Some avatars are "full" avatars, fully aware of their divine nature form birth. The late Anandamayi Ma, believed by many to have been an incarnation of the goddess Kali, reported that she was fully conscious from birth. She even described details from her earliest infancy that ordinarily a child couldn't possibly remember. She said she didn't experience the world piecemeal, but "all at once," without any limitations on her awareness. She proved again and again that she accurately knew exactly what was happening with devotees in other parts of India.
Some incarnations, like Rama and Sita, may be "partial", where God and Goddess retain some of their divine powers but are not fully aware of their divinity. Others, like Parashu Rama, had forgotten their divine status completely and lost themselves in the world play until reawakened by an inspired guru.
Many Hindus sincerely believe their own guru is a special incarnation of one aspect or another of the divine. A guru may be an incarnation of divine wisdom or an embodiment of divine love. A number of truly remarkable modern women, like Anasuya Devi from Jillellamudi and Amritanandamayi Ma from Kerala, are felt by many Hindus to be actual incarnations of the Mother of the Universe.
An important point to remember here is that in a sense, we're all avatars. Each of us incarnates a portion of divine consciousness, though most of us (like Parashu Rama) have completely forgotten it. The fundamental distinction between a great avatar like Rama or Krishna and the rest of us is that we're "average" souls working our way up to divine status. The great start from the top, working their way down to our level of consciousness.
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