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AVATARAS
FOUR LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE TWENTY-FOURTH
ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AT ADYAR,
MADRAS, DECEMBER, 1899
BY
ANNIE BESANT
_ENGLISH EDITION_
Theosophical Publishing Society
3 Langham Place, London, W.
1900
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
PAGE
LECTURE I.--
WHAT IS AN AVATARA? 7
LECTURE II.--
THE SOURCE OF AND NEED FOR AVATARAS 31
LECTURE III.--
SOME SPECIAL AVATARAS 65
LECTURE IV.--
SHRI KRISHNA 95
* * * * *
AVATARAS.
FIRST LECTURE.
BROTHERS:--Every time that we come here together to study the
fundamental truths of all religions, I cannot but feel how vast is the
subject, how small the expounder, how mighty the horizon that opens
before our thoughts, how narrow the words which strive to sketch it for
your eyes. Year after year we meet, time after time we strive to fathom
some of those great mysteries of life, of the Self, which form the only
subject really worthy of the profoundest thought of man. All else is
passing; all else is transient; all else is but the toy of a moment.
Fame and power, wealth and science--all that is in this world below is
as nothing beside the grandeur of the Eternal Self in the universe and
in man, one in all His manifold manifestations, marvellous and beautiful
in every form that He puts forth. And this year, of all the
manifestations of the Supreme, we are going to dare to study the holiest
of the holiest, those manifestations of God in the world in which He
shows Himself as divine, coming to help the world that He has made,
shining forth in His essential nature, the form but a thin film which
scarce veils the Divinity from our eyes. How then shall we venture to
approach it, how shall we dare to study it, save with deepest reverence,
with profoundest humility; for if there needs for the study of His works
patience, reverence and humbleness of heart, what when we study Him
whose works but partially reveal Him, when we try to understand what is
meant by an Avatara, what is the meaning, what the purpose of such a
revelation?
Our President has truly said that in all the faiths of the world there
is belief in such manifestations, and that ancient maxim as to
truth--that which is as the hall mark on the silver showing that the
metal is pure--that ancient maxim is here valid, that whatever has been
believed everywhere, whatever has been believed at every time, and by
every one, that is true, that is reality. Religions quarrel over many
details; men dispute over many propositions; but where human heart and
human voice speak a single word, there you have the mark of truth, there
you have the sign of spiritual reality. But in dealing with the subject
one difficulty faces us, faces you as hearers, faces myself as speaker.
In every religion in modern times truth is shorn of her full
proportions; the intellect alone cannot grasp the many aspects of the
one truth. So we have school after school, philosophy after philosophy,
each one showing an aspect of truth, and ignoring, or even denying, the
other aspects which are equally true. Nor is this all; as the age in
which we are passes on from century to century, from millennium to
millennium, knowledge becomes dimmer, spiritual insight becomes rarer,
those who repeat far out-number those who know; and those who speak with
clear vision of the spiritual verity are lost amidst the crowds, who
only hold traditions whose origin they fail to understand. The priest
and the prophet, to use two well-known words, have ever in later times
come into conflict one with the other. The priest carries on the
traditions of antiquity; too often he has lost the knowledge that made
them real. The prophet--coming forth from time to time with the divine
word hot as fire on his lips--speaks out the ancient truth and
illuminates tradition. But they who cling to the words of tradition are
apt to be blinded by the light of the fire and to call out "heretic"
against the one who speaks the truth that they have lost. Therefore, in
religion after religion, when some great teacher has arisen, there have
been opposition, clamour, rejection, because the truth he spoke was too
mighty to be narrowed within the limits of half-blinded men. And in such
a subject as we are to study to-day, certain grooves have been made,
certain ruts as it were, in which the human mind is running, and I know
that in laying before you the occult truth, I must needs, at some
points, come into clash with details of a tradition that is rather
repeated by memory than either understood or the truths beneath it
grasped. Pardon me then, my brothers, if in a speech on this great topic
I should sometimes come athwart some of the dividing lines of different
schools of Hindu thought; I may not, I dare not, narrow the truth I have
learnt, to suit the limitations that have grown up by the ignorance of
ages, nor make that which is the spiritual verity conform to the empty
traditions that are left in the faiths of the world. By the duty laid
upon me by the Master that I serve, by the truth that He has bidden me
speak in the ears of men of all the faiths that are in this modern
world; by these I must tell you what is true, no matter whether or not
you agree with it for the moment; for the truth that is spoken wins
submission afterwards, if not at the moment; and any one who speaks of
the Rishis of antiquity must speak the truths that they taught in
their days, and not repeat the mere commonplaces of commentators of
modern times and the petty orthodoxies that ring us in on every side and
divide man from man.
I propose in order to simplify this great subject to divide it under
certain heads. I propose first to remind you of the two great divisions
recognised by all who have thought on the subject; then to take up
especially, for this morning, the question, "What is an Avatara?"
To-morrow we shall put and strive to answer, partly at least, the
question, "Who is the source of Avataras?" Then later we shall take up
special Avataras both of the kosmos and of human races. Thus I hope to
place before you a clear, definite succession of ideas on this great
subject, not asking you to believe them because I speak them, not asking
you to accept them because I utter them. Your reason is the bar to which
every truth must come which is true for you; and you err deeply, almost
fatally, if you let the voice of authority impose itself where you do
not answer to the speaking. Every truth is only true to you as you see
it, and as it illuminates the mind; and truth however true is not yet
truth for you, unless your heart opens out to receive it, as the flower
opens out its heart to receive the rays of the morning sun.
First, then, let us take a statement that men of every religion will
accept. Divine manifestations of a special kind take place from time to
time as the need arises for their appearance; and these special
manifestations are marked out from the universal manifestation of God in
His kosmos; for never forget that in the lowest creature that crawls the
earth I'shvara is present as in the highest Deva. But there are certain
special manifestations marked out from this general self-revelation in
the kosmos, and it is these special manifestations which are called
forth by special needs. Two words especially have been used in Hinduism,
marking a certain distinction in the nature of the manifestation--one
the word "Avatara," the other the word "A'vesha." Only for a moment
need we stop on the meaning of the words, important to us because the
literal meaning of the words points to the fundamental difference
between the two. The word "Avatara," as you know, has as its root
"tri," passing over, and with the prefix which is added, the "ava,"
you get the idea of descent, one who descends. That is the literal
meaning of the word. The other word has as its root "vish,"
permeating, penetrating, pervading, and you have there the thought of
something which is permeated or penetrated. So that while in the one
case, Avatara, there is the thought of a descent from above, from
I'shvara to man or animal; in the other, there is rather the idea of an
entity already existing who is influenced, permeated, pervaded by the
divine power, specially illuminated as it were. And thus we have a kind
of intermediate step, if one may say so, between the divine
manifestation in the Avatara and in the kosmos--the partial divine
manifestation in one who is permeated by the influence of the Supreme,
or of some other being who practically dominates the individual, the Ego
who is thus permeated.
Now what are the occasions which lead to these great manifestations?
None can speak with mightier authority on this point than He who came
Himself as an Avatara just before the beginning of our own age, the
Divine Lord Shri Krishna Himself. Turn to that marvellous poem,
the _Bhagavad-Gita_, to the fourth Adhyaya, Shlokas 7 and 8; there He
tells us what draws Him forth to birth into His world in the manifested
form of the Supreme:
[Sanskrit:
yadA yadAhidharmasya GlAnirBavati BArata |
aByutthAnamadharmasya tadAtmAnaM sRujAmyaham ||
paritrANAya sAdhUnAm vinAsAyacaduShkRutAm ||
dharmasaMsdhApanArthAya saMBavAmi yuge yuge ||]
"When Dharma,--righteousness, law--decays, when
Adharma--unrighteousness, lawlessness--is exalted, then I Myself come
forth: for the protection of the good, for the destruction of the evil,
for the establishing firmly of Dharma, I am born from age to age." That
is what He tells us of the coming forth of the Avatara. That is, the
needs of His world call upon Him to manifest Himself in His divine
power; and we know from other of His sayings that in addition to those
which deal with the human needs, there are certain kosmic necessities
which in the earlier ages of the world's story called forth special
manifestations. When in the great wheel of evolution another turn round
has to be given, when some new form, new type of life is coming forth,
then also the Supreme reveals Himself, embodying the type which thus He
initiates in His kosmos, and in this way turning that everlasting wheel
which He comes forth as I'shvara to turn. Such then, speaking quite
generally, the meaning of the word, and the object of the coming.
From that we may fitly turn to the more special question, "What is an
Avatara?" And it is here that I must ask your close attention, nay, your
patient consideration, where points that to some extent may be
unfamiliar are laid before you; for as I said, it is the occult view of
the truth which I am going to partially unveil, and those who have not
thus studied truth need to think carefully ere they reject, need to
consider long ere they refuse. We shall see as we try to answer the
question how far the great authorities help us to understand, and how
far the lack of knowledge in reading those authorities has led to
misconception. You may remember that the late learned T. Subba Rao in
the lectures that he gave on the _Bhagavad-Gita_ put to you a certain
view of the Avatara, that it was a descent of I'shvara--or, as he said,
using the theosophical term, the Logos, which is only the Greek name for
I'shvara--a descent of I'shvara, uniting Himself with a human soul. With
all respect for the profound learning of the lamented pandit, I cannot
but think that that is only a partial definition. Probably he did not at
that time desire, had not very possibly the time, to deal with case
after case, having so wide a field to cover in the small number of
lectures that he gave, and he therefore chose out one form, as we may
say, of self-revelation, leaving untouched the others, which now in
dealing with the subject by itself we have full time to study. Let me
then begin as it were at the beginning, and then give you certain
authorities which may make the view easier to accept; let me state
without any kind of attempt to veil or evade, what is really an Avatara.
Fundamentally He is the result of evolution. In far past Kalpas, in
worlds other than this, nay, in universes earlier than our own, those
who were to be Avataras climbed slowly, step by step, the vast ladder of
evolution, climbing from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, from
animal to man, from man to Jivanmukta, from Jivanmukta higher and higher
yet, up the mighty hierarchy that stretches beyond Those who have
liberated Themselves from the bonds of humanity; until at last, thus
climbing, They cast off not only all the limits of the separated Ego,
not only burst asunder the limitations of the separated Self, but
entered I'shvara Himself and expanded into the all-consciousness of the
Lord, becoming one in knowledge as they had ever been one in essence
with that eternal Life from which originally they came forth, living in
that life, centres without circumferences, living centres, one with the
Supreme. There stretches behind such a One the endless chain of birth
after birth, of manifestation after manifestation. During the stage in
which He was human, during the long climbing up of the ladder of
humanity, there were two special characteristics that marked out the
future Avatara from the ranks of men. One his absolute bhakti, his
devotion to the Supreme; for only those who are bhaktas and who to their
bhakti have wed gnyana, or knowledge, can reach this goal; for by
devotion, says Shri Krishna, can a man "enter into My being."
And the need of the devotion for the future Avatara is this: he must
keep the centre that he has built even in the life of I'shvara, so that
he may be able to draw the circumference once again round that centre,
in order that he may come forth as a manifestation of I'shvara, one with
Him in knowledge, one with Him in power, the very Supreme Himself in
earthly life; he must hence have the power of limiting himself to form,
for no form can exist in the universe save as there is a centre within
it round which that form is drawn. He must be so devoted as to be
willing to remain for the service of the universe while I'shvara Himself
abides in it, to share the continual sacrifice made by Him, the
sacrifice whereby the universe lives. But not devotion alone marks this
great One who is climbing his divine path. He must also be, as I'shvara
is, a lover of humanity. Unless within him there burns the flame of love
for men--nay, men, do I say? it is too narrow--unless within him burns
the flame of love for everything that exists, moving and unmoving, in
this universe of God, he will not be able to come forth as the Supreme
whose life and love are in everything that He has brought forth out of
His eternal and inexhaustible life. "There is nothing," says the
Beloved, "moving or unmoving, that may exist bereft of me;"[1] and
unless the man can work that into his nature, unless he can love
everything that is, not only the beautiful but the ugly, not only the
good but the evil, not only the attractive but the repellent, unless in
every form he sees the Self, he cannot climb the steep path the Avatara
must tread.
[Footnote 1: _Bhagavad-Gita_, x. 39.]
These, then, are the two great characteristics of the man who is to
become the special manifestation of God--bhakti, love to the One in whom
he is to merge, and love to those whose very life is the life of God.
Only as these come forth in the man is he on the path that leads him to
be--in future universes, in far, far future kalpas--an Avatara coming as
God to man.
Now on this view of the nature of an Avatara difficulties, I know,
arise; but they are difficulties that arise from a partial view, and
then from that view having been merely accepted, as a rule, on the
authority of some great name, instead of on the thinking out and
thorough understanding of it by the man who repeats the shibboleth of
his own sect or school. The view once taken, every text in Shruti or
Smriti that goes against that view is twisted out of its natural
meaning, in order to be made to agree with the idea which already
dominates the mind. That is the difficulty with every religion; a man
acquires his view by tradition, by habit, by birth, by public opinion,
by the surroundings of his own time and of his own day. He finds in the
scriptures--which belong to no time, to no day, to no one age, and to
no one people, but are expressions of the eternal Veda--he finds in them
many texts that do not fit into the narrow framework that he has made;
and because he too often cares for the framework more than for the
truth, he manipulates the text until he can make it fit in, in some
dislocated fashion; and the ingenuity of the commentator too often
appears in the skill with which he can make words appear to mean what
they do not mean in their grammatical and obvious sense. Thus, men of
every school, under the mighty names of men who knew the truth--but who
could only give such portion of truth as they deemed man at the time was
able to receive--use their names to buttress up mistaken
interpretations, and thus walls are continually built up to block the
advancing life of man.
Now let me take one example from one of the greatest names, one who knew
the truth he spoke, but also, like every teacher, had to remember that
while he was man, those to whom he spoke were children that could not
grasp truth with virile understanding. That great teacher, founder of
one of the three schools of the Vedanta, Shri Ramanujacharya, in his
commentary on the _Bhagavad-Gita_--a priceless work which men of every
school might read and profit by--dealing with the phrase in which Shri
Krishna declares that He has had [Sanskrit: bahUnijanmAni]
"many births," points out how vast the variety of those births had been.
Then, confining himself to His manifestations as I'shvara--that is
after He had attained to the Supreme--he says quite truly that He was
born by His own will; not by karma that compelled Him, not by any force
outside Him that coerced Him, but by His own will He came forth as
I'shvara and incarnated in one form or another. But there is nothing
said there of the innumerable steps traversed by the mighty One ere yet
He merged Himself in the Supreme. Those are left on one side,
unmentioned, unnoticed, because what the writer had in his view was to
present to the hearts of men a great Object for adoration, who might
gradually lift them upwards and upwards until the Self should blossom in
them in turn. No word is said of the previous kalpas, of the universes
stretching backward into the illimitable past. He speaks of His birth as
Deva, as Naga, as Gandharva, as those many shapes that He has taken by
His own will. As you know, or as you may learn if you turn to
_Shrimad-Bhagavata_, there is a much longer list of manifestations than
the ten usually called Avataras. There are given one after another the
forms which seem strange to the superficial reader when connected in
modern thought with the Supreme. But we find light thrown on the
question by some other words of the great Lord; and we also find in one
famous book, full of occult hints--though not with much explanation of
the hints given--the _Yoga Vasishtha_, a clear definite statement that
the deities, as Mahadeva, Vishnu and Brahma, have all climbed upward to
the mighty posts They hold.[2] And that may well be so, if you think of
it; there is nothing derogatory to Them in the thought; for there is but
one Existence, the eternal fount of all that comes forth as separated,
whether separated in the universe as I'shvara, or separated in the copy
of the universe in man; there is but One without a second; there is no
life but His, no independence but His, no self-existence but His, and
from Him Gods and men and all take their root and exist for ever in and
by His one eternal life. Different stages of manifestation, but the One
Self in all the different stages, the One living in all; and if it be
true, as true it is, that the Self in man is
[Sanskrit: prajo nityaH SasvatoayaMpurANo]
"unborn, constant, eternal, ancient," it is because the Self in man is
one with the One Self-existent, and I'shvara Himself is only the
mightiest manifestation of that One who knows no second near Himself.
Says an English poet:
Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.
[Footnote 2: Part II., Chapter ii., Shlokas 14, 15, 16.]
The Self is in you and in me, as much as the Self is in I'shvara, that
One, eternal, unchanging, undecaying, whereof every manifested existence
is but one ray of glory. Thus it is true, that which is taught in the
_Yoga Vasishtha_; true it is that even the greatest, before whom
we bow in worship, has climbed in ages past all human reckoning to be
one with the Supreme, and, ever there, to manifest Himself as God to the
world.
But now we come to a distinction that we find made, and it is a real
one. We read of a Purnavatara, a full, complete, Avatara. What is the
meaning of that word "full" as applied to the Avatara? The name is
given, as we know, to Shri Krishna. He is marked out specially
by that name. Truly the word "purna" cannot apply to the Illimitable,
the Infinite; He may not be shown forth in any form; the eye may never
behold Him; only the spirit that is Himself can know the One. What is
meant by it is that, so far as is possible within the limits of form,
the manifestation of the formless appears, so far as is possible it came
forth in that great One who came for the helping of the world. This may
assist you to grasp the distinction. Where the manifestation is that of
a Purnavatara, then at any moment of time, at His own will, by Yoga
or otherwise, He can transcend every limit of the form in which He binds
Himself by His own will, and shine forth as the Lord of the Universe,
within whom all the Universe is contained. Think for a moment once more
of Shri Krishna, who teaches us so much on this. Turn to that
great storehouse of spiritual wisdom, the _Mahabharata_, to the
Ashvamedha Parva which contains the Anugita, and you will find that
Arjuna after the great battle, forgetting the teaching that was given
him on Kurukshetra, asked his Teacher to repeat that teaching once
again. And Shri Krishna, rebuking him for the fickleness of his
mind and stating that He was much displeased that such knowledge should
by fickleness have been forgotten, uttered these remarkable words: "It
is not possible for me to state it in full in that way. I discoursed to
thee on the Supreme Brahman, having concentrated myself in Yoga." And
then He goes on to give out the essence of that teaching, but not in the
same sublime form as we have it in the _Bhagavad-Gita_. That is one
thing that shows you what is meant by a Purnavatara; in a condition
of Yoga, into which He throws Himself at will, He knows Himself as Lord
of everything, as the Supreme on whom the Universe is built. Nay more;
thrice at least--I am not sure if there may have been more cases, but if
so I cannot at the moment remember them--thrice at least during His life
as Shri Krishna He shows himself forth as I'shvara, the
Supreme. Once in the court of Dhritarashtra, when the madly foolish
Duryodhana talked about imprisoning within cell-walls the universal Lord
whom the universe cannot confine; and to show the wild folly of the
arrogant prince, out in the court before every eye He shone forth as
Lord of all, filling earth and sky with His glory, and all forms human
and divine, superhuman and subhuman, were seen gathered round Him in the
life from which they spring. Then on Kurukshetra to Arjuna, His beloved
disciple, to whom He gave the divine vision that he might see Him in
His Vaishnava form, the form of Vishnu, the Supreme Upholder of
the Universe. And later, on his way back to Dvaraka, meeting with
Utanka, He and the sage came to a misunderstanding, and the sage was
preparing to curse the Lord; to save him from the folly of uttering a
curse against the Supreme, as a child might throw a tiny pebble against
a rock of immemorial age, He shone out before the eyes of him who was
really His bhakta, and showed him the great Vaishnava form, that of
the Supreme. What do those manifestations show? that at will He can show
himself forth as Lord of all, casting aside the limits of human form in
which men live; casting aside the appearance so familiar to those around
Him, He could reveal himself as the mighty One, I'shvara who is the life
of all. There is the mark of a Purnavatara; always within His grasp,
at will, is the power to show Himself forth as I'shvara.
But why--the thought may arise in your minds--are not all Avataras of
this kind, since all are verily of the Supreme Lord? The answer is that
by His own will, by his own Maya, He veils Himself within the limits
which serve the creatures whom He has come to help. Ah, how different He
is, this Mighty One, from you and me! When we are talking to some one
who knows a little less than ourselves, we talk out all we know to show
our knowledge, expanding ourselves as much as we can so as to astonish
and make marvel the one to whom we speak; that is because we are so
small that we fear our greatness will not be recognised unless we make
ourselves as large as we can to astonish, if possible to terrify; but
when He comes who is really great, who is mightier than anything which
He produces, He makes Himself small in order to help those whom He
loves. And do you know, my brothers, that only in proportion as His
spirit enters into us, can we in our little measure be helpers in the
universe of which He is the one life; until we, in all our doings and
speakings, place ourselves within the one we want to help and not
outside him, feeling as he feels, thinking as he thinks, knowing for the
time as he knows, with all his limitations, although there may be
further knowledge beyond, we cannot truly help; that is the condition of
all true help given by man to man, as it is the only condition of the
help which is given to man by God Himself.
And so in other Avataras, He limits Himself for men's sake. Take the
great king, Shri Rama. What did he come to show? The ideal Kshattriya,
in every relation of the Kshattriya life; as son--perfect as son alike
to loving father and to jealous and for the time unkind step-mother. For
you may remember that when the father's wife who was not His own mother
bade him go forth to the forest on the very eve of His coronation as
heir, His gentle answer was: "Mother, I go." Perfect as son. Perfect as
husband; if He had not limited Himself by His own will to show out what
husband should be to wife, how could He in the forest, when Sita had
been reft away by Ravana, have shown the grief, have uttered the piteous
lamentations, which have drawn tears from thousands of eyes, as He calls
on plants and on trees, on animals and birds, on Gods and men, to tell
Him where His wife, His other self, the life of His life, had gone? How
could he have taught men what wife should be to husband's heart unless
He had limited Himself? The consciously Omnipresent Deity could not seek
and search for His beloved who had disappeared. And then as king; as
perfect king as He was perfect son and husband. When the welfare of His
subjects was concerned, when the safety of the realm was to be thought
of, when He remembered that He as king stood for God and must be perfect
in the eyes of His subjects, so that they might give the obedience and
the loyalty, which men can only give to one whom they know as greater
than themselves, then even His wife was put aside; then the test of the
fire for Sita, the unsullied and the suffering; then She must pass
through it to show that no sin or pollution had come upon Her by the
foul touch of Ravana, the Rakshasa; then the demand that ere husband's
heart that had been riven might again clasp the wife, She must come
forth pure as woman; and all this, because He was king as well as
husband, and on the throne the people honoured as divine there must only
be purity, spotless as driven snow. Those limitations were needed in
order that a perfect example might be given to man, and man might learn
to climb by reproducing virtues, made small in order that his small
grasp might hold them.
We come to the second great class of manifestations, that to which I
alluded in the beginning as covered by the wide term A'vesha. In that
case it is not that a man in past universes has climbed upward and has
become one with I'shvara; but it is that a man has climbed so far as to
become so great, so perfect in his manhood, and so full of love and
devotion to God and man, that God is able to permeate him with a portion
of His own influence, His own power, His own knowledge, and send him
forth into the world as a superhuman manifestation of Himself. The
individual Ego remains; that is the great distinction. The _man_ is
there, though the power that is acting is the manifested God. Therefore
the manifestation will be coloured by the special characteristics of the
one over whom this overshadowing is made; and you will be able to trace
in the thoughts of this inspired teacher, the characteristics of the
race, of the individual, of the form of knowledge which belongs to that
man in the incarnation in which the great overshadowing takes place.
That is the fundamental difference.
But here we find that we come at once to endless grades, endless
varieties, and down the ladder of lesser and lesser evolution we may
tread, step by step, until we come to the lower grades that we call
inspiration. In a case of A'vesha it generally continues through a great
portion of the life, the latter portion, as a rule, and it is
comparatively seldom withdrawn. Inspiration, as generally understood, is
a more partial thing, more temporary. Divine power comes down,
illuminates and irradiates the man for the moment, and he speaks for the
time with authority, with knowledge, which in his normal state he will
be unable probably to compass. Such are the prophets who have
illuminated the world age after age; such were in ancient days the
Brahmanas who were the mouth of God. Then truly the distinction was
not that I spoke of between priest and prophet; both were joined in the
one illumination, and the teaching of the priest and the preaching of
the prophet ran on the same lines and gave forth the same great truths.
But in later times the distinction arose by the failure of the
priesthood, when the priest turned aside for money, for fame, for power,
for all the things with which only younger souls ought to concern
themselves--human toys with which human babies play, and do wisely in so
playing, for they grow by them. Then the priests became formal, the
prophets became more and more rare, until the great fact of inspiration
was thrown back wholly into the past, as though God or man had altered,
man no longer divine in his nature, God no longer willing to speak words
in the ears of men. But inspiration is a fact in all its stages; and it
goes far farther than some of you may think. The inspiration of the
prophets, spiritually mighty and convincing, is needed, and they come to
the world to give a new impulse to spiritual truth. But there is a
general inspiration that any one may share who strives to show out the
divine life from which no son of man is excluded, for every son of man
is son of God. Have you ever been drawn away for a moment into higher,
more peaceful realms, when you have come across something of beauty, of
art, of the wonders of science, of the grandeur of philosophy? Have you
for a time lost sight of the pettinesses of earth, of trivial troubles,
of small worries and annoyances, and felt yourself lifted into a calmer
region, into a light that is not the light of common earth? Have you
ever stood before some wondrous picture wherein the palette of the
painter has been taxed to light the canvas with all the hues of
beauteous colour that art can give to human sight? Or have you seen in
some wondrous sculpture, the gracious living curves that the chisel has
freed from the roughness of the marble? Or have you listened while the
diviner spell of music has lifted you, step by step, till you seem to
hear the Gandharvas singing and almost the divine flute is being played
and echoing in the lower world? Or have you stood on the mountain peak
with the snows around you, and felt the grandeur of the unmoving nature
that shows out God as well as the human spirit? Ah, if you have known
any of these peaceful spots in life's desert, then you know how
all-pervading is inspiration; how wondrous the beauty and the power of
God shown forth in man and in the world; then you know, if you never
knew it before, the truth of that great proclamation of Shri
Krishna the Beloved: "Whatever is royal, good, beautiful, and
mighty, understand thou that to go forth from My Splendour";[3] all is
the reflection of that tejas[4] which is His and His alone. For as there
is nought in the universe without His love and life, so there is no
beauty that is not His beauty, that is not a ray of the illimitable
splendour, one little beam from the unfailing source of life.
[Footnote 3: _Bhagavad-Gita_, x. 41.]
[Footnote 4: Splendour, radiance.]
SECOND LECTURE.
BROTHERS:--You will remember that yesterday, in dividing the subject
under different heads, I put down certain questions which we would take
in order. We dealt yesterday with the question: "What is an Avatara?"
The second question that we are to try to answer, "What is the source of
Avataras?" is a question that leads us deep into the mysteries of the
kosmos, and needs at least an outline of kosmic growth and evolution in
order to give an intelligible answer. I hope to-day to be able also to
deal with the succeeding question, "How does the need for Avataras
arise?" This will leave us for to-morrow the subject of the special
Avataras, and I shall endeavour, if possible, during to-morrow's
discourse, to touch on nine of the Avataras out of the ten recognised as
standing out from all other manifestations of the Supreme. Then, if I am
able to accomplish that task, we shall still have one morning left, and
that I propose to give entirely to the study of the greatest of the
Avataras, the Lord Shri Krishna Himself, endeavouring, if
possible, to mark out the great characteristics of His life and His
work, and, it may be, to meet and answer some of the objections of the
ignorant which, especially in these later days, have been levelled
against Him by those who understand nothing of His nature, nothing of
the mighty work He came to accomplish in the world.
Now we are to begin to-day by seeking an answer to the question, "What
is the source of Avataras?" and it is likely that I am going to take a
line of thought somewhat unfamiliar, carrying us, as it does, outside
the ordinary lines of our study which deals more with the evolution of
man, of the spiritual nature within him. It carries us to those far off
times, almost incomprehensible to us, when our universe was coming into
manifestation, when its very foundations, as it were, were being laid.
In answering the question, however, the mere answer is simple. It is
recognised in all religions admitting divine incarnations--and they
include the great religions the world--it is admitted that the source of
Avataras, the source of the Divine incarnations, is the second or middle
manifestation of the sacred Triad. It matters not whether with Hindus we
speak of the Trimurti, or whether with Christians we speak of the
Trinity, the fundamental idea is one and the same. Taking first for a
moment the Christian symbology, you will find that every Christian tells
you that the one divine incarnation acknowledged in Christianity--for in
Christianity they believe in one special incarnation only--you will find
in the Christian nomenclature the divine incarnation or Avatara is that
of the second person of the Trinity. No Christian will tell you that
there has ever been an incarnation of God the Father, the primeval
Source of life. They will never tell you that there has been an
incarnation of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of Wisdom, of creative Intelligence, who built up the
world-materials. But they will always say that it was the second Person,
the Son, who took human form, who appeared under the likeness of
humanity, who was manifested as man for helping the salvation of the
world. And if you analyse what is meant by that phrase, what, to the
mind of the Christian, is conveyed by the thought of the second Person
of the Trinity--for remember in dealing with a religion that is not
yours you should seek for the thought not the form, you should look at
the idea not at the label, for the thoughts are universal while the
forms divide, the ideas are identical while the labels are marks of
separation--if you seek for the underlying thought you will find it is
this: the sign of the second Person of the Trinity is duality; also, He
is the underlying life of the world; by His power the worlds were made,
and are sustained, supported, and protected. You will find that while
the Spirit of Wisdom is spoken of as bringing order out of disorder,
kosmos out of chaos, that it is by the manifested Word of God, or the
second Person of the Trinity, it is by Him that all forms are builded up
in this world, and it is specially in His image that man is made. So
also when we turn to what will be more familiar to the vast majority of
you, the symbology of Hinduism, you will find that all Avataras have
their source in Vishnu, in Him who pervades the universe, as the
very name Vishnu implies, who is the Supporter, the Protector, the
pervading, all-permeating Life by which the universe is held together,
and by which it is sustained. Taking the names of the Trimurti so
familiar to us all--not the philosophical names Sat, Chit, A'nanda,
those names which in philosophy show the attributes of the Supreme
Brahman--taking the concrete idea, we have Mahadeva or Shiva,
Vishnu, and Brahma: three names, just as in the other religion we
have three names; but the same fact comes out, that it is the middle or
central one of the Three who is the source of Avataras. There has never
been a direct Avatara of Mahadeva, of Shiva Himself. Appearances? Yes.
Manifestations? Yes. Coming in form for a special purpose served by that
form? Oh yes. Take the _Mahabharata_, and you find Him appearing in the
form of the hunter, the Kirata, and testing the intuition of Arjuna, and
struggling with him to test his strength, his courage, and finally his
devotion to Himself. But that is a mere form taken for a purpose and
cast aside the moment the purpose is served; almost, we may say, a mere
illusion, produced to serve a special purpose and then thrown away as
having completed that which it was intended to perform. Over and over
again you find such appearances of Mahadeva. You may remember one most
beautiful story, in which He appears in the form of a Chandala[5] at the
gateway of His own city of Kashi, when one who was especially
overshadowed by a manifestation of Himself, Shri Shankaracharya, was
coming with his disciples to the sacred city; veiling Himself in the
form of an outcaste--for to Him all forms are the same, the human
differences are but as the grains of sand which vanish before the
majesty of His greatness--He rolled Himself in the dust before the
gateway, so that the great teacher could not walk across without
touching Him, and he called to the Chandala to make way in order that
the Brahmana might go on unpolluted by the touch of the outcaste;
then the Lord, speaking through the form He had chosen, rebuked the very
one whom His power overshadowed, asking him questions which he could not
answer and thus abasing his pride and teaching him humility. Such forms
truly He has taken, but these are not what we can call Avataras; mere
passing forms, not manifestations upon earth where a life is lived and a
great drama is played out. So with Brahma; He also has appeared from
time to time, has manifested Himself for some special purpose; but there
is no Avatara of Brahma, which we can speak of by that very definite and
well understood term.
[Footnote 5: An outcaste, equivalent to a scavenger.]
Now for this fact there must be some reason.
Why is it that we do not find the source of Avataras alike in all these
great divine manifestations? Why do they come from only one aspect and
that the aspect of Vishnu? I need not remind you that there is but
one Self, and that these names we use are the names of the aspects that
are manifested by the Supreme; we must not separate them so much as to
lose sight of the underlying unity. For remember how, when a worshipper
of Vishnu had a feeling in his heart against a worshipper of
Mahadeva, as he bowed before the image of Hari, the face of the image
divided itself in half, and Shiva or Hara appeared on one side and
Vishnu or Hari appeared on the other, and the two, smiling as one
face on the bigoted worshipper, told him that Mahadeva and Vishnu
were but one. But in Their functions a division arises; They manifest
along different lines, as it were, in the kosmos and for the helping of
man; not for Him but for us, do these lines of apparent separateness
arise.
Looking thus at it, we shall be able to find the answer to our question,
not only who is the source of Avataras, but why Vishnu is the
source. And it is here that I come to the unfamiliar part where I shall
have to ask for your special attention as regards the building of the
universe. Now I am using the word "universe," in the sense of our solar
system. There are many other systems, each of them complete in itself,
and, therefore, rightly spoken of as a kosmos, a universe. But each of
these systems in its turn is part of a mightier system, and our sun, the
centre of our own system, though it be in very truth the manifested
physical body of I'shwara Himself, is not the only sun. If you look
through the vast fields of space, myriads of suns are there, each one
the centre of its own system, of its own universe; and our sun, supreme
to us, is but, as it were, a planet in a vaster system, its orbit curved
round a sun greater than itself. So in turn that sun, round which our
sun is circling, is planet to a yet mightier sun, and each set of
systems in its turn circles round a more central sun, and so on--we know
not how far may stretch the chain that to us is illimitable; for who is
able to plumb the depths and heights of space, or to find a manifested
circumference which takes in all universes! Nay, we say that they are
infinite in number, and that there is no end to the manifestations of
the one Life.
Now that is true physically. Look at the physical universe with the eye
of spirit, and you see in it a picture of the spiritual universe. A
great word was spoken by one of the Masters or Rishis, whom in this
Society we honour and whose teachings we follow. Speaking to one of His
disciples, or pupils, He rebuked him, because, He said in words never to
be forgotten by those who have read them: "You always look at the things
of the spirit with the eyes of the flesh. What you ought to do is to
look at the things of the flesh with the eyes of the spirit." Now, what
does that mean? It means that instead of trying to degrade the spiritual
and to limit it within the narrow bounds of the physical, and to say of
the spiritual that it cannot be because the human brain is unable
clearly to grasp it, we ought to look at the physical universe with a
deeper insight and see in it the image, the shadow, the reflection of
the spiritual world, and learn the spiritual verities by studying the
images that exist of them in the physical world around us. The physical
world is easier to grasp. Do not think the spiritual is modelled on the
physical; the physical is fundamentally modelled on the spiritual, and
if you look at the physical with the eye of spirit, then you find that
it is the image of the higher, and then you are able to grasp the higher
truth by studying the faint reflections that you see in the world around
you. That is what I ask you to do now. Just as you have your sun and
suns, many universes, each one part of a system mightier than itself, so
in the spiritual universe there is hierarchy beyond hierarchy of
spiritual intelligences who are as the suns of the spiritual world. Our
physical system has at its centre the great spiritual Intelligence
manifested as a Trinity, the I'shvara of that system. Then beyond Him
there is a mightier I'shvara, round whom Those who are on the level of
the I'shvara of our system circle, looking to Him as Their central life.
And beyond Him yet another, and beyond Him others and others yet, until
as the physical universes are beyond our thinking, the spiritual
hierarchy stretches also beyond our thought, and, dazzled and blinded by
the splendour, we sink back to earth, as Arjuna was blinded when the
Vaishnava form shone forth on him, and we cry: "Oh! show us again
Thy more limited form that we may know it and live by it. We are not yet
ready for the mightier manifestations. We are blinded, not helped, by
such blaze of divine splendour."
And so we find that if we would learn we must limit ourselves--nay, we
must try to expand ourselves--to the limits of our own system. Why? I
have met people who have not really any grasp of this little world, this
grain of dust in which they live, who cannot be content unless you
answer questions about the One Existence, the Para-Brahma, whom sages
revere in silence, not daring to speak even with illuminated mind that
knows nirvanic life and has expanded to nirvanic consciousness. The more
ignorant the man, the more he thinks he can grasp. The less he
understands, the more he resents being told that there are some things
beyond the grasp of his intellect, existences so mighty that he cannot
even dream of the lowest of the attributes that mark them out. And for
myself, who know myself ignorant, who know that many an age must pass
ere I shall be able to think of dealing with these profounder problems,
I sometimes gauge the ignorance of the questioner by the questions that
he asks as to the ultimate existences, and when he wants to know what he
calls the primary origin, I know that he has not even grasped the
one-thousandth part of the origin out of which he himself has sprung.
Therefore, I say to you frankly that these mighty Ones whom we worship
are the Gods of our system; beyond them there stretch mightier Ones yet,
whom, perhaps, myriads of kalpas hence, we may begin to understand and
worship.