the Manu and the Br\u00e2hmana, are at Their work\nthroughout the centuries, choosing the men who may be the seeds of the\nnew Race. In the womb of the fourth Race a choice was made out of which\nthe fifth was born; isolated in the Gobi desert, for enormous periods of\ntime, that chosen family was trained, educated, reared, till its Manu\nincarnated in it, and its Teacher also incarnated in it, and the first\nA\u00b4ryan family was led forth to settle in A\u00b4ry\u00e2varta. Now in the womb of\nthe fifth Race, the sixth Race is a choosing, and the King and the\nTeacher of the sixth Race are already at Their mighty and beneficent\nwork. They are choosing one by one, trying and testing, those who shall\nform the nucleus of the sixth Race; They are taking soul by soul,\nsubjecting each to many a test, to many an ordeal, to see if there be\nthe strength out of which a new Race can spring; and in fulness of time\nwhen Their work is ready, then will come the Kalki Avat\u00e2ra, to sweep\naway the darkness, to send the Kali Yuga into the past, to proclaim the\nbirth of the new Satya Yuga, with a new and more spiritual Race, that is\nto live therein. Then will He call out the chosen, the King Moru and the\nBr\u00e2hmana Devapi, and give into Their hands the Race that now They are\nbuilding, the Race to inhabit a fairer world, to carry onwards the\nevolution of humanity.\n\n\n\n\nFOURTH LECTURE.\n\n\nMy brothers, there are themes so lofty that tongue of Deva would not\nsuffice to do full justice to that which they enclose, and when we think\nof the music of Shr\u00ee Krishna's flute, all human music seems as\ndiscord amidst its strains. Nevertheless since bhakti grows by thought\nand word, it is not amiss that we should come near a subject so sacred;\nonly in dealing with it we must needs feel our incompetency, we must\nneeds regret our limitations, we must needs wish for greater power of\nexpression than we can have down here. For, perhaps, amid all the divine\nmanifestations that have glorified the world, there is none which has\naroused a wider, tenderer feeling than the Avat\u00e2ra which we are to study\nthis morning.\n\nThe austerer glories of Mah\u00e2deva, the Lord of the burning ground,\nattract more the hearts of those who are weary of the world and who see\nthe futility of worldly attractions; but Shr\u00ee Krishna is the\nGod of the household, the God of family life, the God whose\nmanifestations attract in every phase of His Self-revelation; He is\nhuman to the very core; born in humanity, as He has said, He acts as a\nman. As a child, He is a real child, full of playfulness, of fun, of\nwinsome grace. Growing up into boyhood, into manhood, He exercises the\nsame human fascination over the hearts of men, of women, and of\nchildren; the God in whose presence there is always joy, the God in\nwhose presence there is continual laughter and music. When we think of\nShr\u00ee Krishna we seem to hear the ripple of the river, the\nrustling of the leaves in the forest, the lowing of the kine in the\npasture, the laughter of happy children playing round their parents'\nknees. He is so fundamentally the God who is human in everything; who\nbends in human sympathy over the cradle of the babe, who sympathises\nwith the play of the youth, who is the friend of the lover, the blesser\nof the bridegroom and the bride, who smiles on the young mother when her\nfirst-born lies in her arms--everywhere the God of love and of human\nhappiness; what wonder that His winsome grace has fascinated the hearts\nof men!\n\nWe are to study Him, then, this morning. Now an Avat\u00e2ra--I say this to\nclear away some preliminary difficulties--an Avat\u00e2ra has two great\naspects to the world. First, He is a historical fact. Do not let that be\nforgotten. When you are reading the story of the great Ones, you are\nreading history and not fable. But it is more than history; the Avat\u00e2ras\nacts out on the stage of the world a mighty drama. He is, as it were, a\nplayer on the world's stage, and He plays a definite drama, and that\ndrama is an exposition of spiritual truth. And though the facts are\nfacts of history, they are also an allegory under which great spiritual\ntruths are conveyed to the minds and to the hearts of men. If you think\nof it only as an allegory, you miss an aspect of the truth; if you think\nof it only as a history you miss an aspect of the truth. The history of\nan Avat\u00e2ra is an exposition of spiritual verities; but though the drama\nbe a real one, it is a drama with an object, a drama with distinct\noutlines laid down, as it were, by the author, and the Avat\u00e2ra plays His\npart on the stage at the same time as He is living out His life as man\nin the history of the world. That must be remembered, otherwise some of\nthe great lessons of the Avat\u00e2ra will be misread.\n\nThen He comes into the world surrounded by many who have been with Him\nin former births, surrounded by celestial beings, born as men, and by a\nvast body of beings of the opposing side born also as men. I am speaking\nspecially of the Avat\u00e2ra of Shr\u00ee Krishna, but this is true of\nany other human Avat\u00e2ra as well. They are not born into the world alone;\nThey are born with a great circle round Them of friends, and a great\nhost before them of apparent foes, incarnated as human beings, to work\nout the world-drama that is being played.\n\nThis is most of all, perhaps, apparent in the case of the One whom we\nare now studying. Because of the extremely complicated nature of the\nAvat\u00e2ra of Shr\u00ee Krishna, and the vast range that He covered as\nregards His manifestations of complex human life, in order to render the\nvast subject a little more manageable, I have divided this drama, as it\nwere, into its separate acts. I am using for a moment the language of\nthe stage, for I think it will make my meaning rather more clear. That\nis, in dealing with His life, I have taken its stages which are clearly\nmarked out, and in each of these we shall see one great type of the\nteaching which the world is meant to learn from the playing of this\ndrama before the eyes of men. To some extent the stages correspond with\nmarked periods in the life, and to some extent they overlap each other;\nbut by having them clearly in our minds we shall be able, I think, to\ngrasp better the whole object of the Avat\u00e2ra--we shall have as it were\ncompartments in the mind in which the different types of teaching may be\nplaced.\n\nFirst then He comes to show forth to the world a great Object of bhakti,\nand the love of God to His bhakta, or devotee. That is the aim of the\nfirst act of the great drama--to stand forth as the Object of devotion,\nand to show forth the love with which God regards His devotees. We have\nthere a marked stage in the life of Shr\u00ee Krishna.\n\nThen the second act of the drama may be said to be His character as the\ndestroyer of the opposing forces that retard evolution, and that runs\nthrough the whole of His life.\n\nThe third act is that of the statesman, the wise, politic, and\nintellectual actor on the world's stage of history, the guiding force of\nthe nation by His wondrous policy and intelligence, standing forth not\nas king but rather as statesman.\n\nThen we have Him as friend, the human friend, especially of the\nP\u00e2ndavas and of Arjuna.\n\nThe next act is that of Shr\u00ee Krishna as Teacher, the\nworld-teacher, not the teacher of one race alone.\n\nThen we see Him in the strange and wondrous aspect of the Searcher of\nthe hearts of men, the trier and tester of human nature.\n\nFinally, we may regard Him in His manifestation as the Supreme, the\nall-pervading life of the universe, who looks on nothing as outside\nHimself, who embraces in His arms evil and good, darkness and light,\nnothing alien to Himself.\n\nInto these seven acts, as it were, the life-history may be divided, and\neach of them might serve as the study of a life-time instead of our\ncompressing them into the lecture of a morning. We will, however, take\nthem in turn, however inadequately; for the hints I give can be worked\nout by you in detail according to the constitution of your own minds.\nOne aspect will attract one man, another aspect will attract another;\nall the aspects are worthy of study, all are provocative of devotion.\nBut most of all, with regard to devotion, is the earliest stage of His\nlife inspiring and full of benediction, those early years of the Lord as\ninfant, as child, as young boy, when He is dwelling in Vraja, in the\nforest of Brind\u00e2ban, when He is living with the cowherds and their wives\nand their children, the marvellous child who stole the hearts of men. It\nis noticeable--and if it had been remembered many a blasphemy would not\nhave been uttered--that Shr\u00ee Krishna chose to show Himself as\nthe great object of devotion, as the lover of the devotee, in the form\nof a child, not in that of a man.\n\nCome then with me to the time of His birth, remembering that before that\nbirth took place upon earth, the deities had been to Vishnu in the\nhigher regions, and had asked Him to interfere in order that earth might\nbe lightened of her load, that the oppression of the incarnate Daityas\nmight be stayed; and then Vishnu said to the Gods: Go ye and\nincarnate yourselves in portions among men, go ye and take birth amid\nhumanity. Great Rishis also took birth in the place where\nVishnu Himself was to be born, so that ere He came, the\nsurroundings of the drama were, as it were, made in the place of His\ncoming, and those that we speak of as the cowherds of Vraja, Nanda and\nthose around Him, the Gop\u00ees and all the inhabitants of that wondrously\nblessed spot, were, we are told, \"God-like persons\"; nay more, they were\n\"the Protectors of the worlds\" who were born as men for the progress of\nthe world. But that means that the Gods themselves had come down and\ntaken birth as men; and when you think of all that took place throughout\nthe wonderful childhood of the L\u00eel\u00e2[10] of Shr\u00ee Krishna, you\nmust remember that those who played that act of the drama were the\nordinary men, no ordinary women; they were the Protectors of the worlds\nincarnated as cowherds round Him. And the Gop\u00ees, the graceful wives of\nthe shepherds, they were the Rishis of ancient days, who by devotion\nto Vishnu had gained the blessing of being incarnated as Gop\u00ees, in\norder that they might surround His childhood, and pour out their love at\nthe tiny feet of the boy they saw as boy, of the God they worshipped as\nsupreme.\n\n[Footnote 10: Play.]\n\nWhen all these preparations were made for the coming of the child, the\nchild was born. I am not dwelling on all the well-known incidents that\nsurrounded His birth, the prophecy that the destroyer of Kamsa was to be\nborn, the futile shutting up in the dungeon, the chaining with irons, and\nall the other follies with which the earthly tyrant strove to make\nimpossible of accomplishment the decree of the Supreme. You all know how\nhis plans came to nothing, as the mounds of sand raised by the hands of\nchildren are swept into a level plain when one wave of the sea ripples over\nthe playground of the child. He was born, born in His four-armed form,\nshining out for the moment in the dungeon, which before His birth had been\nirradiated by Him through His mother's body, who was said to be like an\nalabaster vase--so pure was she--with a flame within it. For the Lord Shr\u00ee\nKrishna was within her womb, herself the alabaster vase which was as a lamp\ncontaining Him, the world's light, so that the glory illuminated the\ndarkness of the dungeon where she lay. At His birth he came as Vishnu, for\nthe moment showing Himself with all the signs of the Deity on Him, with the\ndiscus, with the conch, with the shrivatsa on His breast, with all the\nrecognised emblems of the Lord. But that form quickly vanished, and only\nthe human child lay before His parents' eyes. And the father, you remember,\ntaking Him up, passed through the great locked doors and all the rest of\nit, and carried Him in safety into his brother's house, where He was to\ndwell in the place prepared for His coming.\n\nAs a babe He showed forth the power that was in Him, as we shall see,\nwhen we come, to the second stage, the destroyer of the forces of evil.\nBut for the moment only watch Him as He plays in his foster mother's\nhouse, as He gambols with children of His own age. And as He is growing\ninto a boy, able to go alone, He begins wandering through the fields and\nthrough the forest, and the notes of His wondrous flute are heard in all\nthe groves and over all the plains. The child, a child of five--only\nfive years of age when He wandered with His magic flute in His hands,\ncharming the hearts of all that heard; so that the boys left tending the\ncattle and followed the music of the flute; the women left their\nhousehold tasks and followed where the flute was playing; the men\nceased their labours that they might feast their ears on the music of\nthe flute. Nay, not only the men, the women and the children, but the\ncows, it is said, stopped their grazing to listen as the notes fell on\ntheir ears, and the calves ceased suckling as the music came to them on\nthe wind, and the river rippled up that it might hear the better, and\nthe trees bowed down their branches that they might not lose a note, and\nthe birds no longer sang lest their music should make discord in the\nmelody, as the wondrous child wandered over the country, and the music\nof heaven flowed from His magic flute.\n\nAnd thus He lived and played and sported, and the hearts of all the\ncowherds and of their wives and daughters went out to that marvellous\nchild. And He played with them and loved them, and they would take Him\nup and place His baby feet on their bosoms, and would sing to Him as the\nLord of all, the Supreme, the mighty One. They recognised the Deity in\nthe child that played round their homes, and many lessons He taught\nthem, this child, amid His gambols and His pranks--lessons that still\nteach the world, and that those who know most understand best.\n\nLet me take one instance which ignorant lips have used most in order to\ninsult, to try to defame the majesty that they do not understand. But\nlet me say this: that I believe that in most cases where these bitter\ninsults are uttered, they are uttered by people who have never really\nread the story, and who have heard only bits of it and have supplied the\nrest out of their own imaginations. I therefore take a particular\nincident which I have heard most spoken of with bitterness as a proof of\nthe frightful immorality of Shr\u00ee Krishna.\n\nWhile the child of six was one day wandering along, as He would, a\nnumber of the Gop\u00ees were bathing nude in the river, having cast aside\ntheir cloths--as they should not have done, that being against the law\nand showing carelessness of womanly modesty. Leaving their garments on\nthe bank they had plunged into the river. The child of six saw this with\nthe eye of insight, and He gathered up their cloths and climbed up a\ntree near by, carrying them with Him, and threw them round His own\nshoulders and waited to see what would chance. The water was bitterly\ncold and the Gop\u00ees were shivering; but they did not like to come out of\nit before the clear steady eyes of the child. And He called them to come\nand get the garments they had thrown off; and as they hesitated, the\nbaby lips told them that they had sinned against God by immodestly\ncasting aside the garments that should have been worn, and must\ntherefore expiate their sin by coming and taking from His hands that\nwhich they had cast aside. They came and worshipped, and He gave them\nback their robes. An immoral story, with a child of six as the central\nfigure! It is spoken of as though he were a full grown man, insulting\nthe modesty of women. The Gop\u00ees were Rishis, and the Lord, the\nSupreme, as a babe is teaching them a lesson. But there is more than\nthat; there is a profound occult lesson below the story--a story\nrepeated over and over again in different forms--and it is this: that\nwhen the soul is approaching the supreme Lord at one great stage of\ninitiation, it has to pass through a great ordeal; stripped of\neverything on which it has hitherto relied, stripped of everything that\nis not of its inner Self, deprived of all external aid, of all external\nprotection, of all external covering, the soul itself, in its own\ninherent life, must stand naked and alone with nothing to rely on, save\nthe life of the Self within it. If it flinches before the ordeal, if it\nclings to anything to which hitherto it has looked for help, if in that\nsupreme hour it cries out for friend or helper, nay even for the Guru\nhimself, the soul fails in that ordeal. Naked and alone it must go\nforth, with absolutely none to aid it save the divinity within itself.\nAnd it is that nakedness of the soul as it approaches the supreme goal,\nthat is told of in that story of Shr\u00ee Krishna, the child, and\nthe Gop\u00ees, the nakedness of life before the One who gave it. You find\nmany another similar allegory. When the Lord comes in the Kalki, the\ntenth, Avat\u00e2ra, He fights on the battlefield and is overcome. He uses\nall His weapons; every weapon fails Him; and it is not till He casts\nevery weapon aside and fights with His naked hands, that He conquers.\nExactly the same idea. Intellect, everything, fails the naked soul\nbefore God.[11]\n\n[Footnote 11: So in the _Imitation of Christ_, the work of an occultist,\nit is written that we must \"naked follow the naked Jesus.\"]\n\nIf I have taken up this story specially, out of hundreds of stories, to\ndwell upon, it is because it is one of the points of attack, and because\nyou who are Hindus by birth ought to know enough of the inner truths of\nyour own religion not to stand silent and ashamed when attacks are made,\nbut should speak with knowledge and thus prevent such blasphemies.\n\nThen we learn more details of His play with the Gop\u00ees as a child of\nseven: how He wandered into the forest and disappeared and all went\nafter Him seeking Him; how they tried to imitate His own play, in order\nto fill up the void that was left by His absence. The child of seven,\nthat He was at this time, disappeared for a while, but came back to\nthose who loved Him, as God ever does with His bhaktas. And then takes\nplace that wondrous dance, the R\u00e2sa[12] of Shr\u00ee Krishna, part\nof His L\u00eel\u00e2, when He multiplied Himself so that every pair of Gop\u00ees\nfound Him standing between them; amid the ring of women the child was\nthere between each pair of them, giving a hand to each; and so the\nmystic dance was danced. This is another of these points of attack which\nare made by ignorant minds. What but an unclean mind can see aught that\nis impure in the child dancing there as lover and beloved? It is as\nthough He looked forward down the ages, and saw what later would be\nsaid, and it is as though He kept the child form in the L\u00eel\u00e2, in order\nthat He might breathe harmlessly into men's blind unclean hearts the\nlesson that He would fain give. And what was the lesson? One other\nincident I remind you of, before I draw the lesson from the whole of\nthis stage of His life. He sent for food, He who is the Feeder of the\nworlds, and some of His Br\u00e2hmanas refused to give it, and sent away\nthe boys who came to ask for food for Him; and when the men refused, He\nsent them back to the women, to see if they too would refuse the food\ntheir husbands had declined to give. And the women--who have ever loved\nthe Lord--caught up the food from every part of their houses where they\ncould find it and went out, crowds of them, bearing food for Him,\nleaving house, and husband, and household duties. And all tried to stop\nthem, but they would not be stopped; and brothers and husbands and\nfriends tried to hold them back, but no, they must go to Him, to their\nLover, Shr\u00ee Krishna; He must not be hungry, the child of their\nlove. And so they went and gave Him food and He ate. But they say: They\nleft their husbands! they left their homes! how wrong to leave husbands\nand homes and follow after Shr\u00ee Krishna! The implication always\nis that their love was purely physical love, as though that were\npossible with a child of seven. I know that words of physical love are\nused, and I know it is said in a curious translation that \"they came\nunder the spell of Cupid.\" It matters not for the words, let us look at\nthe facts. There is not a religion in the world that has not taught that\nwhen the Supreme calls, all else must be cast aside. I have seen Shr\u00ee\nKrishna contrasted with Jesus of Nazareth to the detriment of\nShr\u00ee Krishna, and a contrast is drawn between the purity of the\none and the impurity of the other; the proof given was that the husbands\nwere left while the wives went to play with and wait on the Lord. But I\nhave read words that came from the lips of Jesus of Nazareth; \"He that\nloveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that\nloveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.\" \"And every one\nthat hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or\nmother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall\nreceive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life.\" (Matt. x.\n37, and xix. 29.) And again, yet more strongly: \"If any man come to me\nand hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and\nbrethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my\ndisciple.\" (Luke xiv. 26.) That is exactly the same idea. When Jesus\ncalls, husband and wife, father and mother, must be forsaken, and the\nreward will be eternal life. Why is that right when done for Jesus,\nwhich is wrong when done for Shr\u00ee Krishna?\n\n[Footnote 12: Dance.]\n\nIt is not only that you find the same teaching in both religions; but in\nevery other religion of the world the terms of physical love are used to\ndescribe the relation between the soul and God. Take the \"Song of\nSolomon.\" If you take the Christian _Bible_ and read the margin you will\nsee \"The Love of Christ for His Church\"; and if from the margin you look\ndown the column, you will find the most passionate of love songs, a\ndescription of the exquisite female form in all the details of its\nattractive beauty; the cry of the lover to the beloved to come to him\nthat they might take their fill of love. \"Christ and His Church\" is\nsupposed to make it all right, and I am content that it should be so. I\nhave no word to say against the \"Song of Solomon,\" nor any complaint\nagainst its gorgeous and luxuriant imagery; but I refuse to take from\nthe Hebrew as pure, what I am to refuse from the Hindu as impure. I ask\nthat all may be judged by the same standard, and that if one be\ncondemned the same condemnation may be levelled against the other. So\nalso in the songs of the S\u00fbf\u00ees, the mystics of the faith of Isl\u00e2m,\nwoman's love is ever used as the best symbol of love between the soul\nand God. In all ages the love between husband and wife has been the\nsymbol of union between the Supreme and His devotees; the closest of all\nearthly ties, the most intimate of all earthly unions, the merging of\nheart and body of twain into one--where will you find a better image of\nthe merging of the soul in its God? Ever has the object of devotion\nbeen symbolised as the lover or husband, ever the devotee as wife or\nmistress. This symbology is universal, because it is fundamentally true.\nThe absolute surrender of the wife to the husband is the type upon earth\nof the absolute surrender of the soul to God. That is the justification\nof the R\u00e2sa of Shr\u00ee Krishna; that is the explanation of the\nstory of His life in Vraja.\n\nI have dwelt specially on this, my brothers, you all know why. Let us\npass from it, remembering that till the nineteenth century this story\nprovoked only devotion not ribaldry, and it is only with the coming in\nof the grosser type of western thought that you have these ideas put\ninto the _Bh\u00e2gavad-Pur\u00e2na_. I would to God that the Rishis had\ntaken away the _Shr\u00eemad Bh\u00e2gavata_ from a race that is unworthy to have\nit; that as They have already withdrawn the greater part of the Vedas,\nthe greater part of the ancient books, they would take away also this\nstory of the love of Shr\u00ee Krishna, until men are pure enough to\nread it without blasphemy and clean enough to read it without ideas of\nsexuality.\n\nPass from this to the next great stage, that of the Destroyer of evil,\nshortly, very shortly. From the time when as a babe but a few weeks old\nHe sucked to death the R\u00e2kshas\u00ee, P\u00fbtana; from the time He entered the\ngreat cave made by the demon, and expanding Himself shivered the whole\ninto fragments; from the time He trampled on the head of the serpent\nKalia so that it might not poison the water needed for the drinking of\nthe people; until He left Vraja to meet Kamsa, we find Him ever chasing\naway every form of evil that came within the limits of His abode. We are\ntold that when He had left Vraja and stood in the tournament field of\nKamsa with His brother, His brother and Himself were mere boys, in the\ntender delicate bodies of youths. After the whole of the L\u00eel\u00e2 was over\nThey were still children, when They went forth to fight. From that time\nonwards He met, one after another, the great incarnations of evil and\ncrushed them with His resistless strength: we need not dwell on these\nstories, for they fill His life.\n\nWe come to the third stage of Statesman, a marvellously interesting\nfeature in His life--the tact, the delicacy, the foresight, the skill in\nalways putting the man opposed to Him in the wrong, and so winning His\nway and carrying others with Him. As you know, this part of His life is\nplayed out especially in connection with the P\u00e2ndavas. He is the\none who in every difficulty steps forward as ambassador; it is He who\ngoes with Arjuna and Bh\u00eema to slay the giant king Jarasandha, who was\ngoing to make a human sacrifice to Mah\u00e2deva, a sacrifice that was put a\nstop to as blasphemous; it was He who went with them in order that the\nconflict might take place without transgressing the strictest rules of\nKshattriya morality. Follow Him as He and Arjuna and his brother enter\ninto the city of the king. They will not come by the open gate, that is\nthe pathway of the friend. They break down a portion of the wall as a\nsign that they come as foes. They will not go undecorated; and\nchallenged why they wore flowers and sandal, the answer is that they\ncome for the celebration of a triumph, the fulfilling of a vow. Offered\nfood, the answer of the great ambassador is that they will not take food\nthen, that they will meet the king later and explain their purpose. When\nthe time arrives He tells him in the most courteous but the clearest\nlanguage that all these acts have been performed that he may know that\nthey had come not as friends but as foes to challenge him to battle. So\nagain when the question arises, after the thirteen years of exile, how\nshall the land be won back without struggle, without fight, you see Him\nstanding in the assembly of P\u00e2ndavas and their friends with the\nwisest counsel how perchance war may be averted; you see Him offering to\ngo as ambassador that all the magic of His golden tongue may be used for\nthe preservation of peace; you see Him going as ambassador and avoiding\nall the pavilions raised by the order of Duryodhana, that He may not\ntake from one who is a foe a courtesy that might bind him as a friend.\nSo when he pays the call on Duryodhana that courtesy demands, never\nfailing in the perfect duty of the ambassador, fulfilling every demand\nof politeness, He will not touch the food that would make a bond between\nHimself and the one against whom He had come to struggle. See how the\nonly food that He will take is the food of the King's brother, for that\nalone, He says, \"is clean and worthy to be eaten by me.\" See how in the\nassembly of hostile kings He tries to pacify and tries to please. See\nhow He apologises with the gentlest humility; how to the great king, the\nblind king, He speaks in the name of the P\u00e2ndavas as suppliant,\nnot as outraged and indignant foe. See how with soft words He tries to\nturn away words of wrath, and uses every device of oratory to win their\nhearts and convince their judgments. See how later again, when the\nbattle of Kurukshetra is over, when all the sons of the blind king are\nslain, see how He goes once more as ambassador to meet the childless\nfather and, still bitterer, the childless mother, that the first anger\nmay break itself on Him, and His words may charm away the wrath and\nsoothe the grief of the bereft. See how later on He still guides and\nadvises till all the work is done, till His task is accomplished and His\nend is drawing near. A statesman of marvellous ability; a politician of\nkeenest tact and insight; as though to say to men of the world that when\nthey are acting as men of the world they should be careful of\nrighteousness, but also careful of discretion and of skill, that there\nis nothing alien to the truth of religion in the skill of the tongue and\nin the use of the keen intelligence of the brain.\n\nThen pass on again from Him as Statesman to His character as Friend.\nWould that I had time to dwell on it, and paint you some of the fair\npictures of His relations with the family He loved so well, from the day\nwhen, standing in the midst of the self-choice of Krishna, the\nfair future wife of the P\u00e2ndavas, He saw for the first time in\nthat human incarnation Arjuna, His beloved of old. Think what it must\nhave been, when the eyes of the two young men met, with memories in the\none pair of the close friendship of the past, and the drawing of the\nother by the tie of those many births to the ancient friend whom he knew\nnot. From that day when they first meet in this life onwards, how\nconstant His friendship, how ceaseless His protection, how careful His\nthought to guard their honour and their lives; and yet how wise; at\nevery point where His presence would have frustrated the object of His\ncoming, He goes away. He is not present at the great game of dice, for\nthat was necessary for the working out of the divine purpose; He was\naway. Had He been there, He must needs have interfered; had He been\nthere, He could not have left His friends unaided. He remained away,\nuntil Draupad\u00ee cried in her agony for help when her modesty was\nthreatened; then he came with Dharma and clothed her with garments as\nthey were dragged from her; but then the game was over, the dice were\ncast, and destiny had gone on its appointed road.\n\nHow strange to watch that working! One object followed without change,\nwithout hesitation: but every means used that might give people an\nopportunity of escaping if only they would. He came to bring about that\nbattle on Kurukshetra. He came, as we shall see in a moment, in order to\ncarry out that one object in preparation for the centuries that\nstretched in front; but in the carrying of it out, He would give every\nchance to men who were entangled in that evil by their own past, so that\nif one of them would answer to His pleading he might come over to the\nside of light against the forces of darkness. He never wavered in His\nobject; yet He never left unused one means that man could use to prevent\nthat object taking place. A lesson full of significance! The will of the\nSupreme must be done, but the doing of that will is no excuse for any\nindividual man who does not carry out the law to the fullest of his\npower. Although the will must be carried out, everything should be done\nthat righteousness permits and that compassion suggests in order that\nmen may choose light rather than darkness, and that only the resolutely\nobstinate may at last be, whelmed in the ruin that falls upon the land.\n\nAs Teacher--need I speak of Him as teacher who gave the _Bhagavad-G\u00eet\u00e2_\nbetween the contending armies on Kurukshetra? Teacher not of Arjuna\nalone, not of India alone, but of every human heart which can listen to\nspiritual instruction, and understand a little of the profound wisdom\nthere clothed in the words of man. Remember a later saying: \"I, O\nArjuna, am the Teacher and the mind is my pupil;\" the mind of every man\nwho is willing to be taught; the mind of every one who is ready to be\ninstructed. Never does the spiritual teacher withhold knowledge because\nhe grudges the giving. He is hampered in the giving by the want of\nreceptivity in those to whom his message is addressed. Ill do men judge\nthe divine heart of the great Teachers, or the faint reflection of that\nlove in the mouth of Their messengers, when they think that knowledge is\nwithheld because it is a precious possession to be grudgingly dealt out,\nthat has to be given in as small a share as possible. It is not the\nwithholding of the teacher but the closing of the heart of the hearer;\nnot the hesitation of the teacher but the want of the ear that hears;\nnot the dearth of teachers but the dearth of pupils who are willing and\nready to be taught. I hear men say: \"Why not an Avat\u00e2ra now, or if not\nan Avat\u00e2ra, why do not the great Rishis come forward to speak Their\ngolden wisdom in the ears of men? Why do They desert us? Why do They\nleave us? Why should this world in this age not have the wisdom as They\ngave it of old?\" The answer is that They are waiting, waiting, waiting,\nwith tireless patience, in order to find some one willing to be taught,\nand when one human heart opens itself out and says: \"O Lord, teach me,\"\nthen the teaching comes down in a stream of divine energy and floods the\nheart. And if you have not the teaching, it is because your hearts are\nlocked with the key of gold, with the key of fame, with the key of\npower, and with the key of desire for the enjoyments of this world.\nWhile those keys lock your hearts, the teachers of wisdom cannot enter\nin; but unlock the heart and throw away the key, and you will find\nyourselves flooded with a wisdom which is ever waiting to come in.\n\nAs Searcher of hearts--Ah! here again He is so difficult to understand,\nthis Lord of M\u00e2y\u00e2, this Master of illusion. He tests the hearts of His\nbeloved, not so much the world at large. To them is the teaching that\nshall guide them aright. For Arjuna, for Bh\u00eema, for Yudhishthira,\nfor them the keener touch, the sharper trial, in order to see if within\nthe heart one grain of evil still remains, that will prevent their union\nwith Himself. For what does he seek? That they shall be His very own,\nthat they shall enter into His being. But they cannot enter therein\nwhile one seed of evil remains in their hearts. They cannot enter\ntherein while one sin is left in their nature. And so in tenderness and\nnot in anger, in wisest love and not with a desire to mislead, the Lord\nof Love tries the hearts of His beloved, so that any evil that is in\nthem may be wrung out by the grip that He places on them. Two or three\noccasions of it I remember. I may mention perhaps a couple of them to\nshow you the method of the trial. The battle of Kurukshetra had been\nraging many a day; thousands and tens of thousands of the dead lay\nscattered on that terrible field, and every day when the sun rose\nBh\u00eeshma came forth, generalissimo of the army of the Kurus, carrying\nbefore him everything, save where Arjuna barred his way; but Arjuna\ncould not be everywhere; he was called away, with the horses guided by\nthe Charioteer Shr\u00ee Krishna sweeping across the field like a\nwhirlwind, carrying victory in their course; and where the Charioteer\nand Arjuna were not there Bh\u00eeshma had his way. The hearts of the\nP\u00e2ndavas sank low within them, and at last one night under their\ntents, resting ere the next day's struggle, the bitter despondency of\nKing Yudhishthira broke out in words, and he declared that until\nBh\u00eeshma was slain nothing could be done. Then came the test from the\nlips of the searcher of hearts. \"Behold, I will go forth and slay him on\nthe morrow.\" Would Yudhishthira consent? A promise stood in his\nway. You may remember that when Duryodhana and Arjuna went to Shr\u00ee\nKrishna who lay sleeping, the question arose as to what each\nshould take. Alone, unarmed, Shr\u00ee Krishna would go with one, He\nwould not fight; a mighty battalion of troops He would give to the\nother. Arjuna chose the unarmed Krishna; Duryodhana, the mighty\narmy ready to fight; so the word of the Avat\u00e2ra was pledged that He\nwould not fight. Unarmed He went into the battle, clad in his yellow\nsilken robe, and only with the whip of the charioteer in His hand;\ntwice, in order to stimulate Arjuna into combat, He had sprung down\nfrom the chariot and gone forth with His whip in His hand as though He\nwould attack Bh\u00eeshma and slay him where he fought. Each time Arjuna\nstopped Him, reminding Him of His words. Now came the trial for the\nblameless King, as he is often called; should Shr\u00ee Krishna\nbreak His word to give him victory? He stood firm. \"Thy promise is\ngiven,\" was his answer; \"that promise may not be broken.\" He passed the\ntrial; he stood the test. But still one weakness was left in that noble\nheart; one underlying weakness that threatened to keep him away from his\nLord. The lack of power to stand absolutely alone in the moment of\ntrial, the ever clinging to some one stronger than himself, in order\nthat his own decision might be upheld. That last weakness had to be\nburnt out as by fire. In a critical moment of the battle the word came\nthat the success of Drona was carrying everything before him; that\nDrona was resistless and that the only way to slay him was to spread\nthe report that his son was dead, and then he would no longer fight.\nBh\u00eema slew an elephant of the same name as Drona's son, and he said\nin the hearing of Drona: \"Ashvatth\u00e2ma is dead.\" But Drona would\nnot believe unless King Yudhishthira said so. Then the test came.\nWill he tell a practical lie but a nominal truth, in order to win the\nbattle? He refused; not for his brother's pleadings would he do it.\nWould he stand firm by truth quite alone when all he revered seemed to\nbe on the other side? The great One said: \"Say that Ashvatth\u00e2ma is\nslain.\" Ought he to have done it because He, Shr\u00ee Krishna, bade\nhim? Ought he to have told the lie because the revered One counselled\nit? Ah no! neither for the voice of God nor man, may the human soul do a\nthing which he knows to be against God and His law; and alone he must\nstand in the universe, rather than sin against right. And when the lie\nwas told under cover of that excuse, Yudhishthira doing what he\nwished in his heart under cover of the command from one he revered, then\nhe fell, his chariot descended to the ground, and suffering and misery\nfollowed him from that day till the day of his ending, until in the face\nof the King of the celestials he stood alone, holding the duty of\nprotection even to a dog higher than divine command and joy of heaven.\nAnd then he showed that the lesson had worked out in his purification,\nand that the heart was clean from the slightest taint of weakness. Oh,\nbut men say, Shr\u00ee Krishna counselled the telling of a lie! My\nbrothers, can you not see beneath the illusion? What is there in this\nworld that the Supreme does not do? There is no life but His, no Self\nbut His, nothing save His life through all His universe; and every act\nis His act, when you go back to the ultimates. He had warned them of\nthat truth. \"I\" He said, \"am the gambling of the cheat,\" as well as the\nchants of the Veda. Strange lesson, and hard to learn, and yet true. For\nat every stage of evolution there is a lesson to be learnt. He teaches\nall the lessons; at each point of growth the next step is to be taken,\nand very often that step is the experiencing of evil, in order that\nsuffering may burn the desire for evil out of the very heart. And just\nas the knife of the surgeon is different from the knife of the murderer,\nalthough both may pierce the human flesh, the one cutting to cure, the\nother to slay; so is the sharp knife of the Supreme, when by experience\nof evil and consequent pain He purifies the man, different, because the\nmotive is other than the doing of evil to gratify passion, the stepping\naside from righteousness in order to please the lower nature.\n\nLast of all He shows himself as the Supreme; there is the\nVaishnava form, the universal form, the form that contains the\nuniverse. But still more is the Supreme seen in the profound wisdom of\nthe teaching, in the steadfastness of His walk through life. Does it\nsound strange to say that God is seen more in the latter than the\nformer, that the outer form that contains the universe is less divine\nthan the perfect steadfast nature, swerving neither to the right hand\nnor the left? Read that life again with this thought in your mind, of\none purpose followed to its end no matter what forces might play on the\nother side, and its greatness may appear.\n\nWhat did He come to do? He came to give the last lesson to the\nKshattriya caste of India, and to open India to the world. Many lessons\nhad been given to that great caste. We know that twenty-one times they\nhad been cut off, and yet re-established. We know that Shr\u00ee R\u00e2ma had\nshown the perfect life of Kshattriya, as an example that they might\nfollow. They would not learn the lesson, either by destruction or by\nlove. They would not follow the example either from fear or from\nadmiration. Then their hour struck on the bell of Heaven, the knell of\nthe Kshattriya caste. He came to sweep away that caste and to leave only\nscattered remnants of it, dotted over the Indian soil. It had been the\nsword of India, the iron wall that ringed her round. He came to shiver\nthat wall into pieces, and to break the sword that it might not strike\nagain. It had been used to oppress instead of to protect. It had been\nused for tyranny instead of for justice. Therefore he who gave it brake\nit, till men should learn by suffering what they would not learn by\nprecept. And on the field of Kuru, the Kshattriya caste fought its last\ngreat battle; none were left of all that mighty host save a handful,\nwhen the fighting was over. Never has the caste recovered from\nKurukshetra. It has not utterly disappeared. In some districts we find\nfamilies belonging to it; but you know well enough that as a caste in\nmost parts of modern India, you are hard put to find it. Why in the\ngreat counsels of the world's welfare was this done? Not only to teach a\nlesson for all time to kings and rulers, that if they would not govern\naright they should not govern at all; but also to lay India open to the\nworld.\n\nHow strange that sounds! To lay her open to invasion? He who loved her\nto lay her open to conquest? He who had consecrated her, He who had\nhallowed her plains and forests by His treading, and whose voice had\nrung through her land? Aye, for He judges not as man judges, and He sees\nthe end from the beginning. India as she was of old, kept isolated from\nall the world, was so kept that she might have the treasure of spiritual\nknowledge poured into her and make a vessel for the containing. But when\nyou fill the vessel, you do not then put that vessel high away on a\nshelf, and leave men thirsting for the liquid that it contains. The\nmighty One filled His Indian vessel with the water of spiritual\nknowledge, and at last the time came when that water should be poured\nout for the quenching of the thirst of the world, and should not be left\nonly for the quenching of the thirst of a single nation, for the use of\na single people. Therefore the Lover of men came, in order that the\nwater of life might be poured out; He broke down the wall, so that the\nforeigner might overstep her borders. The Greeks swept in, the\nMussulm\u00e2ns swept in, invasion after invasion, invasion after invasion,\nuntil the conquerors who now rule India were the latest in time. Do you\nsee in that only decay, only misery, only that India is under a curse?\nAh no, my brothers! That which seems a curse for the time is for the\nworld's healing and the world's blessing; and India may well suffer for\na time in order that the world may be redeemed.\n\nWhat does it mean? I am not speaking politically, but from the\nstandpoint of a spiritual student, who is trying to understand how the\nevolution of the race goes on. The people who last conquered India, who\nnow rule her as governors, are the people whose language is the most\nwidely spread of all the languages of the world, and it is likely to\nbecome the world's language. It belongs not only to that little island\nof Britain, it belongs also to the great continent of America, to the\ngreat continent of Australia. It has spread from land to land, until\nthat one tongue is the tongue most widely understood amongst all the\npeoples of the world. Other nations are beginning to learn it, because\nbusiness and trade and even diplomacy are beginning to be carried on in\nthat English speech. What wonder then that the Supreme should send to\nIndia this nation whose language is becoming the world-language, and lay\nher open to be held as part of that world-wide empire, in order that her\nScriptures, translated into the most widely spoken language, may help\nthe whole human family and purify and spiritualise the hearts of all His\nsons.\n\nThere is the deepest object of His coming, to prepare the\nspiritualisation of the world. It is not enough that one nation shall be\nspiritual; it is not enough that one country shall have wisdom; it is\nnot enough that one land, however mighty and however beloved--and do not\nI love India as few of you love her?--it is not enough that she should\nhave the gold of spiritual truth, and the rest of the world be paupers\nbegging for a coin. No; far better that for a time she should sink in\nthe scale of nations, in order that what she cannot do for herself may\nbe done by divine agencies that are ever guiding the evolution of the\nworld. Thus what from outside looks as conquest and subjection, to the\neye of the spirit looks as the opening of the spiritual temple, so that\nall the nations may come in and learn.\n\nOnly that leaves to you a duty, a responsibility. I hear so much, I have\nspoken so often, of the descendants of Rishis and of the blood of the\nRishis in your veins. True, but not enough. If you are again to be\nwhat Shr\u00ee Krishna means you to be in His eternal counsels, the\nBr\u00e2hmana of nations, the teacher of divine truth, the mouth through\nwhich the Gods speak in the ears of men, then the Indian nation must\npurify itself, then the Indian nation must spiritualise itself. Shall\nyour Scriptures spiritualise the whole world while you remain\nunspiritual? Shall the wisdom of the Rishis go out to Mlechchas in\nevery part of the world, and they learn and profit by it, while you, the\nphysical descendants of the Rishis, know not your own literature and\nlove it even less than you know? That is the great lesson with which I\nwould fain close. So true is this, that, in order to gain teachers of\nthe Brahmavidy\u00e2 which belongs to this land by right of birth, the great\nRishis have had to send some of their children to other lands in\norder that they may come back to teach your own religion amidst your\npeople. Shall it not be that this shame shall come to an end? Shall it\nnot be that there are some among you that shall lead again the old\nspiritual life, and follow and love the Lord? Shall it not be, not only\nhere and there, but at last that the whole nation shall show the power\nof Shr\u00ee Krishna in His life incarnated amongst you, which would\nreally be greater than any special Avat\u00e2ra? May we not hope and pray\nthat His Avat\u00e2ra shall be the nation that incarnates His knowledge, His\nlove, His universal brotherliness to every man that treads the soil of\nearth? Away with the walls of separation, with the disdain and contempt\nand hatred that divide Indian from Indian, and India from the rest of\nthe world. Let our motto from this time forward be the motto of Shr\u00ee\nKrishna, that as He meets men on any road, so we will walk\nbeside them on any road as well, for all roads are His. There is no road\nwhich He does not tread, and if we follow the Beloved who leads us, we\nmust walk as He walks.\n\nPEACE TO ALL BEINGS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTHE\nTHEOSOPHICAL REVIEW\n\nEDITED BY\n\nANNIE BESANT and G. R. S. MEAD.\n\nSINGLE COPIES 1/-  12/- PER ANNUM.\n\nHalf-yearly Bound Volumes, Cloth, 8/6.\n\nENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.\n\n     _The Theosophical Review_ (3 Langham Place, London, W.), is\n     a magazine of which any society might be proud. It is\n     weighty, striking, suggestive, and up-to-date. The articles\n     are all by recognised experts, and they all deal with some\n     aspect of a really profound subject. 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Cloth\n1_s._ 6_d._, Leather                                        0  4  0\n\nFor other Works see Catalogue sent on application.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,\n\nLONDON: 3 Langham Place, W.\n\nINDIA: Benares, N.W.P.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *","title":"Avat\u00e2ras: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-fourth anniversary; meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras,; December, 1899","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":32302}