| PAGE | |
| LECTURE I.— | |
| What is an Avatâra? | 7 |
| LECTURE II.— | |
| The Source of and Need for Avatâras | 30 |
| LECTURE III.— | |
| Some Special Avatâras | 63 |
| LECTURE IV.— | |
| Shrî Kṛiṣhṇa | 93 |
Brothers:—Every time that we come here together to study thefundamental truths of all religions, I cannot but feel how vast is thesubject, how small the expounder, how mighty the horizon that opensbefore our thoughts, how narrow the words which strive to sketch it foryour eyes. Year after year we meet, time after time we strive to fathomsome of those great mysteries of life, of the Self, which form the onlysubject really worthy of the profoundest thought of man. All else ispassing; all else is transient; all else is but the toy of a moment.Fame and power, wealth and science—all that is in this world below isas nothing beside the grandeur of the Eternal Self in the universe andin man, one in all His manifold manifestations, marvellous and beautifulin every form that He puts forth. And this year, of all themanifestations of the Supreme, we are going to dare to study the holiestof the holiest, those manifestations of God in the world in which Heshows Himself as divine, coming to[8] help the world that He has made,shining forth in His essential nature, the form but a thin film whichscarce veils the Divinity from our eyes. How then shall we venture toapproach it, how shall we dare to study it, save with deepest reverence,with profoundest humility; for if there needs for the study of His workspatience, reverence and humbleness of heart, what when we study Himwhose works but partially reveal Him, when we try to understand what ismeant by an Avatâra, what is the meaning, what the purpose of such arevelation?
Our President has truly said that in all the faiths of the world thereis belief in such manifestations, and that ancient maxim as totruth—that which is as the hall mark on the silver showing that themetal is pure—that ancient maxim is here valid, that whatever has beenbelieved everywhere, whatever has been believed at every time, and byevery one, that is true, that is reality. Religions quarrel over