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An explanation for the unmanifested to manifest (Avatara)

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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

God manifests to redeem humanity

 

CHENNAI, JAN. 29. The mystic saints, Azhwars, when they refer to

people engrossed in worldly life, bemoan that they concern

themselves only with the preoccupations of food, clothing and

shelter and hardly about the one who provides all these to

mankind. Those who become worthy of divine grace understand that

they owe everything they enjoy in life to God.

 

The different incarnations of the Supreme Being were undertaken

by Him with a specific purpose every time but in general it has

been to redeem those who were wedded to righteousness and reposed

faith in His saving grace. Among them, His manifestations in the

human form as Rama and Krishna are very important to human beings

from the standpoint of their liberation. For, it was in these

incarnations that He taught the path of surrender to Him

(Saranagati) as the means to liberation that can be adopted by

one and all.

 

In his discourse, Thirunagai Sri N. Veeraraghavachariar said that

the Ramayana had come to be hailed as a scripture expounding the

nuances of the doctrine of surrender to God as means to

liberation. If the purpose of the Rama incarnation was just the

protection of the sages by eliminating the demons who troubled

them, then a legitimate doubt will arise as to why the sages who

were the repository of spiritual power acquired through penance,

could not have destroyed those demons who perpetrated atrocities

in the world themselves. They could have easily eliminated them

and established righteousness in the world.

 

The actual reason then for the Lord's manifestation was to

liberate all those who sought refuge in Him and hence it was to

teach the esoterics of this method that He assumed the human form

and underwent all the trials and tribulations of human life to

show them the way. This method to liberation is one of the 32

prescribed in the scriptures.

 

The conviction that one does not possess any of the requisites

for working out one's salvation and surrendering to God

beseeching Him to undertake that responsibility forms the basis

of adopting self-surrender to God as a means to liberation. The

burden of delivering such a person from bondage then vests with

the Lord after the performance of surrender, but, what is

essential is that there should be absolute faith in God.

 

The sages knew that the Lord would manifest to deliver them from

bondage and this was the reason they awaited Rama's arrival with

great expectation. Moreover, the celestials had also surrendered

to the Almighty to manifest on the Earth and rid it of the burden

of the demons.

 

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