Page 13 - All India Magazine Aug-2025

the divine, the godlike nature in man, and by those who represent
it or strive to realise it in human life, the latter by the Titanic or de-
moniac, the Asuric and Rakshasic nature whose head is a violent
egoism, and by those who represent and strive to satisfy it. This is
the war of the Gods and Titans, the symbol of which the old Indian
literature is full, the struggle of the Mahabharata of which Krishna
is the central figure being often represented in that image; the
Pandavas who fight for the establishment of the kingdom of the
Dharma, are the sons of the Gods, their powers in human form,
their adversaries are incarnations of the Titanic powers, they are
Asuras. This outer struggle too the Avatar comes to aid, directly
or indirectly, to destroy the reign of the Asuras, the evil-doers, and
in them depress the power they represent and to restore the op-
pressed ideals of the Dharma. He comes to bring nearer the king-
dom of heaven on earth in the collectivity as well as to build the
kingdom of heaven within in the individual human soul.
CWSA 19: 174-75

Steps of man's ascent towards God
Human knowledge and power manifest in many ways in the
course of evolution. Three stages of it can be noticed — a natural
state dominated by the body and controlled by the life-force, an
intermediate and more advanced state preeminently rational, and
the last and highest state in which the soul is predominant.
Man, when he is dominated by the body and driven by the
life-force, is a slave of desire and interests. He knows only inherent
selfishness, ordinary instinct and impulse. And he prefers what-
ever social arrangement seems to be convenient and is brought
about by the chain of events resulting from the clash of desires
and interests; he calls the collection of a few or many such regula-
tions his dharma or way of life. Customs that run in the tradition
or family or in society are the Dharma or Law of this lower natural
state. The natural man has no idea of liberation, he does not know

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