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Thread: Vishnu incarnations

  1. #1

    Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste.

    I very recently became a Hindu, like about two months ago. I became a Hindu because God revealed himself to me and he was not the Christian God, so I started reading about different religions to find out who he was.

    I was raised a Catholic, believed in God until age 15 but never gave it much thought or prayed. At age 15 I became an atheist (I was 100% sure God did not exist) and remained an atheist until recently, at age 47.

    The God that revealed himself to me was not a personal God, but one concerned with the welfare of mankind. Apparently Vishnu is this God. From what I read, sometimes Vishnu incarnates to improve or help mankind.

    So I have some questions for those who are familiar with Hinduism about Vishnu's incarnations. I am strongly convinced that Buddha, Isaac Newton (every action has an equal and opposite reaction - karma), and Gandhi are all Vishnu incarnations. How do you Hindus feel about this statement? Is it possible? If not, how would you recognize incarnate Vishnu?

    I also read that the next Vishnu incarnation is Kalki on his white horse. How do Hindus expect to recognize him? I suppose he will be here for the Christian apocalypse?

  2. #2

    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste Seeker,

    I am sure Lord Vishnu will guide you in everything. There is no harm in the views that you hold.

    Buddha is anyway considered a Vishnu avatar by many (I don't). Gandhi - no Hindu has ever considered him an avatar.

    Avatar is all-knowing, so even if he is limited in his manifestation it is so for the his own charted purpose.

    So someone like Newton - even if we give some leeway though his domain is limited to the material knowledge - has already been superseded by others in the field, more prominently Einstein. But I share your admiration of him.

    An Avatar of Lord Vishnu brings a marked change in the course of humanity - on the level of consciousness, the material-progess follows.

    And there is no such thing as apocalypse in Hinduism. Lord will come to punish the evil only.
    Things to remember:

    1. Life = yajña
    2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
    to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
    3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
    4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
    5. r = c. x²
    where,
    r = realisation
    constant c = intelligence
    variable x = bhakti

  3. #3

    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Thank you for your reply KT. I am surprised nobody else has anything to say about this. Because it took so long to get a reply I was thinking that perhaps Hindus consider Lord Vishnu incarnations as folklore.

    Lord Vishnu mentioned many incarnations, including for example Socrates, Shah Jahan, Nostradamus, and George Washington. The only religion-related incarnation was Buddha. Newton may have been superseded by Einstein but Newton was way ahead of his time. People usually consider God a faraway entity, some essence or invisible guy in the sky, but he is here. He can be seen, touched, and talked to.

    I don't think any incarnation would be all-knowing because they are all limited by the human brain, by its limited learning speed and ability to store data accurately. Not to mention the schools frequented by the incarnation, which has a major impact on education. His intelligence is also limited by the human brain.

    "Lord will come to punish the evil only."

    If I'm not mistaken, Kalki will be his last incarnation. Since it is not possible to exterminate evil without exterminating child abuse, and exterminating child abuse is an impossible task, I see no alternative to the extermination of mankind. Perhaps "last incarnation" is the Hindu way of saying apocalypse.

  4. #4

    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste Seeker,
    Quote Originally Posted by Seeker666 View Post
    Thank you for your reply KT. I am surprised nobody else has anything to say about this. Because it took so long to get a reply I was thinking that perhaps Hindus consider Lord Vishnu incarnations as folklore.
    I fear it is just the opposite: Hindus are very serious about who the Avatars were, and take the guidance of their various scriptures in this regard.
    ..including for example Socrates, Shah Jahan, Nostradamus, and George Washington. The only religion-related incarnation was Buddha. Newton may have been superseded by Einstein but Newton was way ahead of his time.
    Those who also have some knowledge of Vedas consider the Rsis somewhat better than Socrates - nothing to take anything away from him- still the Rsis are not considered Avatars. This is an important point, not why I pick on Socrates, but about really who can be or can be not called an Avatar.
    Shah Jahan? Then I am also Vishnu's incarnation. What about yourself?
    "Religion-related" may sound a limitation to you but it is not. Lord does not start acting from the intellectual base; the cause is far above that. Even Newton and Einstein can tell us that: they had their inspirations, intuition.
    Vishnu's incarnation is never superseded by the posterity. Sri Ram was not superseded by Sri Krishna. But they used different contexts - time and place.
    However, I do believe there were Vishnu's incarnation all over the world. But these only got recorded mainly in India because the religio-cultural context here was more understanding and sympathetic to the phenomena.
    People usually consider God a faraway entity, some essence or invisible guy in the sky, but he is here. He can be seen, touched, and talked to.
    That is a deep realisation, many have to take multiple lifetimes to find that.
    I don't think any incarnation would be all-knowing because they are all limited by the human brain, by its limited learning speed and ability to store data accurately. Not to mention the schools frequented by the incarnation, which has a major impact on education. His intelligence is also limited by the human brain.
    That is like the RAM (rapid access memory) which is indeed limited. But the central intelligence, which is also connected and available to the Avatar all the time is also there and is unlimited. "All-knowing" further does not mean the all-knowing of the Google kind.
    If I'm not mistaken, Kalki will be his last incarnation. Since it is not possible to exterminate evil without exterminating child abuse, and exterminating child abuse is an impossible task, I see no alternative to the extermination of mankind. Perhaps "last incarnation" is the Hindu way of saying apocalypse.
    About child abuse, that is your personal opinion. We must not let that cloud our judgement, but instead try to understand and surpass these.

    Studying various posts in the Vaishnava sub-forum will be a good idea. But as I mentioned earlier, there is no harm in your current ideas.
    Things to remember:

    1. Life = yajña
    2. Depth of Āstika knowledge is directly proportional
    to the richness of Sanskrit it is written in
    3. Āstika = Bhārata ("east") / Ārya ("west")
    4. Varṇa = tripartite division of Vedic polity
    5. r = c. x²
    where,
    r = realisation
    constant c = intelligence
    variable x = bhakti

  5. #5
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    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste,

    I have not heard of Newton et al being incarnation of Vishnu. They may be incarnation of a siddha.

    Every avatar is not an avatar of God. Avatar means descent. There are siddhas who incarnate for the good of all.

    Hindus do not consider avatars of Vishnu as folklore, but Rama and Krishna are the ones who are most worshiped.

    We do not believe in judgement day.

    Lord Kalki will appear at the end of Kalu yuga (Kalyug). There is much time for this yuga to end. Shortest date for this yuga is given in Brahma Vaitarna Purana which is 10,000 years. More than 5000 verses have already passed. It is said that Ganga will become dry.

    Gandhi is not considered as an incarnation by anyone.

    There are people born with Divine qualities called as having daivi ansh (a part of demi-god like qualities i.e. divine qualities)

    OM
    Only God Is Truth, Everything Else Is Illusion - Ramakrishna
    Total Surrender of Ego to SELF is Real Bhakti - Ramana Maharshi

    Silence is the study of the scruptures. Meditation is the continuous thinking of Brahman which is to be meditated upon. The complete negation of both by knowledge is the vision of truth – sadAcAra-14 of Adi SankarAcArya

    namah SivAya vishnurUpAya viShNave SivarUpiNe, MBh, vanaparva, 3.39.76

    Sanskrit Dict | MW Dict | Gita Super Site | Hindu Dharma

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    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Quote Originally Posted by Seeker666 View Post
    Thank you for your reply KT. I am surprised nobody else has anything to say about this. Because it took so long to get a reply I was thinking that perhaps Hindus consider Lord Vishnu incarnations as folklore.

    "Lord will come to punish the evil only."
    Vannakkam Seeker: One of the reasons could be that not all of us subscribe to the avatar belief at all. It's a belief of Vaishnavas mostly.

    Also, it should be noted that the term 'evil' has a different meaning in Dharmic faiths than in Abrahamic ones. In the west, it means totally and completely bad. In the east it's far less severe, roughly meaning that which leads us away from God. It's not the same scenario in its nastiness.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste,

    Quote Originally Posted by Seeker666 View Post
    Lord Vishnu mentioned many incarnations, including for example Socrates, Shah Jahan, Nostradamus, and George Washington.
    You are on the right path, but you failed to mention Mulla Hawa Baaz and Obama as the two other prominent incarnations.

    Pranam.

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    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste

    I was assuming that M K Gandhi was an Avtar of all Asurs put together. Probably I am wrong in my assumption.
    Anirudh...

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    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namaste

    As far as I know incarnations are only those that are mentioned in the scriptures. Having said that, Newton and Gandhi, Socrates and Nostradamus, etc, are not mentioned as incarnations anywhere in the scriptures.
    Hindus usually do not accept for incarnations other than those mentioned as such in the scriptures.


    regards

  10. #10

    Re: Vishnu incarnations

    Namasté.

    Thank you for all your replies.

    Some sites say Lord Vishnu has thousands of incarnations, others say only ten. In the case of thousands, I wonder whether he can have two avatars incarnated at the same time.

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