The Spirit Of Spirituality: The Incarnation Of The Lord

Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Incarnation Of The Lord

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

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The following is one of the most famous verses from the Bhagwad Gita in which the Lord reassures that whenever wickedness increases, He will come to destroy evil and restore righteousness.

Yadayada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

Comments:

One of the most common beliefs in several major religions is the concept of the incarnation of God on this earth. I have not studied any religious texts other than Indian. So, my discussion is going to be based on Indian concepts.

Let us try to address this concept of incarnation from different perspectives. Starting with the Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Vishnu, the supreme Lord reincarnated in different forms at different periods of time to defeat forces of evil and re-establish righteousness. I will try to summarize some of these stories to give a context.

There is this evil king called Hiranyakashipu who has acquired superior powers through intense prayers. He cannot be killed by man or beast, can’t be killed in a house or outside, can’t be killed on ground or in space and cannot be killed by any weapons. To kill him, the supreme God, Vishnu takes the form of Narasimha, a half man-half lion, takes him to the intersection of a house and beyond, lifts him on his lap and kills him with his fangs. Then the kingdom is handed over to the son of Hiranyakashipu who is Prahlada who governs justly. This is in the Satya Yuga, the first of the 4 major cycles of time.

In the next Yuga, the Treta Yuga, we have the wicked demon, Ravana who is all powerful. He too has got magical powers and is free from death from gods and demons. He made a mistake of not asking for protection from humans or apes since he felt they could no way challenge him. To rid the world of Ravana, the Lord Vishnu incarnated as Rama a prince of Ayodhya. Through a series of events, his wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana. Rama then marches on to the kingdom of Ravana and kills him. His pious brother Vibheeshana is crowned king and righteousness again reigns.

We then move on to the next Yuga, the Dwapara Yuga. This yuga’s main scene is the Mahabharatha war. Two sets of cousins are battling for the kingdom of Kurukshetra. Duryodhana the wicked cousin and head of one branch of the family has usurped the kingdom from the righteous Dharmaraja. In a fit of absolute depravity, Duryodhana gets his brother to disrobe Draupadi, the wife of Dharmaraja. It is in such intense evilness that Krishna’s role builds up. Lord Vishnu takes incarnation as Krishna and guides the Pandavas led by Dharmaraja to a victory over the Kauravas led by Duryodhana and after that righteousness again is established.

I would like to point out that the incarnations of Rama and Krishna are called as complete incarnations since they started life as babies and were there till their “death”. However the incarnation of Narasimha was a limited purpose one since he came only to kill Hiranyakashipu.

In addition to these divine incarnations, there are incarnations wherein, during time of intense social upheaval, there is a messiah who seems to lead the world towards peace. Think of Buddha, Jesus, The great Acharyas – Sankara, Madhwa and Ramanuja to name a few.

So far we have seen mythological incarnations and spiritual incarnations.

Let us try to look at societal incarnations. At some point, society becomes so murky and the situation appears absolutely hopeless. Then something happens at the collective psyche level of a society due to which at least temporarily the wretchedness vanishes and there is a hope of a new glorious beginning. During our younger days, we had heard of the atrocities and unjustness in South Africa, home of the cruel apartheid system. None of us during that time had even imagined that this society was going to change. But, as though miraculously, the apartheid system collapsed and unjustness was removed. A collective uprising or incarnation of goodness and justice totally vanquished the unjust. Some of us from my home country of India are today in despair seeing the situation. Law and order seems to be collapsing. Morality is down. Corruption is rampant. Somehow it feels as though criminals are ruling the country and there is no hope at all. But change will happen as promised by the Lord in the above shloka. The innate goodness will incarnate as a powerful force and bring about such a total transformation that we will be left wondering in amazement.

Let us now move on to the individual level. As I have mentioned earlier, my real nature is absolute bliss. This is my nature or “Dharma”. But due to intense ignorance, I lose sight of the fact that I am bliss or Brahman and become associated with the “ego” and all its attendant problems including multiple births and deaths. But the ego cannot forever subdue the true nature. At some point, when it seems like “Adharma” or the wrong understanding of nature is so deeply ingrained, there is an awakening. Once this awakening happens, the true nature incarnates in us removing the illusion or “Adharma” of the ego.

Thus at the cosmic divine level, societal level or at the individual level, whenever excesses occur and there is a total movement towards wickedness, unjustness or the sheer lack of identity with the soul, incarnation happens at various levels to lead each of the entities back on the righteous path. This is a very powerful statement which helps build up our spirits during moments of despair.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality