PERFECT IN ITS AIM AND RESULTS

 
In the working out of the avataric whim there is not the least element of chance. The aim of the whim's action is perfect and its result is precise.

An ordinary person's whim, when expressed, may have consequences quite outside itself, as illustrated by the following story. A drunken man was passing by a wood-apple tree and had a whim to taste one of its fruits. As a rule a drunkard has a distaste for sour or tart things because they nullify the effect of drink, so this man's wanting a wood-apple was purely a whim, independent of thought or real desire.

He picked up a stone and threw it at the tree. The stone missed any of the apples, killed a bird, scared away many others and fell on the head of a traveller resting beneath the tree. Thus the haphazard expression of the drunkard's whim not only failed to accomplish the whim but brought about results completely outside it. The whim was merely an unrelated fancy, and the action stemming from it had no connection with its object.

This sort of thing can never happen in the exercise of the Avatar's whim. Arising from compassion and expression of Perfection it is perfect in its aim and results.