god in human form Does God come in the form that is wished by his devotee?

[dattaswami]

Does God come in the form that is wished by his devotee?

Discourse Podcast

 

Ms. Arsha asked: Does God fulfil his devotee’s desire by incarnating on earth in that particular form, even though there are enough number of incarnations for that time or that Kala? Is there a restriction in the number of incarnations in a particular period, in other words is there any limitation on the number of avatars, that have taken form during a time?

Swami replied: Even before creating this world, the unimaginable God descended down as the first Energetic Incarnation called Datta or Father of heaven. He did this to express Himself for the sake of the souls who were to be created later. Datta, which is the name of the first Energetic Incarnation, means ‘given’. It means that through the form of Datta, the absolute God, who is beyond space and time, and who is unimaginable to all souls, can now be grasped by the souls. So actually, God did not incarnate because of the desire of souls. The concept of incarnation was not the idea of souls. It was the noble idea of the unimaginable God Himself. It was due to His kindness that He descended in the form of an Incarnation. Through the Incarnation, He can interact with souls, help them in every justified way, and uplift them. Along with this primary aim of God, His secondary aim is to have entertainment in a positive manner. Ignorant people wrongly blame God thinking that His entertainment is negative like that of a sadist.

God enters the upper energetic worlds in the form of Energetic Incarnations. On earth, He appears in the form of Human Incarnations. Both these types of Incarnations are equal in all aspects. But the Human Incarnation is relevant to human beings on earth while the Energetic Incarnation is relevant to energetic beings in the upper worlds. When human beings die on earth and their souls pass on to the upper worlds, they too get energetic bodies. Then, the Energetic Incarnations of the upper worlds become relevant to them.

Relevance is decided by the common medium. In an ordinary human being, the physical body is the medium for the soul. The medium allows the soul to experience the outside world and interact with other souls. In the case of energetic beings, their external body, which is the medium of their soul, is non-material. It is made out of energy. When God incarnates in any world, material or energetic, He enters a devoted being from that world. The external body and soul of that devotee become the medium of God. It allows God to interact with other souls who too are present in the same medium in that world.

This arrangement is most wonderful like the divine nectar (amrutam). It provides the greatest benefit to souls. It allows them to interact with God and be uplifted. But before souls can be benefitted by this divine nectar, they have to survive a horrible poison. This poison is the repulsion between common media. The repulsion is the mutual ego and jealousy that exists between all fellow-beings of the same kind (common media). As a result, the energetic being is repelled from the Energetic Incarnation and the human being is repelled from the Human Incarnation. Due to this poison, the soul in a human body rejects the Human Incarnation here on earth and upon reaching the upper energetic world, rejects the Energetic Incarnation there too. The end result is a total loss for the soul, every time and everywhere!

The aim of the Incarnation is only to re-establish the right path and the balance of the world, whenever it is disturbed. This is clearly stated in the Gita (Yadaa yadaa hi...—Gita). The same concept was also stated by Jesus, who said that He would come again. It means that the order in the world gets disturbed often and there is an emergent need for God to enter into His creation again and again to rectify it.

When a factory is established by a person, he visits it every day so that he will be available to solve any problem that arises at once. It is necessary for the smooth administration of his establishment. No owner comes to the factory only when called by the workers after a problem has arisen. The owner has his own fundamental right and sense of responsibility to visit his establishment as many times as possible and no invitations are necessary for him. Invitations are valid when a person is invited to visit the property of someone else. In this case, all of creation is God’s own property. So, He needs no invitation from souls within His creation to enter into creation. This analogy of the factory and factory-owner has its limitations since it is an example from this world, which is the imaginable domain. In the actual concept, the unimaginable God exists in His original place surrounding the boundary of this world. At the same time, using His unimaginable power, He also visits this world which is surrounded by Him. He enters creation in the form of multiple Energetic and Human Incarnations. The various Incarnations as well as the original unimaginable God, exist simultaneously. Even though God appears to be divided, He remains undivided as clearly told in the Gita (Avibhaktam vibhakteshu...—Gita). This is possible only with His unimaginable power.

While attending to His primary justified responsibility of establishing justice in the world and destroying injustice (Paritraanaaya...—Gita), He also fulfills the desires of His climax devotees as a secondary or associated activity. Fulfilling the desires of devotees is only an associated activity from the angle of coincidence. But it is also the primary activity from the angle of importance.

The Human Incarnations of God are of two types, based on how long it takes to solve the problems. If long-term problems exist, Datta, the Energetic Incarnation of God selects a devoted human soul and merges with that soul. Datta is born on earth merged in the body and soul of that selected soul. This is how normal Human Incarnations are born on this earth. Apart from this, God also comes to earth in the form of temporary Incarnations. Sometimes, when a climax devotee is facing an urgent problem, God suddenly merges with any ordinary human being present nearby to help the devotee. Once the devotee has been helped, God leaves that human being into whom He had temporarily entered. These temporary Incarnations are called Aaveshaavataara. If necessary, God can even appear in the form of a newly-created Human Being by His unimaginable power. As soon as the purpose is over, the new Human Being disappears. God thus helps human beings by appearing in human form (Daivam maanusharuupena) and this concept applies to both the long-term (normal) Human Incarnations and the temporary Human Incarnations. In any case, the incarnation of God in human form is always need-based and is meant for the sake of His real devotees. The term ‘Emmanuel’ in the Bible, means the Incarnation of God, who comes here to save His own devotees.

The same unimaginable God exists in every Incarnation and He always possesses His full power. So, one should not differentiate one Incarnation from another. Quantitative and qualitative differences are inherent in creation. So, two Incarnation appear to be externally different. But the same power of God always exists with God in every Incarnation. In fact, God, the Possessor of the unimaginable power is not different from the unimaginable power. The Unimaginable Entity must only be one. There cannot be two unimaginable items since if they can be counted as two, or differentiated from each other, they are not unimaginable at all! So, God’s unimaginable power is the same as the unimaginable God Himself.

The power possessed by all Incarnations is the same. But the power exhibited by different Incarnations may differ based on the need of each specific program. When an Incarnation exhibits only a ray or the 1/16^th fraction of God’s power, He is called as a Ray-Incarnation or a Kalaavataara. When an Incarnation exhibits a somewhat larger fraction of God’s power, He is called a partial Incarnation (Amshaavataara). When an Incarnation exhibits a major part of God’s power (more than 12/16^th fraction) and the power remains with Him throughout His life, He is said to be a complete Incarnation (Puurnaavataara). When an Incarnation exhibits the entire power of God throughout His life, He is called the most-complete and greatest Incarnation (Paripuurnatamaavataara). One should never insult any Incarnation by thinking that one is lower than another since this classification is only based on the power exhibited by the Incarnation. The power possessed by each Incarnation is always the entire unimaginable power of God.

The devotees propagating the true spiritual knowledge in all regions of the world are also Incarnations of God since God merges with such devotees to carry out His own work. There may be one cook in the kitchen, but there are several waiters distributing (propagating) the cooked true knowledge in this world. Krishna cooked the true knowledge-food in the form of the Gita. Sage Vyaasa recorded it and several sages propagated it. Krishna, Vyaasa and the other sages, who propagated the Gita, are all Incarnations of God since only God can do His work. They all are different media of God and God did His work through them. It only appears as if they did the divine work. The reality is that the kind God, who actually does His own work secretly, gives the fame of carrying out His work to His devotees. While doing His divine work through them, He uplifts all these devotees in various angles and stages.

God incarnates everywhere in the world in every generation. By propagating His knowledge everywhere, He exhibits the power of His divine knowledge in a form that is suitable to the devotees present in each place. This propagation of His knowledge everywhere shows His kindness for humanity since all people can be benefitted by His knowledge where ever they live. If He were to incarnate only in one place many people would not be able to visit Him. Based on all these aspects related to Incarnations, we cannot limit the number of Incarnations of God. The Incarnations of God are infinite in number as said in the Bhagavatam (Avataarahyasamkhyeyaah…).

 

(Second question is completed.)

 

(To be continued...)