Chapter Five: Avatāra Doctrine and Rama Worship

2. An avatāra is an eternal form, not a product of māyā.
3. Every avatāra embodies being, consciousness, and bliss: supreme knowledge, supreme reality, and supreme bliss coincide within him, and he can bestow liberation.
4. Some avatāras appear in human form, and some perform human-like acts.
5. Even an avatāra’s “human body” is divine and contains not the slightest imperfection.
6. Though “assuming a human body,” the avatāra possesses divine powers and divine completeness and is therefore fully capable of superhuman līlā.
7. Some avatāras appeared in the past, but because they are eternal they remain worthy of worship today. Each has a distinct embodied līlā and a distinct realm of his own.
8. Avatāras are portions of Bhagavan in this sense: even while descending to this plane, they remain enthroned in their own abode in their divine and complete form.
9. The principal purposes of an avatāra are the welfare of the universe, the savouring of love, and the propagation of devotion.

The avatāras are innumerable, but ten are principal; among these, Rama and Krishna are pre-eminent. Both are avatāras of Vishnu, and their importance is exceedingly ancient and widespread. The chief reason is their humanity—the rasa of human life. Because this human rasa is so abundant in them, the worship of Rama and Krishna is both very old and comparatively widespread.

Human rasa

The importance of Rama’s avatāra has also been immense. Bhagavan Ramachandra has traditionally been portrayed as the destroyer of evil and the Supreme Person of moral order. From the fifteenth century onward, literature increasingly celebrated Rama’s līlā. Yet even there the primary focus remained upon him as destroyer of evil and benefactor of saints; his character as the Supreme Person of moral order was never dimmed.

Gradually, however, in literature after the sixteenth century, Rama’s life became a means for devotees’ contemplative participation in līlā and was increasingly permeated by the mādhurya disposition. By the eighteenth century, Rama literature had developed expansive and detailed portrayals of amorous play and the rāsa-līlā. A whole current of loving devotees emerged who worshipped Rama as the supremely beloved, the ultimate lover. Thus, within the Ramavat tradition too, as in the Krishna-bhakti branch—

The verse continued from the preceding page reads: Ekena nityaṃ niyato vihāras / tathā dvitīyena jagat-pravṛttiḥ—“Through one he eternally performs his appointed play, and through the second the universe proceeds.” Haṃsa-vilāsa, ullāsa 47. The source also cites: Śṛṇute ’haṃ pravakṣyāmi Viṣṇo rūpaṃ dvidhā matam / nityaṃ vihāra ekena cānyena sṛṣṭir eva hi //—“Listen, and I shall explain Vishnu’s form, held to be twofold: through one he eternally sports, and through the other creation comes forth.” Ādi Purāṇa 1016.