Posted on: 13 Apr 2020
[A question by Shri Phani]
Swami replied: There is a saying of elders “Old age has come, so think about Rama and Krishna”! Therefore, the names of these two Incarnations have some special significance. Rāma is called ‘Māyā Mānuṣa Vigraha’, which means the Human Incarnation of God that hides its divinity. So, all human beings feel that Rāma was only an ideal human being and not God. Māyā means a very deep ignorance. It refers to hiding the truth so deeply that no soul can find out the truth with its own effort. For example, matter is energy, but in a hidden way. You may theoretically know that energy itself appears as matter. This is the stage of the removal of theoretical ignorance (ajñāna āvaraṇa). But no soul can practically realise and experience matter to be energy. So, practical ignorance (ajñāna vikṣepa) remains. Avidyā is weak ignorance. It is the individual ignorance which can be removed with the soul’s own effort. Māyā is the powerful ignorance imposed by God upon souls. Even though the soul can remove its avidyā (weak individual ignorance) it can never cross māyā, the powerful ignorance created by God. A rope appears to be a serpent in twilight to a human being. This is an example of avidyā, which can be crossed by the human being by simply turning on the torch-light. In both māyā and avidyā, the common factor is that the truth is hidden and falsehood is expressed. When the sages in the forest praised Rāma as God, Rāma contradicted their belief saying that He was only a human being, called Rāma, who is the son of King Daśaratha (Ātmānaṃ mānuṣaṃ manye, Rāmaṃ Daśarathātmajam).
Krishna is called a ‘Līlā Mānuṣa Vigraha’, which means that He expressed His divinity through miracles, proving that He was God. From the time of Rāma, which was the Tretā Yuga, to the time of Krishna, which was the end of Dvāpara Yuga, the standards of human souls had fallen to a great extent. The souls during the time of Rāma recognised Him as God even though Rāma did not perform miracles. By the time of Krishna, the standard of souls had fallen so much that even though Krishna did several miracles, the souls did not believe Him to be God, due to their ego and jealousy towards fellow-human beings. People called Krishna a magician and His miracles as magic tricks!
Krishna’s time was towards the end of the Dvāpara Yuga. It was almost as if Kali Yuga had started. The Kali Yuga actually entered with the end of Krishna. The psychology of the human souls in the Kali Yuga is amazing! If the miracles performed by someone are useful to solve the personal problems of the public, they treat such miracles to be genuine and the performer of such miracles as an Incarnation of God, even if he is actually a demon! If the miracles are not useful to the public, they say that the performer of such miracles is a magician or a black magician, even if He is actually an Incarnation of God! If the miracles are not useful to them, they are not ready to accept even a trace of divinity in the performer! Due to this peculiar nature of human beings, every Human Incarnation of God expresses a dual nature of Rāma and Krishna, depending on the type of people around. When undeserving people having the climax of ego and jealousy approach the Incarnation, the Incarnation behaves as if He is a humble devotee of God. He completely hides His own divinity and pretends as if God exists outside of Him. Only when the devotees approaching Him are highly deserving, owing to their lack of even a trace of ego and jealousy, does the Incarnation express His full divinity.
Some devotees are partly undeserving due to their ego and jealousy, but are partly deserving in their being sincerely committed to the spiritual effort. The Incarnation helps such devotees through His divine power, but He attributes the miracle to the grace of God, speaking as if God is external to the Incarnation. The Incarnation says that He has prayed to God to help the devotee and God helped the devotee by performing a miracle. This is an intermediate state expressed by the Incarnation, in which the Incarnation partially acts like Rāma in hiding His performance of the miracle and partially acts like Krishna, in expressing His power of devotion to God.
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|Shri Datta Swami| Maayaa Maanusha Vigraha Ajnaana Aavarana Vikshepa Aatmaanam maanusham manye Raamam Dasharathaatmajam Rama Dasharatha Leelaa Maanusha Vigraha