Avatars
Incarnation and Avatar are more or less synonymous words of worldly origin. Avtar is an original Sanskrit word that has been borrowed as such by different languages, including English. Incarnation is an English vocabulary created for Avatar.
What is relevant is to know the exact meaning of these words and the background in which they came into existence. The word is traditionally associated with some kind of Divine appearance, manifestation or descent. Hinduism is the oldest religion. Most of the first incarnations happened as per their scriptures. There are scriptures of non-human or unworldly origin and of human or worldly origin when we talk of scriptures. Whereas Vedas and Koran come under the former category, all other scriptures are of the latter category.
Again, in terms of scriptures, what is to be understood is that they have originated at different times and under different contexts. Hence, they need to be understood in that context, and the basis of most of them are in terms of the prevailing conditions and needs of the time and place. What I am trying to convey by this is that they are not comparable or measurable on the same scale and, people should not try to establish their scripture as the true one or important one as is happening in the world. Though the scriptures may have temporal and spatial context, it does not mean that it is only for a restricted set of people of the place or area but is of universal importance as there would be some universal truth to be grasped and practised by all. Unfortunately, religious hegemony has played the injudicious role of dividing people and making scriptures their personal property or only their religious followers. People of other religions have also ironically fallen into the trap and consider these scriptures as foreign and not applicable to them.
Another question is about the reliability, validity and truthfulness of the scriptures. All scriptures of human origin are likely to have errors of omission and commission. A certain degree of corruption is inevitable in worldly scriptures as humans are, after all, humans and not divines. Hence, some concoctions and misinformation/modification are likely to be passed off as Truth as per the convictions and habits of the custodians of the religion or sect of that time. So, they are likely to be a mixture of truths, half-truths and even non-truths. Any sane and logical reader should filter out the Truth and ignore other contradictory information or deviations from the Truth. In this respect, the unworldly scriptures like Vedas and Khoran suffer not from concoctions or modifications but mistranslation or false interpretation or even projecting things out of context.
Coming to incarnations or avatars, the Hindu religion is the oldest that probably stands witness to many incarnations/avatars. The first avatars happened much earlier, even before scriptures like the Purans appeared. Purans came into the worldly arena only some 5000 to 6000 years back. So, they encode descriptions of earlier or past incarnations as well as of future incarnations as predictions. However, Vedas do not mention any incarnations or Gods as the Vedic information or teachings came at the beginning of human creation before the advent of Gods, Goddesses and incarnations. Vedas essentially embody the greatest truths of existence, and it is perhaps the greatest treasure in all the scriptural literature of the world. The Rigveda itself indicates that Truth is one –
“ekam sadviprabahudh avadanti agnimya’mam matariswan’amahuh”
(meaning Truth is one, but the learned refer to it in different adjective forms like Agni, Yama, Matariswan etc.).
But, the modified concept that there is a single Pᾱrbrahm and that all Gods are His forms appeared in the Vedantas (Upanishads). They then found more modified representation in the form of different Gods and personal Gods and goddesses in the Puranas. The Puranas also introduced mythological stories based on the Vedic concepts and adjectives and descriptions of various incarnations/avatars.
The various mythological scriptures mention a differing number of avatars of Vishnu, like 10, 21, 22 and even 24. This is essentially based on major and minor avatars. The proponents of 10 avatars take into consideration only the ten major ones while excluding the minor ones. The proponents of 21, 22, and 24 take into consideration even the minor ones. While 24 represent the total of all avatars, the proponents of 21 and 22 omit 3 or 2 of the minor avatars. The 21st and the last Vishnu avatar, the Krishna avatar, appeared at the end of dwapar (the bronze age) or the beginning of kali yuga (the iron age). All the other previous avatars occurred at different times, from satyug (the golden age) till dwapar. It is with reference to this Shri Krishn tells in Gita that
“Yadhᾱyadhᾱhidħarmasyaglᾱnirbhavathibhᾱratha|
abhyuthᾱnamadħarmasyathadhᾱtmᾱnamsrjᾱmyaham|” (Gita, 4:7).
“O Bharata, whenever there is a decline of righteousness and rise of evil, I manifest Myself.” Or, “During such times, when there is great danger of anarchy and destruction of society, the Lord says “I Manifest.” (Srujami).
As God is considered to represent all good and divine, it can instead of ‘I manifest’ be said as “Good and divine manifest’. As a consequence, evil will be destroyed, and peace and prosperity will be ushered in.
Now the question is, who is God and which God manifests?” The manifest could be considered of two types. One type is represented by extra-ordinary divinity in human form who lives a life of a detached or jivanmukta. The second is the actual manifestation in the form of incarnation of the creator God himself in a human form. Though He takes birth in the form of a human, He is nevertheless free of all perversions and desires, unlike mortal humans and takes birth out of His free will and not due to previous karmas as in the case of humans.
The shastras (scriptures) indicate that any human who works selflessly and not desiring fruits of action is a divinity on earth. One who dedicates his life to human welfare is known as God on earth for that period.
Accordingly, when evil dominates the world, someone will arise and reach Godhood by his actions that will destroy evil. History witnesses many such personalities (men and women) who are equated with God by the later generations.
Scholars contend that at such times when extreme unrighteousness (adħarma) prevails and hinders man’s spiritual progress, the creator God would embody Himself on earth. The next verse of Gita answers the question, “what will He do?”
“Parithrānāyasādħūnāmvināshāya chadhushkrtām| dħarmasamstħāpanārtħāyasambhavāmiyugeyug”
Gita, 4:8.
“For the protection of the righteous, for the destruction of wicked, and the establishment of Dharma, I am born in every age.”
This verse conveys a promise of the Lord who created life on earth. As it is He who created life, He takes full responsibility for its protection. This is His promise for all of us irrespective of caste, creed, sex, religion or region. It is, in fact, a universal message. It is, therefore, a promise for the entire life on earth. In this context, Shrimad Bhagwad Gita is a philosophical message for the whole universe. The three promises are: – ‘Protection of the good and virtuous.’ – ‘Destruction of the wicked.’– and, ‘Upholding of righteousness (dħarma).’
Now we come to the so-called last three avatars. In this context, we need to understand the nuances of the word ‘avatar or ‘incarnation and the nature of the Supreme Lord (PārBrahm) of Hindus, Allah of Muslims and Supreme truth God or Christ of Christ of Christians.
Let us first understand the word incarnation. If we try to understand the word’s meaning, we find that it is a multifaceted word or a word representing multiple aspects. The meanings range from avatar, descend, appear, manifest, embody, etc. Nowhere is it conveyed precisely as to be born in flesh and blood only. Apparently, it could represent both being born in a human form and just the descent or manifestation of the energy or force of a Supreme Power. The difference becomes clear when we reflect on the words in Hindi’ avatar lena’ and avatar dharan karna’. The former means ‘to appear as incarnation’, and the latter means ‘to appear as incarnate.’ There is a subtle difference between the two. While the former indicates the appearance in a human form or to take birth in flesh and blood, the latter only suggests the descent or manifestation of some aspect of higher divinity within a chosen human form.
To date, people of this world have remained unclear or, let us say, ignorant of the form, nature, abode and sport of the Supreme Lord and even of His hierarchal organization. Even Vedas and Khoran are not clear on these aspects except for Khoran mentioning that the Khoranic verses have come from the Supreme Lord or Allah and the Vedas alluding to a Supreme Brahman with superlative adjectives to describe Him. Neither of these scriptures can convey any clear understanding of these aspects. Vedas have taken the Supreme Lord or Brahman to be incorporeal and omnipresent in this universe, meaning everywhere and anywhere. When trying to arrive at a rational understanding of these descriptions, to me at least, they are fraught with incomprehensible illogicalities and aberrations.
On the belief of the Lord being incorporeal, the paradox is that all creations are with form while the controlling power of design Himself is formless. How can form appear from formless? ‘Like begets like’ is the scientific dictum, so a form can appear only from form and not formless. The biblical statement that ‘God created man in His own image’ is relevant in this context. No doubt, humans are created as the images of the Form of the Supreme Lord. So, we are nothing but duplicate images of the Original Form of the Lord.
What about the omnipresence of Him? Omnipresence means presence in everything and anything meaning within us, on us, on and around every living and non-living matter, soil, water, air, fire and what not? A paradox that overpowers me is the fact that there is so much filth within and without us and that He is present in all of it (sic). He is present in virtuous as well as evil people at the same time. Therefore, does it mean that we are standing, sitting, walking, spitting, urinating, and defecating on the Supreme Lord as He is present in everything and everywhere? He is present in all pollutants and all disease-causing bacteria and viruses, and so, He becomes the cause of all diseases and disasters on earth. Since He is present even inside an evil being, who is responsible for the person’s evil actions? What an irony that He becomes responsible for every act of thievery, dacoity, murder, slaughter, rape etc. Since He is present even in animals, are we not slaughtering the Lord when we kill animals? So, the argument of the Lord being omnipresent touches upon nothing else but absurdity.
As per scriptures, some of the Supreme Lord’s qualities are His eternality and blissful nature. In this context, if the Lord is omnipresent in this universe, how can plants, animals, and humans die, or how could this universe ever undergo annihilation; how can there be so much sorrow and misery in this world? All these go contrary to his defined qualities. His presence should confer eternality and bliss, and that is not true of this universe, or for that matter, of any other universe. This world is born out of illusion (Maya), and the Lord is free of all illusion. He is pure, so even though illusion manifests from His power only, He cannot be present physically in this universe of fantasy. It is something like a potter being searched for in the pot. The pot is merely a representation of the potter’s artisanship and not his physical being.
Similarly, the Supreme Lord Himself cannot be physically manifest in this cosmos though, His power (that is used by the creator God to create this cosmos) is very much manifest in this universe or, say, omnipresent. Our folly is that we are trying to establish His physical form to be omnipresent in this universe, while the fact is that it is only His power that is omnipresent. This simple understanding can overcome all contradictions. But, the human weakness is that we hold on to our ingrained beliefs and become hardcore even if they are proved wrong or alternate evidence is available to the contrary. Unfortunately, people having got ingrained with some beliefs or explanations irrespective of whether Vedic followers, Biblical followers, or Khoranic followers become die-hard, intransigent, obstinate, rigid, stubborn, uncompromising, and unyielding.
