Dashaavartara (The 10 Incarnations of The Lord) : L'ecole de La Maison de Krishna
Dashaavartara (The 10 Incarnations of The Lord) : L'ecole de La Maison de Krishna
Dashaavartara (The 10 Incarnations of The Lord) : L'ecole de La Maison de Krishna
"Whenever Dharma, or the situation of law and order, is endangered on this world, I shall incarnate onto this
world to re-establish Dharma, law and order, and to protect the good people and to destroy the evil elements of
the society."
Vishnu/Krishna is the name given to the protector and sustainer of the universe. Vishnu, has
incarnated in various life forms through different yugas (ages or eons) in situations where Dharma
was in danger, because of certain evil elements in the world. There are ten incarnations of Lord
Vishnu. These incarnations are termed as the 'avatars' of Lord Vishnu. Each avatar of Lord Vishnu
shall be presented below with appropriate details of the situation under which the lord was
compelled to appear on the earth. While many explanations are given for the 10 avatars of Vishnu,
one can see striking similarity of these stories with the theory of evolution of life.
THE FIRST SIX
DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION
INCARNATIONS OF VISHNU
Matsya (Fish) Life starts in water (600 million-400 million years ago)
Kurma (Turtle) The first amphibians emerge (100 million years ago)
Varaha (Boar) The first mammals evolve (60 million years ago)
Narasimha (half man-half lion) Half man-half animal appear (30 million years ago)
Homo Erectus, Upright, yet short and weaponless (5 million -
Vamana (short man)
2 million years ago)
Parashurama (parashu=axe, Bronze age; the coming of Ramapithecus; development of first
Rama=name of God) weapons such as axe. Homo Sapiens (350,000-100,000 years
ago)
The Story of MATSYA Avatar
In MATSYA Avatar, Lord Vishnu incarnates himself as a fish in this world. In the
earliest yuga (era) of Sata-yuga, a king named Manu was performing severe
penance for thousands of years. One day as he was performing ablutions with river
water, a small fish came into his hands and just as he was about to throw the fish
back into the river, the fish requested the king to save its life. Heeding its request,
the king put the fish into a jar of water but the fish started growing and the jar was
not big enough for it. Then the king threw it into the river, but it soon it outgrew the
river and the king then threw it into Ganges and then into the ocean. The king
realized that it was Lord Vishnu himself and then the lord made an appearance and
made a special request to the king. It predicted that the world would come to an end
by a huge flood in seven days and requested the king to build a huge boat and take
the seven sages(hermits), seeds of all plants, one animal of each type and told him
that he would appear as a fish to propel the boat to Mt Himavan for surviving the
flood to the next yuga(eon). True to his word, after seven days the Lord appeared
and the king tied the boat to the fish by using the royal serpent Vasuki and the fish
took all of them to Mt Himavan and kept them there till the flood was over and in
the new era, the king started procreation for the new era.
Vamana then requested for the amount of land that could come under his three feet.
Bali gracefully agreed. Lord Vishnu then grew in size and covered the earth and
heaven in two stride. And due to lack of space, he put his third leg on Bali himself
and crushed Bali to the nether or the Patala loka (underground world), thus helping
the Gods out.