You are here: Sri Vaishnava Home Page : Bhakti List : Archives : April 2000

Re: Small Doubt on DashavatAra.

From: Sadagopan (sgopan_at_computer.net)
Date: Fri Apr 28 2000 - 14:11:48 PDT 

Dear Sri Malolan Cadambi:

I will try to provide some answers to your
two questions (Listed at the end of this posting.
Please refer to them first before browsing this posting 
for context):

(1) Question 1: Sri BalarAmA avathAram is 8th in 
the series of DasAvathArams .Sri KrishNA's is 9th .
Hence KrishNAvatharam is recognized in our 
sampradhAyam as the one following Sri BalarAmAvathaaram.
You can find support ofr this hierarchy in Swamy Desikan's
DasAvathaara Sthothram . Pakkathkourava pattaNa prabhruthaya:
( salutation to Sri BalarAmAvathAram ) precedes 
NaathAyaiva nama: padham ( salutation to Sri KrishNA ).

Whether Shri BalarAmAvathAram is an amsAvathAram 
like ParasurAmAvathAram is some thing other BhakthAs 
would like to comment.It must be pointed out
that ParasurAmAvatharam is one in which the Lord
infused His divine powers in a pious Brahmin for
performing some miracles .During the AyOdhyA-
RaamAvathAram , the Lord pulled back all 
the divine powers from ParusurAmaan. Thus,
ParasurAmAvathAram is not considered a direct
avathArAm of Sriman NaarAyaNA , although AzhwArs 
and AchAryAs have paid their tributes to ParasurAman
inview of His traditional inclusion in the DasAvathArams.

Another point is that ParasurAman and Sri Raaman
(Chakravarthi Thirumahan ) coexisted upto a point in time.
In other words , there  was an overlap of two avathArams 
in time scale. Same is true for BalarAma-KrishNAvathArams. 
Sriman NaarAyaNA took on the avathAram of BalarAman 
to enact the role of the elder brother of KaNNan .
BalarAman was never away from KaNNan (apruthakbhUthan
in Swamy Desikan's mangaLAsAsanam). Swamy Desikan goes on 
to salute the inseperable aspect of BalarAman and 
KaNNan from boyhood as sugar and milk mixed together 
for enhanced enjoyment of the BhakthAs (Ksheram sarkkarayEva).
Further, Swamy Desikan points out that the joint 
leelais of BalarAmAn and KrishNan enriched and multiplied
the quality of our anubhavams and made that anubhavam
delectable thru such union ( thaa keLaya: prabhUthai:
guNai: jagathE asvadhantha). It is thus  difficult to
separate BalarAmAvathAram from that of KrishNaa from
the enjoyment point of view. Thus we can not replace 
BalarAma avathAram by BuddhAvathAram , which will leave 
a jolting void . There are however more serious
objections to include BuddhAvathAram among the ten
avathArams of the Lord.Prior to discussing the
latter, let us enjoy the second half of the majestic
slOkam of Swamy Desikan to pay his salute  to
BalarAman in the SaardhUla VikrIditham meter:   

These key words on BalarAmAvathAram in Swamy Desikan's
salutation are worthy of our attention :

"Ksheeram sakkarayEva yaabhi: apruthaghbhUthA: prabhUthairguNai:
aakoumArakam asvadhantha jagathE KrishNasya thaa kELaya:"


(2) Question 2: In our sampradhAyam , Buddhism 
and Jainism are considered as mathams that do not
accept Vedham ( Vedha Baahya Mathams)and hence are rejected
at the first step of consideration . Hence , there will
be no way to accept the founder of Buddhism , Gauthama BuddhA
as an avthAram of Sriman NaarAyaNA. The views of BuddhA 
are considered nihilistic and for a fuller study of 
Sri VisishtAdhvatin's objections to the views of BuddhA 
and the variations thereof developed by his followers ,
Swamy Desikan's terse and brilliant monograph, 
"SarvArtha Siddhi " is a must to read. Thus,
BuddhA can never be included as an avathAram of 
Sriman NaarAyaNA in our sampradhAyam .

Best wishes,
V.Sadagopan   

At 03:27 AM 4/28/00 +0530, you wrote:
>                                  Sri:
>                   Srimathe Malola NarasimhAya Namaha
>       ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Dear Bhaktas,
>I have a small doubt. Please help me by clearing my doubt.
>
>In the line of the Dasha AvatAram, Balarama comes after Krishna. But
>during the end of the MahabharatA, Balarama goes back into the Ocean in
>the form of a serpent. I was told the Balarama as well as Lakshmana are
>the incarnations of Adi Sesha. If this is true, then how can the 9th
>Avatar ( Balarama) be of Lord Vishnu's AvatarA. Some texts say the 9th
>Avatara after Krishna-vatara is the Buddha-vatara.
>
>NamO Narayana,
>
>Malolan Cadambi
>
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Now the best and coolest websites come right to you based on your 
>unique interests. eTour.com is surfing without searching. 
>And, it's FREE!
>http://click.egroups.com/1/3013/2/_/716111/_/956878908/
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
>To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@eGroups.com
>Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information
>
>
>


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Was the salesman clueless? Productopia has the answers.
http://click.egroups.com/1/3019/2/_/716111/_/956968100/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@eGroups.com
Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information