Friday 21 June 2019

AVATAR ... 7

AVATAR ... 7

In fulfilment of the prophecy in the Bhagavad Geeta the Divine has been manifesting His special incarnation in every Age. Strange it may seem to the semi-sceptic that such a prophecy is coming to pass unfailingly since its pronouncement which, of course, the sceptic may wholly reject but the devout will aver that this itself is the proof that the Geeta is not human in origin but is God's word recorded and, therefore, it is but natural that its pronouncement must fulfil. Rationally speaking, these arguments are barren and lead to no conclusive end-point. The Avatar Principle, thus, remains a principle to be comprehended through spiritual perception and may never otherwise be established on the basis of rigour of logic.

Be that as it may, it still is phenomenal that these supremely luminous beings who far transcend the spiritual attainments of sages and saints should periodically appear in human history to reshape the course of world thought-current and, thereby, alter for the better the destiny of humankind. At any rate, all our conceptions of infinity and the Divine are coloured by our anthropomorphic ideas of them and we are in no position, biologically speaking, to comprehend them in substance using strictly the material scientific tools. We must transcend the organic system to apprehend spiritual reality and it, therefore, necessarily means that spiritual methods of discrimination and meditative introspection need to be applied to gain an insight into this fathomless principle of the Avatar.

Does this mean, therefore, that the Avatar remains forever beyond our reach? Quite the reverse. The Avatar is the descent of God in mortal clay that we may relate to the Divine in human terms completely, absorbing his spirit and so, quickening our own kinship with him. The Divine becomes human that the human may become divine. This descent of the Divine and the ascent of the human constitutes the core of the interplay of the spiritual forces at either end of the ladder of life where each rung is the field of divine delight, a plane of play for the Divine Beloved and the hungering human soul where consummation is ecstasy and rapture an all-absorbing oneness of Being with the faintest distinction to savour the sheer madness of love.

Such then is heaven on earth when the world vanishes in a trice at the touch of the Divine Beloved and the aspirants are swept away by the current of ethereal bliss. Who cares then for rhyme or reason? All logic fails as love sweeps away all, the high and the low, the priest and the pariah, the saint and the sinner. There is no distinction observed, no deserving demanded, no status valued. It is just a tidal wave of love that flows through all that come in its ambit, raising, sublimating, liberating them, making gods out of men and the earth the pilgrimage of the master orchestrator of it all, the Avatar.

Written by Sugata Bose

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