The Avatar 1

THE AVATAR

Meher Baba

Of the 56 God-realised souls on earth, the five Perfect Masters are the most important. And the one who is the highest of all is the Avatar, myself.

I come every 700 to 1400 years, and it is undoubtably a very rare and lucky thing for each of you to have the opportunity of loving me individually, since even the Sadgurus long to touch the Avatar physically.

When the world is in the grip of pain, misery, suffering and chaos, I manifest myself. Spirituality then reaches its pinnacle, and materialism is at its lowest level. Then again, with the passing of time, spirituality diminishes and materialism increases.

From the beginning of time this game has been going on, and it will go on for an eternity.

3 June 1927, Meherabad, LM3 p944

The one who manifests as the Avatar has to give a spiritual push to the whole world. This is greater than the circle preparation work which all Sadgurus have to perform. This great push is the main difference in their duties.

Besides this difference, the Avatar is always perfect in all respects, spiritually as well as materially, and in particular physically. The Avatar always has a charming personality, with a beautiful, symmetrical face and body, while the Perfect Masters are generally of odd size and shape physically, with certain defects, sometimes so abhorrent that one does not even like to look at them.

Christ, Muhammad, Zarathustra, Buddha, Rama and Krishna were Avatars, and hence had charming personalities. So is mine. Upasani Maharaj, Narayan Maharaj and such present Perfect Masters have one personal defect or another.

Upasani Maharaj's stature is too big, like a giant. Narayan Maharaj is too small, short in stature, like a dwarf. But this physical difference between the Avatar and Sadgurus makes no real difference in their spiritual status, which is always divine.

5 December 1929, Nasik, LM4 p1259

There are 56 Perfect Ones in the world at all times. They are always one in consciousness. They are always different in function. For the most part they live and work apart from and unknown to the general public, but five, who act in a sense as a directing body, always work in public and attain to public prominence and importance.* In Avataric periods the Avatar, as a supreme Sadguru, takes his place as the head of this body, and of the Spiritual Hierarchy as a whole.

*These five Perfect Ones are the five Perfect Masters of the age. They are also known as Sadgurus or Qutubs.

Avataric periods are like the springtide of creation. They bring a new release of power, a new awakening of consciousness, a new experience of life, not merely for a few, but for all. Qualities of energy and awareness which had been used and enjoyed by only a few advanced souls are made available for all humanity. Life as a whole is stepped up to a higher level of consciousness, is geared to a new rate of energy. The transition from sensation to reason was one such step. The transition from reason to intuition will be another.

This new influx of the creative impulse takes, through the medium of a divine personality, an incarnation of God in a special sense - an Avatar. This Avatar was the first individual soul to emerge from the evolutionary process as a Sadguru, and he is the only Avatar who has ever manifested or will ever manifest. Through him, God first completed the journey from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity, first unconsciously became man in order consciously to become God. Through him, periodically, God consciously becomes man for the liberation of mankind.

The Avatar appears in different forms, under different names, at different times, in different parts of the world. As his appearance always coincides with the spiritual birth of man, so the period immediately preceding his manifestation is always one in which humanity suffers from the pangs of the approaching birth...

Being the total manifestation of God in human form, he is like a gauge against which man can measure what he is and what he may become. He trues the standard of human values by interpreting them in terms of divinely human life. He is interested in everything, but not concerned about anything. The slightest mishap may command his sympathy; the greatest tragedy will not upset him. He is beyond the alternations of pain and pleasure, desire and satisfaction, rest and struggle, life and death. To him they are equally illusions which he has transcended, but by which others are bound, and from which he has come to free them. He uses every circumstance as a means to lead others towards Realisation...

In those who contact him he awakens a love that consumes all selfish desires in the flame of the one desire to serve him. Those who consecrate their lives to him gradually become identified with him in consciousness. Little by little, their humanity is absorbed into his divinity, and they become free...

The Avatar awakens contemporary humanity to a realisation of its true spiritual nature, gives Liberation to those who are ready, and quickens the life of the spirit in his time. For posterity is left the stimulating power of his divinely human example, the nobility of a life supremely lived, of a love unmixed with desire, of a power unused except for others, of a peace untroubled by ambition, of a knowledge undimmed by illusion. He has demonstrated the possibility of a divine life for all humanity, of a heavenly life on earth. Those who have the necessary courage and integrity can follow when they will...

1938, India, MJ 1:1 p4-7
Another version: Di (7th ed.) p268-270

There are always 56 God-realised souls. Now, out of these 56, five are sent out into the world. But in every Avataric period these five become one, thus demonstrating the cycle when the Avatar appears in form. Therefore, the Avatar exists in the heart of these five as one.

These five are God-realised like the Avatar. All are one. But in the Avataric period, the Avatar is equal to five Sadgurus. Thus, five Sadgurus make one Avatar - that is the long and short of it. Therefore, if the Sadgurus were to show their hearts, you would find me in them. Five are always alive. Babajan left her body. The one in her place need not necessarily be in Poona, but there must be five in the world.

28 September 1938,
Meherabad, LM7 p2324

The Avatar descends from his highest state of divine consciousness to the state of human consciousness. He does not need to pass through the stages of evolution, reincarnation and Realisation. He is God always, and comes down directly from his God-state to man-state, and becomes conscious of creation. His benevolent work is universal, and he gives a spiritual push to all objects in creation, inert and living, animate and inanimate both.

LM7 p2435

The Avatar has to incur upon himself the infinite burden of worries of the entire suffering world, while working in the world for the spiritual upliftment of humanity. This suffering of people steeped in the darkness of ignorance becomes the Avatar's suffering. This is his crucifixion. The Avatar is crucified every moment of his life on earth.

But with this infinite suffering which he has to take upon himself, he also has the infinite bliss of the Perfect state which he eternally experiences. Otherwise it would be utterly impossible, and he would be literally crushed under the burden of such suffering from all sides. If an ordinary man, however great, were to feel even a thousandth part of the Avatar's suffering, he would go mad. The Avatar has to bear this burden to lighten the load of the suffering of the world...

It is my life mission to remove the burden of mankind's suffering. I have come for this. But, really speaking, it is not my work, but the ignorance of people, and their underlying indifference towards things spiritual, that makes me suffer.

1939, Meherabad,
LM7 p2436-2437

It is wrong to believe that Prophets or Masters or Avatars have come to give religions to the world. The so-called religions are an effort to commemorate the association with a great spiritual Master, and to preserve his atmosphere and influence. It is like an archeological department trying to preserve things which only resuscitate the past.

to Abdul Ghani,
HM p163

I am the last Avatar in this present cycle of twenty-four, and therefore the greatest and most powerful.

I have the attributes of five. I am as pure as Zoroaster, as truthful as Ram, as mischievous as Krishna, as gentle as Jesus, and as fiery as Muhammad.

to his women Mandali,
December 1942
Meherabad, GO p72

There are three languages in which the Avatar teaches:

In ordinary language, for the masses who follow the shariat (custom) and ritual of their religion, so that they can understand.

In language both ordinary and mystical, for the few advanced souls.

In language wholly mystical, for the circle.

Zarathustra gave the masses shariat, as in those days they could well understand good thoughts, good words and good deeds. He did not say in clear words, 'Act, and don't care about the result,' since they would not have been able to accept it. So Zarathustra said the same thing, but in a different way.

Muhammad said, 'Keep engrossed in action alone. If you act well, you will go to heaven. If you act evil, you will go to hell.'

Krishna said, 'Act, but do not care for the results. Dedicate them to me.' Why? Because the atmosphere then was full of warring spirits.

Jesus also said, 'Act, but in the spirit of sacrifice.'

All these teachings given by the Avatars were according to the exigencies of the times then prevailing.

17 May 1943, Meherabad, LM8 p2887

Consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, each and every creature, each and every human being strives to assert individuality. When eventually man consciously experiences that he is infinite, eternal and indivisible, he is fully conscious of his individuality as God, and experiences infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss. Thus man becomes God, and is recognized as a Perfect Master, Sadguru, or Qutub.

When God manifests on earth in the form of man and reveals his divinity to mankind, he is recognized as the Avatar - thus God becomes man.

And so infinite God, age after age, throughout all cycles, wills through his infinite mercy to effect his presence amidst mankind by stooping down to human level in the human form, but his physical presence amidst mankind not being apprehended, he is looked upon as an ordinary man of the world. When he asserts, however, his divinity on earth by proclaiming himself the Avatar of the age, he is worshipped by some who accept him as God; and glorified by a few who know him as God on Earth. But it invariably falls to the lot of the rest of humanity to condemn him while he is physically in their midst.

Thus it is that God as man, proclaiming himself as the Avatar, suffers himself to be persecuted and tortured, to be humiliated and condemned by humanity for whose sake his infinite love has made him stoop so low, in order that humanity, by its very act of condemning God's manifestation in the form of Avatar should, however, indirectly, assert the existence of God in his infinite eternal state.

The Avatar is always one and the same, because God is always one and the same, the eternal, indivisible, infinite one, who manifests himself in the form of man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Ancient One - the Highest of the High. This eternally one and the same Avatar repeats his manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different human forms and different names, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and free it from the bondage of delusions.

Of the most recognized and much worshipped manifestations of God as Avatar, that of Zoroaster is the earlier - having been before Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. Thousands of years ago, he gave to the world the essence of Truth in the form of three fundamental precepts - "Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds." These precepts were and are constantly unfolded to humanity in one form or another, directly or indirectly in every cycle, by the Avatar of the age, as he leads humanity towards the Truth. To put these precepts of good thoughts, good words and good deeds into practice is not easily done, though it is not impossible. But to live up to these precepts honestly and literally is apparently as impossible as it is to practise a living death in the midst of life.

In the world there are countless sadhus, mahatmas, mahapurushas, saints, yogis and walis, though the number of genuine ones is very, very limited. The few genuine ones are, according to their spiritual status, in a category of their own, which is neither on a level with the ordinary human being nor on a level with the state of the Highest of the High.

I am neither a mahatma nor a mahapurush, neither a sadhu nor a saint, neither a yogi nor a wali. Those who approach me with the desire to gain wealth or to retain their possessions, those who seek through me relief from distress and suffering, those who ask my help to fulfil and satisfy mundane desires, to them I once again declare that, as I am not a sadhu, a saint or a mahatma, mahapurush or yogi, to seek these things through me is but to court utter disappointment, though only apparently; for eventually the disappointment is itself instrumental in bringing about the complete transformation of mundane wants and desires.

The sadhus, saints, yogis, walis and such others who are on the via media, can and do perform miracles and satisfy the transient material needs of individuals who approach them for help and relief.

The question therefore arises that if I am not a sadhu, not a saint, not a yogi, not a mahapurush nor a wali, then what am I? The natural assumption would be that I am either just an ordinary human being, or I am the Highest of the High. But one thing I say definitely, and that is that I can never be included amongst those having the intermediary status of the real sadhus, saints, yogis and such others.

Now, if I am just an ordinary man, my capabilities and powers are limited - I am no better or different from an ordinary human being. If people take me as such they should not expect supernatural help from me in the form of miracles or spiritual guidance; and to approach me to fulfil their desires would also be absolutely futile.

On the other hand, if I am beyond the level of an ordinary human being, and much beyond the level of saints and yogis, then I must be the Highest of the High. In which case, to judge me with your human intellect and limited mind and to approach me with mundane desires would not only be the height of folly but sheer ignorance as well; because no amount of intellectual effort could ever understand my ways or judge my Infinite State.

If I am the Highest of the High, my will is law, my wish governs the law, and my love sustains the universe. Whatever your apparent calamities and transient sufferings, they are but the outcome of my love for the ultimate good. Therefore, to approach me for deliverance from your predicaments, to expect me to satisfy your worldly desires, would be asking me to do the impossible - to undo what I have already ordained.

If you truly and in all faith accept your Baba as the Highest of the High, it behooves you to lay down your life at his feet, rather than to crave the fulfilment of your desires. Not your one life but your millions of lives would be but a small sacrifice to place at the feet of one such as Baba, who is the Highest of the High; for Baba's unbounded love is the only sure and unfailing guide to lead you safely through the innumberable blind alleys of your transient life.

They cannot obligate me, who, surrendering their all - body, mind, possessions - which perforce they must discard one day - surrender with a motive; surrender because they understand that to gain the everlasting treasure of bliss they must relinquish ephemeral possessions. This desire for greater gain is still clinging behind their surrender, and as such the surrender cannot be complete.

Know you all that if I am the Highest of the High, my role demands that I strip you of all your possessions and wants, consume all your desires and make you desireless rather than satisfy your desires. Sadhus, saints, yogis and walis can give you what you want; but I take away your wants and free you from attachments and liberate you from the bondage of ignorance. I am the one to take, not the one to give what you want or as you want.

Mere intellectuals can never understand me through their intellect. If I am the Highest of the High, it becomes impossible for the mind to gauge me nor is it possible for my ways to be fathomed by the human mind.

I am not to be attained by those who, loving me, stand reverently by in rapt admiration. I am not for those who ridicule me and point at me with contempt. To have a crowd of tens of millions flocking around me is not what I am for. I am for the few who, scattered amongst the crowd, silently and unostentatiously surrender their all - body, mind and possessions - to me. I am still more for those who, after surrendering their all, never give another thought to their surrender. They are all mine who are prepared to renounce even the very thought of their renunciation and who, keeping constant vigil in the midst of intense activity, await their turn to lay down their lives for the cause of Truth at a glance or sign from me. Those who have indomitable courage to face willingly and cheerfully the worst calamities, who have unshakable faith in me, eager to fulfil my slightest wish at the cost of their happiness and comfort, they indeed, truly love me.

From my point of view, far more blessed is the atheist who confidently discharges his worldly responsibilities, accepting them as his honourable duty, than the man who presumes he is a devout believer in God, yet shirks the responsibilities apportioned to him through divine law and runs after sadhus, saints and yogis, seeking relief from the suffering which ultimately would have pronounced his eternal Liberation.

To have one eye glued on the enchanting pleasures of the flesh and with the other expect to see a spark of Eternal Bliss is not only impossible but the height of hypocrisy.

I cannot expect you to understand all at once what I want you to know. It is for me to awaken you from time to time throughout the ages, sowing the seed in your limited minds, which must in due course and with proper heed and care on your part, germinate, flourish and bear the fruit of that True Knowledge which is inherently yours to gain.

If on the other hand, led by your ignorance, you persist in going your own way, none can stop you in your choice of progress; for that too is progress which, however slow and painful, eventually and after innumerable re-incarnations, is bound to make you realize that which I want you to know now. To save yourself from further entanglement in the maze of delusion and self-created suffering, which owes its magnitude to the extent of your ignorance of the true Goal, awake now. Pay heed and strive for freedom by experiencing ignorance in its true perspective. Be honest with yourself and God. One may fool the world and one's neighbours, but one can never escape from the knowledge of the Omniscient - such is the divine law.

I declare to all of you who approach me, and to those of you who desire to approach me, accepting me as the Highest of the High, that you must never come with the desire in your heart which craves for wealth and worldly gain, but only with the fervent longing to give your all-body, mind and possessions - with all their attachments. Seek me not to extricate you from your predicaments, but find me in order to surrender yourself wholeheartedly to my Will. Cling to me not for worldly happiness and short-lived comforts, but adhere to me, through thick and thin, sacrificing your own happiness and comforts at my feet. Let my happiness be your cheer and my comfort your rest. Do not ask me to bless you with a good job, but desire to serve me more diligently and honestly without expectation of reward. Never beg of me to save your life or the lives of your dear ones, but beg of me to accept you and permit you to lay down your life for me. Never expect me to cure you of your bodily afflictions, but beseech me to cure you of your ignorance. Never stretch out your hands to receive anything from me, but hold them high in praise of me whom you have approached as the Highest of the High.

If I am then the Highest of the High, nothing is impossible to me; and though I do not perform miracles to satisfy individual needs - the satisfaction of which would result in entangling the individual more and more in the net of ephemeral existence - yet time and again at certain periods I manifest the infinite Power in the form of miracles, but only for the spiritual upliftment and benefit of humanity and all creatures.

However, miraculous experiences have often been experienced by individuals who love me and have unswerving faith in me, and these have been attributed to my nazar or grace on them. But I want all to know that it does not befit my lovers to attribute such individual miraculous experiences to my state of the Highest of the High. If I am the Highest of the High I am above these illusory plays of maya in the course of the divine law. Therefore, whatever miraculous experiences are experienced by my lovers who recognize me as such, or by those who love me unknowingly through other channels, they are but the outcome of their own firm faith in me. Their unshakable faith, often superseding the course of the play of maya, gives them those experiences which they call miracles. Such experiences derived through firm faith eventually do good and do not entangle the individuals who experience them in further and greater bindings of illusion.

If I am the Highest of the High, then a wish of my universal will is sufficient to give, in an instant, God-realization to one and all, and thus free every creature in creation from the shackles of Ignorance. But blessed is knowledge that is gained through the experience of ignorance, in accordance with the divine law. This knowledge is made possible for you to attain in the midst of ignorance by the guidance of Perfect Masters and by surrender to the Highest of the High.

1954, PL, "The Highest of the High"

When I say I am the Avatar, there are a few who feel happy, some who feel shocked, and many who, hearing me claim this, would take me for a hypocrite, a fraud, a supreme egoist, or just mad.

If I were to say every one of you is an Avatar, a few would be tickled, and many would consider it a blasphemy or a joke.

The fact that God, being one, indivisible, and equally in us all, we can be nought else but one, is too much for the duality-conscious mind to accept. Yet each of us is what the other is.

I know I am the Avatar in every sense of the word, and that each of you is an Avatar in one sense or the other.

It is an unalterable and universally recognised fact, since time immemorial, that God knows everything, God does everything, and that nothing happens but by the will of God.

Therefore it is God who makes me say I am the Avatar, and that each one of you is an Avatar. Again, it is he who is tickled through some, and through others is shocked.

It is God who acts and God who reacts it. It is he who scoffs, and he who responds. He is the creator, the producer, the actor and the audience in his own divine play.

12 September 1954,
at a mass darshan at Wadia Park,
Ahmednagar, Aw 2:2 p1.
Another version: GG6 p92

Age after age, when the wick of righteousness burns low, the Avatar comes yet once again to rekindle the torch of love and truth. Age after age, amidst the clamour of disruptions, wars, fear and chaos, rings the Avatar's call: "Come all unto me."

Although, because of the veil of illusion, this call of the Ancient One may appear as a voice in the wilderness, its echo and re-echo nevertheless pervades through time and space, to rouse at first a few, and eventually millions, from their deep slumber of ignorance. And In the midst of illusion, as the voice behind all voices, it awakens humanity to bear witness to the manifestation of God amidst mankind.

The time is come. I repeat the Call, and bid all come unto me.

This time-honored call of mine thrills the hearts of those who have patiently endured all in their love for God, loving God only for love of God. There are those who fear and shudder at its reverberations, and would flee or resist. And there are yet others who, baffled, fail to understand why the Highest of the High, who is all-sufficient, need necessarily give this Call to humanity.

Irrespective of doubts and convictions, and for the infinite love I bear for one and all, I continue to come as the Avatar, to be judged time and again by humanity in its ignorance, in order to help man distinguish the real from the false.

Invariably muffled in the cloak of the infinitely true humility of the Ancient One, the divine call is at first little heeded, until, in its infinite strength it spreads in volume to reverberate and keep on reverberating in countless hearts as the voice of reality.

Strength begets humility, whereas modesty bespeaks weakness. Only he who is truly great can be really humble.

When, in the firm knowledge of it, a man admits his true greatness, it is in itself an expression of humility. He accepts his greatness as most natural and is expressing merely what he is, just as a man would not hesitate to admit to himself and others the fact of his being man.

For a truly great man, who knows himself to be truly great, to deny his greatness would be to belittle what he indubitably is. For whereas modesty is the basis of guise, true greatness is free from camouflage.

On the other hand, when a man expresses a greatness he knows or feels he does not possess, he is the greatest hypocrite.

Honest is the man who is not great, and, knowing and feeling this, firmly and frankly states that he is not great.

There are more than a few who are not great, yet assume a humility in the genuine belief of their own worth. Through words and actions they express repeatedly their humbleness, professing to be servants of humanity. True humility is not acquired by merely donning a garb of humility. True humility spontaneously and continually emanates from the strength of the truly great. Voicing one's humbleness does not make one humble. For all that a parrot may utter, "I am a man," it does not make it so.

Better the absence of greatness than the establishing of a false greatness by assumed humility. Not only do these efforts at humility on man's part not express strength, they are, on the contrary, expressions of modesty born of weakness, which springs from a lack of knowledge of the truth of Reality.

Beware of modesty. Modesty, under the cloak of humility, invariably leads one into the clutches of self-deception. Modesty breeds egoism and man eventually succumbs to pride through assumed humility.

The greatest greatness and the greatest humility go hand in hand naturally and without effort.

When the greatest of all says, "I am the greatest," it is but a spontaneous expression of an infallible Truth. The strength of his greatness lies, not in raising the dead, but in his great humiliation when he allows himself to be ridiculed, persecuted and crucified at the hands of those who are weak in flesh and spirit. Throughout the ages, humanity has failed to fathom the true depth of the humility underlying the greatness of the Avatar, gauging his divinity by its acquired limited religious standards. Even real saints and sages, who have some knowledge of the Truth, have failed to understand the Avatar's greatness when faced with his real humility.

Age after age history repeats itself when men and women, in their ignorance, limitations and pride, sit in judgment over the God-incarnated man who declares his Godhood, and condemn him for uttering the truths they can not understand. He is indifferent to abuse and persecution for, in his true compassion He understands, in his continual experience of reality he knows, and in his infinite mercy he forgives.

God is all. God knows all, and God does all. When the Avatar proclaims he is the Ancient One, it is God who proclaims his manifestation on earth. When man utters for or against the Avatarhood it is God who speaks through him. It is God alone who declares himself through the Avatar and mankind.

I tell you all with my Divine authority, that you and I are not "we," but "one." You unconsciously feel my Avatarhood within you; I consciously feel in you what each of you feel. Thus every one of us is Avatar, in the sense that everyone and everything is everyone and everything, at the same time, and for all time.

There is nothing but God. He is the only reality, and we all are one in the indivisible oneness of this absolute reality. When the one who has realized God says, "I am God., you are God, and we are all one," and also awakens this feeling of oneness in his illusion bound selves, then the question of the lowly and the great, the poor and the rich, the humble and the modest, the good and the bad, simply vanishes. It is his false awareness of duality that misleads man into making illusory distinctions and filing them into separate categories.

I repeat and emphasize that in my continual and eternal experience of reality, no difference exists between the worldly rich and the poor. But, if ever such a question of difference between opulence and poverty were to exist for me, I would deem him really poor who, possessing worldly riches, possesses not the wealth of love for God. And, I would know him truly rich who, owning nothing, possesses the priceless treasure of his love for God. His is the poverty that kings could envy, and that makes even the King of kings his slave.

Know therefore, that in the eyes of God, the only difference between the rich and the poor is not of wealth and poverty, but in the degrees of intensity and sincerity in the longing for God.

Love for God alone can annihilate the falsity of the limited ego, the basis of the life ephemeral. It alone can make one realize the reality of one's unlimited ego, the basis of eternal existence. The divine ego, as the basis of eternal existence, continually expresses Itself; but, shrouded in the veil of ignorance, man misconstrues his indivisible ego and experiences and expresses it as the limited, separate ego.

Pay heed when I say with my divine authority, that the oneness of reality is so uncompromisingly unlimited and all-pervading that not only "We are one," but even this collective term of "we" has no place in the infinite indivisible oneness.

Awaken from your ignorance, and try at least to understand that in the uncompromisingly indivisible oneness, not only is the Avatar God, but also the ant and the sparrow, just as one and all of you are nothing but God. The only apparent difference is in the states of consciousness. The Avatar knows that that which is a sparrow is not a sparrow, whereas the sparrow does not realize this, and, being ignorant of its ignorance, identifies itself as a sparrow.

Live not in ignorance. Do not waste your precious life-span in differentiating and judging your fellow-men, but learn to long for the love of God. Even in the midst of your worldly activities, live only to find and realize your true identity with your beloved God.

Be pure and simple, and love all because all are one. Live a sincere life; be natural, and be honest with yourself.

Honesty will guard you against false modesty and will give you the strength of true humility. Spare no pains to help others. Seek no other reward than the gift of divine love. Yearn for this gift sincerely and intensely, and I promise in the name of my divine honesty, that I will give you much more than you yearn for.

I give you all my blessing that the spark of my divine love may implant in your hearts the deep longing for love of God.

12 September 1954, at a mass darshan
at Wadia Park, Ahmednagar,
"Meher Baba's Call" PL
Other versions: Aw 2:2 p2-5, GG6 p99-102

It is very difficult to grasp the entire meaning of the word 'Avatar.' For mankind, it is easy and simple to declare that the Avatar is God, and that it means that God becomes man. But this is not all that the word 'Avatar' means or conveys.

It would be more appropriate to say that the Avatar is God, and that God becomes man for all mankind, and simultaneously God also becomes a sparrow for all sparrows in creation, an ant for all ants in creation, a pig for all pigs in creation, a particle of dust for all dusts in creation, etc., for each and everything that is in creation.

When the five Sadgurus effect the presentation of the divinity of God into illusion, this divinity pervades the illusion in effect, and presents itself in innumerable varieties of forms, Gross, Subtle and Mental. Consequently, in Avataric periods, God mingles with mankind as man, and with the world of ants as an ant, etc.

But the man of the world cannot perceive this, and hence simply says that God has become man, and remains satisfied with this understanding in his own world of mankind.

1950s? GS p268-269

In the infinite beyond state of God, which transcends the categories of consciousness as well as unconsciousness, there appeared the first initial urge for God to know himself. And with the arising of this initial urge, there was an instantaneous manifestation of infinite consciousness as well as infinite unconsciousness as simultaneous resultants.

Of these two seemingly opposite but complementary aspects, the infinite consciousness plays the role of the Avatar or divine incarnation. The infinite unconsciousness finds its expression through an evolution which seeks to develop full consciousness through time processes.

In the human form, the full consciousness strives to have Self-knowledge and Self-realisation. The first man to realise God as one indivisible and eternal truth was taken up into this realisation by the eternal Avataric infinite consciousness.

The Avatar is the first Master of the first God-realised soul. But in God-realisation, the full consciousness of the first Master became fused with the eternally infinite consciousness of the Avatar. Therefore, with the coming down of the first God-realised man, the Avatar himself descended and took an incarnation in his body. So, from the point of view of incarnation, the Avatar is the same as the first Master. This first Master had no Master in human form. But all subsequent Masters have had Masters in the human form to help them in Truth-realisation.

The first Master could realise God without a Master in human form, whereas the subsequent Masters always and invariably need some Master for God-realisation. The reason is simple. God-realisation implies inner poise as well as adequate adjustment with the universe, which is the shadow of God, along with everything that it contains. The first Master, who is also the first incarnation of the Avatar, attained both these things, because it is the very goal of the initial urge seeking fulfillment. He did not have a Master in the human form.

With regard to those souls who attain God-realisation subsequently, the two requirements stand, viz. inner poise and adequate adjustment with everything in the universe. But there is one great difference. For example, for the soul who is second in attaining God-realisation, one of the important factors in his spiritual environment is the existence of a human God-realised soul. Hence, while adjusting himself with everything in the universe, this second candidate for God-realisation is confronted with the problem of adjusting himself to the first Master or God-realised soul who, as we have seen, is indistinguishable from the eternal Avatar.

In this case, the only adequate adjustment possible is unreserved acceptance of the bountiful help which comes from the first Master. Refusal to accept this help is maladjustment to a tremendous factor in the universe, and this prevents God-realisation. This is why the first God-realised person did not need an incarnate Master, while all subsequent Masters inescapably need some Master or Masters in order to realise God. They cannot do so by their own independent efforts.

The first Master, who got fused with the eternal Avataric infinite consciousness, is the Master of all Masters. Yet, if and when the Avatar takes an incarnation in the human form, he brings upon himself a veil, and this veil has to be removed by some Master or Masters.

The veil with which the Avatar descends in the human form is placed upon him by the five Perfect Masters who bring him down from his formless being. In the Avataric periods, the five Masters always put this veil upon the infinite consciousness of the Avatar, because if he were to be brought without such a veil into the world of forms, the existing balance between reality and illusion would be profoundly disturbed. However, when the five Masters think that the moment is ripe, they remove this veil which they have placed on the Avataric consciousness. From that moment the Avatar consciously starts his role as the Avatar.

The incarnation of the Avatar does not take place unless it is precipitated by the five Perfect Masters of the cycle. In all of his incarnations except the first, even the Avatar needs a Master in order to come into his own eternal and infinite consciousness. He does not become an exception to the rule that a touch of a Master is necessary for God-realisation.

However, the touch of a Perfect Master does not necessarily mean physical touch. When we say that we are touched by music, or a poem or a story, the touch has deeper significance. Far more truly is this so when it is a question of spiritual touch. In the case of a Master, this deeper spiritual touch is often transmitted through the physical touch.

Every time the Avatar descends, he is not necessarily recognised as the Avatar by the masses. He can be recognised as such only by those who are very advanced spiritually. The Avatar himself is the least concerned about whether or not he comes to be recognised as Avatar by large numbers. He plays thoroughly his role as the Avatar, and his chief work lies in the higher invisible spheres of existence. If, however, he appears at a critical or transitional cyclic period, as is often the case, he is hailed by the masses as the Avatar of the age.

The Avatar is not necessarily recognised and hailed as the Avatar by each and all because he covers himself under a veil for his own spiritual work. This veil, under which he prefers to remain hidden, is different from the veil which the five Perfect Masters draw on him while bringing him down in the human form. The veil which the Avatar puts on himself can be removed by him at any time, and for any person or persons as he may desire, for the purposes of self-revelation or self-communication.

The Avatar does not take upon himself the karma of the world, nor does he become bound by it. But he takes upon himself the suffering of the world which is the result of its karma. His suffering for the world is vicarious. It does not entail entanglement with the karma of the world. But humanity finds its redemption from its karma through his vicarious sufferings, e.g. illness, humiliation, accidents and the like. In his own ways, the Avatar unfailingly fulfills his incarnation by giving a spiritual push to his age.

1956? Be p27-32

Being the Avatar, I have come to awaken mankind, and would like the entire world to come to me.

Real saints are dearest and nearest to my heart.

Perfect Ones and lovers of God adorn the world, and will ever do so.

The physical presence of the Perfect Masters throughout eternity is not necessarily confined to any particular or special part of the globe.

My salutations to all - the past, present and future Perfect Masters, real saints - known and unknown - lovers of God, and to all other beings, in all of whom I reside, whether consciously felt by them or not.

20 July 1957, India, LC p77

The Avatar Book Two

Index - Book One