अवतार
[अवतार एक संस्कृत शब्द है - इसका मूल शब्द अवतारति है जो दो शब्दों अव और तारति से बना है। अव का अर्थ है "दूर" और तारति का अर्थ है "वह पार करता है"] शब्द का अवतरण; आत्मा के स्तर से पदार्थ के स्तर तक सार्वभौमिक चेतना का अवतरण या पारगमन।
द इनसाइक्लोपीडिया ऑफ़ ईस्टर्न फिलॉसफी एंड रिलिजन अवतार की परिभाषा इस प्रकार से दी है:
ईश्वर की चेतना का पृथ्वी पर देह धारण। पृथ्वी पर अवतार का जन्म कर्म का खेल नहीं है (जैसा की सामान्य मानवों का होता है) वरन स्वतंत्र इच्छा शक्ति से होता है, और यह जीव अपने ईश्वरीय लक्ष्य को हमेशा स्मरण रखता है। अवतार [मुश्किल घड़ियों] में धार्मिक बोध के नए रास्ते दिखाने और उन रास्तों को उस युग (जिसमे वो प्रकट हुआ है) के अनुकूल बनाने के लिए प्रकट होता है।
एक युग का अवतार
किसी भी युग का अवतार चेतना है; देह धारण किये हुए ईश्वर (विष्णु) का पुत्र; त्रिदेवों में दूसरा। अपनी दिव्य पूरक शक्ति या समरूप जोड़ी के साथ अवतार चेतना में, तथा चार निचले शरीरों में ईश्वरीय माता-पिता का स्वरुप लेता है ताकि जीवात्माएं आध्यात्मिक रूप से उन्नत हो पाएं।
The principal avatars of an age are two in number—the masculine and feminine prototypes who embody and show by their example the path of initiation designated by the solar hierarchies responsible for the lifewaves moving toward the center of the Cosmic Christ through the Open Door (the Teacher and Teaching) of that two-thousand-year dispensation. According to mankind’s karma, the evolutionary status quo of the children of God (their soul progress or lack of it in previous dispensations), and the requirements of the Logos, the Manus may designate numerous Christed ones—those endued with an extraordinary light—to go forth as world teachers and wayshowers.
The Christed ones demonstrate in a given epoch the Law of the Logos, stepped down through the Manu(s) and the avatar(s) until it is made flesh through their own Word and Work—to be ultimately victorious in its fulfillment in all souls of light sent forth to conquer time and space in that era.
The coming of the avatar
Hermes Trismegistus has said:
Earth has not been without the avatara. But this is an hour of great transition and great requirement where those who have been the recipients time and again, such as you, of the presence and the peace, the harmony and the enlightenment of such as we, must now receive the torch to be and to become all that you have witnessed of the Adam Kadmon for many hundreds of thousands of years upon earth. Thus no new avatara may descend except there be the magnet upon earth of the inner alchemy of the Spirit in those who are the ancient souls who have returned again and again.
It is time for the turning of the great alchemy of Life. It is time for the reflecting pools of many souls to reflect the fullness of the Spirit. It is time for the singing of the song of Hermes Trismegistus by all of the powers within, all of the initiatic symbols, all of the reinforcement of the will. By thy will, sing the hymn of the Sun and be the Son! By understanding, and not perverseness or ignorance, affirm the law of regenerative being and know that unless there be regeneration in the here and now, there cannot be regeneration in the hereafter.[1]
The avatar of the Aquarian age
Saint Germain has said:
And therefore I AM Saint Germain, Messenger of Sanat Kumara unto the Aquarian age. Therefore I AM Saint Germain, avatara of this age, initiating all people of Light in the way of transmutation, in the way of the sacred fires of the Holy Spirit that are indeed for the judgment and the all-consuming fire that shall truly cause the greatest changes in the history of this planet that have been known since her inception in the Mind of God![2]
स्रोत
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Saint Germain On Alchemy: Formulas for Self-Transformation.
Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 38, no. 6, February 5, 1995, endnote.