Well there are several indicators to suggest that, leaving apart the direct statements made by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s tacit agreement with few disciples who asked this from him.
A closer look reveals that he fulfilled all the four ‘criteria’, if we may say so that Sri Krishna mentions in the Gita for the Avatar.
The period of Sri Aurobindo’s birth is truly a period of complete oblivion of dharma, धर्मस्य ग्लानि with near total darkness reigning over India and the world. An exclusive materialistic Science had labelled religion as merely a belief and spiritual experience as hallucination. Devoid of a deeper understanding, the mystic lore had turned into a mass of superstitions or a ritualistic religion. Here and there, attempts were there to get to the real meaning of the Vedas and the Upanishads but the two keys, the philology and the Mystic experience enshrined in them were missing. At best there was an other-worldly mysticism giving a lie to the world and the effort of the Ages. On the other hand Imperialism, Marxist form of Communism, and a philosophy of life and man based on a biological understanding alone had blotted out the soul and confined God to some sky above All this gulf we find bridged through Sri Aurobindo’s writings in ways as never before.
But the bridge in the ideative realm is not enough. The roadblocks had to be removed, the Asuras of Imperialism, Nazism, had to be defeated, India’s political freedom won and the path opened for the future. If there is one single person who fulfils and sums up all these in a single personality, it is none else but Sri Aurobindo.
There are many other aspects that i have discussed in some talks and written about it. Of course, an Avatar is a question of personal revelation and is not a question of convincing anyone about it.
