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

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

Namastey Raviji,

I am at present reading your posts in the archives.
Compared to the combined wisdom of the forum, as
revealed in the archives, I am a neophyte.

Regarding the question you have raised, which I seek
to clarify with much trepidation, one thing we must
realise is that Maya being an instrument in the hands
of the avatara, He uses it to delude mankind into
thinking that He is as ordinary as other mortals.

Sri Rama was recognised as an avatara only by a
handful of Rishis. The rest refered to Him as "son of
Dasratha". Sri Krishna was a "sakha" of the Pandavas
till He revealed himself to Arjuna. (It is not that
they did not know His special status but as I said
they were deluded).

Lord Chaitanya too was recognised by a few devotees
most of who were his parshads (associates in lila).
Sri Ramakrishna, though proved to be a purna avatara
by Bhairavi Brahmani who called a meeting of the
pundits of Bengal, had only a handful of close
devotees around His funeral pyre.

Yours sincerely

Jagannath.
--- Ravishankar Venkatraman <sunlike at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:

<<DIV>How does a person manifesting certain
superiority over Nature differ from the Supreme Being
(Narayana or Siva) descending to the earth? Since we
do not really know what is the manifestation of power,
we may mistake anyone for an avatAra. Can anyone
differentiate between the two? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In Hindu religion, the dasAvatAram of Lord Vishnu
is accepted. However, it is also accepted that there
were upa-avatAram mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatham.
Lord Dattatreya is a upa-avatAra of Vishnu.</DIV>
<<DIV>Thanks,</DIV>
<DIV>Ravi</DIV>


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