y many who have been with Him
in former births, surrounded by celestial beings, born as men, and by a
vast body of beings of the opposing side born also as men. I am speaking
specially of the Avatara of Shri Krishna, but this is true of
any other human Avatara as well. They are not born into the world alone;
They are born with a great circle round Them of friends, and a great
host before them of apparent foes, incarnated as human beings, to work
out the world-drama that is being played.

This is most of all, perhaps, apparent in the case of the One whom we
are now studying. Because of the extremely complicated nature of the
Avatara of Shri Krishna, and the vast range that He covered as
regards His manifestations of complex human life, in order to render the
vast subject a little more manageable, I have divided this drama, as it
were, into its separate acts. I am using for a moment the language of
the stage, for I think it will make my meaning rather more clear. That
is, in dealing with His life, I have taken its stages which are clearly
marked out, and in each of these we shall see one great type of the
teaching which the world is meant to learn from the playing of this
drama before the eyes of men. To some extent the stages correspond with
marked periods in the life, and to some extent they overlap each other;
but by having them clearly in our minds we shall be able, I think, to
grasp better the whole object of the Avatara--we shall have as it were
compartments in the mind in which the different types of teaching may be
placed.

First then He comes to show forth to the world a great Object of bhakti,
and the love of God to His bhakta, or devotee. That is the aim of the
first act of the great drama--to stand forth as the Object of devotion,
and to show forth the love with which God regards His devotees. We have
there a marked stage in the life of Shri Krishna.

Then the second act of the drama may be said to be His character as the
destroyer of the opposing forces that retard evolution, and that runs
through the whole of His life.

The third act is that of the statesman, the wise, politic, and
intellectual actor on the world's stage of history, the guiding force of
the nation by His wondrous policy and intelligence, standing forth not
as king but rather as statesman.

Then we have Him as friend, the human friend, especially of the
Pandavas and of Arjuna.

The next act is that of Shri Krishna as Teacher, the
worl