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

pu^^^ chfefly the, Christ, Krish na, Buddh a stai^ In its centre as the gate, he makes through hi mself t^ v^y men shall follow^ That is why each Incarnation holds before men his own example and declares of himself that he is the way and the gate; he declares too the oneness of his hu manit y with the divine being, declares that the Son of Man and the Father aboye from whom he has descended are one, that Krishna dn the hum an bod y, mdnushim tanum dgritam, and the supreme Lord and Mend. of all creatures are but two revelatmhs of the same divine Purushottama, revealed there in his own being, revealed here in the type of humanity^

That the Gita contains as its kernel this second and real object of the Avatarhood, is evident even from this passage by itself rightly considered ; but it becomes much clearer if we take it, not by itself, — always the wrong way to deal with the texts of the Gita, — but in its right close connection i^idi other passages and with the whole teaching. :^We have to remember and take together its doctrine of^ the one Sdf in all, of the Godhead seated in the heart of jevery creature^ its teaching about the rel ations between the Qreator and his creation, J^ st^rong^ emphasised idea of the ^i6/?w^~rioting too the language in which the TeacheTgi^s his o wn divine example of sel^ss works which applies equally to the human Krishna and the divine Lord of the worlds, and giving their due" weight to such' paiSages as that in the ninth chapter “Deluded minds despise me lodged in the human body because they know not my supreme nature of being. Lord of all existences** ; and we have to read in the light of THE POSSIBILITY AND PURPOSE OF AVATARHOOD

Aese ideas this passage we find before us and its declaration that(^by the knowledge of his divine birth an d d ivine works man comes to the Divine and by becoming full of him and even as he and taking refuge in him they arrive at his nature and statu^of being, rnadbhdvari^ For then we shall understand the divine birth and its object, not as an isolated and miraculous phenomenon, but in its proper place in the whole scheme of the world- manifestation ; without that we cannot arrive at its divine mystery, but shall either scout it alt^ether or accept it ignorantly and, it may be, superstitiously or fell into the petty and superficial ideas of the modern mind about it by which it loses all its inner and helpful significance.