The scriptures speak
of the 10 Avatars of Lord
Krishna – different incarnations that take the form of divine
intervention provided by Lord Krishna during the various stages of human evolution.
The “Dashavatara” (ten avatars) is meant to re-establish Dharma or righteousness
and destroy tyranny and injustice on earth.
Matsya the fish
In the
earliest yuga (era) of Sata-yuga, a king named Manu was performing severe
penance for thousands of years. One day as he was performing ablutions with
river water, a small fish came into his hands and just as he was about to throw
the fish back into the river, the fish requested the king to save its life.
Heeding its request, the king put the fish into a jar of water but the fish
started growing and the jar was not big enough for it. Then the king threw it
into the river, but it soon it outgrew the river and the king then threw it
into Ganges and then into the ocean. The king realised that it was Lord Krishna himself and then the lord made an appearance and made a special request to the
king. It predicted that the world would come to an end by a huge flood in seven
days and requested the king to build a huge boat and take the seven
sages(hermits), seeds of all plants, one animal of each type and told him that
he would appear as a fish to propel the boat to Mount Himavan for surviving the
flood to the next yuga(eon). True to his word, after seven days the Lord
appeared and the king tied the boat to the fish by using the royal serpent
Vasuki and the fish took all of them to Mt Himavan and kept them there till the
flood was over and in the new era, the king started procreation a for the new
era.
Kurma the Tortoise
Further
to Pralaya- deluge at the beginning of the present. Kalpa the Gods (devas) lost
their immortality due to a curse
by the short-tempered sage Durvasa.The sage had once presented a garland of
flowers to Indra,king of gods, who carelessly gave it away to his elephant
which trampled it. The Devas approached Lord Krishna for help. Lord Krishna then
asked them to churn the ocean of milk after adding medicines into the ocean. Mt
Mandara could be used a the churning stick he said. He requested them to ask
them help of Asuras in lifting the mountain in exchange for offer of the share
of nectar of immortality that would ensue from the churning. Both the devas and
the asuras churned the ocean using the serpent Vasuki as the rope. At the
start, playing a Machiavellian trick, Indra, king of the gods asked the asuras
for the head end of vasuki. But asuras suspecting foul play, took the head end,
only to be deceived as the poison from Vasuki was slowly weakening them. But as
churning was proceeding the mountain was sinking and then Lord Krishna took the
form of the tortoise KURMA and kept the mountain afloat. As soon as the bowl of
amrita, the nectar of immortality was out, the asuras grabbed it. Then Lord Krishna took the form of an apsara, a beautiful maiden, and seduced the asuras
into letting her distribute the nectar and also to abide by her order of
distribution. As soon as the devas were served the maiden disappeared thus
totally deceiving the asuras and making them totally weak.
Varaha the Boar
A demon Hiranyaksha, had prayed for Lord Brahma and got awarded a boon that no beast nor man nor god could kill him. But somehow from the list of beasts the name of boar was missing. This proved to be his lacunae. He then started a campaign of plunder across the worlds. He pushed the world to the Pataal loka, or the under of the sea. He stole the Vedas, the holy scriptures from the Lord Brahma, while he was asleep and performed huge atrocities.To retrieve the Vedas and to save the world the Lord Krishna assumed the role of a boar and brought out the earth from the under of the ocean, using its two tusks. It then killed Hiranyaksha and retrieved the Vedas from the asura and brought it back to the safe custody of the Lord Brahma.
Narashima The giant lion-man
In
NARASIMHA Avatar, Lord Krishna incarnates himself as a semi-man,semi-lion in
this world. The king of demons(asuras), Hiranyakasyapu, wanted to become immortal
and wanted to remain young forever. To this end, he meditated for Lord Brahma
and because of his severe penance, the gods were frightened and asked Brahma to
pacify the king. Brahma was impressed by his austerity and granted him a wish.
Hiranyakasyapu wished that he be killed neither by a man or beast, nor in
daylight or at night and neither inside or outside a building. Having obtained the wish he considered
himself the supreme God and forbade all worship of gods by anyone. But his son
Prahlada, was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. This enraged Hiranyakasyapu very
much. He ordered numerous ways to kill Prahlada including asking his sister
Holika to sit with Prahlada in the fire. But every time Prahlada escaped
unhurt. Enraged, once he asked Prahlad to show him the Lord Krishna. Prahlad
said, "He is everywhere". Further enraged, Hiranyakasyapu knocked
down a pillar, and asked if Lord was present there. Lord Vishnu then emerged as
a half lion, half man from the pillar, and
carried him under the arch of the doorway (neither indoors nor outdoors), and
the time was evening (in the twilight), neither night nor day. He then killed
Hiranyakasyapu with his claws by keeping him on his thighs (neither on earth nor in the sky) thus saving the life of his devotee
Prahlada.
Vamana the dwarf
BALI,
the grandson of Prahlada was a very valorous and mighty asura. By his penance
and might, he conquered the whole world. Indra and other gods fearing that he
and the asuras would conquer all the three worlds, went to Lord Krishna for
help. Lord Krishna was then born as a dwarf Vamana in the household of a brahman
priest. He went to Bali on growing up and asked for alms. Bali was delighted to
offer him anything he requested even though his royal guru warned him that it
was Lord Krishna. Vamana then requested for the amount of land that could come
under his three feet. Bali gracefully agreed. Lord Krishna then grew in size and
covered the earth and heaven in two stride. And due to lack of space, he put
his third leg on Bali himself and crushed Bali to the nether or the Patala loka
(underground world), thus helping the Gods out.
Parasurama Rama with the axe
In
PARASURAMA Avatar, Lord Krishna incarnates himself as a brahman priest in this
world. He was brought in this world to avenge all kshatriyas who had become
arrogant and were suppressing the brahmans in the world. He was born with unusual physical
power, and became better fighter than any Kshatriya.He was born to Jamadagni
and Renuka, and belonged to the Brighu clan. Parashurama was always carrying an
axe presented to him by Lord Shiva of whom he was an ardent devotee. Kartavirya
a powerful king, once went to Jamadagni's home when he was out, and after a
meal, stole the Kamadhenu cow, which was supposed to give endless quantity of
milk. Jamadgni was enraged and he went and killed the king and brought
Kamadhenu back. On hearing this the son of the king came back and killed
Jamdagni. Parasurama was enraged at this and went and avenged the death of his
father by killing all kshatriyas in 21 battles. His life is story of the
supremacy of brahmans over the kshatriyas.
Sri
Rama
This is
the most important Avatar of Lord Krishna. Rama represents the peak of the historic
incarnations, and by him it is defined the ideal character of Indian people.He
is Vishnu descended upon earth to conquer all the Indian peninsula, included
Sri Lanka, under the Bharata rule. Lord Rama is one of the most adored gods in
India. He is always holding a bow and arrow indicating his readiness to destroy
evils.His story forms the epic Ramayana. He is perfect in every aspect; the
perfect man, the perfect husband, the perfect brother, the perfect king, etc.
and the obedient son. Commonly he is pictured in a family style, with his wife
Sita, and brother Lakshman.
Sri
Krishna
In KRISHNA
Avatar, Lord Krishna incarnates himself
as KRISHNA , the central character in the epic MAHABHARATA. In this biggest
epic of Indian mythology a myriad of topics are covered, including war, love,
brotherhood, politics etc. It is essentially the story of two warring groups of
cousin brothers, the PANDAVA’S and the KAURAVA’S. As a part of the Mahabahrata,
during the war Lord KRISHNA, gives a
long discourse to his disciple ARJUNA, collectively termed as Bhagvad-Gita.
Krishna, during his child-hood was responsible for
the killing of Kansa. Krishna is also considered to be an ultimate playboy who
was resonsible for charming all gopikas (cowherdesses) around him. Unlike
Ramayana, Mahabharata deals with more down to earth issues like politics, human
nature, human weaknesses, and does not attempt to idealise the characters as in
RAMAYANA. His death marks the
beginning of Kali yuga.
Buddha
With the departure of Lord
Krishna (Krishna Avatar), the Kali yuga set in. In this age, the true devotion
to Vedas was replaced by empty rituals. To enlighten the world, Lord Krishna descended the earth as Buddha, the enlightened one.He was born as the crown prince
of the Kapilavastu to King Suddhodana and Maya. He was named Siddhartha,
meaning "All thing fulfilled". But his mother died soon after his
birth and was brought up by Prajapati, the sister of Maya. Buddha was saddened
by death of living creatures, and vices like poverty. He wasn't happy with any
answers that were provided to him and he decided to find out the meaning and the
absolute truth and he left his wife and
child to a hermit's life in the forest and became the enlightened one.
His
preachings spawned off the religion of Buddhism now popular across the whole
world.Buddha advocated the Middle Path, in which he offered a balanced,
harmonious way of life, steering between two extremes of self-indulgence and
total abstinence. Buddhism rests upon four Noble Truths:
·
Suffering
is universal,
·
It
is caused by desire and yearning
·
Suffering
can be prevented and overcome and
·
Eradication
of desires can lead to removal of suffering.
To prevent suffering one has to
conquer craving and desire and this conquest leads to the attainment of nirvana or complete enlightenment.
Kalki
Kalki is believed as the next Avatar of Lord Krishna.It is believed that He
will appear, riding his white horse and drawing a flaming sword, at the end of
the Kali Yuga, the dark age through which we are now passing. His task will be
to exterminate the evil and restore the Dharma. Thus will begin a new cycle,
starting with the new Satya Yuga.
Dasavatar (10 incarnations) describes how Lord Krishna, the central figure
in the triad of Indian gods, incarnated from time to time to save mankind and
the sacred scriptures of India's ancient civilisation from the evil designs of
demons. As in other myths which make up the vast body of Hindu scriptures, the
victory of good over evil is a persistent theme of all mythologies in the world
and Hindu mythology is no exception.
CHANT HARE KRISHNA MAHA MANTRA
AND
BE
HAPPY……FOREVER
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