Preparing for the Miraculous

the kalki avatar 237In the effort to understand and explain the phenomenonof the Avatar the accent has been laid by some on hisdivinity, by others on his humanity, and by many moreon something in between, covering the whole range fromdivine to human. Although the Avatar is often thought tobe a specifically Hindu concept, the most extensive documentationabout the various interpretations of the Avatarphenomenonis to be found in Christianity. (In Essays on theGita, Sri Aurobindo repeatedly names as Avatars Krishna,Buddha and Christ.) In Christianity its founder is seen –mostly unawares – as an Avatar, for Christ is at the sametime the Son of God and the Son of Man. The fundamentaldifference with Hinduism is that in Christianity Christ isheld to be the only Avatar, the one and only Redeemer of afallen humanity. From a human teacher and miracle workerthe theologians gradually exalted him into a divine being,one in essence with God the Father, therefore omniscientand omnipotent, capable of doing anything also while inthe human body. A similar belief exists in some forms ofHinduism about its divine incarnations.Sri Aurobindo countered such notions quite forcefully.“The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, butas the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divinehumanity.” 5 “Certain conditions have been establishedfor the game and so long as those conditions remain unchangedthings are not done ...” 6 As the Mother said: “Thetrue divine power has organized the world according to acertain plan, and in that plan was not included that thingswould happen in an illogical [i.e. random] way; otherwisefrom the very beginning the world would have been illogicaland it is not.” 75 Sri Aurobindo: Essays on the Gita, p. 165.6 Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, p. 411.7 The Mother: Questions and Answers 1950, p. 80.