GOD REVEALS HIMSELF THROUGH INCARNATION

Omnipotent and infinite God may wish that his divinity as Love may manifest itself in flesh!  It is then He is among us as an incarnation! It is through such incarnations that Love flows. While we can realize God through spiritual eyes, it is very difficult to explain or describe Him in words. For us, human beings, the milk of Divine love issues forth from the incarnations of God! It is impossible to know God fully but it is enough  if we can see Him—feel  that He is the only reality. Sri Ramakrishna argues that it is best to seek God in man. One has to find a person with a heart overflowing with the love of God! He should be “a man who lives, moves, and has his being in God”. In other words he should be intoxicated with His love! God manifests in such rare beings!

        Though God is absolute, He indulges in LILA or divine sport! In our parlance,we call such things as miracles. Divine Leela is of four kinds.  According to Sri Ramakrishna they are 1 Iswara Lila 2 Deva Lila 3   Jagat Lila and 4 Nara Lila. His incarnation is possible in Nara Lila. What is the nature of this NaraLila? It is like the tremendous gushing out of water in a torrent through a wide channel  It is as if the power of the Absolute manifests itself through the channel! During the Avatar of Rama, not many could recognize him as the manifestation of Divinity! Only the Saptharshis---sage Bharadwaja and others could recognize Rama as God in human form—Avatar!

          What is the difference between a Siddha and an Avatar? Siddha is similar to an archeologist who excavates and  removes the superincumbent earth and dust and reveals the old  civilization covered up  through the ages! The Avatar, says Sri Ramakrishna, is akin to a great engineer who sinks a new well in a place where there was no water before! While the Siddhas can give salvation to those with love , the Avatar can save even those with dry and arid hearts! The Avatar is like a tidal wave, a tsunami, that inundates rivers, streams, land and all the adjacent areas presenting one watery surface, But rain water is drained away through the usual channel! The Avatar saves all through His Grace But Siddhas have their limitations! The Avatar is similar to a large steamer  towing rafts and barges along with it.  The Avatar easily carries thousands to safety across the  ocean of maya or illusion! Avatars carry multitudes of men overburdened with sin to the presence of God!

           The contrast between the holy men and liberated saints and the saviours is beautifully explained by Sri Ramakrishna! Four persons decided to scale the place enclosed by a great wall. They were curious to know what was in the place. A ladder was brought and the fist man went to the top of the wall. He laughed  heartily and jumped into the place. The second and third followed the first man and jumped into the place where there was a beautiful garden with pleasant groves and delicious fruits.  The fourth  man. though tempted to jump in, restrained himself, came down  and narrated the glory of the garden to others outside. Brahman is the beautiful walled garden! Whoever sees Him forget themselves  and are absorbed in His essence! Holy men and liberated saints are these people! But the savior or Avatar is one who sees God but anxious to share the happiness of divine vision with others! He is prepared to undergo the pangs of rebirth in the world to edify and lead struggling humanity to its goal!

             What is the need for God to incarnate? We know that whenever Dharma or righteousness is on the decline and evil predominates, God takes Avatar to uplift Dharma and save the good and destroy the bad. Sri Ramakrishna points out that God comes down to ‘manifest  to man the perfection  of Divinity’.Man can then talk with God and see His play. “In the incarnation, God fully enjoys, as it were, His own transcendent sweetness. In the saints, God manifests Himself only in part, like the honey in a flower. You suck the flower and get a little honey. In the incarnations, it is all honey--- all sweetness and all blessedness! Nothing is problematical to the incarnation. He solves the most difficult and intricate problems of life as the simplest of things in the world and his expositions are such as even a child can follow. He is the Sun of Divine Knowledge whose light dispels the accumulated ignorance of ages.