A Study of the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 7: The Entry of the Absolute into the Relative

The involvement of everyone in the principle of sacrifice is stated briefly when the Gita tells us: sahayajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā purovāca prajāpatiḥ, anena prasaviṣyadhvam eṣa vostv iṣṭakāmadhuk (Gita 3.10). When Prajapati, the Creator, manifested this universe and projected individuals like us, he also ordained, at the same time, that the life of an individual is inextricably involved in the process of the whole of creation through the bond of the principle of sacrifice.

We live on account of the result that spontaneously follows from the act of the sacrifice that we perform in this world. We will wither away into airy nothing and will not be able to even survive for three days if some sort of sacrifice is not done by way of our participation in the work of cosmic creation. Our interconnection with all things in the world is the reason why we require to be conscious always of this need to participate by way of sacrifice. We are not totally independent individuals. Our independence is only a grant, a special permit issued to us, as it were, for the time being, like the permission given to a cow to move freely within the distance of the rope with which it is tied. If a cow is tied to a peg with a long rope, to the extent of the length of the rope there is freedom for the cow to roam about wherever it wants, and it feels totally independent. It may feel a great freedom to move anywhere, but only to the extent of the length of the rope. The moment it reaches the terminus of the rope, it is pulled back and it cannot go further. So our individuality, which appears to be a kind of freedom that we enjoy in our own so-called personality, is limited by the necessity to participate in a cosmic purpose, and we are free only to the extent our sacrifice is complete as ordained.

Inasmuch as the freedom of individuality is not real finally, as is apparent in the context of our assertion of personality through egoism, the point of sacrifice assumes great importance, and we seem to be living more for things beyond ourselves than for our own selves. The need that you feel for social service, for cooperation with people outside, to work for the betterment of anyone in the world – this need that you feel as an urge from inside you is not a whim or fancy; it is an upsurge of a necessity that is emanating from the root of your personality itself. Your very soul calls for this activity on your part, saying inwardly in its own voice that you cannot exist by yourself. You exist also for something more than yourself.

The existence that you enjoy in this world is not conditioned by external factors, as you imagine that the service that you do to people is a service that you do to somebody other than you. It is not so. The service that you render to people, to humanity, is not something that you do for the good of that which is outside you, but that which is above you. You have to make a distinction between that which is above you and that which is outside you. The social context it is that is compelling you to do service in this world. Society, which is a big subject of sociological science, is not merely a group of people. A million people sitting together do not constitute society because they will be like bricks thrown higgledy-piggledy somewhere, and the bricks do not constitute an edifice. Society is a conceptual organisational feature that transcends the multitude of parts, which are the individuals. The organisational feature that is involved in what you call society is the transcendent feature which is immanent in all individuals so that every individual feels a sense of belonging to the society and, at the same time, no individual can be regarded as the whole of society because there is a transcendent element in the very consciousness of society. It is a society of principle, and not a multitude of people.

So your service, your sense of belonging, your compulsion to act for the welfare of people is actually not motivated by your consciousness of the otherness of people, which is an empirical concept that you are wrongly introducing into yourself, but a transcendent aspect – that is, a Selfhood, an Atman, a consciousness, a reality which is above your personality, and above the personality of everybody else also, so that there is a little bit of divinity, a consciousness of a godhood involved even in social service. Otherwise, who will do work merely for the sake of other people? The very consciousness of otherness frees you from having any interest in people. You will not like to have love for anything that is other than you; but still, you love something. Why do you love? It is not because of the otherness of the object, because if it is 'other', the matter is closed. You have already severed yourself from the other man. The very word 'other' is anathema because it cuts you off from your vital connection with that thing which you call the other.

But there is something else in you that you miss in ordinary sense perception. The love that you feel for anything in the world is a call that comes from that which is between you and the other thing – the adhidaiva prapancha. Again I bring that point to you. There is an adhyatma, adhibhuta and adhidaiva. The thing that you love is adhibhuta. The persons, the society, or whatever you call it is the adhibhuta, as it were, but only as it were – not really – because your connection with the adhibhuta prapancha, the world as a whole, nature, society, whatever it is, is invalidated immediately if the adhidaiva is not there connecting you and transcending you both. The adhidaiva transcends you as well as the object outside. That inclusive personality of a transcendent consciousness, adhidaiva, is the reason why you are impelled to have any interest in things in this world. That is why you feel like doing some work. The adhidaiva compels you because it is in that which you want to work for, and in you also, which is the cause of the impulsion. This is a big philosophical cosmic significance that is involved in this little injunction of Prajapati: sahayajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā purovāca prajāpatiḥ, anena prasaviṣyadhvam eṣa vostv iṣṭakāmadhuk.

Now, the Third Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is long, and I am briefly mentioning the essence of it: that you have to live in this world like a Super-man, but a Super-man in the sense that you are motivated by the consciousness of the adhidaiva only. You are a transcendent person always; you are not one in the multitude. A person who is rooted in the adhidaiva consciousness does not belong to himself. You are not yourself. You are not another. What are you, then? The Super-man's character is a transcendent element which intervenes in between the so-called yourself and the other thing, which apparently conditions you as society.

A Super-man is not a man in the ordinary sense. He is not a human being at all. You should not call him a man. 'Super-person', or some such thing with a capital, may be the designation applied to this principle of self-transcendence, for want of better words in language. A Super-person is not a person, because that person has risen above himself in the consciousness of that which is between himself and the other, so that he is ranging in the world as a master, and not as a slave or a servant.

When you become a Super-person, you do not belong to yourself. You have already sacrificed your personality for the sake of that thing which is above you, and you have sacrificed yourself for the other thing also; both you and the other thing are transcended by this interconnection, namely, the adhidaiva.

The whole world runs, therefore, by the operation of God. It is not working because of its own self. Neither nature nor society nor yourself are independent individuals. Nothing works independent of that universal interconnecting link, which is God operating through all His media of interconnection.

There are endless connections of this type. The relationship of adhyatma and adhibhuta is involved in an infinite variety of degrees of ascent and descent. This imperative of the presence of a consciousness between adhyatma and adhibhuta in various degrees is the reason why you sometimes feel there are many gods. Sometimes the question arises: Are there many gods, or only one God? There is only one God, the Absolute, but inasmuch as it manifests itself as an interconnecting link between subject and object through millions of degrees of ascent and descent, it looks as there are millions of gods. It is as if there are millions of governments merely because there are millions of officials in a centrality of administration. There is only one central government which connects everyone together into a cohesive whole, though it works through degrees of provincial, district and many other operations through individuals who look like individuals. They are actually connected to the Centre, and therefore look like little gods. Each official is a government in itself, yet it is simply a modicum, a miniature degree of a centrality of operation which has many degrees below it, and also many degrees above it. So if you can say that many officials in the government are many governments, then you can say there are many gods also. But if you say they are not governments, then gods also do not exist. It depends upon your viewpoint.

These degrees of the manifestation of reality through the relationship of subjects and objects, endless in number, ascending and descending in series, is the structure of the cosmos; and a Super-person, Super-man, is one who is conscious of this fact of his involvement in a transcendent degree, whatever that degree be. Perhaps even Super-men have degrees. There are various degrees of the reality involved in Super-people also. It does not mean what we call all Super-men are equal and uniform in power and knowledge everywhere. All the avataras of God, as they are called, incarnations, are also manifestations of Super-men, you may say, but there are degrees. One has a lesser percentage of divinity, one has a higher percentage of divinity in the hierarchy of power that is granted by the Supreme Centre that is the Absolute.

Hence, a person who is a Super-person, a Super-individual, a God-man, you may call him, lives freely in this world. He is free because he is controlled, operated by, supported by the Central Power. But if you assert your individuality and cut yourself off from that link which is connecting you to everything in the world, you are done for. Then you will suffer in this world. You will say that nobody helps you, that you have nothing. Actually, you have everything with you. The Cosmic Purpose, which is all abundance and power, manifests itself every moment of time, which is called the avatara, a subject which will come in the Fourth Chapter of the Gita.

When you live in this world as a master, your behaviour with people should be like a good psychologist and a very good teacher. The Bhagavadgita is also a very good psychologist. Your 'Super-hood', your Super-personality should not parade itself as a kind of superior boss over people in the world. Na buddhibhedaṁ janayed ajñānāṁ karmasaṁginām (Gita 3.26). People who are inferior to you in knowledge and comprehension should not be interfered with. You should not say, “You are on the wrong path, you are a fool, your knowledge is inadequate, you don't understand anything.” A psychologist or schoolteacher does not talk like that. He understands the inadequacy of comprehension of the student, and from the level the student is, the teacher slowly raises the consciousness of the student.

A good teacher is also a good psychologist. The teacher descends from his high pedestal to the level of a particular student and communes himself with the mentality, feeling and difficulty of the student, as a good doctor descends into the condition of a patient who is suffering. Not only does he understand his physical suffering, but also his mind and feelings, and the causes of his illness which may be psychological, or anything. So he is a parent. A good doctor or teacher is a father and mother, and a Super-man is also a father and mother, as the Lord will tell you in his message.

Na buddhibhedaṁ janayed: Do not go on telling, “You are wrong.” Nobody is wrong. They are all in one category, one degree, and you are also in one condition. They are like a baby crawling, and why should you condemn that crawling baby as if you are now superior to it? Everybody is on a level of evolution, and every level of evolution is a compulsory stage; therefore, nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, and no work is bad, no work is good. There is dignity in every work, and every relationship is divine in its meaning.

Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ, ahaṁkāravimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (Gita 3.27). Ignorant people become ignorant of the fact that Prakriti's gunas operate among Prakriti's gunas in the form of objects outside. You are involved in the perception of the world and do not understand what is actually taking place when you perceive the world. When you perceive the world, when you become conscious of the object outside, what the Gita is telling you is that Prakriti is impinging on Prakriti.

Now, the cosmological evolutionary theory, which I mentioned to you sometime back, the entire Purusha-Prakriti arrangement, would have enlightened you to the fact that the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas – are the constituents of your own individuality also. You are made up of only these gunas in all your sheaths – Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya, Ananadamaya. The very same gunas are also the constituents of objects outside. The only thing is that in your case there is a mind, there is an intellect, there is a prana and other things involved in this kosha arrangement, whereas in the object, which is the adhibhuta prapancha, there is a predominance of tamas. There is predominance of tamas in the objective world, predominance of rajas in the subjective individuality, and predominance of sattva in the adhidaiva, which is the divinity.

Because of the fact of everything being constituted only of the three gunas of Prakriti, you will be able to appreciate what actually happens when you come in contact with an object of perception through the sense organs. The gunas of Prakriti, which are the constituents of your sense organs and even the mind, collide, as it were, and come in contact with the very same properties present in a different percentage of combination and permutation in the form of objects. It is, as it were, one wave clashing against another wave in the very same ocean in all acts of perception.

So, who is seeing the world? “I am seeing the world” – don't say that. Prakriti is seeing itself. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni: All actions are done by Prakriti only. But not knowing this, ahaṁkāravimūḍhātmā: A person is working through the ego only, centring himself in the consciousness of himself excessively. Kartāham iti manyate: I am doing. Neither are you doing anything, nor are you perceiving anything. Your consciousness of being an agent in action is due to the ego that is predominant in you, and your feeling that you are perceiving an external world is due to the operation of the gunas of Prakriti, both subjectively and objectively.

Therefore, caution is the watchword of a spiritual seeker. It is difficult to live in this world which is so complicated before you. The complication arises on account of your not knowing how you are placed in this world. In the beginning itself I told you, you cannot do anything worthwhile in this world unless you know your placement in the context of the world – where you are standing, where you are sitting, what is around you. If you know the context and the environment around you, you will also know what to do in that context. For that purpose it is that I have given you a large detail of the cosmic evolutionary process, and you know where you are standing. Hence, you will never assert your ego. You will not feel that you are existing at all. You will melt into the menstruum of the world outside. You will be a well-wisher of everybody, a friend of all – a friend, philosopher and guide, a master.

Atha kena prayuktoyaṁ pāpaṁ carati pūruṣaḥ (Gita 3.36). Arjuna asks a question: “Wonderful is this teaching, Master, but why is it that we are not able to live like this? We commit sins, as it were, errors every day. We commit blunders. Knowing this, what is the matter?”

Sri Krishna gives a reply. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajoguṇasamudbhavaḥ, mahāśano mahāpāpmā viddhy enam iha vairiṇam (Gita 3.37): The predominance of rajas in your personality engenders the work of kama and krodha, desire and anger. Somehow or other, with this knowledge, you also simultaneously seem to have inside you the roots and the seeds of potential longing and anger. You love God, but you also love Mammon at the same time. You love the objects of the senses together with your love for being a God-man and a Super-man. There is a clash between your noble aspirations and your pull of the sense organs – a very difficult situation.

Arjuna says, “I understand what you say.” Insatiable is this fire of longing for objects of sense. It will consume you. The more you pamper it, the more it asks. Fire cannot be satisfied by any amount of fuel. It asks for more and more fuel so that it may enlarge itself and burn everything. Desire wants to consume you completely so that you may not be here at all. And if your desire is obstructed by an event, you are angry. You want to destroy that cause which is apparently obstructing the fulfilment of your desire. So anger is only another form of longing. It is the longing to perpetuate your longing which, obstructed, manifests itself as the obverse of what you call a desire, and you call it anger. Actually, this one impulse that is rising in you on one side looks like longing, desire, passion, lust; on the other side it looks like irascibility and anger.

Arjuna knows what this means. “Now, what is the use of hearing all these things? How am I to overcome this wondrous malady, kama and krodha, if they are predominantly present in individuals as rajasic properties working havoc in everyone? How would we live this cosmic life which you have so gloriously described?”

The method of meditation is very briefly discussed towards the end of the Third Chapter in two verses, but it is the essence of the whole matter: it is possible to overcome longing, desire for objects of sense, only by intense meditation through a gradational process. This is also described in detail in the Sixth Chapter. Indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ, manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ (Gita 3.42); evaṁ buddheḥ paraṁ buddhvā saṁstabhyātmānam ātmanā, jahi śatruṁ mahābāho kāmarūpaṁ durāsadam (Gita 3.43). This is a brief statement of a longer, more detailed enunciation of the very same thing in the Katha Upanishad. Indriyas, sense organs, are very powerful. Impetuous are the sense organs. Like a wild tornado, they will dash the ship of your life.

But the mind is superior to the sense organs. The mind has the capacity to know that the indriyas, or the senses, are impetuous in their nature. This is the superiority of the mind. The senses do not know that they are impetuous. They are just impetuous. They are wild movement. This wild movement of the senses is identical with the senses themselves. They cannot know that they are wild. If you are angry, you do not know that you are angry. Anger consumes you to such an extent that an angry person does not know that he is angry. If you know that you are angry, it will not be real anger. So the mind has the capacity to subdue the impetuosity of the senses by a little bit of deliberation. The mind knows that the senses have to be restrained, but the mind cannot easily take a decision. The mind has an indeterminate perceptional capacity of knowing the difficulty produced by the sense organs, but the decision has to be taken: this must be done. The senses have to be subdued.

It is buddhi, reason, that tells you of the higher aspirations that are embedded in you. The ambassador of God, as it were, is working through the reason of your personality. An ambassador is a link between two governments. He communicates the messages of his government to the other government that he is connected with. He brings about a rapprochement and a kind of harmonious relationship between two governments. That is the reason why embassies are established in the world. Reason is a kind of ambassador between God and the world of creation. Because of the position it occupies as an ambassador of God, the reason also tells you that you are above this world and cannot be satisfied with anything in this world. The reason says it is incumbent on you to control the sense organs so that you may become a Super-person and not be under the subjection of the sense organs. But it is also situated in a world of sensation and mentation. It is a relationship with two governments, as I mentioned to you – the world of senses and the world of divinity. So while the mind is conscious of the impetuosity of the sense organs, the reason gives you the additional strength to actually work on this consciousness of it being necessary to control the sense organs, because while it is aware of the modus operandi that you have used in the control of the sense organs, it also has the power descending on it from the higher order of things. With the power of divinity which is scintillating in it, it can charge upon the sense organs through the mind and bring their strength down to a mellowed condition.

Yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ: There is something above the intellect or the reason, which is the central universality of power. And because of it being possible for you to connect your reason with the universal centrality, you will be able to succeed in your spiritual practice. If reason is absent, you will be like an animal with a merely instinctive mind controlled by the sense organs. Yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ: The Atma-shakti, which is above the buddhi, or the intellect, should guide you here. You will be asking, “How it is done? The Atman-consciousness is not in me, my intellect is oscillating, my mind is very indecisive, and my senses are very powerful. What is the process?”

The details will be told to you in the Sixth Chapter. You have to find some time to think over these issues. It is a serious matter that is before you. Every day in your life you have to be seated alone for some time, and then close your eyes. “What is it that I have gathered, after all?” Then collect your thoughts. Stop the breathing for a second and work upon this concept of your involvement in the whole cosmos, in this sacrificial participation of your personality in the context of God's creation, as mentioned – in your not being a person but a Super-person, really speaking. “I am foolhardy to think that I am an individual by myself. Every moment of time I am controlled by something which is above me. My breath is moving, my limbs are operating, my mind is thinking and I am living in this world because of the operation of something which is not me, but which is above me. I am something more than what I am.”

Let this consciousness be driven into you. You are something much more than what you look like, much more than what you are, and much more than what you see with your eyes outside in the world. You are not what you are, and you are not what you see with the eyes. You are something above both what you see and what you are. Let this be the object of your meditation.

Evaṁ buddheḥ paraṁ buddhvā: Thus, knowing that which is above your reason; saṁstabhyātmānam ātmanā: restraining yourself by yourself, restraining your lower self by the higher self of the adhidaiva consciousness, restraining your so-called ego individuality from its usual sensory operations by the action upon it by the adhidaiva, which you are really. This is the meaning of saṁstabhyātmānam ātmanā: restraining yourself by yourself. There are two yourselves: the lower yourself and the higher yourself. The lower yourself is what you look like, this Mr., this Mrs. But the higher yourself is the adhidaiva, which is really what you are, and not what you appear to be. Jahi śatruṁ: this enemy which is impeding your progress, which is desire and anger. Kāmarūpaṁ: Oh powerful hero, destroy this desire. Who is the evil in this world? If there is evil at all, where is this evil? There is no other evil in this world. “Thus, compose yourself and be blessed, O Arjuna,” says Bhagavan Sri Krishna towards the end of this Third Chapter.

The more you study, the more you hear, the more difficulties will arise in the mind. Still you have doubts: “All that you have said is wonderful. We will try our best to do this, but we are weaklings. We do not know if we will really succeed in achieving this goal in this life.” Doubts are our traitors, says the poet. If there is a traitor in this world, doubt is the traitor. You always condemn yourself and say, “I am useless. I am not for it.” Who told you that you are not for it? How does this idea that you are unfit arise in your mind? Perhaps you are fit. Why are you saying you have difficulties? You have studied well, everything is clear to you, all things are ready at your fingertips. You will stand first. Even if there is a chance you will stand second, why should you, in the beginning itself, assume you are unfit? Nobody is inferior in this world. Even a mouse can save a lion under special circumstances. You are not as poor as you look. Still you have doubts. Again and again these dacoits of the sense organs will attack you and tell you, “Useless fellow, get up!”

It was Buddha who had the same experiences of this kind. The great master was meditating on the possibility of attaining nirvana, and something came and told him, “Get up from this work.” All kinds of things were told to him: “This world is not so bad as you are imagining. What is wrong with this world? You have a beautiful palace. Have you not lived cosily? Your subjects are pleading to have your grace. All the gold and silver is with you. Also, you have a long life, which is a blessing. Here is the beauty, here is the grandeur, here is the taste. Do you think the world is bitter always? There is also honey. Don't you think the world is beautiful and it can grant you what you want? Is it so bad? Read human history. Great masters worked for erecting empires. How gloriously they lived! If you don't listen to this advice, beware! I will thrash you and break your head.”

And something else came and told Buddha, “Useless man, get up.” There was a hailstorm and big demon-like faces arose and told him, “Now you are on the last day of your life. Useless man, get up from this place. What are you thinking? All this world is wonderful. You have a wrong notion. You have an illusory perception that there is something beyond this. There is no 'beyond'. This is everything. You are a foolish man. Get up!” Buddha would not listen to that advice either. Then it said, “You are a master already. You have already attained what you want to attain. Get up! Work for the world.” There are people who sometimes think they have already attained the goal, and the only thing left is to serve and uplift humanity, and bring heaven to the earth. This is also a temptation.

All these stages one has to pass through. Difficulties of this kind will harass you and you will say, “I don't know. I can't understand all these things. I am drooping. Twenty years of meditation have brought nothing.”

The Fourth Chapter begins with a great consolation to you. God is not so blind as not to understand your predicament. Your complaints are known to Him. Omniscience is the nature of God. Everything is known. Even the movement of a cat in a the jungle, God knows. If a leaf moves, God is aware of it. Does He not know your difficulties? He incarnates Himself as a redemptive God at every crucial moment, if only your heart is for Him.

Again the point comes: to the extent you are united with this adhidaiva prapancha, or the Supreme Transcendant Principle, if you cling to it honestly, the adhidaiva is your support. Go on surrendering yourself to it, and it will communicate your message to the higher cause. Instantaneous action will take place. God incarnating Himself is actually the descent of a higher measure of force of divinity to the level in which you are, to the level in which the crisis has arisen; and timeless being the nature of God, instantaneous also is His action. God does not come tomorrow, because there is no time for God. He does not take time to travel because He is not in space. Infinite power from a spaceless existence will act timelessly, instantaneously, at every crucial moment.

Yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata, abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (Gita 4.7); paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, dharmasaṁsthāpanārthāya saṁbhavāmi yuge yuge (Gita 4.8). These two verses are a glorious, consoling message coming from God Himself to frail man who is crying from moment to moment in the wilderness of his mortal existence. You are always under the protection of an all-seeing eye. That you are suffering and nobody knows that you are suffering is not a fact. That you are not wanting to take advantage of the fact that somebody is looking to you and is willing to support you is your difficulty. The assertion of your individuality by means of egoism takes possession of you again and again in the form of a doubt whether God will come or not. “I have never seen God, and He has never come and helped anybody up to this time. I have never seen Him helping, so how do I know that he will help me? After fifteen days of crying, He has not come. How do I know that on the sixteenth day he will come?” These doubts will harass you.

He may sometimes take sixteen days to come on account of the inner obstructions created by your own tamasic karmas that may perhaps be working, but even tamasic karmas can be destroyed by the power of God. He can destroy even karmas. He can dissolve the parliament of the cosmos if He does not want any government. He doesn't always have to stick to a parliamentary ordinance. Though He does that mostly, He can also dissolve it in one second. If your love of God is so intense, He can directly catch hold of you and protect you, but not through parliamentary or legal operations. If this faith, which is bhakti, knowledge and devotion combined, is predominant in you, there is a powerful sattva action. Immediate action will take place.

But our attachment to this body and our consideration of an external relationship with human affairs, our mortal entanglements, are so intense that often this kind of faith cannot arise in us. Only when we are sinking in the sea, sometimes this faith arises. “I have lost everything. I am not able to stand. Even the ground is shaking.” When everything is gone and nothing will come, if that threat of even a moment's survival takes possession of you, you will feel God, the real God.

Otherwise, in ordinary circumstances, this faith is shaken by the fact that you seem to be involved in certain realities of life. The realities of life should desert you completely. Nobody should want you. You are an unwanted person in the world, crucified. At that time, God will come. “Oh, you want to crucify me? I am not wanted in this world.” All your love for things vanishes in one second. All your consideration for that which is externally oriented goes. Neither your family wants you, nor the world wants you. Such conditions are not uncommon in the history of humanity. Read human history. Who wants you, finally? Your adjustment with the whims and fancies of other people somehow or other makes you feel that you are wanted by others. Do not make that adjustment, and see what happens to you. You will be thrown into the ocean in one second. This is the world. Humankind is made in this way; everything is made in this way.

But why do you invite such conditions that you should be crucified by humanity? Doctors need not fall sick in order to understand the sickness of a patient. Their wisdom will tell them what kind of predicament it is. So you need not be turned out of this world by force. Honourably you can go from this world by understanding what the world is made of. “It is good to quit while the quitting is good,” as they say. Why should you be thrown out?

This circumstance of your being basically involved in the higher purpose of life will bring the faith that is necessary for invoking God's presence in you, and God shall manifest Himself. Infinite are the avataras of God, as infinite as the rays of the Sun. Numberless are the occasions when God manifests Himself, and in numberless ways and methods of action. It does not mean that always the same kind of form will be sent. It is not that He will come always as Rama, Krishna, Govinda, Christ, etc. God can manifest Himself as a remedial force under conditions which are historically, geographically, socially, psychologically specific. When it is necessary, God can come as an incarnation of whirlwind, tornado, epidemic, war, cataclysm. Or He may come as a blessing of heightened power in particular nations. He may bring a redeeming force and help to a personality. He can make you even materially wealthy. Everything is possible for Him.

As critical conditions in life are manifold in their nature, it is not that everyone has the same kind of problem. It does not mean throughout history we have only one kind of difficulty in humanity. Manifold and endless are the peculiarities of the problems of existence, and endless also are the ways of His incarnation. Any form, any way, any method can be adopted by this Supreme Being, according to the circumstance of the case. What is the nature of the difficulty? The counterpart of it will be the nature of the incarnation.

Whenever a difficult situation arises between the subject and the object, we may say – the world and the individual have a critical clash of purposes and it is difficult to solve it humanly – a superhuman force descends. Actually, human problems cannot be solved by mere human beings. No man can solve another man's problem because, after all, he is also a man like the other person. The possibility of solving human problems arises only if there is a person or a group of people who are not simply human beings, but somebody more than that. You require a Super-leader to render real help to people. All great leaders were Super-persons. It is not just a Tom, Dick and Harry saying, “I will come and save humanity.” No Tom can do that, because every Tom is like every other Tom. Great masters, leaders, geniuses, statesmen who have worked wonders in the nations of the world were not ordinary human individuals. They were Super-individuals to some extent.

This Super-personality is the way in which God manifests Himself in political conditions, in social circumstances, in educational fields, even in spiritual life – visions which are very consoling and satisfying, and experiences which will thrill you. In deep meditation you can also be regarded as a kind of incarnation of God.

Thus, these two verses which say something briefly about the manner of the coming of God into the world of people is an explanation of the entry of the Absolute into the relative, the Universal acting in the particulars, the cosmic in action every moment of time, just as the whole organism of the body acts if there is a little ache in the toe. Wherever there is an ache or pain or difficulty felt in the limbs of the body, the whole anabolic activity, the constructive forces, act suddenly; there is a war taking place, as it were, between these intruding monsters who create pain in the body and the powers that are constructive and cause its survival. In a similar manner, instantaneous action is taking place in all things in the world because the whole universe is a single organism animated by a single intelligence.