s; but the same fact comes out, that it is the middle or
central one of the Three who is the source of Avataras. There has never
been a direct Avatara of Mahadeva, of Shiva Himself. Appearances? Yes.
Manifestations? Yes. Coming in form for a special purpose served by that
form? Oh yes. Take the _Mahabharata_, and you find Him appearing in the
form of the hunter, the Kirata, and testing the intuition of Arjuna, and
struggling with him to test his strength, his courage, and finally his
devotion to Himself. But that is a mere form taken for a purpose and
cast aside the moment the purpose is served; almost, we may say, a mere
illusion, produced to serve a special purpose and then thrown away as
having completed that which it was intended to perform. Over and over
again you find such appearances of Mahadeva. You may remember one most
beautiful story, in which He appears in the form of a Chandala[5] at the
gateway of His own city of Kashi, when one who was especially
overshadowed by a manifestation of Himself, Shri Shankaracharya, was
coming with his disciples to the sacred city; veiling Himself in the
form of an outcaste--for to Him all forms are the same, the human
differences are but as the grains of sand which vanish before the
majesty of His greatness--He rolled Himself in the dust before the
gateway, so that the great teacher could not walk across without
touching Him, and he called to the Chandala to make way in order that
the Brahmana might go on unpolluted by the touch of the outcaste;
then the Lord, speaking through the form He had chosen, rebuked the very
one whom His power overshadowed, asking him questions which he could not
answer and thus abasing his pride and teaching him humility. Such forms
truly He has taken, but these are not what we can call Avataras; mere
passing forms, not manifestations upon earth where a life is lived and a
great drama is played out. So with Brahma; He also has appeared from
time to time, has manifested Himself for some special purpose; but there
is no Avatara of Brahma, which we can speak of by that very definite and
well understood term.

[Footnote 5: An outcaste, equivalent to a scavenger.]

Now for this fact there must be some reason.

Why is it that we do not find the source of Avataras alike in all these
great divine manifestations? Why do they come from only one aspect and
that the aspect of Vishnu? I need not remind you that there is but
one Self, and that these names we use