Sri Krishna - The Manifest Divinity

Darsanam or philosophy is the precise understanding of Truth. The enquirer into Truth has to qualify himself for this purpose. Purifying and sharpening the intellect is the first criterion to be a philosopher. Man’s intellect is ordinarily tained with passion, prejudice and predispositions. it needs to be rid of these defects through rigid discipline and ardent devotion to Truth. A well manufactured and highly sensitive balance that is accurately adjusted, is capable of recording the correct weight of a minute thing. Even such should be the keen power understanding of a student of philosophy. He should ever be votary of truth and never the follower of indoctrinated creed. While creeds vary and shift grounds, truth is ever the same.

Reality is Truth and Truth is Reality. It ever is unaffected by time, space and causation. It is self-evident. The Rishis of yore intuited this Truth. Prajnanam Brahmam is their con- clusive statement. Consciousness is Reality, is the meaning of immutable. this Statement. This Reality can be indicated by several other synonymical words. Conscience, awareness, being, self, pure phenomenal intelligence, pure reason, the thing in itself, immortality, is-ness, Immanent existence, the witness, pure love, the ever wakeful-these are all terms approximating to Prajnanam. Again there are several phenomenon. Sanskrit words meaning Prajnanam. Chaitanyam, suddha through chaitanyam, cheitanam, tureeyam, chit-these are all appellations meaning Prajnanam. That which is ever established in its self awareness is Prajnanam.

This Reality posits Itself in three categories: the Absolute Reality, the Transcendent Reality and the Immanent Reality. The These three states of the same Reality can be easily understood through a simile. Absolute Reality is like the static and the endless expanse of water under the surface of the ocean. It is - Infinite Pure Existence in Stillness. Transcendent Reality is like the water on the surface of the ocean. While being ever complete in itself it is also dynamic. There is rhythm and harmony in its sport. It sustains, controls and governs the Immanent. The Immanent Reality is like the Waves, vapour, clouds, rain water, ice, snow, rivers and lakes. The entire phenomenon is the Immanent Reality. This Reality is identical with the mundane world constituted of the sentient and the insentient. There is dharma or orderliness in its function.

The Absolute Reality is technically called the Nirguna Brahmam. There is no modification whatsoever in It. it is indefinable. The only verbal statement we can make of it is that, It is Pure Consciousness. The Transcendent Reality is called Iswara or the Saguna Brahmam. While this Iswara is ever immutable, He owns the power divine to project out of Himself the mutable Immanent Reality. It is none other than the phenomenal universe. While Iswara is the Persisting Reality the Immanent Reality is the Perishing Reality. lswara undergoes no mutation whatsoever because of the coming into being of the Phenomenon. This relationship requires to be explained through a simile. The mirror ever remains in its original state while faithfully reflecting the objects placed before it. Even so Iswara is ever Himself while projecting the Immanent Reality out of Himself. The Phenomenon is not like the phantom of a mire in the desert. It is actually a part and parcel of Iswara. The Immanent Reality is constituted of three gunas-sattwa, rajas and tamas. It reveals itself as time, space and causation and its functions as creation, preservation and destruction.

All the living beings are contained in the Immanent. Among them, in the midst of the human beings there appear periodically some mighty personalities known as the Messengers of God, as Masters, and as Prophets. All of them necessarily have some divine attributes inborn in them. Every one of them has a contribution to make for the welfare of mankind In this group Sri Krishna assumes the foremost place. His message is not sectional or creedal. it is fundamental and universal in character. It is all based on Principles and not on Personality.

Does God Incarnate? : The invisible Divinity does not incarnate’ as the human, is the belief of a school of thought. But Nature does not bear evidence to this belief. Philosophically God and Nature are not two separate entities. The one Reality reveals Itself as the many. The visible Nature has emanated from the Invisible God or Reality. The atmosphere is charged with vapour which is invisible and action less. Still it has the power to assume apparent colour, and move about. It manifests in blinding lightning and deafening thunder. The cloud is capable of becoming snow- storms and torrential downpours. Akin to this phenomenon the Transcendent Reality or Iswara has the divine power to assume human form to guide mankind on the right path.

Attributes are the manifest aspects of Iswara. The seven colours in the rainbow are the constituents of the sunbeam. Similarly the universe of the sentient and the insentient is the attribute of Iswara. All the living beings put together are the sentient. The lifeless matter pervading the universe is the insentient. Evolution, of the seeming lifeless into life is the plan and purpose of Nature. Eternally this progress of the inert evolving into the sentient is going on.

When the environment becomes congenial, life sprouts out, of its own accord. This perennial fact is graphically put in the Hindu mythology. This voluminous lore puts it as ten incarnation’s of the Cosmic Personality, coming in succession at long intervals. This way of presenting the fact is to take the reader mentally into the timeless Beyond. But the fact is that all the ten incarnations are coexisting at all times when the projected universe is on. At the same time evolution is taking place without beginning or end: The first incarnation is the Matsya Avatar It means the fish incarnation. It started when water came into existence. Philosophically all the aquatic creatures put together are termed as the fish incarnation. The second incarnation is the Kurma Avatar. It means the tortoise incarnation. It represents all the creatures that thrive both on land and in water. The crocodile, crab, frog and other are included in this incarnation. The third incarnation is the Va ra ha Avatar. It is the boar incarnation indicating the creatures that have domiciled the land but still have a partiality to water. The boar, pig, swine, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus - these are the creatures that while living on land like to be immersed in water as long as possible. The fourth incarnation is the Narasimha Avatar. It means the combination of man and the lion. At this stage there is the evolution of the animal into man. The Monkey. orang-u-tan, gorilla, ape and the chimpanzee belong to this group. The fifth incarnation is the Vamana Avatar. It suggests dwarfs or the mentally incomplete human beings. The sixth incarnation is the Parasu Rama Avatar. Man with an axe is the meaning of this incarnation. He is the fully evolved human being physically. But mentally he is not yet fully polished. The seventh incarnation is that of Dasaratha Rama. He is the perfectly evolved man both in body and in mind. He is Narotama or the model man. In him are found the excellences the human birth, He is the embodiment of Satyam and Dharma-truthfulness and right conduct.

The eighth incarnation is that of Sri Krishna. He happens be the eighth issue of his parents. He was born on the eighth lunar day in the eighth month of the year. From birth onwards he owned all the eight yoga powers as a matter of fact. Sri Krishna is the last word on the scale of evolution. Apparently but actually be is the Paramatman or Iswara.

Lord Buddha is the ninth incarnation. For the benefit the common man he came down from the divine pedestal. Unlike the other incarnations and saviours he claimed no Superhuman Origin. He was human to the core. He shunned miracles and miracle mongering as poison to man’s normal growth. All the ordinary people can become perfect, is his message. Self-effort and Self-discipline are the means resorting to which man can become perfect.

The tenth incarnation is that of Kalki. He is the personification of the Law of Nature. As night follows day, the state of unmanifestation follows the state of manifestation. The phenomenon of unmanifestation is called the Kalki incarnation. Reality alone is in all these states. Incarnation of God therefore a fact. Apart from God naught is.

Mythology maintains that the ten incarnations came earth at long intervals. Aeons lapsed between the advent one incarnation and that of the other. This statement sounds charming as mythology. Whereas Nature presents facts as they are, the origin, development and culmination of Evolution are all simultaneous. Life originating and life dissolving can seen side by side, at all times. Society consists of people of stages of evolution. People embodying traits of the dwarf, Parasu Rama, Dasaratha Rama. Krishna and Buddha can seen in society at all times. Therefore evolution is an eternal fact. Another fact requires to be borne in mind. Among ten incarnations, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and the Lord Buddha alone are historical persons while the rest are only personifications of facts pertaining to Nature.