Annie Besant - Avataras: Four Lectures Delivered at the Twenty-Fourth Anniversary Meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras, December, 1899

BROTHERS:Every time that we come here together to study thefundamental truths of all religions, I cannot but feel how vast is thesubject, how small the expounder, how mighty the horizon that opensbefore our thoughts, how narrow the words which strive to sketch it foryour eyes. Year after year we meet, time after time we strive to fathomsome of those great mysteries of life, of the Self, which form the onlysubject really worthy of the profoundest thought of man. All else ispassing; all else is transient; all else is but the toy of a moment.Fame and power, wealth and scienceall that is in this world below isas nothing beside the grandeur of the Eternal Self in the universe andin man, one in all His manifold manifestations, marvellous and beautifulin every form that He puts forth. And this year, of all themanifestations of the Supreme, we are going to dare to study the holiestof the holiest, those manifestations of God in the world in which Heshows Himself as divine, coming to help the world that He has made,shining forth in His essential nature, the form but a thin film whichscarce veils the Divinity from our eyes. How then shall we venture toapproach it, how shall we dare to study it, save with deepest reverence,with profoundest humility; for if there needs for the study of His workspatience, reverence and humbleness of heart, what when we study Himwhose works but partially reveal Him, when we try to understand what ismeant by an Avatra, what is the meaning, what the purpose of such arevelation?

Our President has truly said that in all the faiths of the world thereis belief in such manifestations, and that ancient maxim as totruththat which is as the hall mark on the silver showing that themetal is purethat ancient maxim is here valid, that whatever has beenbelieved everywhere, whatever has been believed at every time, and byevery one, that is true, that is reality. Religions quarrel over manydetails; men dispute over many propositions; but where human heart andhuman voice speak a single word, there you have the mark of truth, thereyou have the sign of spiritual reality. But in dealing with the subjectone difficulty faces us, faces you as hearers, faces myself as speaker.In every religion in modern times truth is shorn of her fullproportions; the intellect alone cannot grasp the many aspects of theone truth. So we have school after school, philosophy after philosophy,each one showing an aspect of truth, and ignoring, or even denying, theother aspects which are equally true. Nor is this all; as the age inwhich we are passes on from century to century, from millennium tomillennium, knowledge becomes dimmer, spiritual insight becomes rarer,those who repeat far out-number those who know; and those who speak withclear vision of the spiritual verity are lost amidst the crowds, whoonly hold traditions whose origin they fail to understand. The priestand the prophet, to use two well-known words, have ever in later timescome into conflict one with the other. The priest carries on thetraditions of antiquity; too often he has lost the knowledge that madethem real. The prophetcoming forth from time to time with the divineword hot as fire on his lipsspeaks out the ancient truth andilluminates tradition. But they who cling to the words of tradition areapt to be blinded by the light of the fire and to call out "heretic"against the one who speaks the truth that they have lost. Therefore, inreligion after religion, when some great teacher has arisen, there havebeen opposition, clamour, rejection, because the truth he spoke was toomighty to be narrowed within the limits of half-blinded men. And in sucha subject as we are to study to-day, certain grooves have been made,certain ruts as it were, in which the human mind is running, and I knowthat in laying before you the occult truth, I must needs, at somepoints, come into clash with details of a tradition that is ratherrepeated by memory than either understood or the truths beneath itgrasped. Pardon me then, my brothers, if in a speech on this great topicI should sometimes come athwart some of the dividing lines of differentschools of Hindu thought; I may not, I dare not, narrow the truth I havelearnt, to suit the limitations that have grown up by the ignorance ofages, nor make that which is the spiritual verity conform to the emptytraditions that are left in the faiths of the world. By the duty laidupon me by the Master that I serve, by the truth that He has bidden mespeak in the ears of men of all the faiths that are in this modernworld; by these I must tell you what is true, no matter whether or notyou agree with it for the moment; for the truth that is spoken winssubmission afterwards, if not at the moment; and any one who speaks ofthe Rishis of antiquity must speak the truths that they taught intheir days, and not repeat the mere commonplaces of commentators ofmodern times and the petty orthodoxies that ring us in on every side anddivide man from man.

I propose in order to simplify this great subject to divide it undercertain heads. I propose first to remind you of the two great divisionsrecognised by all who have thought on the subject; then to take upespecially, for this morning, the question, "What is an Avatra?"To-morrow we shall put and strive to answer, partly at least, thequestion, "Who is the source of Avatras?" Then later we shall take upspecial Avatras both of the kosmos and of human races. Thus I hope toplace before you a clear, definite succession of ideas on this greatsubject, not asking you to believe them because I speak them, not askingyou to accept them because I utter them. Your reason is the bar to whichevery truth must come which is true for you; and you err deeply, almostfatally, if you let the voice of authority impose itself where you donot answer to the speaking. Every truth is only true to you as you seeit, and as it illuminates the mind; and truth however true is not yettruth for you, unless your heart opens out to receive it, as the floweropens out its heart to receive the rays of the morning sun.

First, then, let us take a statement that men of every religion willaccept. Divine manifestations of a special kind take place from time totime as the need arises for their appearance; and these specialmanifestations are marked out from the universal manifestation of God inHis kosmos; for never forget that in the lowest creature that crawls theearth I'shvara is present as in the highest Deva. But there are certainspecial manifestations marked out from this general self-revelation inthe kosmos, and it is these special manifestations which are calledforth by special needs. Two words especially have been used in Hinduism,marking a certain distinction in the nature of the manifestationonethe word "Avatra," the other the word "Avesha." Only for a momentneed we stop on the meaning of the words, important to us because theliteral meaning of the words points to the fundamental differencebetween the two. The word "Avatra," as you know, has as its root"tri," passing over, and with the prefix which is added, the "ava,"you get the idea of descent, one who descends. That is the literalmeaning of the word. The other word has as its root "vish,"permeating, penetrating, pervading, and you have there the thought ofsomething which is permeated or penetrated. So that while in the onecase, Avatra, there is the thought of a descent from above, fromIshvara to man or animal; in the other, there is rather the idea of anentity already existing who is influenced, permeated, pervaded by thedivine power, specially illuminated as it were. And thus we have a kindof intermediate step, if one may say so, between the divinemanifestation in the Avatra and in the kosmosthe partial divinemanifestation in one who is permeated by the influence of the Supreme,or of some other being who practically dominates the individual, the Egowho is thus permeated.