In the Christian tradition, no less exclusively, the historical character, Jesus, is regarded as the one and only incarnation on earth of the Godhead, the one true-God-and-true-Man. This avatar we are taught to regard as a miracle. In the Orient, on the other hand, everyone is to realize this truth in himself, and such an incarnation as Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, or the Buddha is to be thought of simply as a model through which to realize the mystery of the incarnation in oneself.
