Bhagavagd Gita - Session 16- Track 1603

Aditi, becomes more manifest in the mobile aspect, but merely to say that there is only the mobile aspect is also not true, because even the immobility is Her immobility. The immobility is also an aspect of the mobility: they are not divided. But in our experience, we make a distinction between immobile Brahman and mobile Maya or mobile Power, because Power normally in our conception is conceived more in terms of that which burst out, that which works out. So, it would not be wrong to say that Aditi is the mobile, but merely to say that, is also to do injustice to the real Reality: the Power which is immobile is also nonetheless Power. The Power can be immobile and can be mobile, but more manifest to us in mobility. Therefore, we speak of the Divine Mother as the Shakti, and Shakti normally in our consciousness refers to something that is moving, something that is acting: kṣara.

But merely to say it is that, is not a complete description of the Supreme Divine Mother: She is after all one with the Purushottama, and Purushottama is both immobile and mobile. Even to say: immobile is only immobile is also not true; it is the immobile, which is mobile. As Sri Aurobindo says: “It is not as if one fourth of the Divine is immobile, and three fourth is mobile”, that is not true either. The immobile is mobile, mobile is immobile. And yet you can make a distinction between them without dividing. Reality is not divided: that is why it is adbhuta, it is wonderful because such is the relationship and yet it is ‘one’.

We have the experience of the manifestation of the Divine, the descent of the Divine as the Son of God. That is also one of the ways by which the Avatar is known.

Then, there is another manifestation of the Avatar, and that manifestation is when the Divine Himself becomes fully manifest in the ascending soul: something that you have in the example of Sri Chaitanya. Sri Chaitanya represents a tremendous phenomenon, where largely He was acting as a child, as a devotee, but from time to time, He acted and spoke not as a child, not as a servant, not as a devotee, not as a lover, but himself as the Divine. If that also can become permanent…in the case of Chaitanya from time to time you found this manifestation. That is because the purpose of that Avatarhood was very special: to show to human beings how a devotee can become perfect devotee of the Supreme Divine. It is as if God showing to mankind: how you should be devoted to the Divine. It is a great example in Sri Chaitanya. As if, if God Himself becomes man, ideal man, ideal devotee, how he would be devoted to the Divine. The Divine Himself gives the example, and that is the truth of Sri Chaitanya.

These are to be distinguished from ‘The Avatar’. It is not human soul ascending into the divine consciousness, and the divine consciousness then descending in reply to the ascending movement, but right from birth the Divine Himself comes down, takes a human form, and enters into it. And even the human form becomes aware of the presence of the Divine. There is always therefore, this double phenomenon in an Avatar. The Avatar knows that He is the descent of the Divine, He may not be talkative about it, as in the case of Sri Rama: He hardly talked about Himself being the Divine. He kept it more prominent; therefore, He even declared sometime that, “I am only a human being”; but inwardly He acted with that kind of majesty, which belongs to the Supreme Divine Himself.

The difference between the individual experience of the Divine and the Divine experiencing Himself as the Divine is of capital importance in understanding these mystical distinctions. If you enter really into the very consciousness of the Avatar, the Avatar will Himself say, “I am the Supreme”: as in the Bhagavad Gita we find Sri Krishna directly declaring that He is the Supreme. That is the Avatar Himself speaking out His “Avatar” consciousness. Even though there is also the human aspect: Sri Krishna is a human being, but that human aspect, that human form is assumed by the Supreme Divine. He is a child in His childhood, and the young man as a young man, and then, He becomes the warrior and the leader, but behind all this, even in His childhood, He expresses Himself as the Lord.