The Avatāras Before Kṛṣṇa

Seeker: "Just for an update, I understand that you are going to describe the avatāras of the ancient Vedic culture as they are remembered by the Hindus, but how about the avatāras of the modern era, the age of political quarrel?"

Teacher: "The classical līlā avatāras of Viṣṇu, the way they are known in a predominantly mythical sense in India, date from before the last appearance about 5000 years ago of the Original Person in the mode of goodness, who is called Kṛṣṇa. He constitutes the end of the Vedic era of great divine kings wherein the royalty ruled the world in union with the culture of wisdom. Ever since His disappearance we speak of the age of political quarrel, also called Kali-yuga or the iron age, wherein that union is broken. In this present age all appearances of Viṣṇu are not universally recognized anymore, they are covered and called channa, because of taking up and demonstrating the less honorable karmic load of all the strife in the modern world. They are not of general dominance anymore but concerned with defending different single aspects of the divine dharmic interest that is in jeopardy. Therefore they, as also the other avatāras of Brahmā and Śiva, are controversial.
They raise doubt for not demonstrating His classical full control of the material and human realm any longer. These channa avatāras are thus not universally respected, even though they may manifest some or even all of the classical perfections as described in the scriptures, His special talents called the siddhis like omniscience, omnipresence and the performance of miracles etc., including His integrity and command of the six opulences of intelligence, power, beauty, renunciation, fame and riches. Still He is today called Bhagavān or Supreme Lord by many people in India and also abroad who could recognize Him because of His special grace for them being His spiritual associates or expansions for performing duties in His mission as an 'avatāra' . He never appears alone but with an entourage of familiar characters that incarnate along with Him, like secondary specialized avatāras, to do the job of defending the dharma and protecting the surrendered souls. I shall describe these secondary incarnations to you later on. Thus my exposition will be first about the generally recognized appearances of the Original Person up until Kṛṣṇa.
The appearances of His Person after Kṛṣṇa I shall also discuss, but remember that they are not accepted by everyone as such, they are disputed. Kṛṣṇa is of special interest in the book the 'Bhāgavata Purāṇa' or the 'Story of the Fortunate One', that we discuss now, exactly because He, undisputed, constitutes the watershed for the culture of wisdom. Ever since His appearance the culture of wisdom is only found in pockets of culture, in sects, cults, new religious and philosophical spiritual schools and other subcultural associations that hand down the tradition with a different accent depending time and circumstance. Thus the entire culture of the Original Person of All Times became a big jigsaw puzzle. They, the pieces of this jigsaw, all maintain and justify their religious status because of representing some or another aspect of His tradition and actual intelligence.
The filognosy of the six darshanas (philosophical perspectives about the person) and the philosophy of time we defend here, is also such a new interpretation of the classical lore and will thus never be universally recognized around the world. The days of the external universal dominance of His Person of Control are over. There is too much human ego and too little human comprehension. He is simply too much for anyone or any culture to encompass. His supreme control, intelligence, integrity and comprehension in this time and age is to be sought and found inside of us by meditation, study and our individual devotional service. His main interest in the age of quarrel is to restore the dharma that was lost in the modern human strife for power and control and to keep all His cultures and subcultures, all His religions, in peaceful coexistence and function, the same way we have different schools, like primary school, high school and university, in one educational system worldwide. This policy these days is called sarva dharma, all religions united in His one fundamental dharma of defending the respect for His original Nature and Person. His different cultures all constitute different chapters in the same book of religious history. In our filognosy it is our challenge to become aware of this integrity and comprehension of spiritual knowledge and practice, appreciate the complete of this history book about the Person of All Time and help in righteously adding another chapter under His lead, for that book simply is never finished."

Seeker: "Thank you very much for this explanation. Please go ahead and continue talking about His appearances until the last chapter of His history book today is evident."

Teacher:

1) "When the world and humanity was in a deep unconscious primitive state, He appeared in the form of all kinds of sacrifices. The leader of mankind those days was a demoniac ruler interested in gold and power only. But because of all the sacrifices that the people made in defense of the dharma, or the righteous conduct in contrast with the material motive, the world for the first time saw the light of His Presence as One United Humanity, so that it by the Original Person was lifted out of the universal ocean of ignorance as if a boar was turning up an animal under its attack. The bad ruler thus defeated is remembered under the name Hiranyākṣa and this type of appearance among the common people of the union of the Original Person of Dharma is remembered as Varāha, the boar incarnation.

2) The next form that was assumed by the Original Person of Example occurred in the appearance of proper regulation (suyama). Proper regulation had resulted from the discovery of mankind that with appropriate sacrifices (suyajña) in combination with due rewards (dākṣina) the good intentions (ākūti) of the founding father of taste and splendor (prajāpati ruci) could be respected, so that a righteous society could be founded. This is also remembered by the interaction of persons carrying the names after these Sanskrit terms, with Suyama as the avatāra who took birth from parents named Suyajña and Dākṣina etc. The father of mankind at the time, who carried the name Svāyambhuva Manu or the 'one deriving from the self-existence of God or Brahman', named that spontaneous appearance of human self-control Hari, the Lord."

Seeker: "If I may interrupt you, were these avatāras embodied or not?"

Teacher: "All avatāras of Viṣṇu should be considered purely spiritual presences. The forms He assumed by that presence can indeed be characteristics of culture as with the diverse sacrifices and the proper regulation in these first two avatāras of Varāha and Hari. But also other more recognizable personal appearances of His presence are possible, as you will see.

3) The third avatāra of Viṣṇu, the Original Transcendental Person of Goodness, is traditionally known under the name Kapila. His name stands for the remedy of analytic thought. That remedy was the result of  'the shadow of the creator' in combination with the 'sacrificing for the gods.' These two agents are remembered as the parents of Kapila called Kardama and Devahūtī. It means that when one is of sacrifice for the sake of virtue one may be inspired by the perfection of that aim and thus engage in creative spiritual activities. That creative spirit resulted for mankind in a kind of shadow: analytic thought, the philosophy of chunking up the complete whole in understandable and interrelated parts. Analytic thinking constitutes a shadow, for it forms a kind of artful covering of the pure spirit in service of the memory of mankind. Therefore all analytic thinkers and their followers should meditate to keep in touch with the pure spirit of His Complete Whole, otherwise they will be lost in endless arguments of structuralism and rationalism. Kardama, the avatāra for this analytic mind, is said to have had nine sisters who married the great sages after him, and that He educated His mother in the spirituality of self-realization to become free from the material qualities. I shall tell you more about this later.
As you will understand, in Hinduism for the sake of the Original Person of Understanding every abstract subject of spiritual wisdom is assigned a personal name and history. This does not mean that these mythical persons never really existed. They very well might have. People are given names according to the wish of their parents and they, as their children, tend to answer these wishes. Thus the Lord may appear in many different forms in response to the prayers of the people and that way make His personal history of appearances in a human form as avatāras very real.

4) The fourth traditional avatāra who appeared before Kṛṣṇa's presence on earth was named Dattātreya, 'the threefold one given'. He was born as the son of a sage called Atri. The name Atri stands for 'the devourer', for he had a great appetite, a great desire to cover everything to be known. He prayed for offspring and so the Supreme Lord said: 'then I will give Myself to you.' Thus He, as Atri's son, was called 'datta' or given. The 'treya' refers to the threefold of nature and the guṇa avatāras, for, apart from Viṣṇu, He also covered the authority of Brahmā and Śiva. He was born from humanity's appetite for knowledge to know all, that Atri stood for, and thus He was there as the integrity of the threefold nature of the Supreme Divinity of the Person of the Qualities. He wandered for all His life around as a mendicant, someone of complete detachment also called an avadhūta. His instruction constitutes an important part of the so-called Uddhava Gītā, a basic instruction of Kṛṣṇa which is part of this purāṇa, this collection of stories (book 11). Dattātreya is the avatāra of the Person of All Time who purified the complete body of the mystical knowledge of yoga. He was the one who brought spiritual and material wealth to the dynasty wherein ultimately Kṛṣṇa took His birth.

5) The fifth avatāra mentioned in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa is called Catuhsana, 'the four Sanas'. This was a quadruple incarnation in the form of four brahmin brothers called Sanaka, Sananda, Sanātana and Sanat-kumāra, who had bodies of the size of a child. They were there to confirm the sana, the longevity, the long duration of the contribution of everyone like me who being of penance and austerity is on a mission to create the cultures of the three worlds. In previous times the spiritual truth had been explained already, but it was lost having sunken in the sea of material ignorance. The four Sanas, standing for the maintenance of the traditional wisdom of mankind, who were born from the desire of Brahmā, the creator, in order to restore this filognosy this ātmatattva, then recreated this knowledge so that the wisdom of the soul became clearly visible to all sages. In meditation one by the grace of these four sages can experience the integrity of the Original Personality of the Soul within one's heart.

6) Based on the capacity (dakṣa) of the founding fathers there were, in combination with their religiosity and righteousness (dharma), idols (mūrtis), that are there to create a clear image of the humaneness and proper conduct of mankind. This human form of the Lord was assumed by the sixth incarnation in the form of the twins Nara-Nārāyaṇa. With their personal strength and glory, that was acquired by penances, They overrule the attraction of the heavenly beauties who may approach the meditator with the temptation of Cupid to break his vows. Lust can be defeated by looking away from female beauty. That is practiced by the greatest souls of meditation on the sexual union, like the followers of Lord Śiva. This kind of meditators cannot be free though from the overwhelming effects of their own intolerance. But since such emotions cannot enter the heart of the Person of Goodness, Viṣṇu, far elevated above this all, the lust of whomever faithful to Him cannot inspire fear for the reactions of striving against this lust. With Him, the Maintainer, lust therefore does not constitute a threat anymore to the maintenance of goodness. Humanity being faced with the necessity to control sexual lust, the unregulated nature of love, thus with this incarnation of the Person of Goodness and Love Stronger than Cupid, arrived at the control of the passionate urge of sexual desires and that way found with Them the opportunity to live in love."

Seeker: "If I may ask for a moment, are you describing in this series of avatāras the evolution of human civilization? And what would that mean for the future?"

Teacher: "As said the Lord incarnates to restore the dharma, the naturalness and humaneness of mankind, as far as it is of respect for the Better Person of Our Ideals. There is a way down and a way up in life. In a sense we are increasingly losing it, with standard human values less and less respected generation upon generation, but that decay as observed in this age of quarrel has at its counterpart a clearer and more easy path to liberation. The contrast is bigger and thus the way up is easier to find and respect. For the Hindus there is the belief in the cyclic nature of human history. After an era of material and moral prosperity, periods of decay will follow, that again on their turn will result in a period of a rebirth and restoration of the culture of human values. Thus civilizations rise and fall and are reborn again. But from a more western vision of progress not in denial of these cycles, the more we learn about the way up and from what went wrong, the better every time around we become in these cycles of rise and fall. It is like sitting in an historical roller coaster. For souls of faith and virtue who can face challenges in combination with a progressive and righteous mentality there is a clearly shining future. They ultimately will find themselves in a better world. The less motivated souls unwilling to face the burden of necessary lessons to learn, may return to the animal state and not again obtain a human body, so the Indians believe from their perspective of reincarnation. Now let me continue with my discussion.

7) There was once a Vedic prince called Dhruva, a 5 year old child still, who, so the story goes, was hurt by the words of a co-wife of his father, a king called Uttānapāda ('polar star'). The boy thereupon took to the forest to perform severe penances in defense of his honor. The Lord being pleased with His prayers then presented Himself to Dhruva in the form of the centre of the stars, the immovable dhruva point of their rotation, as the focus for all meditation on His universal form. The classics consider, after the name of his father, the polar star to be this point, that is also called dhruva loka, as an observable centre of star rotation, but these days we have a better understanding of the universe and know it is the galaxy centre located at Saggitarius A. This seventh avatāra of Viṣṇu as found in the turning point of the 'being of the variegated greater nature' is in Sanskrit called Priśnigarbha. This form carries the capacity of motivating a in the future developing filognostic - a classically and comprehensively founded - civilization for a so-called galactocentric time reform incorporating the rotation of our sun in the galaxy. One can respect Him with a date for a 'galactic day' or a solar year relative to the center of the milky way.

8) A Vedic king called Vena, 'the anxious one', some day was cursed by the brahmins because of being haughty in assuming the position of the Lord. After he had fallen as a consequence, the scholars prayed for a righteous heir to his throne. Because of those prayers the Lord of Goodness, Viṣṇu, assumed the eighth avatāra form of a Vedic king called Pṛthu. He restored the stature of the throne His father had spoiled and achieved, by founding world wide (or 'pṛthu) the science of agriculture, a good yield of crops to populate the earth successfully. This eighth avatāra is remembered to stay humble with the Supreme Person Within and thus live in prosperity being of peace and service with the maintenance and cultivation of nature', the mother always feeding us.

9) Performing yoga someone may appear to be a nobody and foolish when he, despite all his intelligence and talents, lives turned away from all active societal involvement. Someone may lose his wife and job and even his house becoming homeless and a vagrant as a consequence. Still one in that position may be functioning at the highest level of achievement in wisdom, for freed from worldly influences accepting the spiritual essence one achieves true independence, the actual purpose of emancipation. For the sake of the honor of the Original Person of Wisdom and Renunciation Viṣṇu appeared in the ninth form of a great Vedic king called Ṛṣabha, 'the best one' who after a successful rule abandoned the throne and left the kingdom to His many sons. He withdrew from all societal involvement and wandered around being filthy and seemingly foolish in order not to be recognized by anyone. He was the great example of the honor and enlightenment of egolessness in wisdom as needed by all serious practitioners of penance and austerity in yoga. Misinterpretations of His example led to heretic, so-called māyāvādi philosophies defending the world as being an illusion and preaching non-involvement as a single purpose. But non-involvement concerns the position of meditation, not the position of being graceful and devoted to the divine cause with one's fellow man in reciprocal action. The world gives rise to illusions but is not an illusion itself, even though offering temporary forms. A-karma or material unemployment does not mean that one should be always aloof and not be a servant and devotee of the spiritual purpose of the Original Person Within and Without. His science is comprehensive after all.

10) The meditator regulates his breath with the help of Vedic mantras and hymns. For that purpose he or she reads the scriptures regularly and uses prayer beads to keep a sense of time and have a material hold in staying focussed in His transcendence. With these scriptures one can be of a creative effort, like I am now, to adapt them to time and circumstance, as is a Vedic duty. Thus one derives inspiration from the so-called creative light called the brahmā-jyoti, a golden hue, that is secondary - just as an analytic shadow - to the light of the soul called the ātma-jyoti, the actual purpose of emancipation. In order to grace all of the creative intellectual efforts in His interest the Lord assumed the spiritual form of a horse called Hayagrīva, to be recognized in the nostrils of the meditator when he regularly - as also with Kapila - breathes like a horse does in service of its master. Thus He leads everyone of His concern back from the golden light of creation and its passion to the primary light of the soul and its goodness. Without Him one would ultimately, as a victim of the lower material qualities, burn up in the fire of one's own creativity like an heretic on the stake.



11) There are great natural disasters for mankind in the form of volcano eruptions, meteors, earthquakes and floods. They constitute the natural end of sometimes complete civilizations and thus they carry such a meaning for mankind, sometimes interpreted as a type of wrath of God or punishment for our sins. But that is superstition of course. Marked by that kind of occurrences or not, eras of civilization are doomed to end this or another way. No physical form, nothing material, is permanent. A flood or another natural or cultural disaster like a war, as such stands for the loss of spiritual consciousness and culture during times of decay. But, just like with the Purāṇa we discuss which appeared after the collapse of the Vedic culture, there is maintenance in the mode of goodness in times of need like in our difficult modern unnatural time of living with all its impersonalism and voidism. For mankind floating in an ocean of material ignorance, there is a rescue. The eleventh avatāra of Viṣṇu thus was realized as a great fish called Matsya who during all disasters saves a boat of devotional culture in the water of the flood that marks the end of an epoch of civilization. All the knowledge derived from creative efforts like the ones of me, was and will by Him in the spiritual form of a fish, be contained in that boat. Matsya is the avatāra to be remembered as the conservator of goodness, knowledge and culture in times of need.

12) There is another ocean, which is the ocean of knowledge. Knowledge is like the milk we derive from the cows. It is essential for our nonviolent spiritual survival as vegetarians. So too knowledge is essential for our peaceful social coherence as cultivated man. This knowledge is passed down generation by generation, but there is a constant struggle going on in the culture between the arguments of morality and of strength. Some say that the essence of human survival is determined by the human command, our basic human values and rights, while others say that we are involved in a constant natural animalistic struggle of survival wherein the stronger ones defeat the weaker ones. These two groups also called the enlightened souls and the unenlightened souls, the brains and muscles, the ones of light and darkness, the gods and the demons, together are churning this milk ocean of knowledge, pulling the rope with a snake called Vasuki that stands for the human ego. For churning the ocean the souls with the snake try to turn the abode of the gods, the inherited divine culture that is used as a pivot, in their favor. In the Purāṇas this abode is described as a sacred mountain called Meru. The favor to have the power of the Supreme at their side and which they expect from stressing their ego this way, is like a special nectar to them they expect from the churning, a divine sweetness the taste of which would grant immortality. But all the struggling about it obscures the vision of the actual eternal Original Person of Strength ànd Morality inside of all mortals. He is just like the foundation deep in the ocean the churning is taking place upon and is then seen as a tortoise called Kurma who either visible or not visible is sleeping in His shell while the rope pulling for the nectar scratches His back. This Kurma appearance of the Lord is the twelfth līlā-avatāra of the Person of Goodness and Transcendence. He is remembered as the integrity of the tolerance and support for mankind engrossed in conflicts of ego and control for the sake of its maintenance and dominance.

13) The devotee of the Original Person of All Divinity living in the material world is often challenged. He or she is tested, insulted, subdued, enslaved, humiliated, persecuted, discriminated and ousted by all kinds of false authorities. It is the dharma of the Lord to protect His devotee and so He appears in the form of a man that is in part a Lion, to liberate the devotee from all false materially motivated imposition. The lion feature of this appearance implies a most threatening scaring nature for which only the pure devotee has no fear. This lion-man called Lord Nṛsiṃha with His nails rips apart the demoniac king of gold called Hiraṇyakaśipu who thinks he is the inviolable master of his son called Prahlāda who in fact, so the story goes, is a devotee of Viṣṇu. All devotees, whether in an awkward position like that of Prahlāda or not, regularly worship this thirteenth avatāra who appeared for the sake of liberation and freedom from materialistic imposition.

14) Elephants regularly seek water for their survival, but there a danger lurks. There hides a crocodile that tries to drag the elephant away under water by exhausting him. The same way, a man of societal responsibility who wants to maintain a family, regularly has to seek his refuge, at home with his wife. But exactly there the lower instinct of animal drives lurks that, just like the crocodile, exhaust his strength, divert him from his cause and turn the man easily into a henpecked fool not in control of his life any longer. An elephant called Gajendra once, so the story goes, being caught by that crocodile found no other way out of its predicament but to pray to Lord Viṣṇu as being the original leader of his family, the original enjoyer of life. In this context Viṣṇu on the back of His carrier bird Garuda, standing for the elevating culture of mantras, appeared in the form of His transcendental four-armed ādi-puruṣa form to liberate Gajendra from the grip of the crocodile. This avatāra in the form of the Original Enjoyer is by all God-conscious people just by repeating His name remembered as the place of pilgrimage, the worshipable abode of goodness and the transcendental liberator from worldly distress. He appeared to help all attached but righteous people who struggle to escape from the strong grip of the lower animal drives that tend to exhaust, divert an themd dtate them.

15) The sitting authorities in the world tend to rule with passion and material motives. They thus often in their political struggles neglect the mode of goodness and the duties of respecting the human command (see introduction at the end of the introduction of The Person, book 1), exchanging the grace of the people for money and power. The people of course cannot accept the estranging consequences and misrepresentation of their human interest of this and then, democracy or not, want different rulers. Thus there is always the instability of the state not consciously putting the quality of goodness and its wisdom first. Nevertheless, whatever the rule, in order to keep the population peaceful and servile, the rulers, corrupt or not, have to reward obedient, law-abiding citizens for their basic adaptation and support them in their wish for property and perform labor for the country and their fellow man according to their nature. In order to remedy the discomfort of the people with their unstable rule of state, the Lord appeared in the form of a midget, called Vāmana in Sanskrit. Seemingly small He as a beggar of governmental support was permitted three steps of land. But that modest allowance was enough for Him to cover, from the soul's perspective of true independence, the entire earth with these few steps. Without any legal offenses He thus managed to subdue the materialistic rule of state. This Vāmana avatāra also called Trivikrama, is there for all people who law-abiding want to live a spiritual life and thus cannot occupy a societal position of status and material duties. The spiritual order has to be. Righteous rulers, however materialistically motivated, will never deviate from this rule of supporting the citizens with basic provisions, for they are dedicated to the peace and welfare of the state always.

16) Swans have a special talent. They are capable of sifting milk out of water with their beaks. Knowledge is like milk and the Original Person of Goodness is like a swan to preserve the knowledge from all the activities of the mind that cover the soul like a sea covering the earth. You, oh best and first of all devotees of respect at my feet, enjoyed in your initiation in the enlightenment of meditation, because of your transcendental love, this very swan talent of the Lord, the preserver of All Knowledge and Wisdom. This swan is also an avatāra called Hamsa. He, number sixteen, often but once - like in a near death experience - appearing in a mystical peak experience of spiritual fulfillment, is there for the initiation, support and enlightenment of all meditators seeking His inspiration, bliss, protection and beatitude. Only once having seen Him in this form is enough to keep a person for the rest of his life motivated for the spiritual cause.

17) The generations of the members of mankind were created somewhere deep in the past by a founding father. For each cultural epoch or period of successful human civilization there is such an original father of man. These fathers are called Manu in India, for each such a period or manvantara they count fourteen Manus. All these Manus together constitute one and the same Manu avatāra of Lord Viṣṇu taking birth as His own descendent to start new dynasties of human civilization time and again. In each of these periods He engages His so-called cakra weapon, standing for the natural order of time, His original authority, to subdue all miscreants. Therefore this transcendental Manu form of the Lord is worshiped and remembered in all directions of the earth up to the highest realms of the truth, as the heart and the source of the human excellence of our civilization and order of time, as the ruler of the three worlds of heaven, hell and the world in between.

18) As a later result of the ego conflicts between the souls of morality and the souls of physical strength who are culturally fighting for the blessing of longevity, there was another avatāra called Dhanvantari. He appeared together with the nectar churned from the ocean of milk. Since physical strength is quicker exhausted than moral strength, the moral side of humanity won the grace of the heavenly nectar. Morality rather than physical strength after all is also the feeding ground for disciplined study, scientific experiment and medical knowledge. This development ultimately resulted in the appearance of the personal integrity and brahminical perfection of the professional physician of medical knowledge for whose divinity this avatāra in the quality of goodness is remembered as the source and fame of general physical and mental health care, the science of manufacturing and applying medicines and other medical treatments. Every physician ultimately tries to fit in and be consistent with the stature and beatitude of this appearance of the Supreme Person of Wisdom and Health.



19) Political leaders, state officials, nobles, rulers, tend to build and fortify their positions of power to such a degree that they become the dominant class in society. Society though coheres by the grace and modest cooperation of all classes and age groups. Vedically this is defended in the so-called varṇāśrama system, a system of dividing the societal duties of the natural dynamic status orientations of one's age and vocation. That system defended by all dharmic brahmins is there as an historical necessity to diminish the power of especially the ruling class and to restore the balance of the human societal functions that are fulfilled by all the four basic classes, the so-called varṇas, of the (spiritual) intellectuals, the rulers, the tradesmen and the laborers. Humanity not properly aware of this comprehensive inevitable natural and dynamic system of human identity, which must not be confused with the caste system of fixed social identities of service called jāti, developed in its constant struggle to counter the dominance of any class a strong sense of civil opposition resulting in all kinds of organizations and personal motives in resent of the sitting rule of the state. Today we call this type of organization democracy. In our filognosy we defend the Vedic version of this notion of rule under the name of Democracy 2.0, offering a more direct democracy of so-called election groups in stead of political parties (see Inspiration 1.13). Modern India is also sometimes called the biggest democracy in the world, for the classical structure of their society of varṇas and āśramas (of vocations and age groups) permits each his own authority and viewpoint. The fixations of the caste system constitute the same problem as the western fixation in a class society of a privileged superior class, whether that would consist of nobles, financial elites, laborers or members of a certain religion. The heart and soul of the classical form of political opposition found in all democracies is essentially motivated by righteousness and social engagement rather than by crime and subversion, as also by the defense of the rights, honor and stature of the intellectuals and the other classes. The goodness of this historical motive of social action of reform for restoring the balance of power between the classes, in the early history of India has resulted in the appearance of an avatāra called Paraśurāma, 'the self-contented warrior', known for carrying a transcendental hatchet. When politicians lose their head, also these days, because of their corruption of arranging for false privileges, status fixations and an offensive attitude towards the intellect and the other classes, people thank and worship this eighteenth līlā avatāra for being the power of the righteousness and virtue of the law-abiding citizens who being faced with social injustice have to defend their civil honor and human rights. In the Vedic literature there is a record of Him as such twenty one times putting an end to the false rulers by taking their heads with His transcendental chopper.

20) The righteous ruler or whatever virtuous soul of ambition, always meets with the opposition of those who are jealous or possessed by other bad character traits. Therefore he cannot simply live in love and prosperity but has to gather all his strength and means to fight against that violation of righteousness in defense of - and the dharma that - constitutes his honor, intelligence and integrity. It forces him to work hard and neglect his eventual family and social life, if he had one, because that is how he finds the strength and focus to defeat his opponents. But going at the cost of his love life for the sake of his better self in renunciation was not his original choice. Life demands from him (or her) that first with the power of celibacy the fight must be won and that only then he can obtain the girl or a peaceful family life. Only then he lives happily ever after, so the fairy tale goes. The same way many others experience this in other walks of life also. Success in life demands sacrifices and often that success goes at the cost of love and living a good life. From this morality of heroism a līlā avatāra appeared in the world who, for all heroes in the world, took upon Him the burden to defeat the many-headed demon of human envy. Even though being self-contented as the Lord, He played along with the game of winning back the love that was compromised and the honor of His dharmic commitment. This appearance of Viṣṇu is called prince Rāma. Rāvaṇa was His ten-headed opponent who kidnapped His wife, princess Sītā. Together with His brother Lakṣmaṇa and the leader of the devotees, the ape god Hanuman, He with the power of celibacy defeated the demon and thus restored His rule, societal order and the respect of dharma. He begot two sons, but then the force of celibacy suppressed His love for Sītā again, because there was gossip among the people about her. She would have given in to the demon. Sītā then ended up in the ashram of the sage Vālmīki who is known to be the author of the Rāmāyaṇa, the story about the path Rāma had to follow. Rāma is always remembered as the great Viṣṇu avatāra of all heroes who have to gather all their strength and talents to make it in the world in a righteous way and thus free their princess from the grip of the demon of jealousy. One Vedically with this motive of heroism based on the force of celibacy also speaks about the Rāma principle. The name of Rāma is an integral part of the Mahāmantra meditation of all Vaishnavas, the worshipers of Viṣṇu.

21) The people on this planet need to live in love and be sexually active, closely being associated with the material energy. We are born from love and our bodies and minds are healthier when we live in love. The purpose of the Rāma principle in the end is to live in love, not to become a celibate. It is only there temporarily to gather strength and develop focus on the inner self. Mankind nevertheless is confronted with many such Rāma challenges that urge one to gather strength in detachment from physical love in a sexual sense. An important motive of yoga is to respect the yama vow of chastity called brahmacarya for being a good student. As a consequence there is a lot of strife in the world, for all these challenges being met with a poor spiritual discipline give rise to lovelessness and worse forms of human estrangement and madness in addition to many disputes over the control of this planet. It is difficult to be a good yoga student living on the secondary principle of postponed sexual gratification. Desire feeds the unenlightened heart and tends to corrupt the human motive and mind with less righteous forms of conduct and mind sets for the sake of acquiring, possessing and being in control. When one follows the command of celibacy with a worldly motive one easily runs into demoniac propensities, running out of control with one's emotions, perception of reality and mind. Practically all the great demons of the Vedic era gathered their strength by forcing benedictions from the gods in performing yoga in celibacy with a material motive of power. Their power thus grew to the point that they only could be defeated by an avatāra of the Supreme Original Person of All Victory. Celibacy therefore is as easily a source of evil and madness as it is a foundation of spiritual discipline.
We thus very well know that to give up on love, to turn away from all sexual activity and relations, is not the way, it is just a part of the way, just as celibacy in the varṇāśrama system usually is reserved for youngsters and old-aged people. Celibacy needs to be timed as an integral, temporal part of the spiritual discipline of detachment and transcendence we cannot do without. The need of the Rāma principle of defeating ignorance and bad character by the force of the inner drive of a higher motivation of love in celibacy cannot be denied, it is settled by an avatāra. And so we are in a split: we cannot live without love at the one hand, nor can we properly live with love considering the need to detach from material interests the celibate way. To keep our minds sharp, bodies healthy and mentalities pure both principles of love and celibacy are needed. As the common saying goes: 'Women, you cannot live with them, nor without them'. This historical problem of the human condition of being sexual and spiritually disciplined beings at the same time, needed to be solved. At the one hand lovelessness in denial of our sexuality and its consequent human estrangement, easily runs into psychological and social problems, political dispute and warfare when the material motive is not abandoned, as an experienced yogi very well knows. At the other hand the dependence on love easily corrupts as well, turning men and women by the power of their material attachment into slaves of their lower animal drives and egoists in their 'I' and 'mine' philosophies of petty narrow-minded material preferences.
To solve this dilemma mankind has trained itself in staying positive about sexual relations at the one hand while training its mind and moral definition to be free from material motives at the other hand. Thus we with our human command of standards and values try to meet the necessary demands of uniting our consciousness peacefully in the discipline of yoga. The heart of this integrity of the person of principles then by the grace of the Original Personality of Humanity assumed the form of an avatāra to put an end to human lovelessness and its shadow of war and armed forces, as also to a lack of spiritual knowledge and discipline with its shadow of not properly dealing with our sexual nature. This līlā-avatāra is called the Lord of Yoga for uniting the two extremes of the human condition of having to live with intimate love as also with the need of self restraint in spiritual discipline. For this reason, because He constitutes the end of the classical human dilemma of the need for both the power of love and the power of celibacy, He is considered the most important appearance of Viṣṇu, to the point of Viṣṇu as a partial demigod guṇa-avatāra being an appearance of Him, with Him as the original source and personality of all our existence. He, appearing in this world together with His brother Balarāma who as a secondary Lord (called His full plenary portion) with the same divine status took care of the spiritual burden of human ego, became the love for the women and the love of the women in both childhood innocence and in adult marriage. He also turned out to be the greatest personality of all the royals of His time as also the original instructor and Lord of Yoga, for one day, coming to the battlefield, He in the form of the Vedic heroic prince Kṛṣṇa revealed Himself to His friend Arjuna as the Original Personality of the Universe (see the Bhagavad Gītā). He became the guru of His friend who asked Him to instruct him and later on prayed to Him to show His original two-armed form again, since the Universal Appearance He showed to him was too overwhelming. He also, later on, shortly before His disappearance, instructed His devoted nephew Uddhava on how to remember Him and continue with a devoted life after His departure from this material world (see the Uddhava Gītā).  This second Gītā is His most important instruction of bhakti, the culture of devotional service. In His life He defeated many demons and performed all kinds of miracles to prove His true nature and His grace to all the devoted souls of virtue He associated with. In this book, this purāna also called the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the essence of Kṛṣṇa's story and teachings - basically the essence of all Vedic knowledge - is discussed. The meditation on His name in combination with the name of Rāma in the famous Mahāmantra, is the way to easily and quickly find liberation in this difficult age of quarrel. He constitutes the integrity of the sixfold intelligence of our filognosy in the life we have with Him and our fellow man, of living in love, nonviolence, truthfulness and righteousness.

Source for this Inspiration:
S.B. Canto 2, Chapter 7