God Incarnation and Ordinary Guru - a contrast

God Incarnation and Ordinary Guru

(By Muktipada Behera)

Introduction:

The theory of Isvara Avatara (God Incarnation) is quite old. It is described in detail in Purana and Itihasa like Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita etc. It is also described in Bhakti Sastra like Chaitanya Charitamrita, Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita and Bhakti Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. There is no mention of Human Avatara in Veda. May be those portions of Veda mentioning God incarnation on earth is lost. However, Kena Upanishad, Chapter 4 mentions God incarnation as Yaksha in heaven. Devas could not recognize him. So Brahman personified as Uma Haimavati instructed Indra on the eternal truth behind all that is perishable and said – “That Yaksha was Brahman”.

It is undoubtedly true that God comes down to earth in a human form, as in the case of Krishna. And it is true as well that God reveals Himself to His devotees in various forms. But it is also true that God is formless; He is the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. He has been described in the Vedas both as formless and as endowed with form. He isalso described there both as attribute-less and as endowed with attributes.

Gita 4.7

yada yada 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.

Gita 4.8

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam

dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

Everyone is also an avatara based on its past Karmas. Avatar is for devotee, not for Jnani. A Jnani (Individual with supreme knowledge) knows Brahman has become everything including all Human beings.

Explanation of Avatara:

God Incarnation can be explained through the illustration of the ocean and the ice.

Satchidananda is like an infinite ocean. Intense cold freezes the water into ice, which floats on the ocean in blocks of various forms. Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti, one sees forms of God in the Ocean of the Absolute. These forms are meant for the Bhaktas, the lovers of God. But when the Sun of Knowledge rises, the ice melts; it becomes the same water it was before. Water above and water below, everywhere nothing but water. Therefore, a prayer in the Bhagavata says: 'O Lord, Thou hast form, and Thou art also formless. Thou walkest before us, O Lord, in the shape of a man; again, Thou hast been described in the Vedas as beyond words and thought.'

Difference between Guru and Avatara:

Even though Vedanta talks of “Each soul is potentially Divine”, there is a clear difference between God incarnation and ordinary Human Guru. Here we will outline few differences.

(1)   General Guru descents on earth based on their past Prarabdha Karma. But God incarnation descents on earth due to “Samasti Prarabdha – cumulative Karma” of whole society at that point of time.

(a)   Brahma sutra 3.3.32 Shankara Bhashya says – Yavadadhikaramavasthitiradhikarikanam.

Perfected souls may take a corporeal existence for divine mission. Of those who have a mission to fulfil existence, they take rebirth in due course of time based on need. Examples are – Vasishtha, Narada, Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda etc.

(b)   Brahma Sutra 4.4.17 says - Jagadvyaparavarjam prakaranadasannihitattvaccha.

The liberated soul attains all lordly powers except the power of creation, maintenance, and dissolution of cosmos. Only God has those cosmic powers. So there is a clear division of the ownership between liberated soul and God.

(2)   God Incarnation has three main purposes or Sankalpa as per Gita – (a) paritranaya sadhunam – to save pious human beings; (b) vinasaya duskrtam - destruction of spiritual obstacles; (c) dharma-samsthapanarthaya - Rejuvenation of spirituality. Ordinary Guru is not capable to fulfill this high cosmic demand. Ordinary Jiva is manifested through a different Sankalpa - Akoham bahusyam. 

(3)   God incarnation is of Saguna Brahman – Vishnu. Various incarnations get manifested with different power and different qualities or Kala based on social need. For example, Krishna was manifested with complete sixteen Kala – so he was known as Purna Avatara, Rama was born with twelve kala.

(4)   Ordinary Guru transmits spiritual power through Ista Mantra or teachings. Isvara Avatar transmits energy though touch or mere wish. The person can be uplifted immediately and get divine vision. Like Arjuna got the vision from Krishna, Vivekananda got from Sri ramakrishna, on Kalpataru day many got instant spiritual vision by the grace of Sri Ramakrishna, Chaitanya Dev did same for Nityananda.

(5)   God Incarnation has a power to liberate other humans out of grace. They are like a huge ship that can carry many others in bondage. Ordinary guru is compared with a small boat which cannot accommodate many. Human Guru is not capable to liberate others through mere grace.

(6)   God Incarnation demonstrates the moral and spiritual paths relevant to current society. They can change the thought-wave of the society. And then Smritis and other teachers tend to follow that path of reformation. Without God incarnation, ordinary Guru does not have enough power to change this huge cosmic thought-wave.

(7)   Ordinary Guru is a one-man show. Avatar comes with his own group - already illuminated disciples, like Swami Vivekananda along with other fifteen direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna; Hanuman, Bharata etc came with Sri Rama; Gopis, Arjuna etc came with Krishna; same with Buddha and Chaitanya etc. So the teachings preached by an Avatar has a very strong power and future generations get benefited even after the Avatar has left his mortal body.

(8)   God incarnation has ‘oneness’ from birth. They are aware of their divine nature from childhood. They don't need to practice any Sadhana to get it because they are already liberated and came here to help others.

(9)   An ordinary spiritual Guru gets illumination through Sadhana and initiates his disciples in his realized path. Once the Guru departs the physical body, his followed path becomes weak and does not remain as a strong spiritual current for future generation. Normal Gurus will be popular while they are alive. After their death, people usually forget them and their followers are reduced.  

The preaching done by God incarnation will continue forever even after his death. He will become more popular and get more followers over time. For example, Buddha, Krishna are still popular even if they lived thousand years before. Gita preached by Krishna, life of truthfulness taught by Rama - are still influencing Humans.

How to recognize God Incarnation:

(1)   There is no clear way of knowing who God incarnation is or not. Only another enlightened one can say through his divine vision that somebody is a God incarnation. We must look for a reference from another enlightened person or accept it after having proper clue through own Sadhana.

(2)   Most of the time God incarnation reveals himself to their close disciples while alive. For example, Christ, Krishna have disclosed their real nature to their close disciples. Only ten Rishis knew that Rama was an incarnation.  Ordinary human beings could know them after they are dead.

(3)   Based on qualities seen in earlier God incarnation, Hinduism has developed some standards to judge an Avatar. For example, God incarnations always demonstrate the extreme sense of morals or spiritual values, which ordinary human Gurus cannot achieve in their lifetime. Examples are - Krishna dancing with sixteen thousands Gopis, lifting mountain on little finger, Chaitanya dev extreme adherence to ascetic rule, Sri Ramakrishna keeping Brahmacharya while sleeping with his wife, Buddha’s demonstration of highest compassion, Jesus ready to be crucified alive etc.

It is generally seen - every organization tends to declare their originator Guru as God incarnation out of reverence.

(4)   There are scriptural proof and documented incarnations. Well accepted names are (1) Rama (2) Krishna (3) Buddha (4) Christ (5) Chaitanya (6) Ramakrishna etc. They had imparted tremendous power to reform this world. So they will be followed eternally.

(5)    There are so many Avatars incarnated in India. We don’t worship all of them. We worship the Avatar who is incarnated with his divine consort (Shakti) like Krishna with Radha, Rama with Sita, Ramakrishna with Sarada etc. Whereas Parshurama, Kapila muni, Vyasa deva were also Avatar and we don’t worship them because they were partial incarnation (without associated with Shakti)

Conclusion:

All power Lord descends on earth to do Leela, to play with Humans – his children. It is wonderful to play with the creator. Upanishads say - Raso-vai-Sah - He is like nectar. He is the source happiness or bliss.

"One who has been kissed by Thee, his thirst for Thee increases for ever, all sorrows vanish, and he forgets love for everything else but for Thee and Thee alone." Ay, forget first the love for gold, and name and fame, and for this little trumpery world of ours. Then, only then, you will understand the love of the Gopis, too holy to be attempted without giving up everything, too sacred to be understood until the soul has become perfectly pure. People with ideas of sex, and of money, and of fame, bubbling up every minute in the heart, daring to criticize and understand the love of the Gopis! That is the very essence of the Krishna Incarnation.” – Swami Vivekananda.

Migration of Jiva as per Hindu scripture

Migration of Jiva as per Hindu scripture

(Muktipada Behera)

Introduction:

The rebirth of a human being is based on Karma and migration theory of Hinduism. As you act, so you become. Out of all types of living species [Jiva], here we will discuss the birth of a human child. All Hindu texts describe how Jiva migrates based on his own Karma. One typical description is given in Panchagni Vidya(five fires) of Chandogya Upanishad.

Please note this is just a typical model to describe how the soul migrates. There can be many permutation, combinations and exceptions to this model. Please don't take the migration model described in scripture literally, because it is hinting a simplified version of complex Karma theory and migration. In this vast creation, there can be many possibilities[species] of these infinite Jivas. So all these Jivas migration into different species may not fit into one particular model.

According to this simplified theory once a person is dead, the soul is required to be ignited or purified (e.g. iron ore) five times before converting into a child in next birth. Though this process is not visible to human eye, it is taken care by nature based on Karma theory. Let’s describe it in three phases:

Phase 1:

Once a person is about to die, the Supreme divine (Lord) present in everybody’s heart sends notice all sense organs and other involuntary functionaries like breathing for a final departure meeting inside heart. Once all organs join, first speech organ is shut down so that person cannot communicate this secret to outside world. Then rest organs are shutdown one by one until the last body temperature regulator. The supreme divine does some kind of appraisal of the whole life activities done by the being and decides the next course of action and species. So the next type of body itself is decided in the dying human heart before death. It is said the human is aware of his next body and life decision, but unable to communicate to outer world because the speech is disabled.

Lets describe the next body selection with one mimicry. Whole Human life is captured in a CCTV camera present inside mind. During death bed, this life time captured videos are displayed in the mind of dying soul like a movie show. While seeing own life memories, the souls unfulfilled desires that were hidden at the bottom of it's heart pops up. The dying human feels like to fulfil those desires. Out of many desires, finally one strong desire wins and floats in the mind consistently. Now the soul freezes on that desire and prepares to depart. Then Lord facilitates to get the necessary body for the soul through which it can fulfil that dying desire in next birth. Note, it is the wish of soul, not of Lord. Lord just facilitates routing of the soul to proper parent species to manufacture a similar body for it. Through different bodies, different desires are fulfilled. E.g. Flying in sky desire can be fulfilled through bird's body. Spiritual practice is possible through human body etc.  

Gita 8.6 says - yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ - Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.

After that the soul with a subtle body departs the old body and moves onward with a good luck. When the soul departs there is no more warmness in the body. And only after that the dead body should be cremated. Medical science declares a person dead when the heart-bit stops. But the warmness in the body is the sign of soul existence in it even after heart-bit stops. Once the soul departs the body becomes cold. Generally it takes eight hours after heart bit stops.

Phase 2:

The soul moved out through air and sun light vibration. It is subjected into five fires or phases one by one. These fires are heaven - cloud (rain) - earth (vegetables) - father - mother. It is like a car is assembled in a car industry. The industry has different compartments or rooms. Different parts are assembled in each room and passed into next until a nice and fully assembled car comes out of last compartment. Similarly dead soul is ignited or assembled in different compartment of nature. First it moves to heaven. There is no concept of hell in Vedic text. Everybody has to move through heaven like a pass-through train. Some fortunate may get down if they qualify due to good Karma and stays there for a prescribed period in heaven. Just like you can stay in USA based on the visa type and duration. Others just need to cross that country (here heaven) as a pass-through station.

Once the Visa in heaven expires (or the soul crosses the heaven as an intermediate station), the soul is dumped into cloud (rain). It is the second fire cloud system carries the soul across different countries and dumps into earth through rain. If the rain falls into desert and ocean then the loop breaks and soul has to go back to cloud and wait for next monsoon.

The soul carrying rain needs to fall on the earth where human eatables are cultivated. Earth is the third fire where soul with cloud body gets converted into vegetables and fruits. And later these are consumed by a human being.

Fourth fire is father principle. The soul must be associated with human eatables and that food must be taken by a male human. If the soul converted into animal eatables then it will be born in that species. Also if a female human eats the soul with vegetable body, then it has to go back to earth until it is eaten by a male partner.

Fifth and last fire is mother principle. Above male must be in his youth hood and married. A child or unmarried does not help here. The soul is transferred from male compartment to female compartment through copulation. The mother part should be ready to accept and manufacture a human body. It is the male who carries the soul and transfers to female. And mother just manufactures a body for it. So the birth of a boy or girl child is decided by male partner (with X-Y chromosome), not by female partner (with X-X chromosome). Here risk factors like barren women, old women and women not desiring for child need to be avoided. Modern medical science says in each ejaculation around three million sperms are transferred into female part. And only one lucky soul wins out of these three million. It is a great rush to catch hold of a mother. So you are the most fortunate among three millions. All these are done by nature and soul is not aware of this. So in a helpless way the blessed soul is now ready to be given a human body by the compassionate mother.

Phase 3:

It takes more than nine months to manufacture the complete body. And mother does it out of good will. Hinduism discovers a process to give birth an educated child instead of relying on after birth education. There are ceremonies like Garbhadan and pumsvan where parent prays to Lord for a child with good quality and good previous background. Otherwise nature may put an animal or idiot from previous birth. In foetus, ear is formed first and eye is formed at last. When child is of three months old, the both ears are fully developed and child can hear whatever mother hears and talks. Now teaching of the mother is equivalent to teaching the child in the background. That is why Hindu pregnant women are kept among good, happy and devotional surroundings so that child will be in a happy mode. And at this time the child learns all the family tradition and character etc. So parent needs to be careful about the future outcome. We have examples like Abhimanyu(the son of Arjuna) learns archeries from mother’s womb. Prahlada (son of Hiranyakashipu, a demon) though born in a demon family became a great saint because his mother was living in the cottage of Narada during pregnancy. Recently in Bangalore one nursery school is opened where they admit the pregnant mothers as students expecting the child will be taught in womb.

All these pre-natal ceremony like seemantonayan and worship of pregnant women are meant to cheer the child in womb so that family members are introduced and love is communicated to future baby. During this nine months period a girl slowly converted into a mother and she goes through a major physical and psychological change. Whereas a male takes significant time to convert mentally into a father even after child birth. The family members is expected to provide the necessary comforts, respect and welcome to these changes in a mother with utmost care.

The embryo is preconditioned in mother womb from the family. And there is a high possibility that good parent will be bear good child, bad parent will have bad child, and doctor will have doctor child, politicians will have a child inclined to ruling. Some holds the view that this is the basis of Guna-Karma Varna system and later hereditary caste system. Same mentality Jiva will be attracted to the like minded parents based on Karma. However there are exceptions like demon Ravana born to a Rishi, saint Prahllada born to a demon etc. We also notice doctors' son can become army-man and farmers' son can become rulers etc. It all depends on how a child is preconditioned in mother's womb and also how the child is educated later. It gives human being an infinite possibilities to change it's destiny in this life and next lives. 

From the above process it proves that how a mother plays a vital role and final part of delivering a human product. And the same human being later abuses the mother principle without understanding criticality and importance of a big process they have gone through. Unfortunately this teaching is not a part of our curriculum, so people do not acknowledge it. Victory to motherhood!!! Victory to Divine.

References

1. Chandogya Upanishad (Affiliated to Sama Veda)

2. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

3. Srimad Bhagavatam
4. Gita

5. Apasthamba Grihya Sutra describing sixteen Human Samskaras.