The inevitability of Incarnation

The Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu (from left) Matshya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vaman, Parashurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna and Kalki). Another version replaces Balarama with Buddha.

The concept of Avatar or Incarnation is the foremost cardinal of Hinduism.

An Incarnation is always undertaken to accomplish a divine objective or to present an absolute model of life or sublimating a virtue.

Hinduism discovered in these Avatars ultimate ethical modules, norms of personal living, community life, governance and polity and roots of customs and conventions.

It also learnt what was permitted and prohibited, indulgences and renunciations and the ideals to pursue and weaknesses to evade.

Legends of incarnations have given to Indian society a huge body of corrective texts in the name of Puranas, to culture, its versatility and visual aspect and to literature themes of its epics. They have given emotionalism for its music and dramatic turns of situations for its stage, to stone, its utmost forms and narratives, to canvas, its colours and linear dimensions, and to common man, his forbearance and strength to combat evil.

At one time, the Incarnation theory might have been a potent instrument for reducing conflicts of old and new beliefs, or those of elite and tribes, for it had scope for respecting on equal footings the faith’s all diverse forms and to unite various believing groups.

Elevation of the humblest, the fish, the most ignored, the tortoise, and the man’s headstrong antagonist, the boar, first three of Vishnu’s ten incarnations, to the status of the Supreme Being, not only generated reverence for all beings but also helped cosmic unity and equilibrium.

Rama and Krishna have replaced Vishnu in many parts of India and Vaishnavism for the most part connotes Rama and Krishna.

A rhetorician’s approach is hardly different. To him, the cosmos is God’s manifest vision in its macro form. An incarnation is His scaled manifestation and is, hence, as real as the universe. To him, an incarnation is the expression of the corrective course that the cosmos initiates from time to time.

The modern mind, too, does not reject incarnation theory for it finds it consonant with the scientific perception of elemental balance, the basic principle of cosmic existence.

Elemental imbalance leads to dissolution. It finds agreeable the perception of the ancient philosopher who classified all elements that constituted cosmos on the basis of their inherent ‘gunas’ (qualities), as ‘sattva’ (true, helpful and pleasurable), ‘rajas’ (active and) passionate, and ‘tamas’ (indolent and evil).

This simplified the factum of elemental imbalance which occurred whenever ‘sattva’ deteriorated and ‘tamas’ gained upper hand. Then God, who manifests as cosmos and is the cumulative body of all elements, descends into the form that incarnates ‘sattva’ and destroys such part of ‘tamas’ that endangered cosmic balance. In this, the common man saw resounding what he has ever felt: ‘good always prevails.’

Nitin Kumar is the Editor of exoticindia.com. The above article has been reproduced with his permission. Exotic India 2009