The word Avatar means two things. The general sense comes from the literal meaning of the word itself. Avatar means descent. The descent of beings of the higher consciousness are therefore termed as Avatars.
The second and specific sense of the Avatar is the descent of the Divine upon earth. Each of these Divine descents carries on the earth’s evolution one step forward. Thus, Rama took the animal consciousness to the human, Sri Krishna helped the human consciousness to evolve beyond the human into the spiritual. Sri Aurobindo comes to take the spiritual man towards the supramental.
