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The Avatar in
Human Form
“Swami Shivananda, one of Ramakrishna's disciples, said: "If God does not
come down as a human being, how will human beings love him? That is why
He comes to human beings as a human being. People can love Him as a
father, mother, brother, friend—they can take any of these attitudes.
And He comes to each in whatever form that person loves."
Throughout the ages, spiritual renewal has come to humanity through God
manifesting in human form. The Sanskrit word "avatar" literally means
"descent of God." Most of the world's religions have been given impetus
and direction by these spiritual giants—the incarnations, prophets, and
messengers of God. Jesus and Buddha, Rama and Krishna, Moses and
Muhammad, Chaitanya and Ramakrishna—all have been torchbearers in the
world of spirituality, pouring new energy into religions that were
sliding into hypocrisy and self-indulgence.
The Bhagavad Gita declared thousands of years ago:
When goodness
grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
One of the great distinctions between Western and Eastern thought is
that the West tends to think in terms of linear time—the world and human
history having a definitive beginning, middle, and end. On this
horizontal time line, God has specific, historical interventions. In
contrast, the East thinks in terms of great cycles: ascension and
descension, creation and destruction, growth and decay; these cycles are
seen as continually repeating waves in an eternal cosmic process.
Civilizations, religions, and individuals are all part of this ongoing
cycle. The appearance of the avatar is essential to this eternal
movement of spiritual decline followed by regeneration.
According to Vedanta, spiritual truth is eternal and universal: no
particular religion or sect can have a monopoly on it. The truth that
Christ discovered is the same truth that was revealed to the sages of
the Upanishads; it is the same truth that Krishna and Buddha taught as
well. Gautama said that there were many Buddhas before him, and in the
years to come there will be many more manifestations of God on earth.
Is there a purpose in all this? Yes. First, every avatar has a specific
message to impart to humanity: Muhammad taught equality and the
brotherhood of humanity; Christ revealed the primacy of God's love over
the letter of the Law; Buddha rejected priestcraft and taught people to
be lamps unto themselves; Krishna taught mental equanimity and detached
action; Ramakrishna taught the ideal of the harmony of religions. Each
incarnation has a message particular to the age in which he appears.
The second reason why the avatar incarnates is to reestablish the one
eternal religion—spiritual truth. While every avatar has specific
teachings, all incarnations come to pour spiritual fire into a world
sinking into religious mediocrity. No matter where the avatar appears on
earth, the entire world is uplifted and regenerated by his advent.”
http://www.vedanta.org/wiv/philosophy/avatar.html
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