The purpose of Avatarhood

My heart feels an undivided reverence for all the Masters of all times and whether feminine or masculine in their physical appearance, whom I had the privilege of knowing or reading  their teaching. 
All of them have a place in my heart, and I treasure the pearls of wisdom of their teaching as coming from God Itself.
This undivided reverence, which is spontaneous, builts a synthetic approach to the universal Teaching.
Of none of them I could say "I'm his disciple", and yet my heart is filled with reverence  for each of them as they each were my Masters.
My mind, my soul and the whole of my being refuse to say that "this Master is greater than the other", my personal appreciation is out of place here, they each are a perfil of the One Divine in a human shape and came to realize their part each adding of their own to the immortal Teaching.
 They together bring and present the manyfold teaching appeared in the epochs, each at his moment is the right Master,  even the beggar, the unholy or a shining star. 
They all create a synthetic Truth which is the synthetic Truth of the Kalki Avatar, the Avatar of Synthesis.

 A message of synthesis needs to be exactly that, a unifying principle where nothing and no one is excluded.  
The last and greatest teaching of the Kalki Avatar after reuniting all the different paths, would not only be that of the confirmed doctrines, religions and yogas but the path of the carpenter or the shoemaker or the housewife as all paths conducting to the only God, because nothing else than this  movement can be possible and is realized- either knowingly or unknowingly- as each soul is called to fulfil the purpose of its existence of knowing the God who created it and  knowing the very purpose of the existence of the human being on earth that every life is but a step in that direction, making the approach ever greater and wider, all-embracing and all inclusive. 

That would be the proclamation of the Avatar within everybody.

The ultimate creation of the Kalki Avatar would be the proclamation of the Avatar in every individual and each individual a path and an ascent towards the Divine. 
It is not only the synthesis of the religions or the yogas and all the spiritual paths, but the realization that even ordinary life and mundane occupations are the path the Avatar chose to create a greater and all-embracing synthesis, leading the march that the humanity has to follow to become each individual the Avatar. 

The everlasting promise of the Avatar is not just liberation, but the inner realization that only being an Avatar the humanity as a whole will be an immortal race fulfilling the very purpose of our existence here and the reason why this planet and this life was created. 

 

In writings and conversations Sri Aurobindo has convincingly affirmed that an avatar would be of no use as an example for the human march if it were since the beginning conscious of his own power.

In fact -he continues-  an avatar conscious of his divine purpose would undergo the hard human trail with a considerable advantage on his human fellows, an avatar has to toil, suffer and hope like a human being.

Sri Aurobindo in answering disciples´s questions about Avatarhood:

 My own idea of the matter is that the Avatar's life and actions are not miracles, and if they were, his existence would be perfectly useless, a mere superfluous freak of Nature. He accepts the terrestrial conditions, he uses means, he shows the way to humanity as well as helps it. Otherwise what is the use of him and why is he here?

 There are two sides of the phenomenon of Avatarhood, the Divine Consciousness behind and the instrumental personality. The Divine Consciousness is omnipotent but it has put forward the instrumental personality in Nature, under the conditions of Nature, and it uses it according to the rules of the game – though also sometimes to change the rules of the game. If Avatarhood is only a flashing miracle, then I have no use for it. If it is a coherent part of the arrangement of the omnipresent³ Divine in Nature, then I can understand and accept it.

I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness – if nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is quite futile. X seems to say that there is no way and no possibility of following, that the struggles and sufferings of the Avatar are unreal and all humbug, – there is no possibility of struggle for one who represents the Divine. Such a conception makes nonsense of the whole idea of Avatarhood; there is then no reason in it, no necessity in it, no meaning in it. The Divine being all-powerful can lift people up without bothering to come down on earth. It is only if it is a part of the world-arrangement that he should take upon himself the burden of humanity and open the Way that Avatarhood has any meaning.

The Avatar is not supposed to act in a non-human way – he takes up human action and uses human methods with the human consciousness in front and the Divine behind. If he did not his taking a human body would have no meaning and would be of no use to anybody. He could just as well have stayed above and done things from there.

 An Avatar even does not manifest all the Divine omniscience and omnipotence; he has not come for any such unnecessary display; all that is behind him but not in the front of his consciousness.
 As for the Vibhuti, the Vibhuti need not even know that he is a power of the Divine.

 When they think of a manifestation of Divinity, they think it must be an extraordinary perfection in doing ordinary human things – an extraordinary business faculty, political, poetic or artistic faculty, an accurate memory, not making mistakes, not undergoing any defeat or failure. Or else they think of things which they call superhuman like not eating food or telling cotton-futures or sleeping on nails or eating them. All that has nothing to do with manifesting the Divine... These human ideas are false.The Divinity acts according to another consciousness, the consciousness of the Truth above and the Lila below and It acts according to the need of the Lila, not according to man's ideas of what It should or should not do. This is the first thing one must grasp, otherwise one can understand nothing about the manifestation of the Divine.

The Divine does not need to suffer or struggle for himself; if he takes on these things it is in order to bear the world-burden and help the world and men; and if the sufferings and struggles are to be of any help, they must be real. A sham or falsehood cannot help. They must be as real as the struggles and sufferings of men themselves – the Divine bears them and at the same time shows the way out of them. Otherwise his assumption of human nature has no meaning and no utility and no value. It is strange that you cannot understand or refuse to admit so simple and crucial a point. What is the use of admitting Avatarhood if you take all the meaning out of it?

 The Divine when he takes on the burden of terrestrial nature, takes it fully, sincerely and without any conjuring tricks or pretence.

The Avatar is not bound to do extraordinary actions, but he is bound to give his acts or his work or what he is – any of these or all – a significance and an effective power that are part of something essential to be done in the history of the earth and its races.

An Avatar is not at all bound to be a spiritual prophet – he is never in fact merely a prophet, he is a realiser, an establisher – not of outward things only, though he does realise something in the outward also, but, as I have said, of something essential and radical needed for the terrestrial evolution which is the evolution of the embodied spirit through successive stages towards the Divine.

 Ramakrishna's earlier period was that of one seeking God, not aware from the first of his identity.

Why should the Avatar proclaim himself except on rare occasions to an Arjuna or to a few bhaktas or disciples? It is for others to find out what he is; though he does not deny when others speak of him as That, he is not always saying and perhaps never may say or only in moments like that of the Gita, “I am He”.

The Spirit of Synthesis and the Kalki Avatara

We could drive a line from the Baba of Shirdi promoting tolerance among Hinduists and Muslims, passing from Ramakrishna preaching the fundamental unity among creeds, Sri Aravinda Ghose who synthesized the yogas into one integral yoga,  Satya Sai Baba who accordingly promoted  tolerance and unity among religions, Jiddu Krishnamurti which made of the Self in all the only religion and finally Dharma Sangha himself renewing the message of peace and tolerance among religions men beasts and gods, and we can have a clear example of how the Spirit of Synthesis is progressively working on earth, while in his proceeding steps farther embraces all spirituality on his way towards a  supreme synthesis.

The Kalki Avatar, the great Avatar of Synthesis of the vedic tradition which the devotee awaits to see in the sky on a white horse, will never appear because it is a symbol, what we have seen instead, it is that the workings of the Spirit of Synthesis are not to locate in a distant future but already started a few centuries ago with the progressive chain of Masters and the progressive input into the minds of the devotees and into the consciousness of humanity concepts of  reciprocal religious tolerance and fundamental unity of all the paths as leading to the one God.
A synthetic concept in its wider acception. Which is the work of the Avatar of Synthesis.

So that the Spirit of Synthesis can work as a plurality or as a single being (or even a bipolarity as in the case of Sri Aravinda and Myra Devi).
On earth, it has never existed an Avatar with head of herring,  as never will exist one coming from the skies on a white horse. (The White Horse would be a symbol of a complete supramental manifestation, as much the White Lotus -Integral Supermental Realization).

As Sri Aurobindo signalled, Mhatsya avatara represents the consciousness conquering firm land proceeding from the water, a symbolic figure as much as  Kalki, which similarly may not represent  a single personality, but a whole consciousness raising, not necessarily just -one- single individual.
To Mhatsya Avatar would follow a series of symbolic figures corresponding to the progress of the consciousness into mammalians, hominids, humans.
The concept of Avatarhood which in itself was scientific, we have seen has been corrupt in the centuries by an unquestioning  devotional attitude which led to believe the symbol the true thing. This basic misconception led to a more general one at the moment to pretend to have it fixed into a congruent canon.
But, as we have seen the concept of Avatarhood is of primary importance in Sri A. writings, we need to know why was it so.

First of all because it links with evolution, but, as the Rishi understood far more clearly then the scientist, evolution was basically of consciousness and not only, but it presented a divine plan, a scheme of development which sounded true to Sri Aurobindo.

In this scheme the Kalki Avatara would be the last of an original series of ever expanding, ever inclusive, beings and concepts which first announce the beginning of each stage, each cyclical growth of that consciousness. (At any level, whether individual or collective, as it has -always- this double meaning).

The distinctive character of Kalki would be reflected in his very name:
the avatar of -Synthesis-.
But synthesis of what?
A supreme synthesis would be the One in the Many.
As that seems the highest point described by the trajectory of Sri A. writings.
A consciousness conscious of itself in the many would be the definition he gave for the Supermental manifestation.  

"The Supermind in its supreme status is the truth-consciousness of the Infinite, the inherent light and power of self-knowledge and all-knowledge of the Supreme who is the self of all, the living eternal truth of all that is and of whom all objects and beings, all the universe and motion of things and happenings in time is a partial continually proceeding manifestation".

A supreme synthesis which do not allow anything -out of itself-, self-containing and
all-containing, else, no exclusion possible.
So the message of the Avatar (of synthesis) is all-inclusive, and here the concept of inclusiveness has become in the course of time that of religions and creeds, that of the yogas, that of the many different approaches possible all within a parity of conditions.
A growing concept of consciousness, similarly, from a more personal level towards a wider and inclusive concept of consciousness as existing in itself, as a general mode of growth, and yet, within the mode of a perfect individuality of realization.

Works of the Spirit of Synthesis

We as human beings have the full right to consider if the aims of religions and spiritual doctrines are in accord with the requirements of the time.

 It seems there is a kind of dark cloud overhanging humanity led to believe the best solution was getting out of life with as less injury possible taking refuge in another world, leaving unavoidably earth in the same miserable conditions then ever.

Because life was basically unworthy living.

A sagacious illusion which took strong hold of the human understanding leading to fundamentally believe this world and life and even matter unworthy and the other better.

We hardly think, as Sri A. said, that if the reason for our presence on earth and matter was simply to discover the reality of the Spirit, there was any need at all to leave that spiritual world where we already knew of the reality of the Spirit.

 Instead, our presence on earth, had a meaningful reason which was not only to  realize the reality of the Spirit and take leave of earth to join that as soon as possible but to realize that in the very earthly conditions of life and existence.
A paradise on earth as much anywhere else.

So that shadow used us to believe life unworthy to be fulfilled in its full meanings.

That has been the fundamental message within any religion and doctrine and practice and tapasya or whatever.

Always and only meant to leave this world without transforming it.

We may undervalue the full power of this underlying belief and the power it had till recently in the whole of human history.

Truly a huge dark cloud of misunderstanding the purpose of life and insisting on the wrong matter which, in the course of time took to religious controversies, burning of books and people, sacrificing Masters and all such things we perfectly know of which we have tragic testimony with daily loss of human life.

Our very social structures are continuously influenced by that dark conception, and the very religions fight sometimes the civil human rights violating their very purpose of improving human growth. A farce on its own right which anyway weight into the life of some believer of whatever religion always disposed to see in the other the enemy to fight.

Which justify in last terms military escalation or interventions and all the rest you as planetary citizen that you are and well informed, perfectly know from an independent point of view. Not what that shadowy vision of life pretend you to believe.
Because in the course of time that vision has acquired a factual power, religious, economic, military power.

This is not any new such "theory of conspiracy" revisited, but a fact signalled by the mentioned Great Masters, a true fact and a true problem which their teaching often mentioned.

In the essence, their teaching was exactly the bridge to that new concept of life.

Any other coming Great Master could not  fail in establishing his words as that bridge.

We know the bridge has been signaled again by D.S., his synthetic vision is but that same process of incarnating that Spirit of Wisdom, their teaching is not different as some pretends, but is enclosed in that superior synthesis which is the work of the Avatar.

This the sense of the work of the Spirit of Synthesis operating within the said Masters.

This is the true image of the Kalki avatara, a succession of enlightened human beings acting with their own life as a bridge between the two poles.

Their is truly the call mentioned in the Gita at whole generations, they only are precursors of next human collective achievements.

We are somehow instruments of that design, as we can only be what evolution call ourselves to be.

And evolution call in the words of the Avatar.