DASHAVATARA - SRI RAMAVATARA

The seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Rama is said to have taken birth on earth to annihilate the rampant evil forces of the TretaYuga. Ravana, the demonic ten-headed king of Lanka having pleased Brahma by his austere penance, attained the boon of being invulnerable from the wrath of the gods and now ruled the heavens, earth and the netherworlds. All deities ardently entreated Brahma to save them from the painful suffering of his tyranny. Brahma disclosed that arrogant Ravana had assumed only gods could subdue him and did not include man amongst those who could overpower him. When the gods reached Vishnu, the preserver and prayed for deliverance, He assured to descend as an avatara and kill Ravana by incarnating as the eldest son of Kosala's king Dasaratha.

Dasaratha's wives Kousalya, kaikeyi and Sumithira gave birth to Rama, Lakshmana, Baratha and Shatrugna. They grew up learning all the arts and enjoying great love and care.

At this stage, sage Viswamitra asked Dasaratha's help in slaying the demons who were giving him hindrance in his yagnas. Sage Visvamitra asked for Rama to accompany him to the forest to fight the demons, refusing the assistance of the huge army of soldiers that Dasaratha was ready to place at his disposal. Rama was too young and Dasaratha was agonised about sending his young son to fight against mighty demons.

But at Sage Viswamitra's insistence, Rama and Lakshmana accompanied him to the forest and there stood guard and helped him in successful completion of his yagas, slaying Thataki and all the demons who dared to interfere. The pleased Viswamitra took them to Mithila, where Rama lifted the Siva Dhanusu which could not even be moved by anybody else and married Sita devi, daughter of King Janaka.

They returned to Ayodhya and king Dasaratha wanted to crown Rama king. Rama's stepmother, Kaikeyi listening to the cruel advice of her servant Mandara, asked Dasaratha to grant her the two boons which he had granted her earlier during the war with Sambasuran. She asked that by one boon, Rama should be sent to the forests for 14 years and by the other boon for her son Baratha to be crowned king. Rama, ever obedient, gladly left to the forests accompanied by his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. On hearing this shocking news Dasaratha died of grief.

In the forests, Rama gained a good friend Guhan, a tribal chieftain who helped him cross the Ganga. Rama built a parnasala in Chitrakootam and lived happily in the peaceful surroundings.

Baratha, who had been at his grandparents' place during the whole proceedings, was extremely aggrieved to hear of his mother's doings. He reached the forest and pleaded with Rama to return to the kingdom and become king. But Rama refused to disobey his father's and mother's wishes. Thus Baratha returned to rule the kingdom on behalf of Rama, placing Rama's padukas on the throne. Rama reached the Dandakaranya forest area and lived happily there. Surpanaki, sister of Ravana, the asura king of Lanka, saw and fell in love with Rama. She begged Rama to marry her. Lakshmana angered, cut off her nose. Surpanaki rushed to complain to her brother Ravana and advised him to abduct and marry the beautiful Sita.

On Ravana's request Mareecha, his uncle took the form of a golden deer and roamed the forests near Sita's Parnasala. One day Sita saw and fell in love with the golden deer and asked Rama to get it for her. Rama went behind the deer leaving Lakshmana behind with Sita. As Rama's arrow pierced it, Mareecha cunningly cried out to Lakshmana for help in Rama's voice. Hearing this, Sita ordered Lakshmana to rush to his brother's aid. While Sita was alone, Ravana in the guise of a sadhu came begging for alms. He grabbed Sita and flew off in his Pushpaka Vimana. Enroute Jatayu, the king of the birds fought valiantly with Ravana, but was hurt badly. He informed Rama and Lakshmana, who had come in search of Sita.

Rama set off in search of Sita. On the way he met Sabari, his arch devotee. He then met Sugreeva, the vanara (monkey) king, his minister Hanuman and Vali's son Angadha. They agreed to help Rama rescue Sita. The mighty Hanuman flew across the ocean to reassure Sita that Rama was coming to rescue her. He gave her Rama's ring. Sita was overjoyed, blessed Hanuman and gave him her Choodamani (an ornament that adorned Sita's head) to give to Rama. Hanuman as a messenger conveyed Rama's wishes for Ravana to release Sita. Ravana laughed and insulted Hanuman. To teach Ravana a lesson and to prove the might of Rama, Hanuman set fire to the Ashokavanam and got back to Rama. They soon built a bridge of rocks across the ocean and reached Lanka. Vibeeshanan, Ravana's brother realising the might of Rama and ashamed of Ravana's misdeeds advised Ravana to release Sita. Ravana refused and prepared for war. The mighty army of Ravana was destroyed. Kumbakarna, Ravana's brother was killed. Indrajit, Ravana's son was killed next. Finally, Ravana himself came to fight with Rama. Rama killled him with his Ramabaanam. Vibeeshanan was crowned the king of Lanka. Rama thanked all his friends for their valuable help and returned to Ayodhya. Baratha welcomed him with great joy. Rama was crowned king and he ruled justly for a long time.

DASHAVATARA - PARASHURAMAVATARA

Parshurama is the fifth son of Renuka and Jamadagni. His original name was Jamadagnya. In his childhood ‘axe’ was his favourite toy and when he entered adulthood his ‘axe’ became his weapon. Growing up Parshurama had a lot of relationship problems with his parents and brothers. And this led to a lot of built up anger within him - and this led him to violence - to him this was the best outlet for his anger…

King Kaartaveerya-Arjuna ruled the area around where Jamadagni and his family lived. One day King Kaartaveerya-Arjuna and his troops ventured out on an expedition in the forest. Half way through the expedition they realised that they have run out of all water and food. They were all hungry and tired. Thankfully they came across a small beautiful house - this was Jamadagni’s house. They ask Jamadagni if they could get some food and water to drink. Jamadagni kindly agreed and he and his wife were good hosts. They prepared an elaborate meal for the King and his troops. The food was very delicious. The king was very impressed and asked the secret behind such a delicious meal. Jamadagni says that the entire credit goes to his divine cow, Kamadhenu. This cow has the power to make confer any favour instantly. The king got a bit jealous and greedy and demanded that the cow be given to him. Jamadagni refused. And so the king took the cow away forcibly.

Parashurama was away when this incident happened. On his arrival he learned of the King’s actions…He was furious…He took his axe and went straight to the palace….No one was able to stop him….He went straight to the king and beheaded him. When the king’s sons found out about their father’s murder, they went straight to Jamadagni’s house - looking for Parshuram. Parshuram was not in the house….Only his parents were in the house - The princes’ killed Jamadagni.

When Parshurama returns home, he finds his father dead and his mum crying. He is heart broken. As usual the fit anger of takes over him…He grabs his axe and rushes to the palace and kills all the princes…He is disappointed at all the unfit kings. Kings are supposed to their subjects and not kill them. So he goes on to kill 21 unfit kings - He thinks he has done a favour to the entire world by killing these Kings.

DASHAVATARA - VAMANAVATRA

King Bali is the grandson of Prahalada . King Bali has a strong ambition to rule the entire planet and the Devas kingdom as well. He knew that reaching this goal is not going to be easy. He knew that in the past, despite Ausras’ might, Devas always emerged victorious in the end. He attributed Devas’ success to their yogic powers. So he prays to Lord Brahma with a lot of dedication and concentration. Lord Brahma was pleased with his prayers. He offers to grant any wish that King Bali asks for. King Bali thanks Lord Brahma and asks for the strength of Lord Indra. Lord Brahma grants the wish. King Bali is also a devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Once the wish was granted, nothing seemed to stop King Bali. He goes on to conquer the entire planet and then goes on to conquer the kingdom of Indra (King of Devas). Devas are upset and their King, Indra, rushes to Lord Vishnu and begs Him to find a solution.

Lord Vishnu incarnates Himself as a human and is born to Aditi and Kashyapa (parents of Lord Indra). And hence Vamana is the younger brother of Lord Indra. Vamana takes on the disguise of a short Brahmin (learned person) and approaches King Bali. He impresses King Bali with His knowledge and teachings. King Bali decides to offer him a reward and so asks Vamana to ask for anything (anything he might want).

Meanwhile King Bali’s Guru, Guru Sukracharya, warns him that Vamana is Lord Vishnu Himself. He tells him that Vamana might ask for something that might actually destroy King Bali. But King Bali ignores his Guru’ advice and encourages Vamana to tell him what his wish is. Vamana asks for three feet of land. King Bali is thrilled and thinks that this is the easiest wish ever - not much land would be needed for a dwarf…So he does not think he would be losing much at all. King Bali agrees to grant the wish.

At this stage Vamana grows in size (grows huge), He grows a third feet as well. He places one foot on entire earth, one on entire heaven and then He asks King Bali where He should place the third feet. King Bali at this stage realizes that Vamana is none other than Lord Vishnu. He kneels down in awe and admiration. He prays to Lord Vishnu and then asks Vamana to place his third feet on his head. Vamana agrees. He places his third feet on King Bali and pushes him down (and in the process kills him).

339TH ARADHANA MAHOTSAVA OF SRI SRI RAGHAVENDRA SWAMIJI

DASHAVATARA - NARASIMHAVATARA

There was a demon king called Hiranyakashyapa. He was the brother of Hiranyaksha. He was also a devotee of Lord Brahma. His years of meditation and prayer impressed Lord Brahma. He tells Hiranyakashyap that he would grant him one wish. Hiranyakashyapa wanted to be immortal but he knew that Lord Brahma cannot grant immortality to anyone. So he asked something close to it - Hiranyakashyapa asked that his death not be caused by man or beast, with a weapon or without a weapon, during the day or the night, indoors or outdoors, on earth or in the sky. Since Lord Brahma had already promised him, he had no alternative but to grant the wish.

Once he got the wish he believed that he was invincible. He started expanding his empire. And very soon he was ruling the whole earth. He was a very cruel king. He was extremely egotistic and believed that he was the creator of all. He ordered all his people to worship only him. He believed that he was the God and there was no one above him.

Hiranyakashyapa had a son called Prahalad. Whilst the whole kingdom was worshiping Hiranyakashyapa, his own son, Prahalad, refused to worship him. Prahalad was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. He truly believed in Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyapa was upset with his son. He tried to convince his son that he was wrong and that he should worship only his father but he failed to make his son believe that he and only he was the God.

Meanwhile all the Devas and Lord Brahma approach Lord Vishnu for help. Lord Vishnu agrees to help them. He is quite annoyed and angry at Hiranyakashyapa for the way he has been treating his son. Lord Vishnu incarnates Himself as Nara-Simha (half man half lion). He does this because Hiranyakashyapa can’t be killed by a man or a beast or by God.

At Hiranyakashyap’s palace Hiranyakashyap and Prahalad were having an argument. Prahalad says that God is everywhere. To that Hiranyakashyap disagrees and says he can’t be present everywhere -In a very sarcastic tone he questions if God could be found in the pillar he was standing next to. Without hesitation Prahalad says ‘yes’. In a fit of anger, Hiranyakashyap breaks the pillar in an attempt to prove his son wrong. But to his surprise, Lord Narasimha, leaps onto him from inside the broken pillar. A fierce battle emerges between Hiranyakashyapa and Lord Narasimha. Eventually Lord Narasimha puts him on his thighs (neither on earth or sky), uses his sharp nails (no weapons) and kills him. This happens in twilight (neither day nor night).

DASHAVATARA - VARAHAVATARA

Once there was a demon called Hiranyaksha. He was a ferocious and a cruel demon. He prayed to Lord Brahma for many years, he pleased the Lord with his prayers. Lord Brahma was touched by Hiranyaksha’s dedication and granted him a wish - a wish that Hiranyaksha thought would make him invincible. Hiranyaksha asked Lord Brahma to grant him a wish that no man or no God can ever kill him. And then he went on to add a list of beasts as well and asked Lord to grant him a wish that none of the beasts on his long list could ever kill him as well. Hiranyaksha was careful to include almost all beasts…But he forgot to include ‘boar’. Once the wish was granted Hiranyaksha truly believed that he was invincible and went on to create havoc and serious atrocities around the planet.

After every life cycle, Lord Brahma has a nap. During His nap, He always has the Vedas next to Him. Hiranyaksha stole the Vedas from Lord Brahma (during His nap). He then pushed ‘Mother Earth’ to the bottom of the ocean. When this happens, Lord Brahma approached Lord Vishnu and begs Him to intervene.

Lord Vishnu incarnates Himself as a boar. He then went deep down into the ocean and brought ‘Mother Earth’ to the top from deep down the ocean. He then killed Hiranyaksha and handed over the Vedas to Lord Brahma.

DASHAVATRA - KURMAVATARA

In Hindu mythology the Devas are the Demigods, minor deities. They reside in heaven. Indra is the King of Devas. Once, Asuras, the Demons, were creating a lot of havoc and making life very difficult for the Gods. Gods were unable to bear the behavior of Asuras any more….So they approach Lord Vishnu for a solution. He decides to help them out.

Lord Vishnu suggested that the best way out of this mess is for Gods to secure the ‘nectar of immortality’…This was not going to be an easy task by means. They would have to strive for it. More importantly, He said that they can’t do this on their own…It is a huge task and hence they need to get the help of the Asuras. To get the nectar of immortality they need to put certain herbal medicines into the ocean of milk (this ocean is in heaven). Then they have to use Mount Mandara as a churning stick and serpent Vasuki (king of all serpents) as the rope. With the help of Asuras, Mount Mandara and Vasuki they need to churn the ocean. After a lot of churning, the ocean will generate a pot full of ‘nectar of immortality’. Lord Vishnu then goes on to warn them that they should do the task with utmost devotion and not with the greed of obtaining the final result. He says that at the end of churning if they lose the nectar to Asuras, they should not get angry and annoyed at putting in so much work for nothing.

Devas approach Asuras and ask for their help. In return they say that the Asuras can have a share of the nectar. Asuras are tempted, infact they plan to use Devas to churn the milk and once the nectar is generated, they plan to steal everything away from Devas.

Churning begins - Devas on one side and Asuras on the other. Devas perform the task with full concentration - they give it their best without any expectations (just as Lord Vishnu asked them to). Half way through the churning, Mount Mandara starts losing its balance and starts slipping into the ocean. Without the mountain they can’t finish the task at hand. So both Asuras and Devas pray to Lord Vishnu and ask Him to help them out. Lord Vishnu incarnates Himself as a turtle. He goes deep into the ocean of the milk and supports the mountain on His back.

Devas and Asuras continue churning…And after long days and long nights of work, the churning is complete and a bowl of nectar is generated. Asuras and Devas are equidistant from this bowl of nectar…But Asuras rush in and grab this bowl. Devas, though disappointed, controlled their anger, did not start a fight with Asuras and just accepted the situation as is and walked away.

Lord Vishnu was happy with how the Devas conducted themselves. He appears as a beautiful lady and approaches Asuras. Asuras are blinded by the beauty of this lady. They do whatever she asks them to…She asks them to hand over the bowl to her and they do so…As soon as they do it, the lady disappears. God could have easily snatched it from the Asuras rather than appearing as a beautiful lady - The thing here to be noted is that Asuras through their own weakness and loss of focus from the task at hand, lose the bowl of nectar - What happened was their own fault. They could have easily ignored the beauty of the lady and focused on the task at hand - but they failed to do us and in the process they lost their prized possession.

Lord Vishnu gives the bowl of nectar to Devas. This nectar makes Devas immortal. They now have the power and from then on dominated the Asuras.

DASHAVATHARA - MATSYAVATARA

There was a great king called Manu. Every day, in the mornings, King Manu, walked up to the river, got waist deep in water and prayed to God. One day during his prayer, he cupped a handful of water in his hands to offer to God. He saw a small fish in the water that was in hands. He was about to let go of the fish but the small fish begged him to save his life. The fish told him that if he let him go back to the river, the big fish would eat him alive. King Manu felt sorry for the fish and so took the fish home. He put the fish in a small bowl of water and he went back to his daily routines.

The next morning King Manu went to have a look at the fish. He was surprised to see the fish had grown overnight. The fish now almost filled the whole bowl. King Manu transferred the fish into a much larger bowl. The next morning the fish had almost filled up the new large bowl as well….King Manu immediately realized that this was no ordinary fish. Something in him told him that this fish was the God Himself. He knelt down and prayed. Lord Vishnu (in the form of the fish) tells him that in seven days there is going to be a huge flood which will destroy the entire planet. Hence it is important that all the species on this planet be preserved. To enable this to happen He asks Manu to build a huge boat and fill it up with samples of every species and then abode the boat and set it sail on the ocean and wait for Him.

Manu and his wife did as instructed. The giant Fish appeared and towed the boat which was tied to a horn he had manifested on his head. As predicted there was a huge flood and it destroyed the planet. Manu and his wife were safe (since they were on the boat). And along with Manu and his wife were the samples of every species. After a few years, the havoc stopped and normality returned. The boat was then towed to a land.

The king and his queen started a new life using the samples of various species and were able to create a new life on earth

HANUMAN

TALLEST HANUMAN OUTSIDE INDIA (85 FEET) - TRINIDAD



32 FEET HANUMAN IN NAVI MUMBAI



HANUMAN IN HARIDWAR