Archive for May, 2010

Incarnations of God

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

According to Advaitha Philosophy nothing exists except the Supreme Brahman.  It is actionless and without modifications.  But when we see actions such as creation, preservation and dissolution we have the manifestation of Shakthi and it also becomes manifold because of Shakthi.  Thus Brahman is also the primal energy.  They are identical just as the Gem and its lustre.  Consequently the absolute and the relative are the two aspects of God.  The Primordial power in Brahman is always at play, creating, preserving and destroying.  The entire universe and everything in it exists under the authority of this Shakthi or Mahamaya the Divine Mother.  It is with the help of this Mahamaya the God sports as an Incarnation.  Hence we find in the Puranas several episodes describing the incarnations worshipping the Divine Mother (Shakthi) to enable them to fulfill their mission on earth.  Sometimes, the Divine Mother Herself descends on earth in response to the prayer of Her devotees for re-establishing Dharma.

God is immanent in everything, but He manifests more through man and in these incarnations there is a greater manifestation of God than in other men.  He descends to earth in human form because through a human body one can hear His words.  In order to understand clearly what actually an incarnation is, we have to imagine Brahman as a shoreless ocean in which visible blocks of ice are formed here and there by intense cold.  Though the cooling influence of the Bhaktas’ love for God, the all-prevading Brahman now and then assumes various forms for His Lovers and reveals Himself to them as a person.  The Infinite reduces itself to the finite and appears before the worshipper as God with form.  God can thus be a finite human being and also the all-pervading soul of the universe.  In the Adhyatma Ramayana Sri Rama is described as both the pervading spirit and everything pervaded.  In the light of Vedantic reasoning Brahman has no attributes and is indescribable.  The Saguna Brahman is meant for the Bhakthas who believe that God has attributes and that He listens to our prayers.  It is therefore possible for a devotee to see the forms of God or to think of Him as a person.  To a devotee his individuality and the world are real, so also the different forms of God and the feeling that God is a person.  God’s love for His devotees is without limit and he reveals himself to his devotees in the form which he loves most.  God assumed the forms of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna for his devotees Hanuman and the Gopies respectively.

A divine Incarnation is necessary to transform the Divine truth into human truth so as to enable us to appreciate it fully.  Man’s longing to see God who is Absolute is not satisfied unless he sees God in a human form.  A special manifestation of God’s power in anyone is sufficient indication that God has incarnated Himself in that individual.  He will then be capable of liberating others.  The scriptures speak of ten, of twenty four and also of innumerable incarnations.  The universe is infinite and naturally the incarnations must also be infinite.  The generality of Incarnations is for the purpose of reestablishment of Dharma by the destruction of the wicked and the protection of the righteous.  But there are also other Incarnations for the purpose of destroying the evil passions which dominate the minds of jeevas and giving them spiritual, ethical, and psychic illumination.

The advent of Incarnations is mainly for the purpose of teaching love and devotion to God.  He lives in the company of devotees cherishing the attitude of love to God for the sake of the Bhakthas and not of the Jnanis, though he is at the same time “the sun of knowledge and the moon of love.”

For ordinary people it is impossible to recognize an Incarnation.  He comes in secret and only a few of His intimate disciples could recognize Him.  Only those who have practiced spiritual discipline could know God and His Incarnations.  Some may even regard him only as an ordinary man, while some others take him for a holy person.

They behave exactly like ordinary people and fall victims to disease, grief, hunger and all such things like ordinary mortals.  But they are above sin and are never entangled by the things of the world.  They have an uninterrupted vision of God and are always united with Him even though they are conscious of their embodiment.  They can transmit divine Knowledge to fellow beings by a mere look, touch or wish.

It is true that all Brahma-jnanis directly perceive Brahman when they go to Samadhi by raising their mind to the Samsara.  In that state they remain unconscious of the outer world for twenty one days and give up their body dwelling in the plane of consciousness.  But in the case of Incarnations they can again descent to the plane of consciousness though established in Samadhi.  The ego of the Incarnations returns to them when they come down from the plane of Samadhi but then it is the ego of knowledge or the ego of devotion in order to bring spiritual light to others.  Through the ego of knowledge Sankaracharia was able to teach the world and through the ego of devotion Chaithanya instilled spiritual bliss among his devotees.

In Jagatguru Sree Rama Devi we have the Incarnation of that Divine Mother, the primordial Power.  Though she attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi at the early age of 26, She came down from that plane to teach us both knowledge and devotion.  Let us pray to Her.  She being an Incarnation of PARA SAKTHI and is with attributes She will give us full knowledge of that Brahman which is without attributes.

–          V. Narayana Pillai