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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

                                         All About Avatars
 

What is the most important difference between the Lord and ourselves? This may 
appear to be a rather naïve and simplistic question and a rhetorical one at 
that, not really in need of an answer. The differences between Emperuman and 
ourselves are so vast, so many and so unbridgeable, that it seems futile to 
embark upon such an enquiry. However, at least for academic interest, it is 
worthwhile looking into how He differs from us. While the aspects of divergence 
are indeed many, one in particular is extremely significant and interesting, 
not to say rewarding too. We are told that one, who understands this particular 
distinction between the Jeevatma and the Paramatma, is freed of his mortal 
coils, never to be enshackled again. 

 

To understand this specific aspect of difference between the Lord and 
ourselves, we must first study an aspect of identity between the two. Both, 
viz., the Supreme Lord and we insignificant mortals, are born time and again in 
this mundane world. As far as we are concerned, we are caught up in the 
bottomless cesspool of Samsara, sucking us down each time we try to get out of 
it. Despite our occasional and feeble efforts to rid ourselves of our mortal 
shackles during each birth, we fall again and again helplessly into the SamsAra 
sAgaram. The moment one birth is over, the soul has to hop into another waiting 
body, leaving its former lifeless shareeram behind. There appears to be no way 
out of this maze, which keeps us meandering for innumerable lifetimes. "Piravi 
Perum Kadal" is how Valluvar describes this interminable cycle of births and 
deaths, attesting to its depth, breadth, vastness and impossibility of 
surmounting. "Punarapi jananam, punarapi maraNam", laments another worthy, 
referring to the monotonous regularity with which birth and death occur. The 
worthlessness of such an existence is brought out by Azhwars in all its 
despicability-

 

"pirandum setthum nindru idarum ip pEdamai"

"avattamE piravi tandAi"

"mAri mAri pala pirappum pirandu" etc.

 

If this is our plight, it appears that the Lord is not much better off. We hear 
from several impeccable sources that He too is born in this world, not once or 
twice, but innumerable times. We can't believe our ears-the Lord, and being 
born here, just like ourselves, sporting a mortal form like us! And being born 
to human mothers, after a ten-month imprisonment in their wombs! And dying too 
occasionally, just like we mortals do! He displays extremely human emotions 
during His sojourn on earth, as we too do.

 

We thus see that just like us, Emperuman too is born in this world. There are a 
number of scriptural texts, which attest to the Lord taking birth amidst us, 
despite His exalted stature. Here is one from the Purusha Suktam, acclaimed to 
be the essence of all Shruti-"ajAyamAnO bahudhA vijAyatE". This vAkya tells us 
that the Lord, though birthless, is born many a time. Sri Nammazhwar, in his 
faithful transcription of Vedas, renders the same thus-"Pirappil pal piravi 
PerumAn". And Emperuman Himself tells Arjuna in the Gita that He is indeed born 
many a time, despite being birthless, immutable and the Lord of all-

 

"ajOpi san avyayAtmA, bhootAnAm IsvarOpi san

 Prakritim svAm adhishtAya sambhavAmi Atma mAyayA"

 

Sri Nammazhwar is moved beyond measure by the Lord taking birth as a mere fish, 
boar, lion and turtle, despite being the exalted Lord of the 
Celestials-"ennindra yOniyumAi pirandAi imayOr talaivA!"

 

Lest we be misled, by this apparent identity between the Lord and ourselves, 
into believing that He is no better than us, let us consider in what respects 
His births differ from ours.

 

1.      Cause-We are born because our unending baggage of Karma pushes us again 
and again into mortal coils, to experience the fruits, good and bad, of our 
deeds. We have absolutely no choice in the matter, nor can we refrain from 
being born or to take a sabbatical in between two births. The inexorable 
rotation of the Karma Chakram ensures that we are endlessly imprisoned in our 
mundane shackles.

 

The Lord, on the other hand, is born out of His own sweet will. There is 
absolutely no compulsion for Him to take birth, nor is He subject to any 
external influence in this regard. When He is born in this world, it is because 
He wants to, not because He has to. "IcchA griheeta abhimatOru dEham" says Sri 
Koorattazhwan, attesting to the absolutely voluntary nature of the Lord's 
avatArAs.

 

2.      Purpose-We undergo the phenomena of endless births, so that we can work 
off some of the accumulated baggage of Karma. However, in doing so, we tend to 
increase our burden through uninformed action. There is thus no noble purpose 
to our lives.

 

In contrast, the Lord has a three-fold and exalted purpose to all His noble 
births, as He Himself narrates in the Gita-

 

"ParitrANAya sAdhUnAm, vinAsAya cha dushkritAm

Dharma samstApanArtthAya sambhavAmi yugE yugE"

 

The first and foremost mission of Emperuman is the protection of the saintly, 
who know of no other refuge than the Lord. If it becomes necessary in this 
process, the Lord also destroys the evil-minded, which, however, affords Him 
little pleasure. A third purpose to the Lord's births is the reestablishment of 
Righteousness on a firm footing. We are told that there was a fourth aim too, 
in the NrisimhAvatAra-that of proving the words of His ardent devotee to be 
true ("Satyam vidhAtum nija bhritya bhAshitam"). Sri PrahlAda had declared to 
his sceptical father that Sri Hari did indeed inhabit all beings and objects, 
including a pillar or an insignificant blade of grass. And when the asurA smote 
the palace pillar to test the truth of his credulous son's words, Sri Nrisimha 
emerged therefrom the very same second, just to prove His devotee's words true.

 

3.      Periodicity-"ShatAyur vai Purusha:" says the Shruti, pegging the human 
lifespan at a hundred years. There are instances of people living beyond a 
hundred, but they are rare. As such, even if one is able to live for a full 
hundred years, one has to be necessarily reborn at least once a century.

With the Lord, however, it is different-He is born only once in a Yugam 
("sambhavami yugE yugE")-roughly every 900000 years, on an average, allowing 
for the differing durations of various yugAs. Sri Ramanuja adds, however, that 
there is no fixed periodicity to the Lord's avatArAs-He is born as and when 
necessary, sometimes twice or more in the same Yugam and sometimes not at all 
during a particular Yugam.

 

4.      Effect-Each new birth only adds to our woes and to our already 
unbearable baggage of dastardly deeds, with the result that the Soul is 
progressively clouded by successive layers of KArmic dirt, becoming totally 
unrecognisable, vis-à-vis its original luminous, wise and blissful self. 

The Lord, however, adds more and more glory to Himself, with every avatAra. 
From each such sojourn on earth, His splendour increases manifold and He 
emerges with immeasurably greater grandeur every time He takes an avatAra-"navO 
navO bhavati jAyamAna:" says the Shruti.

 

5.      Form-The form we take in each birth is dictated by our Karma. Though we 
are human beings in this birth, we may very well be trees or frogs in our next, 
depending on the composition of our deeds and misdeeds.

Emperuman takes the form He wishes to, whether it be a fish, boar, or 
Magnificent Monarch. We only have to look again at Sri Koorattazhwan's tribute 
mentioned above, to confirm that all the Lord's forms are of His own choice. 

6.      Timing-For us, there is no particular time for birth. As soon as one 
life ends, we are automatically pushed into another body and birth. The Lord 
tells us that He is born as and whenever Dharma is debilitated and adharma 
rears its ugly head menacingly-

 

"YadA yadA hi dharmasya glAni: bhavati BhArata!

 abhyuttAnam adharmasya, tadA AtmAnam srijAmyaham"

 

7. Company-When we come to think of it, the Soul has to plough a lonely furrow, 
having none to accompany it on its births. Though each birth brings us new 
relationships in the form of mother, father, wife, sons and so on, essentially 
all these arise from physical relationships, which do not exist in the soul.

 

The Lord, however, is accompanied on all earthly sojourns by His beloved 
Consort, who never forsakes His side. Whatever role He adopts, Sri Mahalakshmi 
dons a supplementary and complementary role, eminently in accordance with Her 
Husband's. We have this on good authority, that of Swami Desikan-"yat dharmai: 
iha dharmiNI viharatE nAnAkriti: nAyikA".

 

8.     Mutual Utility-We scarcely achieve anything during our births. Even if 
we do, we are of hardly any utility to Emperuman. The Lord, on the other hand, 
is born every time specifically in an attempt to ensure that we are not 
reborn-"uyiraLippAn ennindra yOniyumAi pirandAi imayOr talaivA!" exclaims Sri 
Nammazhwar, marvelling at the Lord's penchant for undertaking an avatAra, 
solely for the purpose of emancipating as many He can.

 

9.     The Exception-"Whoever is born must die: and as surely as that, whoever 
dies must be reborn" says the Gita ("JAtasya hi dhruvO mrityu:, dhruvam janma 
mritasya cha"). Till the very last of our Karma is worked off or is pardoned by 
the Lord, we have to keep on being born and dying. The Lord, however, is an 
exception to the general rule of the dead being reborn and the living destined 
to die. Birth or death is absolutely of His choice-He comes into the mundane 
world or returns to His permanent abode at Sri Vaikuntam, as He pleases.

 

Having considered some of the differences between our births and His, it would 
be interesting for us to look at some of the aspects of the Lord's avatArAs.

 

1. How many avatArAs have been there so far? From childhood, we have been 
hearing of the DasAvatArAs and would be inclined to think that the Lord has 
come down to the earth ten times in all, as is evident from the following sloka-

 

"Matsya: KoormO VarAhascha NArasimha: atha VAmana:

RAmO RAmacha RAmascha Krishna: Kalki: iti tE dasa"

 

(Incidentally, this sloka also proves wrong, those who contend that Buddha was 
one of the Lord's own avatArAs).

   

  This, however, is not correct, for Emperuman Himself tells us that His 
avatArAs are not merely ten, but "many". The fact that the usually precise Lord 
doesn't care to mention a number, is indicative of the fact that the avatArAs 
are indeed countless. This is borne out by the Gita vAkyA, "bahooni mE 
vyateetAni janmAni tava cha Arjuna!". The independent Shruti also attests to 
this fact, by employing almost identical words-"ajAyamAnO bahudhA vijAyatE". We 
thus have to conclude that while the DasAvatArAs are the principal ones that 
the Lord took, there are also significant others like HayagrIva, Hamsa, Hari 
and innumerable others, assumed by Emperuman for similar purposes. The 
popularity of the DasAvatArAs is attested by the fact that Swami Desikan 
considered these ten avatArAs to be significant enough to compose a separate 
stOtra on the same. However, his equal reverence to other avatArAs is brought 
out by his Hayagreeva Stotram. The PAncharAtra records several of the Lord's 
less-known avatArAs like RAhujit, Purukutsa, Rishabha, JanArdana, et al.

 

The same Swami Desikan indicates the Vibhava avatArAs as "thity-odd" 
("Muppatthu chilvAnam") in Srimad RahasyatrayasAram. This is based on the 
varying number quoted in the PAncharAtra texts. While the VishvaksEna SamhitA 
puts the number at thirty ("Shat trimsat bhEda bhinnAstu PadmanAbhadhikA: 
smritA:"), the Ahirbudhnya SamhitA says that avatArAs are 39 ("VibhavA: 
PadmanAbhAdyA: trimsascha nava chaiva hi"). He also says that while these are 
principal, there are innumerable auxiliary avatArAs of the Lord.

 

2. Sometimes, Emperuman doesn't undertake a full-scale avatArA, but enters 
already existing JeevAtmAs and achieves His purpose through them. Examples are 
Sri ParasurAma and Sri Krishna DvaipAyana (VyAsa). These avatArAs were 
undertaken by injecting His power into existing JeevAs, for achieving specific 
purposes. While in the ParasurAma avatAra it was the annihilation of the 
corrupt and cruel ruling class, thereby affording relief to the populace, in 
the case of Sri Vyasa, it was for the purpose of dividing the endless Vedas 
into four suitable parts for convenient study and for the authorship of Sri 
MahAbhArata and the BrahmaSUtrAs.

 

3. We often confront a question from the cynical-If Rama and Krishna were 
indeed the Lord Himself, why should they be subject to pain, sorrow and 
distress on several occasions? Isn't Emperuman, by His very nature, beyond all 
things bad and sorrowful? And if He does indeed suffer like ordinary mortals, 
how are we to attach credence to His supremacy?

 

Swami Desikan explains that the Lord, as required by the occasion and as 
warranted by circumstances, conceals or exhibits certain of His traits. It is 
for the actor to display appropriate emotions and actions as warranted by the 
scene and the script. Similarly, Emperuman too hides His supremacy and affects 
to be an ordinary mortal, during the Rama and Krishna avatArAs. The Prince of 
Ayodhya, who considered Himself to be a mere mortal ("AtmAnam mAnusham manyE, 
RAmam DasarathAtmajam") and displayed extreme distress on Sri Mythily's 
abduction, is not averse to showing us facets of His overwhelming supremacy and 
overlordship, on the occasions of JatAyu MOksham and Sethu Bandhanam (building 
a bridge across the unfathomable and vast waters of the ocean). Similarly, Sri 
Krishna, who ran away from battle with JarAsandha, hiding His traits of 
invincibility and boundless bravery, chooses to display His supremacy in all 
its indescribable splendour, during the Visvaroopa Darsanam accorded to Arjuna. 
Thus, merely because the Lord affects certain demeanours during His avatArAs, 
in response to the need of the occasion and hour, it doesn't follow that any of 
His innumerable auspicious attributes are missing during His descents into the 
human world.  

 

4. Another basic question is about the need for avatArAs. If the Lord is as 
omnipotent as He is touted to be, can He not destroy the wicked, protect the 
saintly and shore up Dharma, sitting at Sri Vaikunttam? Is His will not 
powerful enough to accomplish all these with a mere thought, without 
necessitating His personal attendance at the scene of action, in the form of an 
avatArA? For instance, let us consider the instance of embattled Gajendra and 
His plaintive appeal to the Lord for protection. 

 

Having decided to help Gajendra, why did the Lord personally rush to the scene 
to do it? Could He not have done it sitting at Srivaikuntam itself and by 
merely willing the crocodile dead, thereby liberating the elephant?

Equally, He could have sent His Chakra to attend to the chore. What was the 
need for Him to indulge in overkill, as it were, by coming down all the way 
from His abode to destroy a mere crocodile?

 

A rich man kept asking the aforesaid question and was unsatisfied with all 
reasonable answers. To teach him a lesson, his friend came running to him one 
day and announced that the man's son had fallen into a well. Dismayed at the 
news and in a panic, the rich man dropped whatever he was doing and rushed out 
to the well, only to find the news to be false. When he remonstrated with the 
friend for having misled him, the friend retorted, " Even though you have a lot 
of servants, did you think of sending any of them for rescuing the boy? If this 
is the depth of your attachment for your boy, just consider the urgency the 
Lord, who is the Universal Father, might have felt for freeing Gajendra!" 

 

Stories apart, the fact of the matter is that while the crocodile could have 
very well been destroyed by proxy, Gajendra's happiness at the Lord's 
appearance on the scene and his joy in feasting his eyes on the divine form, 
could not have been achieved without Emperuman's personal presence. One of the 
important purposes of the Lord's avataras is "ParithrANAya sAdhUnAm". While 
mere "thrANam" or protection can be afforded even without the Lord being 
present, "ParithrANam" or comprehensive protection includes affording the 
devotee the immeasurable bliss of seeing the Lord, and could not be carried out 
without Emperuman materializing in person.

 

The Bhagavat Gita tells us that one who understands fully the purpose, nature 
and true glory of the Lord's avatArAs, is liberated from his mortal coils, 
never again to be born in this mundane world.

 

We are again assailed by a doubt-if indeed liberation can be attained merely by 
knowing the avatAra Rahasyam, wouldn't all the strategies therefor, prescribed 
by Shastras (like Bhakti, Prapatti, etc) become needless and futile? Who in his 
right mind would chose a difficult, strenuous and long-drawn upAya like Bhakti 
YOga, when the same goal can be achieved through a mere knowledge of avatAra 
Rahasyam?

 

Sri Ramanuja clarifies in his beautiful commentary, that wisdom as to the 
Lord's avatArAs doesn't lead directly to MOksham-it destroys the accumulated 
sins which stand in the way of adoption of an appropriate strategy for 
liberation. Once this is done, the individual concerned is enabled to follow 
the path to MOksham, as prescribed in the Shastras, like Bhakti or Prapatti. 

 

The term "avatAra" literally means "to come down" or to descend. This is what 
the Lord does-He descends from His exalted abode of Paramapadam, to be born in 
this world of sin, sadness and sorrow. The Supreme Lord mingles as one with us 
sinning and decadent mortals, sharing our happiness and sorrow. Though, in the 
literal sense, this may be a descent for Him, it actually enhances His 
splendour and glory manifold, thus representing an ascent for Him in real 
terms.  Also, He descends to earth, so that we may ascend to paradise and 
liberation.

 

Let us conclude with an estimate of how effective the Lord's avatArAs have been 
in achieving their objective of emancipation for all. Tiruvarangattu Amudanar 
tells us that we mortals have become such hard nuts to crack, with hearts made 
of stone and steel, that we would fail to be moved even if the Supreme Lord 
were to come in person and stand before us, appealing to us to return to the 
path of virtue. Swami Desikan too remarks that Emperuman, having failed to 
achieve fully the objective of His avatArAs, took another set of ten avatArAs 
in the form of Azhwars (excluding Sri Madhurakavi and Sri Andal), to cure the 
inhabitants of this world of their insatiable appetite for sensual pleasures 
and material possessions. And having found quite a few escaping the net even 
then, the Lord takes birth as Acharyas like Sri Ramanuja, his predecessors and 
his descendants, who, till date, have toiled hard to rescue us from the mundane 
morass and to lift us on to the terra firma of righteousness, leading us 
ultimately to Paradise, through the unfailing strategy of Prapatti. Hence, our 
merciful Acharya is the Lord incarnate, though he might appear to be one among 
us, made of flesh and blood. Just as we look beyond the stone and mortar of 
which divine forms at various temples are made, so too we should discard our 
view of the Acharya as a human being and accord to him the high pedestal we 
would to Emperuman. Thus our Preceptors are not merely messengers of God, but 
the Lord Himself in human form and are entitled to as much veneration, 
adoration and obedience, as we accord the other avatArAs of Emperuman.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmiNrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana 
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

dasan, sadagopan

  

 

  

 

 

 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






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