Westernization of the word Avatar

Meher Baba said that one day the world would recognize him as Avatar. However, at the time he said this most people around the world didn't even know what the word 'avatar' meant.

When Baba passed away in 1969, the word 'avatar' was certainly not commonly recognizable in America, even among people familiar with Eastern philosophy. The word 'avatar' does not appear in the Bhagavad Gita, and the great 9th century Indian philosopher Shankaracharya, who developed the branch of Hinduism closest to Baba's teaching, Advaita Vedanta, did not mention the word either. The word was not even known to the early 20th century Theosophists. They used the term 'world teacher.' This is understandable, as they mostly relied on Buddhist teachings, which of course do not include the concept of avatar.

Since 1969 many Sanskrit terms have entered into common English usage, even if they are somewhat watered down from their original meanings. People regularly refer to yoga, karma, and most recently 'avatar.'

Ironically, the word avatar comes to us in very odd ways, yet each use includes some reference to the Sanskrit meaning, which means to take physical form, or descend into physical form.

After 1969, the first appearance of it in media was during the 1975 Belmont Stakes in New York, when the long-shot contender horse Avatar beat Foolish Pleasure in a last minute upset. The New York Times headline read "Avatar, $28.40, Defeats Foolish Pleasure by Neck in Belmont; Master Derby Finishes 3d in $193,600 Race Avatar, 13-1, Wins By Neck."



For the computer-wise, the word 'avatar' made its entrance as a graphical representation of a user or alter-ego or character in computer games. In 1985, the computer game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was released. The game designer, Richard Garriott, wanted the player's character to be his earth self manifested into the virtual world. The game was voted #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC by Computer Gaming World in 1996.

It would be yet another 10 years before the word would burst into mainstream use, originally among children no less, when the first Avatar: the last Airbender animated television show appeared on Nickelodeon in 2005. The first kids that watched this series on TV are now graduated from college. 

At that point the word took off. It appeared as titles of two movies in 2009 and 2010. The first, directed by James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens, Titanic) became the first film to gross over $2 billion. The Sanskrit meaning, as used in the sense invented by Richard Garriot for Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar referred to a character's earth self manifested into a virtual (computer simulated) world.

The Rama & Sita like characters in Cameron's Avatar

Today the term is common, even if its Sanskrit roots (used by Baba) are generally unrecognized.

My father once mused that though he heard of Meher Baba in 1964, looking back he was suprised that he had never heard of the word 'avatar.' After all he was well-educated and well-read. Today, there is almost no one in the West that would not be familiar with the word in some context or other.