Avatâras: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-fourth anniversary; meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras,; December, 1899Besant, Annie
Religion
Avatâras: Four lectures delivered at the twenty-fourth anniversary; meeting of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Madras,; December, 1899
Besant, Annie
Avatars (Religion); Theosophy
so I cannot at the moment remember them--thrice at least during His life
as Shrî Kṛiṣhṇa He shows himself forth as I´shvara, the
Supreme. Once in the court of Dhritarâshṭra, when the madly foolish
Duryodhana talked about imprisoning within cell-walls the universal Lord
whom the universe cannot confine; and to show the wild folly of the
arrogant prince, out in the court before every eye He shone forth as
Lord of all, filling earth and sky with His glory, and all forms human
and divine, superhuman and subhuman, were seen gathered round Him in the
life from which they spring. Then on Kurukshetra to Arjuna, His beloved
disciple, to whom He gave the divine vision that he might see Him in
His Vaiṣhṇava form, the form of Viṣhṇu, the Supreme Upholder of
the Universe. And later, on his way back to Dvârakâ, meeting with
Utanka, He and the sage came to a misunderstanding, and the sage was
preparing to curse the Lord; to save him from the folly of uttering a
curse against the Supreme, as a child might throw a tiny pebble against
a rock of immemorial age, He shone out before the eyes of him who was
really His bhakta, and showed him the great Vaiṣhṇava form, that of
the Supreme. What do those manifestations show? that at will He can show
himself forth as Lord of all, casting aside the limits of human form in
which men live; casting aside the appearance so familiar to those around
Him, He could reveal himself as the mighty One, I´shvara who is the life
of all. There is the mark of a Pûrṇâvatâra; always within His grasp,
at will, is the power to show Himself forth as I´shvara.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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