- God may be infinite, but if He wills, His essence can manifest in man – and it does. That He incarnates Himself cannot be explained by any analogy. One has to experience it.
- If you touch the horn of a cow, you have touched the cow. And if you touch its foot or tail, you have still touched the cow. But for us the principal thing is the cow’s milk, and that comes from the udder. In the same way, God assumes a human body from time to time and appears on earth to teach us ecstatic love and devotion.
- Who can comprehend God fully? One can not know any aspect of God, either the whole or a part. And what need is there to know Him fully? It is enough to have a vision of God. Seeing His incarnation is seeing Him. If somebody goes to the Ganges and touches its water and says, ‘I have seen and touched the Ganges,’ it doesn’t mean that he had to touch the whole of the Ganges from Hardwar to Gangasagar with his hand.
- The element of fire is more in wood. If you are looking for the essence of God, you have to find it in man. God is more manifest in man.
- God is indeed present, but then His power manifests more in some than in others. His power manifests more in an incarnation. Sometimes this power exists in its fullness. It is Shakti that becomes the incarnation of God.
- God incarnates, assuming a human body. He is certainly present in all places, in all things, but man’s desire for God is not fulfilled unless God incarnates in a human form. If you touch a cow anywhere on its body, you have touched the cow. Even if you touch its horn, you have touched the cow. But you can take milk only from its udder.
- When an avatar comes, an ordinary man cannot recognize him – he comes as if in secret. Three or four of his intimate devotees recognize him. Rama was a full manifestation of Brahman, he was a perfect avatar – but only twelve rishis knew this. The other rishis said, ‘Rama, we only consider you as a son of Dasharatha.’
- He is manifest more in the human being. If you say, ‘How can one who is subject to hunger, thirst and other human needs, and who may be suffering from disease or sorrow, be an avatar,’ the reply is, ‘Even Brahman laments when bound by the five elements.’
- Not everyone can recognize an avatar. When Narada went to see Rama, Rama stood up and prostrated before him, lying on the ground, saying, ‘We are worldly people. If sadhus like you don’t visit us, how can we be sanctified?’
- There is a great difference between Ishvara (the Lord) and jiva (the embodied soul). A jiva can at most attain samadhi by practicing sadhana (spiritual disciplines) and bhajan (singing of devotional songs). But when the Lord incarnates Himself as a human being, He can return to the normal plane even after samadhi. The jiva, you may say, belongs to the class of a king’s officer. He can go only to the outer court of the king’s palace. The king’s palace is a seven-storied building. His son can move up and down all the seven stories; he can also come out of the palace.
- Incarnations of God are Ishvarakotis. They walk freely in the open – they are never bound to the world, they never imprison themselves. Theirs is not a gross ‘I’ – like that of worldly people. The ‘I’ of worldly people is bound – it is bound within the four walls, with a roof overhead. They can see nothing outside. The ‘I’ of an incarnation of God is the subtle ‘I’. One can always see God through this ‘I’.
- It is as if a person is standing within a four-walled enclosure. There is a limitless field on all sides. If there is a hole in the wall, one can see everything on the other side. If the hole is big enough one can even go out and return through it. The ‘I’ of the avatar is like this wall with a hole. Even while he remains on this side of the wall, he can see a limitless space beyond it. It means that he can always live in communion with God, even when he is in a human body. And then when he wills, he can merge into samadhi, having gone out of the big hole in the wall. If the hole is big enough, he can even visit and revisit. He can come down to the worldly plane even after passing into samadhi.
- Do you know why the Lord incarnates Himself as a person? It is because one can hear God’s words only from the lips of a man. Devotees enjoy His divine bliss and taste His sweetness through a human body.
- Whole and partial manifestation are like fire and its sparks. An Incarnation of God is for the sake of the devotee and not for the man of knowledge. The Adhyatma Ramayana says: Oh, Rama, You are the allpervading Spirit and You, Yourself, are everything pervaded. ‘väcyaväcakabhedena tvameva parameçavara’ – Oh Supreme Lord, You are distinguished as the vachaka, the signifying symbol, and vachya, the object signified. The pervaded being, in other words, means a finite form, God incarnating Himself as a human being.
- Some say there are ten avatars, some say twenty-four avatars, others that there are innumerable incarnations of God. Wherever you see a special manifestation of His power, God has incarnated Himself.
- He incarnates as a human being, as God-incarnate, and is accompanied by devotees [intimate companions]. The devotees depart with him. “A troupe of bauls came out of the blue – they danced, they sang, and then they suddenly left. They came and then left. No one recognized them.”
- The sport as a human being is like water accumulated on a big roof rushing down through a drain pipe. It is the power of Sat-chit-ananda that takes its course through the pipe. Only twelve rishis, Bharadvaja and others, recognized Ramachandra as an avatar and declared him so. Not everyone can recognize a divine incarnation.
- An incarnation of God conducts himself just like a human being. That is why it is very difficult to recognize an incarnation. Born as a human being, He acts just like one – the same hunger and thirst, the same disease and sorrow, even fear at times, just like a human being. Ramachandra was stricken with grief for Sita.
- He who is the Absolute is also the phenomenal world. His divine sport is for the sake of devotees. A devotee can love Him only when he can be seen in human form. Then alone is he able to love Him as a brother or sister, father or mother, or son or daughter. For the love of the devotee, He comes down as a human being to enact His play.
- Vaishnavcharan used to say, ‘One attains the highest knowledge after having the faith that God sports as a human being.’ It is God who manifests in the form of a human being. He Himself has become Mani Mallick.
- At the end of the Kaliyuga, God will incarnate Himself as Kalki – a brahmin’s son who knows nothing. But suddenly he will be given a horse and a sword.
- When God descends, assuming a human form for the sake of His devotee, he is accompanied by devotees as well. Some are his intimate disciples, others belong to the outer circle, and some are suppliers of provisions.
- God has numerous forms: He plays as the Lord, as deities, as man, and as the world. He takes the form of a human being in every age as an incarnation of God, to teach mankind love and devotion. Just think of Chaitanya Deva. You can taste and appreciate God’s love only through an incarnation of God. Infinite is His divine sport, but we need love and devotion. We need only the milk. And that comes through the udders of a cow. The incarnation of God is the udder.
- An incarnation of God takes on a body to teach mankind love for God. It’s like climbing up and down the stairs after reaching the roof. Other people tread the path of devotion to reach the roof until they have attained knowledge, until they’re free of desires. You can reach the roof only when you’re free from all desire. A shopkeeper doesn’t go to bed till he’s set his accounts right – he sleeps only after his balances tally in the ledger.
- An incarnation of God is the play of Power. He comes to teach love and devotion to God. An incarnation is like the udder of a cow. You can only get milk from the udders. God manifests Himself as a human being – like fish collect in a hole.
- As for the play of an incarnation of God, it is all the manifestation of the power of Consciousness. He who is Brahman is also Rama, Krishna and Shiva.
- Rama said to Lakshmana, ‘Brother, wherever you find burning love for God, know that I am there.’ For example, Chaitanya Deva. He laughed, wept, danced and sang with ecstatic love for God. Chaitanya Deva was a divine incarnation, God in human form.
- God plays as a human being. He incarnates in a man – for example, Sri Krishna, Ramachandra and Chaitanya Deva.
- I [Sri Ramakrishna] said to Keshab Sen, ‘There is the greatest manifestation of God in man. There are small holes in the ridges on the edge of a [rice] field. They’re called ghutis. Small fish and crab gather there. If you want to find them, you have to look in these holes. If you’re looking for God, look for Him in an incarnation of God.
- You have to practice spiritual disciplines if you want to realize God and to recognize an incarnation. There are big fish in a large pond. You have to throw bait for them. Milk contains butter, but you have to churn it. Mustard contains oil – but it has to be pressed to extract the oil. Henna makes a palm red – but you have to grind it first.
- Not everyone can recognize an incarnation of God. Assuming a body, disease, sorrow, hunger and thirst, all invade him. He appears like any one of us. Rama wept in sorrow at his separation from Sita.
- He appears as a man to play as a human being – for example Ramachandra, Sri Krishna, Chaitanya Deva. When you meditate on an incarnation, you meditate on God.