अवतार - the Descent of the Divine.
The Upanishads declare that the unmanifest Supreme Brahman to makes itself known becomes manifest as रूप (the form) with नाम (his divine essence) within that रूप, to the tip of figures. Essence of the Supreme Brahman is not seen because it is concealed within the forms. I becomes known as the Breath when breathing, as the Speech when speaking, as the Sight when seeing, as the Sound when hearing and as Thought when thinking.
The Supreme Brahman, which transcends hunger and thirst, sorrow and delusion, old age and death exists within the heart of all the beings, verily, being that which is to be sought. But the Supreme Brahman is not known by meditating on one or the other forms of his, because each of those forms are incomplete. He should be searched as one would search the lost cow by the marks which it leaves, using the forms as marks.
The wise ones having known that Supreme Self, overcome the desire for sons, the desire for wealth, the desire for temporal worlds live the life of roaming mendicants and having transcended whatever they have learnt, having transcended whatever they have known as Knowledge, live life as child lapsed in the state as silent meditator and finally transcending both the non-meditative and meditative states, become wise in Wisdom of Brahman.
The unmanifest Brahman when it becomes manifest in forms with essence within, has three Intent and Purpose in mind : Firstly, the Creation of an immaculate pure social order in the worlds. Secondly, providing the Cosmic Law and Principles of Righteousness in the process of Supervision of the social order in world created. Thirdly, punishing lapses in observing the Cosmic Law or the Principles of Righteousness according to severity of each case and destroying the social order created completely and rest abolish a new social order. The punishment is as diverse as the offences are. Some offences need rap on the knuckles, some need loss of health or wealth some other need loss of possessions and positions.
अवतार is a concept deeply imbedded and comprehensively and decisively dominated in the Hindu psyche. But अवतरण by the Supreme Brahman does not
mean that The Supreme Brahman does not have to descend all by himself. Brahman himself has to descend or descends in gross material form but means that he can use and uses one or the other of his energies or forms by energising and making them resurgent to represent him as निमित्त, the agency to supervise the manifest Creation, dissolution of the forms and perform the needed actions, when created forms become obscured and vitiated under the influences of senses and excessive attachment to unrighteous desires and intense cravings, misuse the limited independence granted and act contrary to the principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness to set right the shattered social order evolving a new social order based on new and enlightened principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness.
Therefore, Bhagavat Purana says that the Supreme Brahmaan, Sriman Narayana descends, as it were, making many forms like Gods, Seers, great Kings and human beings resurgent to fulfil the Divine Intent and Purpose.
Comparisons are odious since all the descents come to be sourced from the imperishable seed Sriman Narayana and return back to the source after accomplishing the Divine Intentand Purpose. The
Gods like Agni, Aap, Vayu, Sun, Moon, Sky, Earth and the rest of the primary divine energies, the fIrst five of the ten descents demonstrating the resurgence divine. Intent to direct as Fish the new social order, as tortoise stabilise the forces og Light against the forces of darkness, as boar to re-source and re-establish the lost wisdom from the depth of ignorance, as man-lion to destroy the evil and as The child-mendicant to transcend the limits of three stages and three periods of Time, as seers like Vyasa, Narada, Nara, Kapila, Dattatreya and the others to communicate Wisdom, as the kings like Nabhi, Prithu, Vaivasvat Manu and the others, as Parashurama to subjugate the the arrogance of the warrior class, as Rama to be the मर्यादा पुरुषोत्तम to establish the norms of civilised human goals, as Krishna to be the World Teacher recovering, synthesing the Perrennijal Wisdom lost over period of Time due to efflux of Time, Gautam Siddarth coming to reinterpret the Vedic truths in the light of suffering of the masses and the way to Deliverance when Brahmanical class becoming excessively arrogant as the exclusive custodian of the Wisdom of the Veda.
Indeed the Supreme Brahman does not prefer only those who are exceptionally sensitive with essence (नाम) within the gross forms (रूप) as effective instruments - िनमित्त to fulfil his be
Intent and Purpose in preservation of the manifest creation but also values the role of those who are less sensitive due to ignorance caused by excessive influence of senses on their mind and therefore are inferior in luminosity, some less energetic in enterprise and many excessively obscure in intelligence confused as in a dark cave, performing actions, good, bad and indifferent, living a life of repeated birth and death, groping for deliverance but finding no way to become liberated.
For such ones, Dasharathi Rama, Devakiputra Krishna and Gautam Buddha became the great World Teachers offering Paths to Perefection. Rama being consciously aware of the principles of piles धर्म, नीति and मर्यादा as the foundation for every human life, living his personal life with moral and ethical probity, and endorsing similar life for others.
Krishna pointed three three-fold Paths - ज्ञानमार्ग for those luminous in receptivity, कर्ममार्ग fot those energetic in enterprise and भक्तिमार्ग for those obscure in receptivity. For those who were luminous in receptivity ज्ञानमार्ग opened their mind to be receptive to the self within, think about it's unfolding, be reflective and meditative, intense austerity and perfected penance. For those who were energetic in enterprise कर्ममार्ग opened the actions to be performed, without being attached to the fruits of action and in the spirit of free and complete surrender to the Divine Intent and Purpose. For the common people with inferior receptivity of mind but keen higher intensity of emotions भक्तिमार्ग opened their heart to be more receptive, surrendering their mind, speech and action and even their self to the Supreme Brahman as an act of submission.
Gautam Buddha was concerned essentially with human suffering and realising that intellectual capacity and inclination, the fundamental salient pointed out in simple words that suffering in human life is caused by intenses desire - तान्हा and inherent inability to possess that which one does not possess, to become some thing which one is not and finally to renounce one'spossessions and position.
But men wise in Wisdom who have experienced the past and of the present and can clearly observe the future are consciously aware that human race under the influence of senses are bound to be doomed to destruction. Neither Dasharathi Rama's righteous idealistic life of moral and ethical standards nor recollection and re-statement by Krishna humane teachings of of the perennial principles long forgotten due to efflux of time nor even the down to the earth teachings of the compassionate Buddha could redeem the human race from being doomed to further degradation and demise of all canons of ethical, moral and righteous ideals. It was necessary for the Supreme Brahman to make Kalki, symbolising Terrible Time which comes with sword in hand and riding on horse, as the symbol of resurgent energy to destroy the unrighteous, obscure forces in society and give rise to new forces with new society with new and resurgent set of Cosmic Order and Principles of Righteousness.
In the world created by the Supreme Brahman, no doors are closed and all avenues are opened, all the deities presiding over the integral source of energies waiting for the primary energies to be energised, to be resurgent to fulfil the role assigned to them by गुण - the attributes and स्वभाव - the inclination born of Nature.
The Supreme Brahman devises and designs his अवतरण, the descent of his energy within reach of every human being to be capable to rise above from their state of being according to their attributes and inclination to become fit for the state of deliverance.
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The Upanishads declare that the unmanifest Supreme Brahman to makes itself known becomes manifest as रूप (the form) with नाम (his divine essence) within that रूप, to the tip of figures. Essence of the Supreme Brahman is not seen because it is concealed within the forms. I becomes known as the Breath when breathing, as the Speech when speaking, as the Sight when seeing, as the Sound when hearing and as Thought when thinking.
The Supreme Brahman, which transcends hunger and thirst, sorrow and delusion, old age and death exists within the heart of all the beings, verily, being that which is to be sought. But the Supreme Brahman is not known by meditating on one or the other forms of his, because each of those forms are incomplete. He should be searched as one would search the lost cow by the marks which it leaves, using the forms as marks.
The wise ones having known that Supreme Self, overcome the desire for sons, the desire for wealth, the desire for temporal worlds live the life of roaming mendicants and having transcended whatever they have learnt, having transcended whatever they have known as Knowledge, live life as child lapsed in the state as silent meditator and finally transcending both the non-meditative and meditative states, become wise in Wisdom of Brahman.
The unmanifest Brahman when it becomes manifest in forms with essence within, has three Intent and Purpose in mind : Firstly, the Creation of an immaculate pure social order in the worlds. Secondly, providing the Cosmic Law and Principles of Righteousness in the process of Supervision of the social order in world created. Thirdly, punishing lapses in observing the Cosmic Law or the Principles of Righteousness according to severity of each case and destroying the social order created completely and rest abolish a new social order. The punishment is as diverse as the offences are. Some offences need rap on the knuckles, some need loss of health or wealth some other need loss of possessions and positions.
अवतार is a concept deeply imbedded and comprehensively and decisively dominated in the Hindu psyche. But अवतरण by the Supreme Brahman does not
mean that The Supreme Brahman does not have to descend all by himself. Brahman himself has to descend or descends in gross material form but means that he can use and uses one or the other of his energies or forms by energising and making them resurgent to represent him as निमित्त, the agency to supervise the manifest Creation, dissolution of the forms and perform the needed actions, when created forms become obscured and vitiated under the influences of senses and excessive attachment to unrighteous desires and intense cravings, misuse the limited independence granted and act contrary to the principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness to set right the shattered social order evolving a new social order based on new and enlightened principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness.
Therefore, Bhagavat Purana says that the Supreme Brahmaan, Sriman Narayana descends, as it were, making many forms like Gods, Seers, great Kings and human beings resurgent to fulfil the Divine Intent and Purpose.
Comparisons are odious since all the descents come to be sourced from the imperishable seed Sriman Narayana and return back to the source after accomplishing the Divine Intentand Purpose. The
Gods like Agni, Aap, Vayu, Sun, Moon, Sky, Earth and the rest of the primary divine energies, the fIrst five of the ten descents demonstrating the resurgence divine. Intent to direct as Fish the new social order, as tortoise stabilise the forces og Light against the forces of darkness, as boar to re-source and re-establish the lost wisdom from the depth of ignorance, as man-lion to destroy the evil and as The child-mendicant to transcend the limits of three stages and three periods of Time, as seers like Vyasa, Narada, Nara, Kapila, Dattatreya and the others to communicate Wisdom, as the kings like Nabhi, Prithu, Vaivasvat Manu and the others, as Parashurama to subjugate the the arrogance of the warrior class, as Rama to be the मर्यादा पुरुषोत्तम to establish the norms of civilised human goals, as Krishna to be the World Teacher recovering, synthesing the Perrennijal Wisdom lost over period of Time due to efflux of Time, Gautam Siddarth coming to reinterpret the Vedic truths in the light of suffering of the masses and the way to Deliverance when Brahmanical class becoming excessively arrogant as the exclusive custodian of the Wisdom of the Veda.
Indeed the Supreme Brahman does not prefer only those who are exceptionally sensitive with essence (नाम) within the gross forms (रूप) as effective instruments - िनमित्त to fulfil his be
Intent and Purpose in preservation of the manifest creation but also values the role of those who are less sensitive due to ignorance caused by excessive influence of senses on their mind and therefore are inferior in luminosity, some less energetic in enterprise and many excessively obscure in intelligence confused as in a dark cave, performing actions, good, bad and indifferent, living a life of repeated birth and death, groping for deliverance but finding no way to become liberated.
For such ones, Dasharathi Rama, Devakiputra Krishna and Gautam Buddha became the great World Teachers offering Paths to Perefection. Rama being consciously aware of the principles of piles धर्म, नीति and मर्यादा as the foundation for every human life, living his personal life with moral and ethical probity, and endorsing similar life for others.
Krishna pointed three three-fold Paths - ज्ञानमार्ग for those luminous in receptivity, कर्ममार्ग fot those energetic in enterprise and भक्तिमार्ग for those obscure in receptivity. For those who were luminous in receptivity ज्ञानमार्ग opened their mind to be receptive to the self within, think about it's unfolding, be reflective and meditative, intense austerity and perfected penance. For those who were energetic in enterprise कर्ममार्ग opened the actions to be performed, without being attached to the fruits of action and in the spirit of free and complete surrender to the Divine Intent and Purpose. For the common people with inferior receptivity of mind but keen higher intensity of emotions भक्तिमार्ग opened their heart to be more receptive, surrendering their mind, speech and action and even their self to the Supreme Brahman as an act of submission.
Gautam Buddha was concerned essentially with human suffering and realising that intellectual capacity and inclination, the fundamental salient pointed out in simple words that suffering in human life is caused by intenses desire - तान्हा and inherent inability to possess that which one does not possess, to become some thing which one is not and finally to renounce one'spossessions and position.
But men wise in Wisdom who have experienced the past and of the present and can clearly observe the future are consciously aware that human race under the influence of senses are bound to be doomed to destruction. Neither Dasharathi Rama's righteous idealistic life of moral and ethical standards nor recollection and re-statement by Krishna humane teachings of of the perennial principles long forgotten due to efflux of time nor even the down to the earth teachings of the compassionate Buddha could redeem the human race from being doomed to further degradation and demise of all canons of ethical, moral and righteous ideals. It was necessary for the Supreme Brahman to make Kalki, symbolising Terrible Time which comes with sword in hand and riding on horse, as the symbol of resurgent energy to destroy the unrighteous, obscure forces in society and give rise to new forces with new society with new and resurgent set of Cosmic Order and Principles of Righteousness.
In the world created by the Supreme Brahman, no doors are closed and all avenues are opened, all the deities presiding over the integral source of energies waiting for the primary energies to be energised, to be resurgent to fulfil the role assigned to them by गुण - the attributes and स्वभाव - the inclination born of Nature.
The Supreme Brahman devises and designs his अवतरण, the descent of his energy within reach of every human being to be capable to rise above from their state of being according to their attributes and inclination to become fit for the state of deliverance.
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