avatar and GYAnI (was Re: "Jagat satya!")

[Swarna Venkateswara Swamy]

Hari Om. Avatar means to descend. The Supreme Gods
(Mahadevas they are called, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva),
especially Sri Vishnu (since it was His job to protect
and maintain) took many shapes and forms on several
occasions to carry out some specific tasks. Some
Avatars finished their jobs quickly and went back to
the plane from where the Deva came. Some left behind
their Archa Vigrahas to enable devotees to worship
them and thus enable the devotees to tap the power.

A gyani may or may not have any power, esp. the power
to control elements etc., since gyani's main aim is to
go beyond such traps. Yoga or tapas may give one a lot
of power (even Rakshasas got lot of power by their
tapas), but whether it gives gyan is a big question.

Hari Om.

Swarna Venkateswara Swamy


--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> --- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
> wrote:
> > On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, S Jayanarayanan wrote:
> >
> > > What is the difference between a avatar and a
> > > jIvanmukta that you've stated above?
> >
> > There are some instances in the shastras which
> shows
> > an avatar is not
> > always possessed of full knowledge (or appears not
> > to be.)
> >
> > For example:
> >
>
> There are similar examples for the GYAnIs too.
> Durvasa, the great GYAnI, once had to face the anger
> of VishNu because he offended a VishNu-bhakta. He
> then
> had to plead with the bhakta in order to be saved.
> I'm
> sure there are many other instances in the
> scriptures.
>
>
> As to your example of Sri Rama:
>
> > When the earth was flooded and the knowledge of
> the
> > Vedas was in danger of
> > bing lost, Vishnu Bhagawan became te boar Varaha
> and
> > rescued them.  But
> > afterwards, he went "mad" and almost destroyed the
> > worlds with his
> > rampages.  Shiva Bhagavan became the Saurabh (I'm
> > not sure what kind of
> > creaure that is) and fought Him until He calmed
> > down.
> >
> > After Shri Rama brought Sitaji back from Lanka, he
> > grew angry at Her and
> > accused Her falsely causing Her to enter the fire
> as
> > a test of Her virtue.
> > The Devas led by Brahma and Indra had to come down
> > from Heaven to remind
> > Him that He was no no mortal king but Vishnu
> > Bhagawan Himself.
> >
>
> Ramana Maharshi once narrated the story of how Rama
> was crying out for Sita after she was kidnapped by
> Ravana. Seeing Rama behave this way, Parvati said to
> Shiva, "I don't understand why people think Rama is
> a
> great person when he is crying aloud for his wife
> like
> an ordinary man." Shiva replied, "Rama is the
> supreme
> being, and is merely acting like a man, you may test
> him if you wish." So Parvati puts on the guise of
> Sita
> and appears before Rama. Rama smiles at her and
> asks,
> "Parvati, what are you doing here? Where is
> Shambhu?"
> Parvati is ashamed and tells Rama that she wanted to
> test him. Rama then asks her to return to Kailasa,
> saying, "We are all thinking of Shiva all the time."
>
> The story shows how an avatar may sometimes act like
> an ordinary person, but in reality is not bound by
> actions.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kartik
>
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