great example to show how these work, let me take the mighty one, Ravana
of Lanka,[6] that we may give a concrete form to a rather difficult and
abstruse thought. Ravana, as you all know, was the mighty intelligence,
the Rakshasa, who called forth the coming of Shri Rama. But look back
into the past, and what was he? Keeper of Vishnu's heaven,
door-keeper of the mighty Lord, devotee, bhakta, absolutely devoted to
the Lord. Look at his past, and where do you find a bhakta of Mahadeva
more absolute in devotion than the one who came forth later as Ravana?
It was he who cast his head into the fire in order that Mahadeva might
be served. It is he in whose name have been written some of the most
exquisite stotras, breathing the spirit of completest devotion; in one
of them, you may remember--and you could scarcely carry devotion to a
further point--it is in the mouth of Ravana words are put appealing to
Mahadeva, and describing Him as surrounded by forms the most repellent
and undesirable, surrounded on every side by pisachas and bhutas,[7]
which to us seem but the embodiment of the dark shadows of the burning
ghat, forms from which all beauty is withdrawn. He cries out in a
passion of love:
Better wear pisacha-form, so we
Evermore are near and wait on Thee.
[Footnote 6: Ceylon.]
[Footnote 7: Goblins and elementals.]
How did he then come to be the ravisher of Sita and the enemy of God?
You know how through lack of intuition, through lack of power to
recognise the meaning of an order, following the words not the spirit,
following the outside not the inner, he refused to open the door of
heaven when Sanat Kumara came and demanded entrance. In order that that
which was lacking might be filled, in order that that which was wanting
might be earned, that which was called a curse was pronounced, a curse
which was the natural reaction from the mistake. He was asked: "Will you
have seven incarnations friendly to Vishnu, or three in which you
will be His enemy and oppose Him?" And because he was a true bhakta, and
because every moment of absence from his Lord meant to him hell of
torture, he chose three of enmity, which would let him go back sooner
to the Feet of the Beloved, rather than the seven of happiness, of
friendliness. Better a short time of utter enmity than a longer
remaining away with apparent happiness. It was love not hatred that made
him choose the form of a Rakshasa rather than the form of a Rishi.
There is the first note of explanation.
Then, coming into the form of Rakshasa, he must do his duty as Rakshasa.
This was no weak man to be swayed by momentary thought, by transient
objects. He had all the learning of the Vedas. With him, it was said,
passed away Vaidic learning, with him it disappeared from earth. He knew
his duty. What was his duty? To put forward every force which was in his
mighty nature in order to check evolution, and so call out every force
in man which could be called out by opposing energy which had to be
overcome; to gather round him all the forces which were opposing
evolution; to make himself king of the whole, centre and law-giver to
every force that was setting itself against the will of the Lord; to
gather them together as it were into one head, to call them together
into one arm; so that when their apparent triumph made the cry of the
earth go up to Vishnu, the answer might come in Rama's Avatara and
they be destroyed, that the life-wave might go on.
Nobly he did the work, thoroughly he discharged his duty. It is said
that even sages are confused about Dharma, and truly it is subtle and
hard to grasp in its entirety, though the fragment the plain man sees be
simple enough. His Dharma was the Dharma of a Rakshasa, to lead the
whole forces of evil against One whom in his inner soul, then clouded,
he loved. When Shri Rama came, when He was wandering in the forest, how
could he sting Him into leaving the life of His life, His beloved Sita,
and into coming out into the world to do His work? By taking away from
Him the one thing to which He clung, by taking away from Him the wife
whom He loved as His very Self, by placing her in the spot where all the
forces of evil were gathered together, so making one head for
destruction, which the arrow of Shri Rama might destroy. Then the mighty
battle, then the struggle with all the forces of his great nature, that
the law might be obeyed to the uttermost, duly fulfilled to the last
grain, the debt paid that was owed; and then--ah then! the shaft of the
Beloved, then the arrow of Shri Rama that struck off the head from the
seeming enemy, from the real devotee. And from the corpse of the
Rakshasa that fell upon the field near Lanka, the devotee went up to
Goloka[8] to sit at the feet of the Beloved, and rest for awhile till
the third incarnation had to be lived out.
[Footnote 8: A name for one of the heavens.]
Such then are some of the reasons by, the ways in which the coming of
the Avatara is brought about. And my last word to you, my brothers,
to-day is but a sentence, in order to avoid the possibility of a mistake
to which our diving into these depths of thought may possibly give rise.
Remember that though all powers are His, all forces His, Rakshasa as
much as Deva, Asura as much as Sura; remember that for your evolution
you must be on the side of good, and struggle to the utmost against
evil. Do not let the thoughts I have put lead you into a bog, into a pit
of hell, in which you may for the time perish, that because evil is
relative, because it exists by the one will, because Rakshasa is His as
much as Deva, therefore you shall go on their side and walk along their
path. It is not so. If you yield to ambition, if you yield to pride, if
you set yourselves against the will of I'shvara, if you struggle for the
separated self, if in yourselves now you identify yourself with the past
in which you have dwelt instead of with the future towards which you
should be directing your steps, then, if your Karma be at a certain
stage, you pass into the ranks of those who work as enemies, because you
have chosen that fate for yourself, at the promptings of the lower
nature. Then with bitter inner pain--even if with complete
submission--accepting the Karma, but with profound sorrow, you shall
have to work out your own will against the will of the Beloved, and feel
the anguish of the rending that separates the inner from the outer life.
The will of I'shvara for you is evolution; these forces are made to
help your evolution--_but only if you strive against them_. If you yield
to them, then they carry you away. You do not then call out your own
strength, but only strengthen them. Therefore, O Arjuna, stand up and
fight. Do not be supine; do not yield yourself to the forces; they are
there to call out your energies by opposition and you must not sink down
on the floor of the chariot. And my last word is the word of Shri
Krishna to Arjuna: "Take up your bow, stand up and fight."
THIRD LECTURE.
The subject this morning, my brothers, is in some ways an easy and in
other ways a difficult one; easy, inasmuch as the stories of the
Avataras can be readily told and readily grasped; difficult, inasmuch as
the meaning that underlies these manifestations may possibly be in some
ways unfamiliar, may not have been thoroughly thought out by individual
hearers. And I must begin with a general word as to these special
Avataras. You may remember that I said that the whole universe may be
regarded as the Avatara of the Supreme, the Self-revelation of I'shvara.
But we are not dealing with that general Self-revelation; nor are we
even considering the very many revelations that have taken place from
time to time, marked out by special characteristics; for we have seen by
referring to one or two of the old writings that many lists are given of
the comings of the Lord, and we are to-day concerned with only some of
those, those that are accepted specially as Avataras.
Now on one point I confess myself puzzled at the outset, and I do not
know whether in your exoteric literature light is thrown upon the point
as to how these ten were singled out, who was the person who chose them
out of a longer list, on what authority that list was proclaimed. On
that point I must simply state the question, leaving it unanswered. It
may be a matter familiar to those who have made researches into the
exoteric literature. It is not a point of quite sufficient importance
for the moment to spend on it time and trouble, in what we may call the
occult way of research. I leave that then aside, for there is one reason
why some of these stand out in a way which is clear and definite. They
mark stages in the evolution of the world. They mark new departures in
the growth of the developing life, and whether it was that fact which
underlay the exoteric choice I am unable to say; but certainly that fact
by itself is sufficient to justify the special distinction which is
made.
There is one other general point to consider. Accounts of these Avataras
are found in the Puranas; allusions to them, to one or other of them,
are found in other of the ancient writings, but the moment you come to
very much detail you must turn to the Pauranic accounts; as you are
aware, sages, in giving those Puranas, very often described things as
they are seen on the higher planes, giving the description of the
underlying truth of facts and events; you have appearances described
which sound very strange in the lower world; you have facts asserted
which raise very much of challenge in modern days. When you read in the
Puranas of strange forms and marvellous appearances, when you read
accounts of creatures that seem unlike anything that you have ever heard
of or dreamed of elsewhere, the modern mind, with its somewhat narrow
limitations, is apt to revolt against the accounts that are given; the
modern mind, trained within the limits of the science of observation, is
necessarily circumscribed within those limits and those limits are of an
exceedingly narrow description; they are limits which belong only to
modern time, modern to men, in the true sense of the word, though
geological researches stretch of course far back into what we call in
this nineteenth century the night of time. But you must remember that
the moment geology goes beyond the historic period, which is a mere
moment in the history of the world, it has more of guesses than of
facts, more of theories than of proofs. If you take half a dozen modern
geologists and ask each of them in turn for the date of the period of
which records remain in the small number of fossils collected, you will
find that almost every man gives a different date, and that they deal
with differences of millions of years as though they were only seconds
or minutes of ours. So that you will have to remember in what science
can tell you of the world, however accurate it may be within its limits,
that these limits are exceedingly narrow, narrow I mean when measured by
the sight that goes back kalpa after kalpa, and that knows that the
mind of the Supreme is not limited to the manifestations of a few
hundred thousands of years, but goes back million after million,
hundreds of millions after hundreds of millions, and that the varieties
of form, the enormous differences of types, the marvellous kinds of
creatures which have come out of that creative imagination, transcend in
actuality all that man's mind can dream of, and that the very wildest
images that man can make fail far short of the realities that actually
existed in the past kalpas through which the universe has gone. That
word of warning is necessary, and also the warning that on the higher
planes things look very different from what they look down here. You
have here a reflection only of part of those higher forms of existence.
Space there has more dimensions than it has on the physical plane, and
each dimension of space adds a new fundamental variety to form; if to
illustrate this I may use a simile I have often used, it may perhaps
convey to you a little idea of what I mean. Two similes I will take each
throwing a little light on a very difficult subject. Suppose that a
picture is presented to you of a solid form; the picture, being made by
pen or pencil on a sheet of paper, must show on the sheet, which is
practically of two dimensions--a plane surface--a three dimensional
form; so that if you want to represent a solid object, a vase, you must
draw it flat, and you can only represent the solidity of that vase by
resorting to certain devices of light and shade, to the artificial
device which is called perspective, in order to make an illusory
semblance of the third dimension. There on the plane surface you get a
solid appearance, and the eye is deceived into thinking it sees a solid
when really it is looking at a flat surface. Now as a matter of fact if
you show a picture to a savage, an undeveloped savage, or to a very
young child, they will not see a solid but only a flat. They will not
recognise the picture as being the picture of a solid object they have
seen in the world round them; they will not see that that artificial
representation is meant to show a familiar solid, and it passes by them
without making any impression on the mind; only the education of the eye
enables you to see on a flat surface the picture of a solid form. Now,
by an effort of the imagination, can you think of a solid as being the
representation of a form in one dimension more, shown by a kind of
perspective? Then you may get a vague idea of what is meant when we
speak of a further dimension in space. As the picture is to the vase, so
is the vase to a higher object of which that vase itself is a
reflection. So again if you think, say, of the lotus flower I spoke of
yesterday, as having just the tips of its leaves above water, each tip
would appear as a separate object. If you know the whole you know that
they are all parts of one object; but coming over the surface of the
water you will see tips only, one for each leaf of the seven-leaved
lotus. So is every globe in space an apparently separate object, while
in reality it is not separated at all, but part of a whole that exists
in a space of more dimensions; and the separateness is mere illusion due
to the limitations of our faculties.
Now I have made this introduction in order to show you that when you
read the Puranas you consistently get the fact on the higher plane
described in terms of the lower, with the result that it seems
unintelligible, seems incomprehensible; then you have what is called an
allegory, that is, a reality which looks like a fancy down here, but is
a deeper truth than the illusion of physical matter, and is nearer to
the reality of things than the things which you call objective and real.
If you follow that line of thought at all you will read the Puranas
with more intelligence and certainly with more reverence than some of
the modern Hindus are apt to show in the reading, and you will begin to
understand that when another vision is opened one sees things
differently from the way that one sees them on the physical plane, and
that that which seems impossible on the physical is what is really seen
when you pass beyond the physical limitations.
From the Puranas then the stories come.
Let me take the first three Avataras apart from the remainder, for a
reason that you will readily understand as we go through them. We take
the Avatara which is spoken of as that of Matsya or the fish; that
which is spoken of as that of Kurma or the tortoise; that which is
spoken of as that of Varaha, or the boar. Three animal forms; how
strange! thinks the modern graduate. How strange that the Supreme should
take the forms of these lower animals, a fish, a tortoise, a boar! What
childish folly! "The babbling of a race in its infancy," it is said by
the pandits of the Western world. Do not be so sure. Why this wonderful
conceit as to the human form? Why should you and I be the only worthy
vessels of the Deity that have come out of the illimitable Mind in the
course of ages? What is there in this particular shape of head, arms,
and trunk which shall make it the only worthy vessel to serve as a
manifestation of the supreme I'shvara? I know of nothing so wonderful in
the mere outer form that should make that shape alone worthy to
represent some of the aspects of the Highest. And may it not be that
from His standpoint those great differences that we see between
ourselves and those which we call the lower forms of life may be almost
imperceptible, since He transcends them all? A little child sees an
immense difference between himself of perhaps two and a half feet high
and a baby only a foot and a half high, and thinks himself a man
compared with that tiny form rolling on the ground and unable to walk.
But to the grown man there is not so much difference between the length
of the two, and one seems very much like the other. While we are very
small we see great differences between ourselves and others; but on the
mountain top the hovel and the palace do not differ so very much in
height. They all look like ant-hills, very much of the same size. And so
from the standpoint of I'shvara, in the vast hierarchies from the
mineral to the loftiest Deva, the distinctions are but as ant-hills in
comparison with Himself, and one form or another is equally worthy, so
that it suits His purpose, and manifests His will.
Now for the Matsya Avatara; the story you will all know: when the great
Manu, Vaivasvata Manu, the Root Manu, as we call Him--that is, a Manu
not of one race only, but of a whole vast round of kosmic evolution,
presiding over the seven globes that are linked for the evolution of the
world--that mighty Manu, sitting one day immersed in contemplation, sees
a tiny fish gasping for water; and moved by compassion, as all great
ones are, He takes up the little fish and puts it in a bowl, and the
fish grows till it fills the bowl; and He placed it in a water vessel
and it grew to the size of the vessel; then He took it out of that
vessel and put it into a bigger one; afterwards into a tank, a pond, a
river, the sea, and still the marvellous fish grew and grew and grew.
The time came when a vast change was impending; one of those changes
called a minor pralaya, and it was necessary that the seeds of life
should be carried over that pralaya to the next manvantara. That would
be a minor pralaya and a minor manvantara. What does that mean? It
means a passage of the seeds of life from one globe to another; from
what a we call the globe preceding our own to our own earth. It is the
function of the Root Manu, with the help and the guidance of the
planetary Logos, to transfer the seeds of life from one globe to the
next, so as to plant them in a new soil where further growth is
possible. As waters rose, waters of matter submerging the globe which
was passing into pralaya, an ark, a vessel appeared; into this vessel
stepped the great Rishi with others, and the seeds of life were
carried by Them, and as They go forth upon the waters a mighty fish
appears and to the horn of that fish the vessel is fastened by a rope,
and it conveys the whole safely to the solid ground where the Manu
rebegins His work. A story! yes, but a story that tells a truth; for
looking at it as it takes place in the history of the world, we see the
vast surging ocean of matter, we see the Root Manu and the great
Initiates with Him gathering up the seeds of life from the world whose
work is over, carrying them under the guidance and with the help of the
planetary Vishnu to the new globe where new impulse is to be given
to the life; and the reason why the fish form was chosen was simply
because in the building up again of the world, it was at first covered
with water, and only that form of life was originally possible, so far
as denser physical life was concerned.
You have in that first stage what the geologists call the Silurian Age,
the age of fishes, when the great divine manifestation was of all these
forms of life. The Purana rightly starts in the previous Kalpa,
rightly starts the manifestations with the manifestation in the form of
the fish. Not so very ridiculous after all, you see, when read by
knowledge instead of by ignorance; a truth, as the Puranas are full
of truth, if they were only read with intelligence and not with
prejudice.
But some of you may say that there is confusion about these first
Avataras; in several accounts we find that the Boar stands the first;
that is true, but the key of it is this; the Boar Avatara initiated that
evolution which was followed unbrokenly by the human; whereas the other
two bring in great stages, each of which is regarded as a separate
kalpa; and if you look into the _Vishnu Purana_ you will find
there the key; for when that begins to relate the incarnation of the
Boar, there is just a sentence thrown in, that the Matsya and Kurma
Avataras belong to previous kalpas.
Now if we take the theosophical nomenclature, we find each of these
kalpas covers what we call a Root Race, and you may remember that the
first Root Race of humanity had not human form at all but was simply a
floating mass able to live in the waters which then covered the earth,
and only showing the ordinary protoplasmic motions connected with such a
type of life and possible at that stage of its evolution. It was a seed
of form rather than a form itself; it was the seed planted by the Manu
in the waters of the earth, that out of that humanity might evolve. But
the general course of physical evolution passed through the stage of the
fish; and geology there gives a true fact, though it does not
understand, naturally, the hidden meaning; while the Purana gives you
the reality of the manifestation, and the deeper truth that underlies
the stages of the evolving world.