who has passed the highest examination of the university, can without difficulty write the alphabet in teaching children; but children cannot do what he can do. To show the way to divinity, the God-man may often play the role of a devotee of God, though he has attained complete unity with God; he plays the role of a Bhakta, even after realization, in order that others should be able to know the way. He is not bound to any particular role; and he can adjust his technique of helping others to the needs of those who seek his guidance. Whatever he does, he does for the ultimate good of others; for him, there is nothing which is worth obtaining, because he has become everything.

Not only is the God-man not necessarily bound to any particular technique of giving spiritual help to others, but he is also not bound to the conventional standard of the good. He is beyond the distinction of good and evil; but though what he does may appear to be lawless to the eyes of the world, it is always meant for the ultimate good of others. He uses different methods for different persons. He has no self-interest or personal motive, and is always inspired by the compassion that seeks the true well-being of others; therefore, in all that he does he remains unbound. He uses Maya to draw his disciples out of Maya, and takes to infinite ways and workings for his spiritual task. His methods are different with different persons; nor are they the same with the same person, at all times. Occasionally he may even do something which shocks others, because it runs counter to their usual expectations; but this is always intended to serve some spiritual purpose. The interception of a short shocking dream is often useful in awakening a person from a long beautiful dream; and like the shocking dream, the usual shocks which the God-man, in his discretion, deliberately administers, are eventually wholesome, though they might be unpleasant at the time of their occurrence.

The God-man may even seem to be unduly harsh with certain persons; but the onlookers have no idea of the internal situation and cannot therefore have a right understanding of the true justification of his apparent cruelty. But in fact, his sternness is often imperatively demanded by the spiritual requirements of the situation and is necessary in the best interests of those to whom he seems to be harsh. We have a good and illustrative analogy for such apparently cruel action in the cases of those expert swimmers who save drowning persons. It is well known that if a person is drowning he has a tendency to cling to anything that comes to him; and, in his desperateness