Haṃsa Avatāra

Haṃsa Avatāra · haṃsa-avatāra, “the avatāra in the form of a swan”

Haṃsa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Haṃsa.

Haṃsa is the avatāra in which Śrī Hari took the form of a haṃsa, a swan, to teach the dharma of moksha. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells that when the Sanakādis, the mind-born sons of Brahmā, asked their father how the mind and its objects let go of each other, and Brahmā could find no answer, Brahmā thought of Śrī Hari, and Śrī Hari came before them as a shining swan. As a swan parts milk from water, so in his teaching he parted the ātmā from the guṇas. He told them that he is the one Ātmā in all, beyond waking, dream and sleep, taught them jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga, revealed himself as Śrī Hari, the form of yajña, and returned to his dhāma while Brahmā looked on. In the same form he taught Nārada bhakti-yoga and the bhāgavata-dharma. Śrī Kṛshṇa himself tells this account to Uddhava, and the devas name Haṃsa among the avatāras by which Śrī Hari has protected the three worlds.

His grace to Nārada

Brahmā, telling Nārada of the avatāras of Śrī Hari, says: “O Nārada, Bhagavān Śrī Hari, pleased with your intense bhakti, appeared in the form of Haṃsa and taught you well bhakti-yoga and the bhāgavata-dharma, the means to the jñāna that reveals the nature of the ātmā.” Only devotees who have taken refuge in Vāsudeva, he says, can know it without effort.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7

Among the avatāras

One of the nine yogīśvaras, the sons of Ṛshabhadeva, tells King Nimi that Śrī Hari, without falling from his own nature, took many kalā-avatāras for the welfare of the world. Among those who taught adhyātma-yoga he came as Haṃsa, who taught the Sanakas; as Dattātreya, who taught Yadu; as the four Kumāras, who taught Nārada; and as Ṛshabhadeva, who taught his sons.

When Śrī Hari entered Devakī‘s womb, the devas praised him: “Before this you took avatāra as Matsya, Hayagrīva, Kūrma, Nṛsiṃha, Varāha, Haṃsa, Śrī Rāma, Paraśurāma and Vāmana, and protected us and the three worlds. In the same way, now too remove the burden of the earth.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 2; Skandha 11, Chapter 4

The teaching to the Sanakādis

Śrī Kṛshṇa had told Uddhava that fixing the mind on him alone is the restraint of the mind taught by his disciples Sanaka, Sanandana and the others. Uddhava asked when, and in what form, he had taught them. Śrī Kṛshṇa answered with this account.

Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, the mānasa-putras of Brahmā, asked their father about the subtle last limit of yoga: “O Prabhu Brahmā, the mind clings to the objects such as sound, which are products of the guṇas, and the objects cling to the mind. For one who seeks moksha, by what means do they let go of each other?” Brahmā, the Deva of devas, the self-born creator, thought and thought, but because his mind was stirred by his karmas he could not reach the root of the doubt in the question. Wishing to know the answer, he thought of Śrī Kṛshṇa. “Then I went to him in the form of a haṃsa,” says Śrī Kṛshṇa.

The Sanakādis saw him, came near, bowed at his feet and, with Brahmā before them, asked: “Who are you?” Bhagavān Haṃsa answered them, calling them “sons”:

• When the Ātmā is not many, the question “Who are you?” does not fit; the five bhūtas are the same in every body, and the question rests only on the use of words.
• All that the mind, speech, sight and the other senses grasp is he himself; there is nothing apart from him. The Ātmā of the jīva is he; the mind and its objects are only the jīva’s upādhi, not its nature.
• Waking, dream and deep sleep arise in the buddhi through the guṇas; the Ātmā is their witness, the fourth, beyond them. Bondage is identification with the buddhi; standing in the Ātmā, the sādhaka is freed from both the objects and the mind.
• The world is the play of the mind, restless as a whirling firebrand. With the sword of viveka, sharpened by hearing the sat-purushas, the sādhaka cuts every doubt and worships him who dwells in the heart. The jñānī, like one who does not notice whether his cloth has slipped, takes no notice of the body while prārabdha lasts.

Then he revealed himself: “O maharshis, I have taught you the secret of jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga. Know me to be Śrī Hari, the form of yajña, who came wishing to teach you the dharma of moksha. I am the great support of karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, truth, the dharma of the Veda, sweet speech, tejas, wealth, fame and the restraint of the senses, and I am their fruit. Beyond the guṇas, I need nothing; I am the well-wisher of all, the Ātmā, the treasury of love, and equanimity, non-attachment, truth and every virtue serve me.”

The doubts of the Sanakādis were scattered. With great bhakti they worshipped and praised him, and Bhagavān Haṃsa returned to his dhāma while Brahmā looked on.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 13

Uddhava’s request

Later Uddhava asked Śrī Kṛshṇa: “O mighty-armed Śrīpati, tell me the dharma which long ago, in your Haṃsa form, you told to Brahmā. That supreme dharma gives happiness. After a very long time it has almost vanished from the world of men, and neither on earth nor in the sabhā of Brahmā is there anyone but you who teaches it, practises it and protects it.” In answer Śrī Kṛshṇa began his teaching on the dharmas of the yugas, the varṇas and the āśramas.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 17

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 10, Chapter 2; Skandha 11, Chapters 4, 13, 17