AN AVATAR

On February 10, 1954, the Indian mystic and spiritual master Meher Baba declared that he was an avatar.  But what exactly is an avatar?

In Hinduism, an avatar is an incarnation of God.  God, or Brahman, is made flesh many times in different ages and in different forms, even other than human, the purpose of which is to protect and save all of creation through His earthly role.  The "body" or shape of an avatar is not human stuff, so to speak, but is composed of heavenly matter, called suddha sattva, and is a temporary manifestation only.  

The Hindu, incidentally, can accept Christ as an avatar, but according to Christian theologians familiar with the doctrine, Christ, "the Word made flesh," both human and divine, cannot be considered an avatar in Christian teaching.  Avatars are countless, according to Hinduism, for besides the popularly known figures, such as for example the Buddha and Sri Ramakrishna, any spiritual teacher is an avatar to some degree, being at least in part if not fully an embodiment of the Divine.

Christopher Isherwood has a strict view of the avatar, which he discusses in his book Ramakrishna and his Disciples.  He states that what a Hindu means by the term is something quite precise and not merely a vague expression of reverence.  

There is a difference, according to Isherwood, between an avatar and a man who, in the highest form of samadhi, realizes union with Brahman.  The man who realizes the Godhead does so as a result of many human births.  His karma from past lives, growing ever better, has impelled him through countless births, deaths, and rebirths to this moment of realization.  It is, as it were, the apex of a huge karmic pyramid. 

But this person, termed a saint, is still a human being, while an avatar is not.  An avatar is other than a saint.  An avatar has no past in this sense, for he has no karma.  He is not driven by his karma to be born.  He takes human form as an act of pure grace, for the good of humanity.  Though he voluntarily enters the world of time and space, he remains eternal.  He is not bound by time and is not subject to Maya, the illusion of earthly existence.