Divine Incarnations Help Man Change Themselves For Better

A great deal of information and knowledge is contained in the books. Our heads are, however, filled with dust. Education is being used only for eking out a livelihood. O children of Bharat, listen to this truth.

Students:

In our sacred traditions, we have many important and significant stories, which are full of meaning. It is our misfortune that the students in this country cannot see this significance. Bhagavad-gita means that it is the song of God. Devotees of God have also been called Bhagavatas. Vyasa has divided the story of the Bhagavatam into twelve parts. Each part is called a Skanda. This is a sacred story, which has been given to men to liberate them from bondage. This story of Bhagavatam has been taught by Vyasa to Shuka, who in turn gave it to the people. Maharshi Shuka was the son of Maharshi Vyasa. Shuka learnt the Vedas thoroughly from his father, Vyasa. The Vedas and Vedangas have been divided into four parts called Samhitas. While describing the sacred stories of the contemporaries of Shuka, Vyasa was also writing the story of Bhagavatam.

The Kauravas and Pandavas were living at the same time and the battle between the Kauravas and Pandavas and the moral contained therein were written by him as the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata was described as the fifth Veda.

He realized that it is difficult for ordinary and unlearned people to understand God. To facilitate the realisation of God by such ordinary people, he wrote another text called the Brahma-sutra. He has also established the truth that bliss can come only in the thought of God and not by any other process. He established that bliss and happiness are simply embodiments of God and they cannot be found elsewhere. Bliss and happiness can be given only by God, and he who thus secures them is called a devotee. The close relationship that exists between a devotee and God has been described in the Bhagavatam.

It is not easy to understand this. In the context of the difficulty in understanding the Brahma-sutra, he also produced the eighteen puranas, explaining the nature of divinity. He was feeling sorry that in spite of his best efforts in promoting divinity, there was no easy manner in which the sorrow of the people could be removed. He spent a lot of time trying to find ways and means of making ordinary and illiterate people happy. While Vyasa was contemplating such issues, Narada approached Vyasa and said that the only method by which man can attain happiness is by describing and singing the glory of God. From that day, Vyasa started describing the leelas (divine sport) of the Lord.

Year after year, we experience some kind of heat, cold, and rain. Because of these seasonal changes, certain changes occur in our ideas and even in our health. It is also known to us that with changing seasons, we listen to cuckoos singing, and we see the mangoes ripening, and so on. Every year, the seasons come back at about the same time and give us the same kind of experience. Taking this cycle into consideration, the Maharshis tried to explain to us about the yugas (ages). The season that has gone by returns to us twelve months later; the day that has gone by returns to us eight days later, and so on. These are common experiences. If today is a Friday, after another week we again get a Friday. If this is the month of May, we again get the month of May after twelve months.

Taking this into account, the Maharshis divided time into four yugas called Kruta-yuga, Dwapara-yuga, Treta-yuga, and the Kali-yuga. These will keep coming back again and again. In these, the word Kruta indicates four times and the word Treta indicates three times. The Dwapara signifies two times and Kali gives us an authoritative unit of measurement. According to them, 432,000 years is the basic unit and represents the number of years in a Kali-yuga. Two times this or 8,64,000 years represents the Dwapara-yuga. Three times this basic number or 12,96,000 years is the measure of Treta-yuga. Four times this measure, namely 17,28,000 years refers to Kruta-yuga. By adding all these, we get 43,20,000 years and this refers to a Maha-yuga. After a Maha-yuga, the Kruta-yuga will start again. In this manner and by assigning such measures, they interpreted time.

From time to time, in these yugas, God was appearing as an avatar for the purpose of showing the divinity that is contained in human beings and for setting an exemplary life as an example. It has been said that God takes a human form, so that he is accessible to human beings and gives them happiness. The birds and animals are experiencing the limitations, which have been laid out for them. A human birth is the most sacred one among the eighty-four lakh of different jeevas (individual souls) in this creation. To attain such a sacred birth is a great fortune indeed. Man has a special distinctiveness. We have to see and understand the differences between birds and animals on one hand and man on the other hand. Animals are born with cruelty as a nature, and they also spend their lives with cruelty. We may give a lot of training to the animal, but it is impossible to bring about a lasting change in its habits. It may conduct itself according to the training, during the period of the training, but it will not give up its cruelty.

Man is not like that. Even though he may be born with cruelty, he can get rid of it by an attempt or sadhana (spiritual practice). It becomes clear that what cannot and does not take refinement is an animal, and what can take refinement is man. To facilitate such a refinement and transformation in human beings, God takes birth in human form from time to time. This refinement can be brought about by different methods at different times. In Kruta-yuga, the method was dhyana (meditation). In Treta-yuga, the method was yajna (sacrificial rite). In Dwapara-yuga, it was archana (ritual worship of a deity) and in the Kali-yuga, prominence is given to nama-smarana (repeating the name of God). These are the royal paths available to human beings for changing themselves. In the Kruta-yuga, the Maharshis, through tapas (austerity for sense control), used to attain moksha or vision of the Lord. The Maharshis who enjoyed such divine experiences used to mix with the people, so that their divine experience could be conveyed to the people who lived at that time.

In the Treta-yuga, God appeared as a human being in the form of Rama and by using His own family as an example, He tried to set up an ideal dharmic conduct characteristic of that age. At that time, it was established that Rama was the embodiment of love and Lakshmana was the embodiment of compassion, and that it was the confluence of love and compassion that makes a good human being. This is true dharma. We are believing that rituals constitute dharma. It is not our daily practices or rituals that constitute true dharma. It is the compassion that is generated in a pure heart that constitutes the base of true dharma. That is also the most important, basic quality of a human being. One must make an attempt to follow the dictates of one’s own conscience. By such conduct and example, Ramachandra corrected the entire humanity.

By the time the Dwapara-yuga came, God in the human form of Krishna, set an ideal example of love for the people. This aspect of Krishna attracted all people. These were such that people lost themselves in the happiness and bliss generated by the avatar of Krishna. Krishna was looking after, with tender affection, the needs of the people at that time. The great truth that is contained in the avatar of Krishna has been communicated to us in the Bhagavatam. This avatar of Krishna showed that we should never forget God, whether we are in sorrow or pleasure, pain or joy, poverty or affluence. Draupadi, who lost all her sons and who was in great difficulties, showed great forbearance and affection while speaking with Ashwatthama. The Bhagavatam teaches us that it is not right for a devotee to think of God only in times of difficulties and completely forget Him in times of happiness. In fact, all avatars convey a very significant lesson and you must make an attempt to understand the inner meaning that is conveyed to us in such lessons.