Avatars and Vibhutis Focus Their Attention and Action on the Work to Be Done

The mind creates a number of illusions and misconceptions about Avatars and Vibhutis. Many of these ideas assume, wrongly, that a conscious manifestation of the Divine in the world must be likewise all-knowing and all-powerful, and they thus attribute miraculous powers and actions to those who have been identified as such. It would of course not be logical to assume that every divine manifestation must carry all-knowledge active within himself, when the focus is restricted to a specific time, place and circumstance. Since they manifest to accomplish specific actions, to move the evolution forward, to address specific obstacles to the change, or to lock in specific powers of action that will help break through the resistance of the past and present status of humanity, they need not distract themselves with events or activities outside their scope.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “An Avatar or Vibhuti have the knowledge that is necessary for their work, they need not have more. There was absolutely no reason why Buddha should know what was going on in Rome. An Avatar even does not manifest all the Divine omniscience and omnipotence; he has not come for any such unnecessary display; all that is behind him but not in the front of his consciousness. As for the Vibhuti, the Vibhuti need not even know that he is a power of the Divine. Some Vibhutis like Julius Caesar for instance have been atheists. Buddha himself did not believe in a personal God, only in some impersonal and indescribable Permanent.”

Sri Aurobindo, Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice, Chapter 12, Other Aspects of Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice, The Avatar and the Vibhuti, pp. 347-349