1.]

[Footnote 4: Splendour, radiance.]

SECOND LECTURE.

BROTHERS:--You will remember that yesterday, in dividing the subject
under different heads, I put down certain questions which we would take
in order. We dealt yesterday with the question: "What is an Avatara?"
The second question that we are to try to answer, "What is the source of
Avataras?" is a question that leads us deep into the mysteries of the
kosmos, and needs at least an outline of kosmic growth and evolution in
order to give an intelligible answer. I hope to-day to be able also to
deal with the succeeding question, "How does the need for Avataras
arise?" This will leave us for to-morrow the subject of the special
Avataras, and I shall endeavour, if possible, during to-morrow's
discourse, to touch on nine of the Avataras out of the ten recognised as
standing out from all other manifestations of the Supreme. Then, if I am
able to accomplish that task, we shall still have one morning left, and
that I propose to give entirely to the study of the greatest of the
Avataras, the Lord Shri Krishna Himself, endeavouring, if
possible, to mark out the great characteristics of His life and His
work, and, it may be, to meet and answer some of the objections of the
ignorant which, especially in these later days, have been levelled
against Him by those who understand nothing of His nature, nothing of
the mighty work He came to accomplish in the world.

Now we are to begin to-day by seeking an answer to the question, "What
is the source of Avataras?" and it is likely that I am going to take a
line of thought somewhat unfamiliar, carrying us, as it does, outside
the ordinary lines of our study which deals more with the evolution of
man, of the spiritual nature within him. It carries us to those far off
times, almost incomprehensible to us, when our universe was coming into
manifestation, when its very foundations, as it were, were being laid.
In answering the question, however, the mere answer is simple. It is
recognised in all religions admitting divine incarnations--and they
include the great religions the world--it is admitted that the source of
Avataras, the source of the Divine incarnations, is the second or middle
manifestation of the sacred Triad. It matters not whether with Hindus we
speak of the Trimurti, or whether with Christians we speak of the
Trinity, the fundamental idea is one and the same. Taking first for a
moment the Christian symbology, y