Preparing for the Miraculous

the kalki avatar 251birth on the various levels of existence. Physically, she said,the consequences of his birth will last as long as the Earth;mentally, it is a birth the memory of which will last eternally;psychically, it is a birth which will recur eternally,from age to age, in the history of the universe; spiritually, itis the birth of the Eternal on Earth. 45Sri Aurobindo warriorUsually the Avatars seem to be contemporaneous withgreat, world-changing wars in which they play a crucialrole. This is easily understandable if one remembers thatthe intervention of the Avatar is needed at a time of worldcrisis – “a crisis in the consciousness of humanity when ithas to undergo some grand modification and effect somenew development” – and that, under the conditions of theevolution up to now, such a kind of crisis generally expressesitself physically in conflicts which we call war.In Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “Vishnu, incarnatedas Krishna, delivered the oppressed Pandavas anddestroyed the unjust Kauravas. A similar account is givenof the descent of the previous Vishnu Avatars, of Ramato destroy the unrighteous oppression of Ravana, of Parashuramato destroy the unrighteous license of the militaryand princely caste, the Kshatriyas, of the dwarf Vamana todestroy the rule of the Titan Bali. But obviously the purelypractical, ethical or social and political mission of the Avatarwhich is thus thrown in popular and mythical form, doesnot give a right account of the phenomenon of Avatarhood.It does not cover the spiritual sense, and if this outward utilitywere all, we should have to exclude Buddha and Christwhose mission was not at all to destroy evil-doers and deliverthe good, but to bring to all men a new spiritual message45 The Mother: Questions and Answers 1957-1958, pp. 274.