Vishnu and his many avatars

If in the Hindu trio Brahma is seen as the creator and Shiva as the destroyer, Vishnu is placed somewhere in between. Vishnu can see the bigger picture than the previous deities. According to the mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik Vishnu is capable of both destroying and creating, which sets a balance between the destructive and creative power. Vishnu is a true leader who is smart enough to distinguish Gods from Demons, but Vishnu will not forget the demons' value when fighting against them. Hindus depict Vishnu with four hands and blue skin. He keeps one thing in every hand: padma, kaumodaki, panchajanya shankha and sudarshana chakra. Each thing symbolizes his power. Vishnu is the Restorer of Dharma, and protects goodness. He stands for values such as order, justice, and truth. Namely, if one of these values gets endangered, Vishnu comes out of his transcendence and restores peace and order on Earth. Let's see how he has appeared in our world before! The first Vishnu avatar, Matsya, was a fish that saved the first man (named Manu) from the great flood, guiding Manu (on his ship) to safety. The second incarnation was a turtle named Kurma, who sought out gods' valuable objects, which the deities managed to lost in a flood... Truth be told it wasn't the same flood, where the first man Manu was saved. It was a different flood in a different time. When searching for valuable objects, Kurma also saved Lakshmi, the goddess of happiness and beauty, who married Vishnu later on. For the third time, Vishnu reincarnated as a wild boar, Varaha. Varaha went to fight with the giant demon Hiranyaksha. The reason for the struggle was that the giant demon pulled the earth to the bottom of the ocean and threatened to leave it there for all he cared. But of course, as Vishnu is a champion for justice and order, the demon ruffled his feathers doing so. So Hiranyaksha and the wild boar battled! A giant against a wild boar. It should have been an easy win for the giant, but little did he know that Varaha was no regular wild boar, but Vishnu reincarnated! So the battle raged on for 1000 years! But in conclusion Hiranyaksha fell. For the fourth time, Vishnu returned from the transcendental state in a form of a male lion Narasinha. A demon was rousing trouble on Earth yet again. This time it was a demon named Hiranyakaship, who did the most evil thing that one can imagine: he forbid the worship of gods. Horrible! Can you imagine? Certainly Vishnu couldn't, because he stood up against him, and a surprise to be sure, but Vishnu won again. On the fifth occasion, the world was endangered by a wicked demon... No, just kidding, this time it was actually a king, whose name was Bali. Vishnu appeared as a dwarf named Vamana. Vamana persuaded the king to surrender his lands, which he could cover in three steps, to him. Bali was surely amused by this dwarf, and told him to go for it. The king was less amused, though, when the dwarf turned into a giant in front of him and extended over both the heavens and lands with his three steps. The sixth time when Vishnu visited us on Earth, he came to us as a young man, Parasurama. He was a brave and pious lad, who freed the Hindu priests from the Kshatriya warrior class. The seventh and eighth reincarnation is Rama and Krishna. I will talk a little bit more about them later on. It is believed that the ninth reincarnation was Buddha. The tenth avatar, Kalki, will one day come on earth on a white horse to destroy evil, restore purity, renew creation, and bring out a new era of harmony and order once and for all.

Now let's discuss Vishnu's seventh avatar, Rama. Rama symbolizes chivalry and virtue above all. Using the words of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Rama is the embodiment of truth, morality and the ideal son, husband, and king. It is said that Rama was born to eliminate the evil forces of his era. Therefore, it should not be a big surprise that Rama is considered the ideal avatar of Vishnu. Rama is often depicted standing, holding an arrow (bana) in his right hand and in his left a bow (dhanus) and an arrow button sticks out behind his back. I think it's important to mention that Rama, unlike most of the other deities that have at least four of them, has only two hands. The life and comments of Rama's life emphasize that an individual must live a full life. Only when a person has equally paid attention to three things, virtue (dharma), desires (karma) and legitimate acquisition of property (artha), has the person lived a full life. It is also evident from Rama's life that the noblest soul is compassionate to all, including even those who enjoy harming others.

Krishna is the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Krishna is considered the most powerful reincarnation of Vishnu, and he has a special place in the hearts of most Hindus. Krishna is depicted in many ways, so I will give just a few examples. He is depicted as a young child, crawling on his arms and knees. However, he is also seen as a dancing child. But also as an innocent child who playfully steals butter or is already eating it. According to one picture, Krishna is also an archer, but on the second image he is a romantic and seductive deity. There are many myths and legends about Krishna, but the principle is the same in all: he rescues the world from many demons and participates in the destruction of the forces of evil. Such a plot is not a great surprise as he is a Vishnu's reincarnation.

For me, the end of Krishna is more important than how he became to be, so I will briefly describe how Krishna, who lived to a ripe old age of 125 years, found his end. After the epic war, Krishna began to teach his friend Uddhava all kinds of spiritual truths. When all was said and done, Krishna thought that it would be a superb idea to turn into a deer. And now he was a deer running freely around the forest with no troubles in mind. He stopped to look at the sunset, and contemplate on it. But meanwhile a hunter named Jara was in a forest for a good hunt. And he was very lucky, for there was a deer who was just standing close enough so he just might get it. Without hesitation he let the arrow fly: killing Krishna. Krishna, being a noble soul that he is, forgave Jara and died. I think Krishna's dying story teaches us that forgiveness is possible for all kinds of mischievous behaviour. If Krishna can forgive his killer, we should also be able to forgive minor evils. Although he could have been just tired of life because he was involved in a great war that could have left his mark. That's why Jara's arrow could have seemed like a long waited release to Krishna.