Here the question was asked whether Narada and others were Bhaktas only and not Jnanis. The Bhagavan replied: Narada and others had attained the highest knowledge (Brahma-Jnana), but still they went on like the murmuring

waters of the rivulet, talking and singing. This shows that they too kept this ego of knowledge. They were Jnanis (knowers), but they talked and sang the praises of the Personal God for the good of others. A steamboat not only reaches its destination itself but also carries numbers of people on board to the same place. Preceptors such as Narada are like steamboats.

[Avataras.] The Avataras or Incarnations of God are born with Divine powers and Divine qualities. They can go anywhere and can stay in any state of existence from the highest to the lowest. They can stand on the top of the house and come down by the stairs to the ground floor and can go back to the roof again. They possess the power both to come down and to return. In a seven-story palace a stranger can only go to the outer quarters, but the king's own child, the prince of the house, is free to go to every corner.

[Avataras and ordinary Jivas.] As in fireworks there is a kind of flower-pot which sends off one kind of flower for a while, then another kind and still another, possessing, as it were, an innumerable variety of flowers, so are the Avataras. Then there is another kind of flower-pot

[Souls eternally free] which when lighted burns a little and then goes off all at once. Similarly ordinary Jivas, after long practice and devotional exercises, go up at once in Samadhi and do not return. There is another class who may be called eternally free. From their birth they seek after God and do not care for anything of the world. We are told of a fabled species of birds called "Homa," which live so high up in the heavens, and so dearly love those regions, that they never condescend to come down to the earth. Even their eggs, which when laid in the sky begin to fall to the earth by the force of gravity, are said to be hatched during their downward course, and the fledglings, finding that they are falling down, at once change their course and begin to fly upward towards their home, drawn thither by instinct. Men such as Sukadeva, Narada, Jesus, Sankaracharya and others are like those birds, who even in their boyhood give up all attachment to the things of this world and betake themselves to the highest regions of true knowledge and Divine Light. Those who come with the Avataras are either souls who are eternally free or who are born for the last time.

The holy men (Paramahamsas) may be divided