In Essays on Gita(Process of Avatarhood), Sri Aurobindo explains about the Purrushottama himself descending into the human parts of our being, which was partially felt by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He also explains about the Lord himself being born, where the Divine descends by his own Prakriti to take Birth in its human form. When I initially read it a few years back, I understood that in Sri Aurobindo, it was the descent of Purushottama, but completely even in his nature and physical being (a (big) step farther than what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu experienced). So I understood that the Sacrifice here means that Sri Aurobindo could have gone ahead with His individual salvation, which He renounced and by His aspiration, He brought down the Supramental for earth, thereby becoming an Avatar by this act.
But now, having read a bit more of His early days and His poems, when I re-read it and after listening to your talk, my understanding is that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vibhuti and the Birth of Sri Aurobindo is the descent of the Divine right from the Birth(Avatar). It is also explained in the above chapter about Purushottama preparing his own body according to the pace of Human Evolution and so appearing from age to age(the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu). Now, in this case, when we say the Lord renounced Realisations in His own body and Sacrificed it, is it not that He had no other options (sorry, with all Gratitude to Him).. Who else but He could save and take the earth forward, except He who takes Birth from age to age for this purpose, our Sri Aurobindo this time? For Him, how could there be any ‘Individual’ realisation that he could have renounced?
Or is the sacrifice we denote, is about the Lord giving His own body for the Supramental to descend for this unresponsive earth(maybe as below?) and not comparing against any individual gains?
”His love has paved the mortal’s road to Heaven:
He has given his life and light to balance here
The dark account of mortal ignorance.
It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,
Offered by God’s martyred body for the world;”
I know it could be silly and stupid to question, but I’m not doubting, I just don’t understand ‘How’, so opening up to you to correct my understanding. Thank you.
[The Process of Avatarhood: https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/19/the-process-of-avatarhood]
[Lines from Savitri: https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/34/the-way-of-fate-and-the-problem-of-pain#p91]
It is a very pertinent and profound question. The word Avatar is used very loosely. The Avatar is when the Divine consciously assumes a body and takes birth to uplift humanity one step further. He does so in a number of ways, such as leaving the Divine imprint and of the higher consciousness He embodied for the specific purpose, by His personal example of what could be done and, in departing, leaving the stamp of His memories to draw the soul towards Himself and what He represented. There are other actions also, which are mainly outward.
Given this background, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would be an ansa Avatar of Sri Krishna, meaning thereby that he was possessed by Sri Krishna in moments of ecstasy but was not a conscious birth of the Supreme as an Avatar is.
Sri Aurobindo is the Avatar in the sense of being a conscious birth, a conscious descent of the Divine and not a subsequent possession of his personality by the Divine. He came to set an example and the stamp of the Supramental Consciousness upon earth and humanity. But to do this, he must first embody fully the Supramental consciousness in each and every part and instrument of the human nature he has assumed so that as it changes, it can spread to others. If he doesn’t take the human nature and keeps only the Divine element, then his life cannot be an example and his work will be meaningless. At the same time, the very fact of taking a human body, he gets tied to the human fate and the human challenges. Herein comes the problem. He knows what he is here for and knows the process and the way. He must also be, by default, the first to break through before he can share with others. The dilemma was whether he should isolate himself completely and work upon his human elements (assumed deliberately) and then give it to others, or if he should take everyone together, with himself as the Captain and pioneer and others as a team. The former choice will be easier, but it would create a big disconnect between him and the average humanity, which may not be able to catch up, leaving aside the fact that in that case, he won’t be available and accessible for humanity to receive help on the way. The latter choice implied that those sections of representative humanity to whom he tied made some progress alongside rather than pulling backwards. In either case, it had to be first realised in his one body before it could be spread to others. His body being a conscious birth and given the tapasya he engaged in was obviously the most suited. But he chose to carry everyone along so that humanity could benefit fully from his Presence even as he forges ahead with the main task. But humanity did not want the Supramental. It wanted the usual stuff. Sri Aurobindo even remarked once that if he did not ‘retire’ and made himself easily available, his devotees would ‘eat him up’ with countless demands, which is what happened despite the Mother shielding him. Basically, he just gave and gave, leading to the delay of his main work. This is the renunciation, if we can call it by this term. The sacrifice is where he decided to plunge into the Inconscience rather than disentangle humanity from the roots, rather than cut himself off. Then the backup plan, if we may say so, was activated and the Mother took on the work from the point where Sri Aurobindo had left, while he continued to work from behind the scenes.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
