Avatāra
Avatāra · ava-tāra, “descent”
Grammar: masculine noun, from the root tṝ (to cross) with the prefix ava (down): “a crossing down”, a descent.
Meaning: the descent of Bhagavān Vishṇu into the world in a form of his choosing, by his own māyā-śakti and in līlā, for the welfare of beings, the protection of the good and of dharma, and the removal of the wicked. A partial descent is an aṃśāvatāra.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa opens with the avatāras and tells them through its whole length.
At Naimisha the ṛshis ask Sūta to tell them of Śrī Kṛshṇa, born as the son of Devakī and Vasudeva: “The avatāra of Parameśvara is for the welfare and prosperity of living beings. Śrī Mahāvishṇu, Sarveśvara, the Īśvara of all, by his māyā-śakti reveals līlās as he wills; now tell the auspicious accounts of his avatāras” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 1). Sūta answers that Parameśvara, the maker of the worlds, delighting to descend in līlā in the wombs of devas, animals, birds, humans and others, surely protects the worlds through sattva (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 2).
Sūta then tells that all the avatāras arise from the Ādi-Nārāyaṇa form, which the yogīs see with the eye of knowledge, and merge back into it when their purpose is fulfilled. He names them in order: the four Kumāras, who taught unbroken brahmacarya; Varāha, who lifted the earth from Pātāla; Nārada, who taught the Pañcarātra Āgama; Nara and Nārāyaṇa, born of Mūrti, wife of Dharma, who performed severe tapas; Kapila, who taught the Sāṅkhya śāstra lost through time; the son of Atri and Anasūyā, Dattātreya, who taught ātma-vidyā to Alarka, Prahlāda, Yadu, Haihaya and others; Yajña, son of Ruci and Ākūti, who protected the Svāyambhuva manvantara; Ṛshabha, son of Nābhi and Merudevī, who showed the Paramahaṃsa path; Pṛthu, who milked all the oshadhis from the earth in the form of a cow; Matsya, who saved Vaivasvata Manu at the end of the Cākshusha manvantara; Kūrma, who bore Mount Mandara at the churning of the ocean; Dhanvantari; Mohinī, who gave the devas the amṛta; Narasiṃha, who tore apart the chest of Hiraṇyakaśipu with his nails; Vāmana, who asked Bali for three steps of land; the sixteenth, who rid the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times when the kings set themselves against Īśvara; Vyāsa, son of Parāśara and Satyavatī, who divided the tree of the Veda into branches; Śrī Rāma, who built the bridge over the ocean for the work of the devas; Balarāma and Kṛshṇa in the Yadu line, who removed the burden of the earth; Buddha, who will be born in Magadha as the son of Ajana after the Kali yuga has begun; and Kalki, who will be born as the son of Vishṇuyaśas at the end of the Kali yuga. As thousands of channels flow from a deep lake that never dries, so countless avatāras keep going forth from Śrī Hari, whose form is sattva; the ṛshis, Manus, devas and prajāpatis are all his aṃśas. These aṃśāvatāras protect the world in every yuga when it is troubled by the rākshasas, but Śrī Kṛshṇa is Śrī Hari himself. Whoever, purified, recites this secret account of the avatāras in the morning and the evening is freed from saṃsāra, which is full of sorrow (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3).
Śuka tells Parīkshit that when Śrī Hari was in the womb of Devakī, the devas came and praised him: “You are the ātmā whose nature is consciousness. For the welfare of all beings, moving and unmoving, you take avatāras many times; your avatāras, in which sattva is chief, give happiness to the good and inauspiciousness to the wicked. Before this you took avatāra as Matsya, Hayagrīva, Kūrma, Nṛsiṃha, Varāha, Haṃsa, Śrī Rāma, Paraśurāma and Vāmana, and protected us and the three worlds; now too remove the burden of the earth” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 2). In the Gopikā Gīta the gopīs sing that when Brahmā prayed to him to protect the world, he took avatāra in the line of the Yādavas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 31).
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that his devotees long to hear of the births he takes in his avatāras in līlā, and speech that does not tell of them is fruitless. The sādhaka should hear his stories with śraddhā, sing them and remember them, and have his avatāras and līlās enacted in dramas; telling of his avatāras and līlās and holding festivals on his days are marks of bhakti (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 11).
Related terms: Aṃśāvatāra · Līlā · Daśāvatāra · Māyā-śakti · Śrī Hari
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 1–3; Skandha 10, Chapters 2, 31; Skandha 11, Chapter 11