the divine birth and the divine works. But so surely it must be, since otherwise the object of the Avatar’s descent is not fulfilled; for that object is precisely to show that the human birth with all its limitations can be made such a means and instrament of the divine birth and divine works, precisely to show that the human type of consciousness can be compatible with thesdivine essence of consciousness made manifest, can be converted into its vessel, drawn into nearer con- formity with it by a change of its mould and a heigh- tening of its powers of light and love and strength and . purity; and to show also how it can be done. 1If the Avatar were to act in an entirely supernormal fashion, this object would not be fulfilled. A gnerely super- normal or miraculous Avatar would be a meaningless absurdity ; not that there need be an entire absence of the use of supernormal powers such as Christ’s so-called miracles of healing, for the use of supernormal powers is quite a possibility of human nature; but there need not be that at all, nor in any case is it the root of the matter, nor would it at all do if the life were nothing else but "a display of supernormal fireworks, The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine huina- nity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffer- ing may be a means of redemption,—as did Christ,— secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature,—as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to*Christ, “If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross,” or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died
