e to the second great class of manifestations, that to which I
alluded in the beginning as covered by the wide term A'vesha. In that
case it is not that a man in past universes has climbed upward and has
become one with I'shvara; but it is that a man has climbed so far as to
become so great, so perfect in his manhood, and so full of love and
devotion to God and man, that God is able to permeate him with a portion
of His own influence, His own power, His own knowledge, and send him
forth into the world as a superhuman manifestation of Himself. The
individual Ego remains; that is the great distinction. The _man_ is
there, though the power that is acting is the manifested God. Therefore
the manifestation will be coloured by the special characteristics of the
one over whom this overshadowing is made; and you will be able to trace
in the thoughts of this inspired teacher, the characteristics of the
race, of the individual, of the form of knowledge which belongs to that
man in the incarnation in which the great overshadowing takes place.
That is the fundamental difference.

But here we find that we come at once to endless grades, endless
varieties, and down the ladder of lesser and lesser evolution we may
tread, step by step, until we come to the lower grades that we call
inspiration. In a case of A'vesha it generally continues through a great
portion of the life, the latter portion, as a rule, and it is
comparatively seldom withdrawn. Inspiration, as generally understood, is
a more partial thing, more temporary. Divine power comes down,
illuminates and irradiates the man for the moment, and he speaks for the
time with authority, with knowledge, which in his normal state he will
be unable probably to compass. Such are the prophets who have
illuminated the world age after age; such were in ancient days the
Brahmanas who were the mouth of God. Then truly the distinction was
not that I spoke of between priest and prophet; both were joined in the
one illumination, and the teaching of the priest and the preaching of
the prophet ran on the same lines and gave forth the same great truths.
But in later times the distinction arose by the failure of the
priesthood, when the priest turned aside for money, for fame, for power,
for all the things with which only younger souls ought to concern
themselves--human toys with which human babies play, and do wisely in so
playing, for they grow by them. Then the priests became formal, the
prophet