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 Vaishnava form, the form of Vishnu, the Supreme Upholder of
the Universe. And later, on his way back to Dvaraka, 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 Vaishnava 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 Purnavatara; always within His grasp,
at will, is the power to show Himself forth as I'shvara.

But why--the thought may arise in your minds--are not all Avataras of
this kind, since all are verily of the Supreme Lord? The answer is that
by His own will, by his own Maya, He veils Himself within the limits
which serve the creatures whom He has come to help. Ah, how different He
is, this Mighty One, from you and me! When we are talking to some one
who knows a little less than ourselves, we talk out all we know to show
our knowledge, expanding ourselves as much as we can so as to astonish
and make marvel the one to whom we speak; that is because we are so
small that we fear our greatness will not be recognised unless we make
ourselves as large as we can to astonish, if possible to terrify; but
when He comes who is really great, who is mightier than anything which
He produces, He makes Himself small in order to help those whom He
loves. And do you know, my brothers, that only in proportion as His
spirit enters into us, can we in our little measure be helpers in the
universe of which He is the one life; until we, in all our doings and
speakings, place ourselves within the one we want to help and not
outside him, feeling as he feels, thinking as he thinks, knowing for the
time as he kn