Part 2: Glimpses of My Master THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
representing the next stage as amphibian. The third is varahavatara, boar incarnation, representing a mammal. The fourth is the narasimhavatara, half human and half lion, half-way point to human form. The fifth incarnation is that of the dwarf, vamanavatara. The remaining five are human representations, four who have come and gone, Rama, Krishna, Bala Rama and Buddha, and the last Kalki, the warrior destroyer avatar yet to come. Of the human versions of the dasavatara, the ten incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna is considered the perfect incarnation or purnavatar. At one level, as the Super Conscious energy behind Bhagavad Gita He is the Supreme Lord and God; at other levels: he is the beautiful and naughty child every mother loves to adore; the dashing graceful youth that every damsel dreams of being in love with; the perfect friend who one can turn to at any time of need; the sagacious counselor that Kings and Saints seek advice from; Krishna is all this and more. Krishna is not a moral beacon as Rama or Bala Rama were, nor a dispassionate Sage as Buddha was. Krishna was and is and will be human, so easy to identify with, so easy to love, so easy to be devoted to; He is the perfect incarnation. Krishna has said in the scriptural Bhagavad Gita that he will take form upon Earth from time to time.
He declares:
```sanskrit Pair%ranaaya saaQaUunaMa ivanaaSaaya dYk`utaM Qama- saMstap-naaya saMBavaaima yaugao yaugao .. ```
Paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya dushkrutam Dharma samstarpanaya sambhavi yuge yuge
To protect the good and to destroy the evil To establish righteousness I present myself age after age
In the case of these divine and popular incarnations of Vishnu that are part of the puranic lore of Hindu mythology, we do not have historical proof of all except Buddha. Krishna and Bala Rama are supposed to have lived 5000 years ago in the previous age of Dwapara Yuga and Rama much earlier in the Treta Yuga; but then hard evidence is hard to come by so far.
In addition to these incarnations of mythology, there are many other historical beings who we know have walked the Planet Earth, who are also revered as incarnations in the Hindu belief system. In recent times of historical recollection Mahavira, Sankara, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Shirdi Saibaba, Ramana Maharishi and others have been considered as incarnations and revered.
In Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's biography by Saradananda, the biographer discusses why and how incarnations arrive on Planet Earth. Saradananda traces the origin of such incarnations to Vedic times when sages of divine consciousness started being revered as incarnations. In Bharat its spiritual legacy of the Vedic and Puranic times still lives on as a palpable energy. Its people accept and believe the truth of conscious births of incarnations, who arrive fully enlightened upon Planet Earth.
As Krishna proclaimed in the Gita these incarnations arrive upon Planet Earth with a clear mission. Existence, the Cosmic Energy, provides these incarnations with the necessary energy to fulfill their mission in a choice less manner. Each incarnation is unique and mission of each incarnation is personalized.
Saradananda talks about various levels of spiritual evolutions from within and outside of the definition of incarnations, such as jeevan mukta and jnanis and yogis. He also tells as how these people can be identified based on the natural characteristics they are endowed with from birth.
Each incarnation differs from the other in the way he performs his mission. Each one has his own path though the goal is the same: to teach rest of humanity that they too are divine and they too with effort on their part can be liberated from bondages of the world.