Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)

and so in the supreme Godhead. ‘‘He_.whn_thus knows me is not bound by his works. So knowing was work done by the men of old who sought liberation ; do therefore, thou also, work of that more ancient kind done by ancient men.” The second portion of these passages which has here been giveh in substance, explains the ^ture pij^vine.vfX>xks^^divyqm the principle 2of which we have had to deal in the last essay ((the first, which has been fully translated, explains the way of the divine JJHth, divya m janma, the Avatarhood. But we have to remark carefully that the upholding of Dharma in the world is no t the only object of the descent of the Avatar, that great mystery of the Divine manifest in humanity ; for the upholding of the Dharma is not an alhsufficient object in itself, not the supreme possible aim for the manifestation of a Christ, a Krishna, a Buddha, but is only the general condition of a ^her aim and a more supreme and divine utility. For there are two a spects of the divine birth ; one is a desc^, the bi rth of G<^ in humanity, the Godhead manifesting itself in the human form and na ture, the eternal Avatar! t he othe r is an ascent, the birth of man in to the G odh ead, m an rising into the^ivme natu re and conscio usness; nmdbhdvam dgoitaH^ it Is the being bom anew in a 'ScbnB'biith of ffie soul. It is that new birth which Avatarhood and the upholding of the Dharma are intended to- serve. This double aspect in the Gita's doctrine of Avatarhood is apt to be missed by the cursory reader THE POSSIBILITY AND PURPOSE OF AVATARHOOD 3satisfied, as most are, with catching a superficial view of its profound teachings, and it is missed too by the formal commentator petrified in the rigidity of the schools. Yet it is necessary, surely, to the w^hole meaning of the doctrine. Otherwise the Avatar idea would be only a dogma, a popular superstition, or an imaginative or mystic deification of historical or legendary supermen, not what the Gita makes all its teaching, a deep philosophical and religious truth and an essential part of or step to the supreme mystery of all, rahasyam uttamam, ^f there were not this risking of man into the Godhead to be helped by the descent of God_intp Humanity, Avatarhood for the sake of the Dhai^ma would be an otiose phenomenoi^ since mere ,Right, mere justice or standards of virtue can always be upheld by the divine omnipotence through its ordinary means, by great men or great movements, by the liiEe and work of sages and kings and reli«pus teachers, without any actual incarnation, 'Q"he Avatar comes as the manifestation of the div ine natufe~ TnJthc hinnan jiatimer the apocalypse of_ its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddh^mo^ in order tEaT'lhe human nature may by mouldin g i ts principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the fines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself__ into. thc__divine. The law, the Dharma^ which the Avator establishes is_j^