AVATARAS/PART 3
THIRD
LECTURE
Some
Special Avataras
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 Ishvara. 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 Puranic 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 fall 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 Ishvara? 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 anthills, very much of the same size. And so from the
standpoint of Ishvara, 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 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.
Then we find, tracing it onward, that
this great age passes, and the world begins to rise out of the waters. How then
shall types be brought forth in order that evolution may go on? The next great
type is to be fitted either for land or for water; for the next stage of the
earth shows the waters draining gradually away, and the land appearing, and the
creatures that are the marked characteristic of the age must exist partially on
land and partially in water. Here again there must be manifestation of the type
of life, this time of what we call the reptile type; the tortoise is chosen as
the typical creature, and while the tortoise typifies the type to be evolved,
reptiles, amphibious creatures of every description, swarm over the earth,
becoming more and more land-like in their character as the proportion of land
to water increases. There is meanwhile going on, in the "imperishable
sacred land", a preparation for further evolution. There is one part of
the globe that changes not, that from the beginning has been, and will last
while the globe is lasting; it is called the "imperishable land." And
there the great Rishis gather, and thence they ever come forth for the helping
of man; that is the imperishable sacred land, sometimes called the "sacred
pole of the earth." Pole itself exists not on the physical plane but on
the higher, and its reflection coming downwards makes, as it were, one spot
which never changes, but is ever guarded from the profane tread of ordinary
men. There took place a most instructive phenomenon. The type of the evolution
then preceding, the Tortoise, the Logos in that form, makes Himself the base of
the revolving axis of evolution. That is typified by Mandara, the mountain
which, placed on the tortoise, is made to revolve by the hosts of Suras and
Asuras, one pulling at the head of the serpent, and the other at the tail — the
positive and negative forces that I spoke of yesterday. So the churning begins
in matter, evolving types of life. The type is ever evolved before the lower manifestation,
the type appears before the copies of it are born in the lower world. And how
often have the students of the great Teachers themselves seen the very thing
occur; the churning of the waters of matter giving forth all the types of the
many sorts and species that are generated in the lower world; these are the
archetypes, as we call them, of classes and creatures, always produced in
preparation for the forward stretch of evolution. There came forth one by one
the archetypes, the elephant, the horse, the woman, and so on, one after
another, showing the track along which evolution was to go. And first of all,
Amrita, nectar of immortality, comes forth, symbol of the one life which passes
through every form — and that life appears above the waters the taking of which
is necessary in order that every form may live.
We cannot delay on details; I can
only trace hastily the outline, showing you how real is the truth that
underlies the story, and as that gradually goes on and the types are ready, there
comes the whelming of the world under the waters, and the great continents
vanish for a time.
Then comes the third Avatara, the
Varaha. No earth is to be seen; the waters of the flood have overwhelmed it.
The types that are to be produced on earth are waiting in the higher region for
place on which to manifest. How shall the earth be brought up from the waters
which have overwhelmed it? Now once again the great Helper is needed, the God,
the Protector of Evolution. Then in the form of a mighty Boar, whose form
filled the heaven, plunging down into the waters that He alone could separate,
the Great One descends. He brings up the earth from the lower region where it
was lying awaiting His coming; and the land rises up again from below the
surface of the flood, and the vast Lemurian continent is the earth of that
far-off age. Here science has a word to say, rightly enough, that on the
Lemurian continent were developed many types of life, and there the mammals
first made their appearance. Quite so; that was exactly what the sages taught
thousands upon thousands of years ago; that when the Boar, the great type of
the mammal, plunged into the waters to bring up the earth, then was started the
mammalian evolution, and the continent thus rescued from the waters was crowded
with the forms of the mammalian kingdom. Just as the Fish had typified the
Silurian epoch, just as the Tortoise had started on its way the great amphibian
evolution, so did the Boar, that typical mammal, start the mammalian evolution,
and we come to the Lemurian continent with its wonderful variety of forms of
mammalian life. Not so very ignorant after all, you see, the ancient writings!
For men are only re-discovering to-day what has been in the hands of the
followers of the Rishis for thousands, tens of thousands of years.
Then we come to a strange incarnation
on this Lemurian continent: frightful conflicts existed; we are nearing what in
the theosophical nomenclature is the middle of the third Race, and man as man
will shortly appear with all the characteristics of his nature. He is not yet
quite come to birth; strange forms are seen, half human and half animal, wholly
monstrous; terrible struggles arise between these monstrous forms born from the
slime as it is said — from the remains of former creations — and the newer and
higher life in which the future evolution is enshrined. These forms are
represented in the Puranas as those of the race of Daityas, who ruled the
earth, who struggled against the Deva manifestations, who conquered the Devas
from time to time, who subjected them, who ruled over earth and heaven alike,
bringing every thing under their sway. You may read in the splendid stanzas of
the Book of Dzyan, as given us by H. P. B., hints of that mighty struggle of
which the Puranas are so full, a struggle which was as real as any struggle of
later days, an absolute historical fact that many of us have seen. We are
instructed over and over again of a frightful conflict of forms, the forms of
the past, monstrous in their strength and in their outline, against whom the
Sons of Light were battling, against whom the great Lords of the Flame came
down. One of these conflicts, the greatest of all, is given in the story of the
Avatara known as that of Narasimha — the Man-Lion. You know the story; what
Hindu does not know the story of Prahlada? In him we have typified the dawning
spirituality which is to show in the higher races of Daityas as they pass on
into definite human evolution, and their form gives way that sexual man may be
born. I need not dwell on that familiar story of the devotee of Vishnu; how his
Daitya father strove to kill him because the name of Hari was ever on his lips;
how he strove to slay him, with a sword, and the sword fell broken from the
neck of the child; how then he tried to poison him, and Vishnu appeared and ate
first of the poisoned rice, so that the boy might eat it with the name of Hari
on his lips; how his father strove to slay him by the furious elephant, by the
fang of the serpent, by throwing him over a precipice, and by crushing him
under a stone. But ever the cry of "Hari, Hari", brought deliverance,
for in the elephant, in the fang of the serpent, in the precipice, and in the
stone, Hari was ever present, and his devotee was safe in that presence: how
finally when the father, challenging the omnipresence of the Deity, pointed to
the stone pillar and said in mucking language: "Is your Hari also in the
pillar?" "Hari, Hari," cried the boy, and the pillar burst
asunder, and the mighty form came forth and slew the Daitya that doubted, in
order that he might learn the omnipresence of the Supreme. A story? facts, not
fiction; truth, not imagination; and if you could look back to the time of
those struggles, there would seem to you nothing strange or abnormal in the story;
for you would see it repeated with less vividness in the smaller struggles
where the Sons of the Fire were purging and redeeming the earth, in order that
the later human evolution might take place.
We pass from those four Avataras,
every one of which comes within what is called the Satya Yuga of the earth —
not of the race remember, not the smaller cycle, but of the earth — the Satya
Yuga of the earth as a whole, when periods of time were of immense length, and
when progress was marvellously slow. Then we come to the next age, that which
we call the Treta Yuga, that which is, in the theosophical chronology — and I
put the two together in order that students may be able to work their way out
in detail — the middle of the third Root Race, when humanity receives the light
from above, and when man as man begins to evolve. How is that evolution marked?
By the coming of the Supreme in human form, as Vamana, the Dwarf. The Dwarf?
Yes; for man was as yet but dwarf in the truly human stature, although vast in
outer appearance; and He came as the inner man, small, yet stronger than the
outer form; against him was Bali, the mighty, showing the outer form, while
Vamana, the Dwarf, showed the man that should be. And when Bali had offered a
great sacrifice, the Dwarf as a brahmana came to beg.
It is curious this question of the
caste of the Avataras. When we once come to the human Avataras, They are mostly
kshattriyas, as you know, but in two cases They are brahmanas, and this is one
of them; for He was going to beg, and kshattriya might not beg. Only he to whom
the earth's wealth should be as nothing, who should have no store of wealth to
hold, to whom gold and earth should be as one, only he may go to beg. He was an
ancient brahmana, not a modern brahmana.
He came with begging bowl in hand, to
beg of the king; for of what use is sacrifice unless something be given at the
sacrifice? Now Bali was a pious ruler, on the side of the evolution that was
passing away, and gladly gave a boon. "Brahmana, take thy boon", said
he. "Three steps of earth alone I ask for", said the Dwarf. Of that
little man surely three steps would not cover much, and the great king with his
world-wide dominion might well give three steps of earth to the short and puny
Dwarf. But one step covered earth, and the next step covered sky. Where could
the third step be planted, where? so that the gift might be made complete.
Nothing was left for Bali to give save himself; nothing to make his gift
complete - and his word might not be broken — save his own body. So,
recognising the Lord of all, he threw himself before Him, and the third step,
planted on his body, fulfilled the promise of the king and made him the ruler
of the lower regions, of Patala. Such the story. How full of significance. This
inner man - so small at that stage but really so mighty, who was to rule alike
the earth and heaven - could for his third step find no place to put his foot
upon save his own lower nature; he was to go forward and forward ever; that is
hinted in the third step that was taken. What a graphic picture of the
evolution that lay in front, the wondrous evolution that now was to begin.
And I may just remind you in passing
that there is one word in the Rig Veda, which refers to this very Avatara, that
has been a source of endless controversy and dispute as to its meaning; there
it is said:
Through all this world strode Vishnu;
thrice His foot He planted and the whole Was gathered in His footstep's dust.
(I. xxii, 17) [ See also I. cliv., which speaks of His three steps, within
which all living creatures have their habitation; the three steps are said to
be "the earth, the heavens, and all living creatures." Here Bali is
made the symbol of all living things.]
That too is one of the
"babblings of child humanity." I know not what figure the greatest
man could use more poetical, more full of meaning, more sublime in its imagery,
than that the whole world was gathered in the dust of the foot of the Supreme.
For what is the world save the dust of His footsteps, and how would it have any
life save as His foot has touched it?
So we pass, still treading onwards in
the Treta Yuga, and we come to another manifestation — that of Parashurama; a
strange Avatara you may think, and a partial Avatara, let me say, as we shall
see when we come to look at His life and read the words that are spoken of Him.
The Yuga had now gone far and the kshattriya caste had risen and was ruling,
mighty in its power, great in its authority, the one warrior ruling caste, and
alas! abusing its power, as men will do when souls are still being trained, and
are young for their surroundings. The kshattriya caste abused its power, built
up in order that it might rule; the duty of the ruler, remember, is essentially
protection: but these used their power not to protect, but to plunder, not to
help but to oppress. A terrible lesson must be taught the ruling caste, in
order that it might learn, if possible, that the duty of ruling was to protect
and support and help, and not to tyrannise and plunder. The first great lesson
was given to the kings of the earth, the rulers of men, a lesson that had to be
repeated over and over again, and is not yet completely learnt. A divine
manifestation came in order that that lesson might be taught; and the Teacher
was not a kshattriya save by mother. A strange story, that story of the birth.
Food given to two kshattriya women, each of whom was to bear a son, the husband
of one of them a brahmana; and the two women exchanged the food, and that meant
to bring forth a kshattriya son was taken by the woman with the brahmana
husband. An accident, men would say; there are no accidents in a universe of
law. The food which was full of kshattriya energy thus went into the brahmana
family, for it would not have been fitting that a kshattriya should destroy
kshattriyas. The lesson would not thus have been so well taught to the world.
So that we have the strange phenomenon of the brahmana coming with an axe to
slay the kshattriya, and three times seven times that axe was raised in
slaughter, cutting the kshattriya trunk off from the surface of the earth. But
while Parashurama was still in the body, a greater Avatara came forth to show
what a kshattriya king should be. The kshattriyas abusing their place and their
power were swept away by Parashurama, and, ere He had left the earth where the
bitter lesson had been taught, the ideal kshattriya came down to teach, now by
example, the lesson of what should be, after the lesson of what should not be
had been enforced. The boy Rama was born, on whose exquisite story we have not
time long to dwell, the ideal ruler, the utterly perfect king. While a boy He
went forth with the great teacher Visvamitra, in order to protect the Yogi's
sacrifice; a boy, almost a child, but able to drive away, as you remember, the
Rakshasas that interfered with the sacrifice, and then He and His beloved
brother Lakshmana and the Yogi went on to the court of king Janaka. And there,
at the court, was a great bow, a bow which had belonged to Mahadeva Himself. To
bend and string that bow was the task for the man who would wed Sita, the child
of marvellous birth, the maiden who had sprung from the furrow as the plough
went through the earth, who had no physical father or physical mother. Who
should wed the peerless maiden, the incarnation of Shri, Lakshmi, the consort
of Vishnu? Who should wed Her save the Avatara of Vishnu Himself? So the mighty
bow remained unstrung, for who might string it until the boy Rama came? And He
takes it up with boyish carelessness, and bends it so strongly that it breaks
in half, the crash echoing through earth and sky. He weds Sita, the beautiful,
and goes forth with Her, and with His brother Lakshmana and his bride, and with
His father who had come to the bridal, and with a vast procession, wending
their way back to their own town Ayodhya. This breaking of Mahadeva's bow has
rung through earth, the crashing of the bow has shaken all the worlds, and all,
both men and Devas, know that the bow has been broken. Among the devotees of
Mahadeva, Parashurama hears the clang of the broken bow, the bow of the One He
worshipped; and proud with the might of His strength, still with the energy of
Vishnu in Him, He goes forth to meet this insolent boy, who had dared to break
the bow that no other arm could bend. He challenges Him, and handing His own
bow bids Him try what He can do with that Can He shoot an arrow from its
string? Rama takes this offered bow, strings it, and sets an arrow on the
string. Then He stops, for in front of Him there is the body of a brahmana;
shall He draw an arrow against that form? As the two Ramas stand face to face,
the energy of the elder, it is written, passes into the younger; the energy of
Vishnu, the energy of the Supreme, leaves the form in which it had been
dwelling and enters the higher manifestation of the same divine life. The bow
was stretched and the arrow waiting, but Rama would not shoot it forth lest
harm should come, until He had pacified His antagonist; then feeling that
energy pass, Parashurama bows before Rama, diviner than Himself, hails Him as
the Supreme Lord of the worlds, bends in reverence before Him, and then goes
away. That Avatara was over, although the form in which the energy had dwelt
yet persisted. That is why I said it was a lesser Avatara. Where you have the
form persisting when the influence is withdrawn, you have the clear proof that
there the incarnation cannot be said to be complete; the passing from the one
to the other is the sign of the energy taken back by the Giver and put into a
new vessel in which new work is to be done.
The story of Rama you know; we need
not follow it further in detail; we spoke of it yesterday in its highest aspect
as combating the forces of evil and starting the world, as it were, anew. We
find the great reign of Rama lasting ten thousand years in the Dvapara Yuga,
the Yuga at the close of which Shri Krishna came.
Then comes the Mighty One, Shri
Krishna Himself, of whom I speak not to-day; we will try to study that Avatara
to-morrow with such insight and reverence as we may possess. Pass over that
then for the moment, leaving it for fuller study, and we come to the ninth
Avatara as it is called, that of the Lord Buddha. Now round this much
controversy has raged, and a theory exists current to some extent among the
Hindus that the Lord Buddha, though an incarnation of Vishnu, came to lead
astray those who did not believe the Vedas, came to spread confusion upon
earth. Vishnu is the Lord of order, not of disorder; the Lord of love, not the
Lord of hatred; the Lord of compassion, who only slays to help the life onward
when the form has become an obstruction. And they blaspheme who speak of an
incarnation of the Supreme, as coming to mislead the world that He has made.
Rightly did your own learned pandit, T. Subba Row, speak of that theory with
the disdain born of knowledge; for no one who has a shadow of occult learning,
no one who knows anything of the inner realities of life, could thus speak of
that beautiful and gracious manifestation of the Supreme, or dream that He
could take the mighty form of an Avatara in order to mislead.
But there is another point to put
about this Avatara, on which, perhaps, I may come into conflict with people on
another side. For this is the difficulty of keeping the middle path, the razor
path which goes neither to the left nor to the right, along which the great
Gurus lead us. On either side you find objection to the central teaching. The
Lord Buddha, in the ordinary sense of the word, was not what we have defined as
an Avatara. He was the first of our own humanity who climbed upwards to that
point, and there merged in the Logos and received full illumination. His was
not a body taken by the Logos for the purpose of revealing Himself, but was the
last in myriads of births through which he had climbed to merge in Ishvara at
last That is not what is normally spoken of as an Avatara, though, you may say,
the result truly is the same. But in the case of the Avatara, the evolving
births are in previous kalpas, and the Avatara comes after the man has merged
in the Logos, and the body is taken for the purpose of revelation. But he who
became Gautama Buddha had climbed though birth after birth in our own kalpa, as
well as in the kalpas that went before; and he was incarnated many a time when
the great Fourth Race dwelt in mighty Atlantis, and rose onward to take the
office of the Buddha; for the Buddha is the title of an office, not of a
particular man. Finally by his own struggles, the very first of our race, he
was able to reach that great function in the world. What is the function? That
of the Teacher of Gods and men. The previous Buddhas had been Buddhas who came
from another planet Humanity had not lived long enough here to evolve its own
son to that height. Gautama Buddha was human born. He had evolved through the
Fourth Race into this first family of the Aryan Race, the Hindu. By birth after
birth in India He had completed His course and took His final body in
Aryavarta, to make the proclamation of the law to men.
But the proclamation was not made
primarily for India. It was given in India because India is the place whence
the great religious revelations go forth by the will of the Supreme. Therefore
was He born in India, but His law was specially meant for nations beyond the
bounds of Aryavarta, that they might learn a pure morality, a noble ethic,
disjoined — because of the darkness of the age — from all the complicated
teachings which we find in connection with the subtle, metaphysical Hindu
faith.
Hence you find in the teachings of
the Lord Buddha two great divisions; one a philosophy meant for the learned,
then an ethic disjoined from the philosophy, so far as the masses are
concerned, noble and pure and great, yet easy to be grasped. For the Lord knew
that we were going into an age of deeper and deeper materialism, that other
nations were going to arise, that India for a time was going to sink down for
other nations to rise above her in the scale of nations. Hence was it necessary
to give a teaching of morality fitted for a more materialistic age, so that
even if nations would not believe in the Gods they might still practise
morality and obey the teachings of the Lord. In order also that this land might
not suffer loss, in order that India itself might not lose its subtle
metaphysical teachings and the widespread belief among all classes of people in
the existence of the Gods and their part in the affairs of men, the work of the
great Lord Buddha was done. He left morality built upon a basis that could not
be shaken by any change of faith, and, having done His work, passed away. Then
was sent another great One, overshadowed by the power of Mahadeva, Shri
Shankaracharya, in order that by His teaching He might give, in the Advaita
Vedanta, the philosophy which would do intellectually what morally the Buddha
had done, which intellectually would guard spirituality and allow a
materialistic age to break its teeth on the hard nut of a flawless philosophy.
Thus in India metaphysical religion triumphed, while the teaching of the
Blessed One passed from the Indian soil, to do its noble work in lands other
than the land of Aryavarta, which must keep unshaken its belief in the Gods,
and where highest and lowest alike must bow before their power. That is the real
truth about this much disputed question as to the teaching of the ninth
Avatara; the fact was that His teaching was not meant for His birthplace, but
was meant for other younger nations that were rising up around, who did not
follow the Vedas, but who yet needed instruction in the path of righteousness;
not to mislead them but to guide them, was His teaching given. But, as I say,
and as I repeat, what in it might have done harm in India had it been left
alone was prevented by the coming of the great Teacher of the Advaita. You must
remember, that His name has been worn by man after man, through century after
century; but the Shri Shankaracharya on whom was the power of Mahadeva was born
but a few years after the passing away of the Buddha, as the records of the
Dwaraka Math show plainly - giving date after date backward, until they bring
His birth within 60 or 70 years of the passing away of the Buddha.
We come to the tenth Avatara, the
future one, the Kalki. Of that but little may be said; but one or two hints
perchance may be given. With His coming will dawn a brighter age; with His
coming the Kali Yuga will pass away; with His coming will also come a higher
race of men. He will come when there is born upon earth the sixth Root Race.
There will then be a great change in the world, a great manifestation of truth,
of occult truth, and when He comes then occultism will again be able to show
itself to the world by proofs that none will be able to challenge or to deny;
and He in His coming will give the rule over the sixth Root Race to the two
Kings, of whom you read in the Kalki Purana. As we look back down the past
stream of time we find over and over again two great figures standing side by
side — the ideal King and the ideal Priest. They work together; the one rules,
the other teaches; the one governs the nation, the other instructs it And such
a pair of mighty ones come down in every age for each and every Race. Each Race
has its own Teacher, the ideal brahmana, called in the Buddhist language the
Bodhisattva, the learned, full of wisdom and truth. Each has also its own
ruler, the Manu. Those two we can trace in the past, in Their actual
incarnations; and we see Them in the third, the fourth, and fifth Races; the
Manu in each race is the ideal King, the Brahmana in each race is the ideal
Teacher; and we learn that when the Kalki Avatara shall come He shall call from
the sacred village of Shamballa — the village known to the occultist though not
to the profane — two Kings who have remained throughout the age in order to
help the world in its evolution. And the name of the Manu who will be the King
of the next Race, is said in the Purana to be Moru; and the name of the ideal
brahmana who will be the Teacher of the next Race is said to be Devapi; and
these two are King and Teacher for the sixth Race that is to be born.
Those of you who have read something
of the wondrous story of the past will know that the choosing out of the new
Race, the evolving of it, the making of a new Root Race, is a thing that takes
centuries, milleniums, sometimes hundreds of thousands of years; and that the
two who are to be its King and Priest, the Manu and the Brahmana, are at Their
work throughout the centuries, choosing the men who may be the seeds of the new
Race. In the womb of the fourth Race a choice was made out of which the fifth
was born; isolated in the Gobi desert, for enormous periods of time, that
chosen family was trained, educated, reared, till its Manu incarnated in it,
and its Teacher also incarnated in it, and the first Aryan family was led forth
to settle in Aryavarta. Now in the womb of the fifth Race, the sixth Race is a
choosing, and the King and the Teacher of the sixth Race are already at Their
mighty and beneficent work. They are choosing one by one, trying and testing,
those who shall form the nucleus of the sixth Race; They are taking soul by
soul, subjecting each to many a test, to many an ordeal, to see if there be the
strength out of which a new Race can spring; and in fulness of time when Their
work is ready, then will come the Kalki Avatara, to sweep away the darkness, to
send the Kali Yuga into the past, to proclaim the birth of the new Satya Yuga,
with a new and more spiritual Race, that is to live therein. Then will He call
out the chosen, the King Moru and the Brahmana Devapi, and give into Their
hands the Race that now They are building, the Race to inhabit a fairer world,
to carry onwards the evolution of humanity.
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