Incarnations

10/17/08

There are ten well known incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Also there are several other incarnations like Kapilaavatharam, Datthaathreyaavatharam etc. In fact, all animate and inanimate things in the world contain God's chaitanyam and so incarnations are countless. This is one version of explanation of different types of incarnations. There are several versions with different names and explanations are different.  

 

Everybody is divine. As per one explanation, incarnations are said to be of five types, depending on the depth of divinity bestowed on them by God.

 

1. Aaavesha avatharam-  an example is a komaram or velicchappadu or oracle. In addition to the Jeeavachaitanyam responsible for their existence, they are bestowed with some divinity for a short period. No mission is accomplished. Just a feeling of bliss is bestowed.

 

2. Amshaamsha avathaaram - In addition to the Jeeavachaitanyam responsible for their existence, they are bestowed with part of a part (amshaamsham) of divinity of God for one life period- monkeys of Ramayana and Gopaas and Gopis of  Bhagavatham are examples.

 

3. Amsha avathaaram- In addition to the Jeeavachaitanyam responsible for their existence, they are blessed with a part (amsham) of divinity of God. -Kapila Muni, Durvasas muni, Narada Muni, Hanumanji, Rishabhadevan etc. are examples

 

4. Alpa avathaaram or apoorna avathaaram- In addition to the Jeeavachaitanyam responsible for their existence, they are blessed with  almost all of God's divinity. They are called apoornam or alpa avatharam because they are born for accomplishing a special task or mission and after that they disappear. Masthyam, Koormam, Varaaham, Narasimham, Vaamanan, Parashuraman etc. are examples. (It is said that out of the 16 kalaas or prabhaavams or rays of poorna avathaaram, alpa avathaaram has 14 kalaas.)

 

5. Poorna avathaaram- Sree Raaman and Sree Krishnan- Why they are called poorna avathaars?

There are four states of life. All ordinary people live in three states experiencing only one state at a time. The three states we all experience are Jaagrath or waking state, Swapnam or dream state and Sushupthi or deep sleep state. The fourth state is called Thuriya or superconscious state and is not experienced by ordinary people. But enlightened souls do experience through meditation. But none other than Poorna avatharam of God can experience all the four states at the same time. In other words, the incarnation with all the four states is called poorna avathaaram. Both Sree Raamaavathaaram and Sree Krishnaavathaaram are in four forms and they together accomplish the purposes (plural) of incarnation.

 

Sree Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha, Shatrughna- four forms

 

Sree Krishna, Balabhadra, Pradyumna, Aniruddha - four forms

 

In Alpa avathaaram, there is only one form like Narasimham, or Vaamanan appearing and they finish the one purpose of incarnation and disappear soon.

 

According to some devotees, Sree Raama is poorna avathaaram and Sree Krishna is Paripoorna avathaaram.

 

When Rigveda says:

 

 "Ekam Sat, Viprah Bahudha Vadanti"  –"Truth is one but men describe it differently",

 

all differences between avathaars and all Gods melt away and we only see our Ishtadevatha as the chaithanyam behind everything.