Chapter Five: Avatāra Doctrine and Rama Worship

Dear reader, remember: books are the visible embodiment of Mother Sarasvati. To treat a book improperly in any way is a direct insult to the goddess who holds the vina. —The publisher

From the most ancient times, the doctrine of divine descent has prevailed in our country in one form or another. Christian religious communities likewise accept the “descent of God as man”—that the divine reality descends in human form. Nor is it the case that Islam entirely lacks the avatāra idea in another form. Among Buddhists, especially the Mahayana Buddhists who uphold the doctrine of the three bodies, it has found a place in the form of the nirmāṇa-kāya. This shows that, in one way or another, the principle of divine descent has been accepted in every religious tradition.

The principle of avatāra in all religious disciplines

On the authority of the Vaishnava Puranas and scriptures, three modes of Bhagavan’s form are recognized. The printed diagram classifies them as follows:

• Form (svarūpa)
  • The original form (svayaṃ-rūpa)
  • A form essentially one with it (tad-ekātma-rūpa)
    • vilāsa
    • svāṃśa
  • Invested form (āveśa)
    • invested with divine power (śaktyāveśa), such as Shesha
    • invested with knowledge (jñānāveśa), such as Sanaka
    • invested with devotion (bhaktyāveśa), such as Narada

A related classification places the transcendent source—the avatārī—above four modes of manifestation: vyūha, vibhava, the Inner Controller, and the consecrated image (arcā). The category of avatāra is then divided into the vyūha, the pervasive manifestation, the Inner Controller, and the arcā form; other branching schemes distinguish complete descent, portion, ray, power, invested descent, and vibhūti.