evolution--_but only if you strive against them_. If you yield
to them, then they carry you away. You do not then call out your own
strength, but only strengthen them. Therefore, O Arjuna, stand up and
fight. Do not be supine; do not yield yourself to the forces; they are
there to call out your energies by opposition and you must not sink down
on the floor of the chariot. And my last word is the word of Shri
Krishna to Arjuna: "Take up your bow, stand up and fight."

THIRD LECTURE.

The subject this morning, my brothers, is in some ways an easy and in
other ways a difficult one; easy, inasmuch as the stories of the
Avataras can be readily told and readily grasped; difficult, inasmuch as
the meaning that underlies these manifestations may possibly be in some
ways unfamiliar, may not have been thoroughly thought out by individual
hearers. And I must begin with a general word as to these special
Avataras. You may remember that I said that the whole universe may be
regarded as the Avatara of the Supreme, the Self-revelation of I'shvara.
But we are not dealing with that general Self-revelation; nor are we
even considering the very many revelations that have taken place from
time to time, marked out by special characteristics; for we have seen by
referring to one or two of the old writings that many lists are given of
the comings of the Lord, and we are to-day concerned with only some of
those, those that are accepted specially as Avataras.

Now on one point I confess myself puzzled at the outset, and I do not
know whether in your exoteric literature light is thrown upon the point
as to how these ten were singled out, who was the person who chose them
out of a longer list, on what authority that list was proclaimed. On
that point I must simply state the question, leaving it unanswered. It
may be a matter familiar to those who have made researches into the
exoteric literature. It is not a point of quite sufficient importance
for the moment to spend on it time and trouble, in what we may call the
occult way of research. I leave that then aside, for there is one reason
why some of these stand out in a way which is clear and definite. They
mark stages in the evolution of the world. They mark new departures in
the growth of the developing life, and whether it was that fact which
underlay the exoteric choice I am unable to say; but certainly that fact
by itself is sufficient to justify the special distinction which is
ma