Dasa Avatar Vs Evolution Theory
Chapter 4
Text 7
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham
TRANSLATION
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata,
and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.
Text 8
paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
TRANSLATION
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles
of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.
Prelude
According to Hindu philosophy, god appears on Earth whenever there is a decline in dharma or righteousness.
The above quotes from the Bhagavad Gita bear testimony to this fact.
The incarnations are taken by Vishnu as part of his duty, being the protector.
Each of these incarnations are associated with an interesting story explaining the reason for the lord's descent and how he prevents the decline of dharma.
However I will not be going into the details of the stories, but will try to extract the science hidden beneath.
The forms taken by the lord in the ten incarnations bear a strange similarity toThe Darwin's theory of evolution.
The Ten Incarnations ( Names and the Forms)
Matsya : Fish
Kurma : Tortoise ( Amphibian)
Varaha : Boari(Mammal)
Narasimha : Half man Half lion
Vamana : Dwarf
Parashurama : An uncouth and shabby man
Sri Rama : An ideal man
Balarama : An intermediate between an ideal and normal man
Sri Krishna : A normal man with all possible vices
Kalki : A ultimate destructor
The following is for those who are offended by the above description of the incarnations.
The main points of contention would be probably in the description of Parashurama and Sri Krishna.
Parashurama was a brahman whose sole aim in life was to vanquish the Kshatriyas or the warrior class. His role is obviously atypical of that of a brahman, who is supposed to read the scriptures and follow the principles of ahimsa. He would , with such a criminal record , be far from being called a sophisticated man although 'uncouth and shabby' may be carrying it a bit too far.
Sri Krishna's description would sure enough have much more opposition and people may well brand me an atheist. But this is a scientific study and characters have to be seen as they are depicted. One should not be confused with the fact that Sri Krishna is the lord himself.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution
From the invertebrates came the fishes. From the fishes the Amphibians and from the Amphibians the Reptiles. The Reptiles inturn gave rise to two separate classes the Aves(or the birds) and the Mammals. And ofcourse in mammals the final step in evolution(atleast as of now!) was Man.
This theory was based on the principle of the survival of the fittest. So by that Amphibians had greater chances of survival than the Fishes, Replites had greater chances over the Amphibians and finally Man had the best chances of survival among all the beings.
Observations
Now that I have illustrated the features of the Dasa Avatars and Darwin's theory of evolution. Let us look at the similarities.
For the lord to be able to establish dharma over the evil forces, he has to himself assume a formidable form. These incarnations are supposed to occur one after the other and according to hinduism the tenth or Kalki avatar is yet to be born.
Given this we see that when the first avatar, that of the fish, was taken, the fishes were themselves the most powerful being on the Earth. This suggests that the Earth was probably filled completely with water at some time of its creation. Then the forms of the tortoise and the boar seem to validate Darwin's theory.
The half man half lion can be considered an intermediate step in the evolution suggesting the need for the human brain.
At this point a clear conclusion is drawn that Man is the most powerful of all creations and so never does god take another animal form.
The evolution of man himself is depicted in discrete steps. The first man was short, then he evolved into something like the stone age man and then reached perfection in Sri Rama.
As the saying goes, "everything that rises has to fall back to the Earth" and so does Man too.
The degradation of Man starts with Balarama and continues through Sri Krishna. At this point we complete the past. The line of thought still holds sense as man has indeed degraded and righteousness is a virtue that carries little meaning in the present world.
However we could derive solace from the fact that we are in the beginning of the Kali yuga(Period between the death of Sri Krishna and birth of Kalki) and total degradation of values is an attribute of the distant future.
Hinduism predicts that when complete degradation occurs, god will take the final avatar and destroy the Earth.
And sure enough he has to take the form of the ultimate destructor to succeed in his goals.
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