catch some ray of the glory that illumines it. Vishnu has His own
functions, as also have Brahma and Mahadeva. The first work in this
system is done by the third of the sacred great Ones of the Trimurti,
Brahma, as you all know, for you have read that there came forth the
creative Intelligence as the third of the divine manifestations. I care
not what is the symbology you take; perchance that of the _Vishnu
Purana_ will be most familiar, wherein the unmanifested Vishnu
is beneath the water, standing as the first of the Trimurti, then the
Lotus, standing as the second, and the opened Lotus showing Brahma, the
third, the creative Mind. You may remember that the work of creation
began with His activity. When we study from the occult standpoint in
what that activity consisted, we find it consisted in impregnating with
His own life the matter of the solar system; that He gave His own life
to build up form after form of atom, to make the great divisions in the
kosmos; that He formed, one after another, the five kinds of matter.
Working by His mind--He is sometimes spoken of as Mahat, the great One,
Intelligence--He formed Tattvas one after another. Tattvas, you may
remember from last year, are the foundations of the atoms, and there are
five of them manifested at the present time. That is His special work.
Then He meditates, and forms--as thoughts--come forth. There His
manifest work may be said to end, though He maintains ever the life of
the atom. As far as the active work of the kosmos is concerned, He gives
way to the next of the great forces that is to work, the force of
Vishnu. His work is to gather together that matter that has been
built, shaped, prepared, vivified, and build it into definite forms
after the creative ideas brought forth by the meditation of Brahma. He
gives to matter a binding force; He gives to it those energies that hold
form together. No form exists without Him, whether it be moving or
unmoving. How often does Shri Krishna, speaking as the supreme
Vishnu, lay stress on this fact. He is the life in every form;
without it the form could not exist, without it it would go back to its
primeval elements and no longer live as form. He is the all-pervading
life; the "Supporter of the Universe" is one of His names. Mahadeva has
a different function in the universe; especially is He the great Yogi;
especially is He the great Teacher, the Mahaguru; He is sometimes called
Jagatguru, the Teacher of the world. Over and over again--to take a
comparatively modern example, as the _Gurugita_--we find Him as Teacher,
to whom Parvati goes asking for instruction as to the nature of the
Guru. He it is who defines the Guru's work, He it is who inspires the
Guru's teaching. Every Guru on earth is a reflection of Mahadeva, and it
is His life which he is commissioned to give out to the world. Yogi,
immersed in contemplation, taking the ascetic form always--that marks
out His functions. For the symbols by which the mighty Ones are shown in
the teachings are not meaningless, but are replete with the deepest
meaning. And when you see Him represented as the eternal Yogi, with the
cord in His hand, sitting as an ascetic in contemplation, it means that
He is the supreme ideal of the ascetic life, and that men who come
especially under His influence must pass out of home, out of family, out
of the normal ties of evolution, and give themselves to a life of
asceticism, to a life of renunciation, to share, however feebly, in that
mighty yoga by which the universe is kept alive.
He then manifests not as Avatara, but such manifestations come from Him
who is the God, the Spirit, of evolution, who evolves all forms. That is
why from Vishnu all these Avataras come. For it is He who by His
infinite love dwells in every form that He has made; with patience that
nothing can exhaust, with love that nothing can tire, with quiet, calm
endurance which no folly of man can shake from its eternal peace, He
lives in every form, moulding it as it will bear the moulding, shaping
it as it yields itself to His impulse, binding Himself, limiting Himself
in order that His universe may grow, Lord of eternal life and bliss,
dwelling in every form. If you grasp this, it is not difficult to say
why from Him alone the Avataras come. Who else should take form save the
One who gives form? who else should work with this unending love save
He, who, while the universe exists, binds Himself that the universe may
live and ultimately share His freedom? He is bound that the universe may
be free. Who else then should come forth when special need arises?
And He gives the great types. Let me remind you of the
_Shrimad-Bhagavata_, where in an early chapter of the first Book, the
3rd chapter, a very long list is given of the forms that Vishnu
took, not only the great Avataras, but also a large number of others. It
is said He appeared as Nara and Narayana; it is said He appeared as
Kapila; He took female forms, and so on, a whole long list being given
of the shapes that He assumed. And, turning from that to a very
illuminative passage in the _Mahabharata_, we find Him in the form of
Shri Krishna explaining a profound truth to Arjuna.
There He gives the law of these appearances: "When, O son of Pritha, I
live in the order of the deities, then I act in every respect as a
deity. When I live in the order of the Gandharvas, then I act in every
respect as a Gandharva. When I live in the order of the Nagas, I act as
a Naga. When I live in the order of the Yakshas, or that of the
Rakshasas, I act after the manner of that order. Born now in the order
of humanity, I must act as a human being." A profound truth, a truth
that few in modern times recognise. Every type in the universe, in its
own place, is good; every type in the universe, in its own place, is
necessary. There is no life save His life; how then could any type come
into existence apart from the universal life, bereft whereof nothing can
exist?
We speak of good forms and evil, and rightly, as regards our own
evolution. But from the wider standpoint of the kosmos, good and evil
are relative terms, and everything is very good in the sight of the
Supreme who lives in every one. How can a type come into existence in
which He cannot live? How can anything live and move, save as it has its
being in Him? Each type has its work; each type has its place; the type
of the Rakshasa as much as the type of the Deva, of the Asura as much as
of the Sura. Let me give you one curious little simple example, which
yet has a certain graphic force. You have a pole you want to move, and
that pole is on a pivot, like the mountain which churned the ocean, a
pole with its two ends, positive and negative we will call them. The
positive end, we will say, is pushed in the direction of the river (the
river flowing beyond one end of the hall at Adyar). The negative pole is
pushed--in what direction? In the opposite. And those who are pushing
it have their faces turned in the opposite direction. One man looks at
the river, the other man has his back to it, looking in the opposite
direction. But the pole turns in the one direction although they push in
opposite directions. They are working round the same circle, and the
pole goes faster because it is pushed from its two ends. There is the
picture of our universe. The positive force you call the Deva or Sura;
his face is turned, it seems, to God. The negative force you call the
Rakshasa or Asura; his face, it seems, is turned away from God. Ah no!
God is everywhere, in every point of the circle round which they tread;
and they tread His circle and do His will and no otherwise; and all at
length find rest and peace in Him.
Therefore Shri Krishna Himself can incarnate in the form of
Rakshasa, and when in that form He will act as Rakshasa and not as Deva,
doing that part of the divine work with the same perfection as He does
the other, which men in their limited vision call the good. A great
truth hard to grasp. I shall have to return to it presently in speaking
of Ravana, one of the mightiest types of, perhaps the greatest of, all
the Rakshasas. And we shall see, if we can follow, how the profound
truth works out. But remember, if in the minds of some of you there is
some hesitation in accepting this, that the words that I read are not
mine, but those of the Lord who spoke of His own embodying; He has left
on record for your teaching, that He has embodied Himself in the form of
Rakshasa and has acted after the manner of that order.
Leaving that for a moment, there is one other point I must take, ere
speaking of the need for Avataras, and it is this: when the great
central Deities have manifested, then there come forth from Them seven
Deities of what we may call the second order. In Theosophy, they are
spoken of as the planetary Logoi, to distinguish them from the great
solar Logoi, the central Life. Each of These has to do with one of the
seven sacred planets, and with the chain of worlds connected with that
planet. Our world is one of the links in this chain, and you and I pass
round this chain in successive incarnations in the great stages of life.
The world--our present world--is the midway globe of one such chain. One
Logos of the secondary order presides over the evolution of this chain
of worlds. He shows out three aspects, reflections of the great Logoi
who are at the centre of the system. You have read perhaps of the
seven-leaved lotus, the Saptaparnapadma; looked at with the higher
sight, gazed at with the open vision of the seer, that mighty group of
creative and directing Beings looks like the lotus with its seven leaves
and the great Ones are at the heart of the lotus. It is as though you
could see a vast lotus-flower spread out in space, the tips of the seven
leaves being the mighty Intelligences presiding over the evolution of
the chains of worlds. That lotus symbol is no mere symbol but a high
reality, as seen in that wondrous world wherefrom the symbol has been
taken by the sages. And because the great Rishis of old saw with the
open eye of knowledge, saw the lotus-flower spread in space, they took
it as the symbol of kosmos, the lotus with its seven leaves, each one a
mighty Deva presiding over a separate line of evolution. We are
primarily concerned with our own planetary Deva and through Him with the
great Devas of the solar system.
Now my reason for mentioning this is to explain one word that has
puzzled many students. Mahavishnu, the great Vishnu, why
that particular epithet? What does it mean when that phrase is used? It
means the great solar Logos, Vishnu in His essential nature: but
there is a reflection of His glory, a reflection of His power, of His
love, in more immediate connection with ourselves and our own world. He
is His representative, as a viceroy may represent the king. Some of the
Avataras we shall find came forth from Mahavishnu through the
planetary Logos, who is concerned with our evolution and the evolution
of the world. But the Purnavatara that I spoke of yesterday comes
forth directly from Mahavishnu, with no intermediary between
Himself and the world that He comes to help. Here is another distinction
between the Purnavatara and those more limited ones, that I could not
mention yesterday, because the words used would, at that stage, have
been unintelligible. We shall find to-morrow, when we come to deal with
the Avataras Matsya, Kurma, and so on, that these special Avataras,
connected with the evolution of certain types in the world, while
indirectly from Mahavishnu, come through the mediation of His
mighty representative for our own chain, the wondrous Intelligence that
conveys His love and ministers His will, and is the channel of His
all-pervading and supporting power. When we come to study Shri
Krishna we shall find that there is no intermediary. He stands
as the Supreme Himself. And while in the other cases there is the
Presence that may be recognised as an intermediary, it is absent in the
case of the great Lord of Life.
Leaving that for further elaboration then to-morrow, let us try to
answer the next question, "How arises this need for Avataras?" because
in the minds of some, quite naturally, a difficulty does arise. The
difficulty that many thoughtful people feel may be formulated thus:
"Surely the whole plan of the world is in the mind of the Logos from the
beginning, and surely we cannot suppose that He is working like a human
workman, not thoroughly understanding that at which He aims. He must be
the architect as well as the builder; He must make the plan as well as
carry it out. He is not like the mason who puts a stone in the wall
where he is told, and knows nothing of the architecture of the building
to which he is contributing. He is the master-builder, the great
architect of the universe, and everything in the plan of that universe
must be in His mind ere ever the universe began. But if that be so--and
we cannot think otherwise--how is it that the need for special
intervention arises? Does not the fact of special intervention imply
some unforeseen difficulty that has arisen? If there must be a kind of
interference with the working out of the plan, does that not look as if
in the original plan some force was left out of account, some difficulty
had not been seen, something had arisen for which preparation had not
been made? If it be not so, why the need for interference, which looks
as though it were brought about to meet an unforeseen event?" A natural,
reasonable, and perfectly fair question. Let us try to answer it. I do
not believe in shirking difficulties; it is better to look them in the
face, and see if an answer be possible.
Now the answer comes along three different lines. There are three great
classes of facts, each of which contributes to the necessity; and each,
foreseen by the Logos, is definitely prepared for as needing a
particular manifestation.
The first of these lines arises from what I may perhaps call the nature
of things. I remarked at the beginning of this lecture on the fact that
our universe, our system, is part of a greater whole, not separate, not
independent, not primary, in comparatively a low scale in the universe,
our sun a planet in a vaster system. Now what does that imply? As
regards matter, Prakriti, it implies that our system is builded out
of matter already existing, out of matter already gifted with certain
properties, out of matter that spreads through all space, and from which
every Logos takes His materials, modifying it according to His own plan
and according to His own will. When we speak of Mulaprakriti, the
root of matter, we do not mean that it exists as the matter we know. No
philosopher, no thinker would dream of saying that that which spreads
throughout space is identical with the matter of our very elementary
solar system. It is the root of matter, that of which all forms of
matter are merely modifications. What does that imply? It implies that
our great Lord, who brought our solar system into existence, is taking
matter which already has certain properties given to it by One yet
mightier than Himself. In that matter three gunas exist in
equilibrium, and it is the breath of the Logos that throws them out of
equilibrium, and causes the motion by which our system is brought into
existence. There must be a throwing out of equilibrium, for equilibrium
means Pralaya, where there is not motion, nor any manifestation of life
and form. When life and form come forth, equilibrium must have been
disturbed, and motion must be liberated by which the world shall be
built. But the moment you grasp that truth you see that there must be
certain limitations by virtue of the very material in which the Deity
is working for the making of the system. It is true that when out of His
system, when not conditioned and confined and limited by it, as He is by
His most gracious will, it is true that He would be the Lord of that
matter by virtue of His union with the mightier Life beyond; but when
for the building of the world He limits Himself within His Maya, then He
must work within the conditions of those materials that limit His
activity, as we are told over and over again.
Now when in the ceaseless interplay of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, Tamas
has the ascendancy, aided and, as it were, worked by Rajas, so that they
predominate over Sattva in the foreseen evolution, when the two
combining overpower the third, when the force of Rajas and the inertia
and stubbornness of Tamas, binding themselves together, check the
action, the harmony, the pleasure-giving qualities of Sattva, then comes
one of the conditions in which the Lord comes forth to restore that
which had been disturbed of the balanced interworking of the three
gunas and to make again such balance between them as shall enable
evolution to go forward smoothly and not be checked in its progress. He
re-establishes the balance of power which gives orderly motion, the
order having been disturbed by the co-operation of the two in
contradistinction to the third. In these fundamental attributes of
matter, the three gunas, lies the first reason of the need for
Avataras.
The second need has to do with man himself, and now we come back in both
the second and the third to that question of good and evil, of which I
have already spoken. I'shvara, when He came to deal with the evolution
of man--with all reverence I say it--had a harder task to perform than
in the evolution of the lower forms of life. On them the law is imposed
and they must obey its impulse. On the mineral the law is compulsory;
every mineral moves according to the law, without interposing any
impulse from itself to work against the will of the One. In the
vegetable world the law is imposed, and every plant grows in orderly
method according to the law within it, developing steadily and in the
fashion of its order, interposing no impulse of its own. Nay, in the
animal world--save perhaps when we come to its highest members--the law
is still a force overpowering everything else, sweeping everything
before it, carrying along all living things. A wheel turning on the road
might carry with it on its axle the fly that happened to have settled
there; it does not interpose any obstacle to the turning of the wheel.
If the fly comes on to the circumference of the wheel and opposes itself
to its motion, it is crushed without the slightest jarring of the wheel
that rolls on, and the form goes out of existence, and the life takes
other shapes.
So is the wheel of law in the three lower kingdoms. But with man it is
not so. In man I'shvara sets himself to produce an image of Himself,
which is not the case in the lower kingdoms. As life has evolved, one
force after another has come out, and in man there begins to come out
the central life, for the time has arrived for the evolution of the
sovereign power of will, the self-initiated motion which is part of the
life of the Supreme. Do not misunderstand me--for the subject is a
subtle one; there is only one will in the universe, the will of
I'shvara, and all must conform itself to that will, all is conditioned
by that will, all must move according to that will, and that will marks
out the straight line of evolution. There may be swerving neither to the
right hand nor to the left. There is one will only which in its aspect
to us is free, but inasmuch as our life is the life of I'shvara Himself,
inasmuch as there is but one Self and that Self is yours and mine as
much as His--for He has given us His very Self to be our Self and our
life--there must evolve at one stage of this wondrous evolution that
royal power of will which is seen in Him. And from the A'tma within us,
which is Himself in us, there flows forth the sovereign will into the
sheaths in which the A'tma is as it were held. Now what happens is this:
force goes out through the sheaths and gives them some of its own
nature, and each sheath begins to set up a reflection of the will on its
own account, and you get the "I" of the body which wants to go this way,
and the "I" of passion or emotion which wants to go that way, and the
"I" of the mind which wants to go a third way, and none of these ways
is the way of the A'tma, the Supreme. These are the illusory wills of
man, and there is one way in which you may distinguish them from the
true will. Each of them is determined in its direction by external
attraction; the man's body wants to move in a particular way because
something attracts it, or something else repels it: it moves to what it
likes, to what is congenial to it, it moves away from that which it
dislikes, from that from which it feels itself repelled. But that motion
of the body is but motion determined by the I'shvara outside, as it
were, rather than by the I'shvara within, by the kosmos around and not
by the Self within, which has not yet achieved its mastery of the
kosmos. So with the emotions or passions: they are drawn this way or
that by the objects of the senses, and the "senses move after their
appropriate objects"; it is not the "I," the Self, which moves. And so
also with the mind. "The mind is fickle and restless, O
Krishna, it seems as hard to curb as the wind," and the mind
lets the senses run after objects as a horse that has broken its reins
flies away with the unskilled driver. All these forces are set up; and
there is one more thing to remember. These forces reinforce the rajasic
guna and help to bring about that predominance of which I spoke; all
these reckless desires that are not according to the one will are yet
necessary in order that the will may evolve and in order to train and
develop the man.
Do you say why? How would you learn right if you knew not wrong? How
would you choose good if you knew not evil? How would you recognise the
light if there were no darkness? How would you move if there were no
resistance? The forces that are called dark, the forces of the
Rakshasas, of the Asuras, of all that seem to be working against
I'shvara--these are the forces that call out the inner strength of the
Self in man, by struggling with which the forces of A'tma within the man
are developed, and without which he would remain in Pralaya for
evermore. It is a perfectly stagnant pool where there is no motion, and
there you get corruption and not life. The evolution of force can only
be made by struggle, by combat, by effort, by exercise, and inasmuch as
I'shvara is building men and not babies, He must draw out men's forces
by pulling against their strength, making them struggle in order to
attain, and so vivifying into outer manifestation the life that
otherwise would remain enfolded in itself. In the seed the life is
hidden, but it will not grow if you leave the seed alone. Place it on
this table here, and come back a century hence, and, if you find it, it
will be a seed still and nothing more. So also is the A'tma in man ere
evolution and struggle have begun. Plant your seed in the ground, so
that the forces in the ground press on it, and the rays of the sun from
outside make vibrations that work on it, and the water from the rain
comes through the soil into it and forces it to swell--then the seed
begins to grow; but as it begins to grow it finds the earth around. How
shall it grow but by pushing at it and so bringing out the energies of
life that are within it? And against the opposition of the ground the
roots strike down, and against the opposition of the ground the growing
point mounts upward, and by the opposition of the ground the forces are
evolved that make the seed grow, and the little plant appears above the
soil. Then the wind comes and blows and tries to drag it away, and, in
order that it may live and not perish, it strikes its roots deeper and
gives itself a better hold against the battering force of the wind, and
so the tree grows against the forces which try to tear it out. And if
these forces were not, there would have been no growth of the root. And
so with the root of I'shvara, the life within us; were everything around
us smooth and easy, we would remain supine, lethargic, indifferent. It
is the whip of pain, of suffering, of disappointment, that drives us
onward and brings out the forces of our internal life which otherwise
would remain undeveloped. Would you have a man grow? Then don't throw
him on a couch with pillows on every side, and bring his meals and put
them into his mouth, so that he moves not limb nor exercises mind. Throw
him on a desert, where there is no food nor water to be found; let the
sun beat down on his head, the wind blow against him; let his mind be
made to think how to meet the necessities of the body, and the man
grows into a man and not a log. That is why there are forces which you
call evil. In this universe there is no evil; all is good that comes to
us from I'shvara, but it sometimes comes in the guise of evil that, by
opposing it, we may draw out our strength. Then we begin to understand
that these forces are necessary, and that they are within the plan of
I'shvara. They test evolution, they strengthen evolution, so that it
does not take the next step onward till it has strength enough to hold
its own, one step made firm by opposition before the next is taken. But
when, by the conflicting wills of men, the forces that work for
retardation, to keep a man back till he is able to overcome them and go
on, when they are so reinforced by men's unruly wishes that they are
beginning, as it were, to threaten progress, then ere that check takes
place, there is reinforcement from the other side: the presence pf the
Avatara of the forces that threaten evolution calls forth the presence
of the Avatara that leads to the progress of humanity.
We come to the third cause. The Avatara does not come forth without a
call. The earth, it is said, is very heavy with its load of evil, "Save
us, O supreme Lord," the Devas come and cry. In answer to that cry the
Lord comes forth. But what is this that I spoke of purposely by a
strange phrase to catch your attention, that I spoke of as an Avatara of
evil? By the will of the one Supreme, there is one incarnated in form
who gathers up together the forces that make for retardation, in order
that, thus gathered together, they may be destroyed by the opposing
force of good, and thus the balance may be re-established and evolution
go on along its appointed road. Devas work for joy, the reward of
Heaven. Svarga is their home, and they serve the Supreme for the joys
that there they have. Rakshasas also serve Him, first for rule on earth,
and power to grasp and hold and enjoy as they will in this lower world.
Both sides serve for reward, and are moved by the things that please.