THE AVATAR

THE AVATAR


Life on this planet is made up of two parts – the non-conscient and the conscient. In one’s life some desires are fulfilled and some remain unfulfilled. So one has to take another birth to frutify the unfulfilled desires of the previous birth. Till even one desire remains, a soul is bound to take rebirth. The Geeta says that even the desire to attain ‘moksha’ or liberation is a ‘desire’. Thus if one has to really get liberated, one has to even give up the desire for attaining ‘moksha’. So, just as ‘desire’ makes the whole world go round, it is ‘desire ‘that makes the conscient and the non-conscient to come together and birth takes place.

According to Swami Chinmayananda the word ‘avatar’ means ‘the fallen one’. So the moment desire for the good of humanity comes to the already liberated soul or the consciousness of God an ‘avatar’ is born – falling from the higher planes of consciousness to the lower planes of physical reality as we know it on Earth. After all the whole of Nature or Universe was created because God ‘desired’ to manifest Himself!!!

So fine, desire it is that creates, manifests. But the moment something is created (may it be by God Himself), there is imperfection inherent in it – because the creator only is perfect, otherwise the created becomes the Creator – and – that is not possible. Does this then not imply that the liberated souls, when they take birth as ‘avatars’ are also imperfect human beings and hence they should again yet bound by the ‘karmas’ of that birth and the whole cycle of birth and death restarts for them. Some people say “No” to this because according to them God is not bound by the laws of Karma. Their line of reasoning is that if God were also bound by Karma, then He no longer remains the Supreme Being. It is just that He has taken birth voluntarily (for the re-establishment of Dharma) like a king who decides to go around his city in the garb of a beggar.

However, my personal opinion on this is that the Karma theory binds all. There are no exceptions to this rule. But the Karmas performed by an avatar are so pure, meaning they are done in such a spirit of detachment that no Karma gets accrued to the avatar. Let me explain this. The ‘avatar’ in the first place is a liberated soul or a soul that is already awakened to the Higher Consciousness. Just as when one has woken from a dream, his actions in the dream do not affect him after waking up from sleep, so also, when one is awakened to the Higher Consciousness he cannot be affected by his actions in a lower state of consciousness i.e., physical state of life on this planet. As he is already a realized soul, the ‘doer ship’ mentality or ego is absent is him (as the imprints of his higher consciousness are imprinted on his soul). Swami Chinmayananda, in one of his lectures said that an awakened soul being a completely integrated personality has the vision of ‘Unity in Diversity’. According to Swamiji such a personality in all his physical, mental and intellectual contacts serves only the Self i.e., the Supreme Being present in all. He never acts like a body passionately, as a mind egoistically or as an intellect arrogantly. Hence, inspite of living a world full of lusts, desires, temptations, pain, passion, like and dislikes, he is not affected by this finite world – his realization is not compromised. Thus, inspite of his imperfections he leads a detached life. Even though he may commit some mistakes, as his actions are not done with any mollified intentions, rather they are done for the overall good of the majority and for the re-establishment of Dharma or the ‘Rta’, and with an attitude of complete detachment. So his Karma does not stick to him. Hence the ‘avatar’ does not get bound by the Karmas of his ‘avatar birth’ and again returns back to the higher planes of consciousness from where it came, at the completion of his life. The cycle of birth and death does not restart for him. After all does not the Gita say that to break the cycle of life and death, one should perform Karma with complete detachment, giving up even the desire for ‘Moksha’!!!!




Dr. POONAM MEHRA