THE GOD-MAN The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an ...

396 THE GOD-MANThe first Man-God, having transcended all material and temporal elements, became one with God in thebeyond without losing what can only be described as individuality. It was he who in God's will, which wasalso his will, descended again into the material and temporal for the sake of mankind and became the firstGod-Man. That particular 'individuality' did not repeat the act. The next advent of God as God-Man wasanother individuality and bore another name. But because all who enter into complete union with God areone with each other as well as with God, those who appear as God-Men are one infinitely. 'Had he athousand sons they must needs be the same Son', said Eckhart. They are indistinguishable in divinity, thougheternally distinguishable in individuality, so that Zoroaster is eternally Zoroaster, Krishna Krishna, JesusChrist Jesus Christ. They are one in divine 'nature', in the theological sense, and in divine personality eternal:not individualized parts of a whole but each himself containing the whole. This is difficult to express, but itis what I understand Baba to mean. When I asked him in November 1962 if it were so, he agreed.It seems to me that here is a contribution to the doctrine of 'incarnation' of great value, though it remains amystery, intended to be such. As stated by Baba, the idea involves assumptions open to much less criticalobjection than that contained in most theologies, while retaining the element of mystery. This may perhapsbe seen more clearly when I discuss Baba's cosmology in the chapter on his teaching.Baba will be found to speak of the Avatar as Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, sometimes of himselfas 'when I appeared' as Krishna or Christ, which, as I have indicated, is not to be taken in a literal sense. Theidea of the God-Man cannot be understood at all except as a symbol of the eternal Logos, so that everymanifestation is unique and unrepeatable in the phenomenal presence and idiom of the age. As Baba says:Whether there have been twenty-six Avatars since Adam, or one thousand, and twenty-four thousands ofProphets, as is sometimes claimed, or whether Jesus Christ was the last and only Messiah, or Muhammad thelast Prophet, is immaterial and insignificant when Eternity and Reality are under consideration ....These avataric presences regarded as revelations symbolizing the activity of God in phenomena mean thatincarnation is not the introduction into the body of a man of a divine principle or person, or the possession ofa particular human ego by a divine personality, but the birth of the divine being as a man.