Meher Baba on Avatar

Consciously or unconsciously, every living creature seeks one thing. In the lower forms of life and in less
advanced human beings, the quest is
unconscious; in advanced human beings, it is
conscious.

The object of the quest is called by many names;
happiness, peace, freedom, truth, love
perfection, self-realization, God-Realization,
union with God.

Essentially, it is a search for all of these, but in a
SPECIAL WAY. Everyone has moments of
happiness, glimpses of truth,fleeting
experiences of union with God what they want
is to make them PERMANENT. They want to
establish an ABIDING reality in the midst of
constant change.

This is a natural desire, based fundamentally on
a memory - dim or clear as the evolution of the
individual soul may be low or high - a memory of
the souls essential unity with God.

For every living thing is a partial manifestation
of God, conditioned only by its lack of knowledge
of its own true nature.

The whole of evolution, in fact, is an evolution
from unconscious divinity to conscious divinity,in
which God Himself, essentially eternal and
unchangeable, assume an infinite variety of
forms, enjoys an infinite variety of experiences,
and transcends an infinite variety of self-
imposed limitations.

Evolution from the standpoint of the Creator is a
divine sport (lila), in which the Unconditioned
tests the infinitude of His absolute knowledge,
power, and bliss in the midst of all conditions.
But evolution from the standpoint of the
CREATURE, with its limited knowledge limited
power, limited capacity for enjoying bliss, is an
epic of alternating rest and struggle, joy and
sorrow, love and hate --- until in the perfected
person, God balances the pairs of opposites, and
duality is transcended.

Then creature and Creator recognize themselves
as ONE; changelessness is established in the
midst of change; eternity is experienced in the
midst of time. God knows Himself as God,
unchangeable in essence, infinite in
manifestation, ever experiencing the supreme
bliss of Self-realization in continually fresh
awareness of Himself by Himself.

This Realization must and does take place only in
the midst of life; for it is only in the midst of life
that limitation can be experienced and
transcended, and that subsequent freedom from
limitation can be enjoyed. (this union of the
created and Creator is an Avatar or Incarnation).
=== end of passage


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