Strange Similarities Between Darwin’s Theory of Evolution & Lord Vishnu’s Dashavatar

Presence of life on earth has always been one of the most fascinating and intriguing topic for all humans since thousands of years. How so many species came into being? Who created them? Did they all come into existence together on this planet the moment life started or did they evolve themselves through variations? All these questions reached their end when Charles Darwin, a naturalist proposed his theory of evolution. He proposed that the natural selection was the reason behind it and proposed that all species of organisms aroused and developed through the natural selection of small, and inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Those species which couldn’t accept this variation died off and got vanished. However the reason I’m writing this piece is the striking similarity between some theories of evolution and the concept of Dashavatar.

Hindu religion and mythology is probably the oldest in the world. Not only this but it also tells about the wonderful concept of AVATARS of lord Vishnu-the preserver in the Hindu pantheon-which is very similar to that of Darwin’s and other theories of evolution. Vishnu is the god almighty. He is omnipotent and has been manifesting himself on this earth since the time immemorial to save it from the evil and to get earth rid of all the corruption and anarchy prevailed.

But the interesting and very significant aspect of his AVATARS or manifestations on the earth is that it has unmatched similarity with the Darwinism theory of evolution as well as other theories.

The way Darwin told the world that the species adapted certain variations and developed themselves accordingly and the way Vishnu’s manifestations have taken shape in the stories is quite same. All this is very very mysterious and unknown as to how the evolution known to scientists much later had already been told thousands and may be more than thousands of years before it. Let’s have a look at these points. The evolution of Darwinism tells us that the life originated from a common ancestor. Theories also suggest that life originated from the sea, in the sea. In Hindu mythology, it has been told that the world originated from Aadi Jal (eternal cosmic water).

Now comes the theory of evolution and Dashavatars of lord Vishnu. Life, according to theory of evolution, started with the invertebrates and then came vertebrates in the ocean in the form of fishes. In Hindu mythology, Vishnu’s first incarnation of the Dashavatar is Matsya avatar and Vishnu appears in the form of a fish to save the life from Mahapralaya (ultimate destruction) on earth.

Next, theory of evolution tells that the life came out of ocean and the beings of ocean started walking the land to some extent or we can say that the amphibians came into existence from the vertebrates or aquatic animals. Amphibians have aquatic gills which means they can survive both on land and in sea. Tortoise is an amphibian and this is second avatar of Vishnu in the Dashavatar. Vishnu appeared as Kurma (tortoise) avatar in the form of a tortoise to have Mandara Mountain put on his back to support the churning of the ocean by the devatas and asuras in order to bring amrit (nectar of life) out from the ocean.

After this, the evolution tells us about these being who became more efficient in walking the earth becoming land animal and losing ability to be inside ocean and adapted very conveniently the climate and conditions of the land but they also were swamp animals means they could live in low oxygen water and boar is one such wild animal which is the next and third avatar of lord Vishnu. Vishnu, to save the earth-who beseeches to him to save her from evil demons-manifested himself as a wild boar who is considered as extremely ferocious and cruel.

This also shows how the wild animals ruled the land in the initial stages of the evolution process.

Hey friends, I have written my debut novel, “The Monsoon Marigolds”! read it and show me some love! 🙂 It will be very special for me!

Next link in the evolution is the early extinct human ancestors who were like the link between apes and humans or the link between the apes and their early beings. There are many theories claiming that some links in the process of evolution are missing and are very mysterious as to how animals evolved as humans. This link aptly resembles the fourth avatar of Vishnu.

Lord Vishnu this time manifested himself as half human- half lion and came as Narsingh avatar to kill evil demon king Hiranayakashyap and to save his ardent devotee Prahlad. This stage tells how transition took place from animals to humans.

In the process of evolution now humans came and evolved. They appeared not as they appear today. They COULD probably be midgets means dwarf. They were not as same in appearance as we are today  and due to evolution and due to new climatic condition for their new form, might have looked like midgets because they were not like us at least back then. In accordance, next, which is the fifth avatar of Vishnu, is the form of a dwarf called Vaaman avatar and is similar to this new evolved human kind. This time he came to send the benevolent but asura king Bali to the underworld.

In the series of perfect evolution, now came the humans who were somewhat like us but lived in caves and are known  to us as early man. In the Dashavatar theory also, Vishnu’s sixth avatar was that of Parshuram. We know that in this age, in the history of human kind, early men would live in forests and caves and would use weapons of wood and stones and so did lord Parshuram. He lived in mountains doing penance. He is famous for his anger and at the same time, he always carries an axe (made of stone and wood). Early men at this stage used to act without much reason and did not know the reason of life. It  does not completely but to some extent resembles the story of Parshuram who was so  short tempered that he killed and vanished the whole Kshatriya clan from the earth mercilessly. He would do penance to know about consciousness and indeed, was a conscious soul at the same time.

When early men came out of their caves and started living in the society as civilized humans, they made rules and followed them to lay the foundation of a society which is based on righteousness. They gave more importance to relationships, respect, righteousness and justice. All this factors can be seen with perfection in the next and seventh avatar or lord Vishnu. Lord Ram who was the seventh avatar of Vishnu was perfect in respecting relationships and elders. He was perfect in justice. And he was perfect in establishing a society based on the policies of righteousness (Ram Rajya).

This is extremely wonderful to see how society of lord Ram’s time was very much similar to earlier civilized societies of human kind whether it is something related with caste system, related with land disputes or the relationship between the ruler and the ruled subjects.

Now here the evolution comes to an end as far as physical appearance is concerned. But mentally, humans evolved even more after this stage and are still evolving. When men established the good society where everyone was satisfied, then major issues started taking place such as land disputes at a major level, not only living with sheer righteousness but also how to take right decisions to achieve righteousness. At this point man started knowing more about intelligence of mind not only in terms of physical reality but also in terms of metaphysical reality. Man started realizing about philosophy and metaphysics, knowing self, identity, time, space, life and death etc. Materialism was indeed an important factor for man of this stage but more important was the philosophical knowledge. I think many of us can guess which avatar I am talking about now. Yes, Vishnu’s next and seventh avatar is that of Lord Shree Krishna who is more perfect than perfection itself, in every sense. He is the master of philosophy, he tells the ultimate knowledge of Gita to the world.

He is completely self conscious and knows what inner life is. He knows about every aspect of life and life after life or death. He knows about karmas, moksha, and how to be one with god (who is Krishna only). Krishna told how to achieve what is your right by being adaptable, hardworking and by taking right decision which suits the condition that you are facing.

After this stage man-aware of philosophical terms and knowledge-started practicing it and tried achieving moksha (not all humans but some). What lord Krishna told in the eighth avatar of Vishnu was about to be practiced and shown to the world by his ninth one. This avatar was that of Gautama Buddha. He preached the world what enlightenment and nirvana is. Nirvana, another word for moksha, was achieved by Buddha. He is an enlightened one. Man rose above the materialism and started practicing the philosophy of metaphysics. This stage of mental evolution is equal to Buddha’s enlightenment teachings.

Now comes the final stage in which we are living. We have seen above nine stages of evolution both physical and metaphysical. But what now? What is to be achieved after nirvana or moksha has been realized by humans?

The evolution many times proposes that whatever is created has to be destroyed in order to begin the process of creation all over again. And this very aptly fits into the theory of Dashavatar. The human when achieves everything physical and metaphysical, when he knows what is materialism and what is the meaning of “POWER”, when everything possible is achieved by him, then anarchy obviously prevails because the power hungry leaders wants to rule the earth and they not only just crave for land but also for the absolute power. Then comes the time when this rampant anarchy and tumultuous situation is to be defeated. A rise of new power by the righteous, virtuous and benevolent person takes place. This is what the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu is all about.

When morality and dharma or righteousness will be in hearts of few handful men; when even Brahmans would become charlatan and would stop being learned and full of knowledge and wouldn’t be able to hold dharma; when man will be the biggest enemy of other man; when one will try and get success by killing others literally or otherwise; when the rulers won’t think about ruled and would become extremely selfish and tyrant; and when there will be no justice for the common man and sheer injustice would prevail everywhere and when some handful good humans will be forced to live in the caves and forests out of fear of others; then the Kalki avatar of Vishnu will arrive and will destroy the whole creation except few humans who believe in dharma. This avatar will be completely perfect and would know every aspect of life. He will be self realized person yet will end the creation for the world would be too imperfect and defective by then. He will use extremely powerful sword of his to destroy worlds. Species will be finished by him and the whole process of creation would take place again.

Here the extremely powerful weapons of Kalki may have the similarities with the nuclear and other extremely powerful weapons that the world has today. Also the world is living on the heap of nuclear weapons today and probably the holocaust caused by these weapons would make the world imperfect and pave the way for the final avatar of lord Vishnu. He also will have the equal and even more powerful weapons to destroy the imperfect world for the new creation and for the fresh evolution process.

I don’t know if I am right or wrong but these similarities compelled me to write and express and share what I have written about the striking similarities between the process of evolution and the Dashavatars of lord Vishnu. The way humans have evolved or the way life has evolved on this earth and the way we have lived since the beginning till this modern period is extremely similar with the Dashavatar theory. Every avatar fits in so perfectly with the advancement of humans that I find it extremely mysterious and interesting.

Hey friends, I have written my debut novel, “The Monsoon Marigolds”! read it and show me some love! 🙂 It will be very special for me!

 

By-Shekhar Srivastava

What happened to Arjun’s chariot after Mahabharat war?

Mahabharata is one of the two great epics of India; other being Ramayana. The battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata is probably the bloodiest war ever fought in the history of human kind. Such is the vastness of this epic that there are innumerable anecdotes comprising this spectacular saga of war, duty, righteousness, evil and every human emotion that has ever been contemporary in the mind of man. Today I would like to share one of these stories which is about the chariot of the uncontested warrior of this epic; Arjun. We have seen him fighting from his chariot with lord shri Krishna as his charioteer in the Kurukshetra battle in pictures or on television but many of us are still oblivious of the story of how Arjun got his chariot and what happened with his chariot after the gory battle of Mahabharata was over.

Arjun had been bestowed with his chariot years before the battle of Mahabharata along with many other great assets which eventually ushered his way through the battleground. The story goes back to the days when Arjun was one day roaming in the khaandav van with shree Krishna and they met a man who was looking as pale as a corpse and looked extremely ill. When asked, he told lord Krishna and Arjun that he was none other than demigod Agni. The reason behind his affliction was that he was suffering from a stomach malady due to too much consumption of ghee and as per lord Brahma he was required to consume the fat of the animals and thus he wished to devour the forest of khaandav which had many snakes, evil spirits and wild beasts but was failed to do so. The reason was that lord Indra was protecting the khaandav van himself as his friend Takshak-the serpent king was residing in there with all his kith and kin. Every time Agni tried to devour the forest, lord Indra summoned the powerful rain clouds to thwart the fire of Agni from consuming the forest. Thus he had no other way to cope with it and he beseeches lord Krishna for help. Lord Krishna and Arjun thus invoked Varun dev, the lord of ocean to help them win over Indra and to help Agni devour the forest of khaandav. Varun dev, pleased and blessed with lord himself asking for help, bestowed him with sudarshan chakra, Arjun with his chariot, Gandeev- the moon bow of the creator lord Brahma. Agni also gave Arjun a radiant chariot with four horses yoked, bearing a flag that would one-day be occupied by Hanuman. Arjun also obtained his famous conch- Devadatt. They then waged a war against Indra and conquered. Lord Indra told Arjun and Krishna that he is trying to save Takshak whom he had promised would be saved by Indra from all the threats anyone could possess on him and his family. Krishna respected the promise made by the king of demigods Indra and allowed Takshak to leave the forest and Takshak got off. Other creatures were barred by Arjun and thus couldn’t escape and eventually were devoured by Agni. After the task was done, lord Krishna asks Vishwakarma, the greatest architect of the universe who is the architect of demigods to make a palace on the land where the khaandav van once was. One more asura was saved by Arjun called Mayasur, from this conflagration. When his life was spared by Krishna and Arjun, Maya had offered his services to them. Krishna instructed Maya to construct a fabulous palace hall full of mirage and illusion for Arjuna’s elder brother, king Yudhishthir at Indraprastha, which becomes the Mayasabha, renowned, beautiful, mysterious and the largest of its kind. It had many specialties such as highly reflective floors that were easily mistaken as the surface of a pool of still water. There was also a pool of water, the surface of which mimicked a decorated floor, into which Duryodhan later fell. So this is how Arjun got his chariot but his chariot was not just a chariot but had a greater significance in accordance with human life and soul which was later described on the battlefield by lord Krishna while preaching the Bhagwad Gita.

Hey friends, I have written my debut novel, “The Monsoon Marigolds”! read it and show me some love! 🙂 It will be very special for me!

It is called the chariot of the body. This chariot had five horses representing the five senses (tongue, eyes, ears, nose and skin) of the human nervous system. The reins, the driving instrument, symbolize the mind; Arjun sitting on the chariot represents the body or the soul of a human being. And lord shree Krishna as a charioteer (Saarthi) represents the super soul; the supreme soul present inside every human being, lord Krishna IS indeed the super soul present in every being ever created. It is not just a chariot but has a meaning which defines the whole life of a human being. Our senses (horses) are controlled by the mind (reins). This mind is controlled by our soul or body (Arjun). And above all is the super supreme soul (Krishna as charioteer) which is present inside us but it depends on us whether we want to pay attention to it or not; whether we let it guide us or just want to guide it our-self and our life as we wish to.  The driver is the intelligence, and the passenger is the spirit soul. Lord Hanuman on flag signifies sense control and mind control that gives victory to the higher nature over the lower nature. That chariot has three wheels (Satwa, Rajas, and Tamas); has three kinds of motion (upwards or downwards or transversely, implying superior, inferior, and intermediate birth as brought about by acts); horses apart from senses also represent the time, will of the deities, and one’s own will. It has three naves (white, black, and mixed, implying good acts, evil acts and acts that are of a mixed character).

This is how significant Arjun’s chariot is. It is not just a chariot but a metaphor for human beings. How it ushered Arjun through battlefield towards victory shows us that if senses are controlled with balance in accordance with mind and if mind is controlled by soul which in turn guide itself through super soul, then a human is meant to achieve the righteousness i.e., Dharma.

This was how his chariot was used on the battlefield but ever wondered what happened with it after the Mahabharata war? When the war was over and lord Krishna realized that the mission of this chariot was accomplished, he took the chariot to a deserted place and asked the warrior Arjun to get off the chariot. After Arjun descended from the chariot, lord asked hanuman to leave the chariot along with his flag and hanuman did so. The moment lord hanuman left the chariot, the chariot exploded with a loud bang as if a big weapon had collided with it. With the deafening sound of the detonation and the blazing incandescent had burst the chariot into flames and it had been reduced to ashes and was completely razed. After few moments, Arjun asked lord Krishna the reason behind the bang and everything that had happened just now. Krishna then explained him that the weapons that were used by Maharathi Sage Dronacharya and Maharathi Karna on him and his chariot were so powerful that there was and there could be no escape from them for Arjun and his chariot. They were intended to create the havoc and could not be subdued. They are extremely efficacious and what Arjun had just now witnessed was the result of those celestial weapons launched by Dronacharya and Karna on him. To this Arjun asked why did they take so much time to do what they were intended to? Clearing his suspicion, Krishna told Arjun that it was the presence of Krishna on his chariot that had barred those weapons from creating desired effect by the enemy army. Krishna had made those weapons effect-less for the time being and that was the reason it couldn’t harm Arjun and his chariot. It was also the presence of lord hanuman on the chariot flag which stopped those weapons from coming into effect. Krishna later told Arjun that those celestial weapons used by Karna and Dronacharya were given to them by demigods and thus they had had to make the effect that they were used for and making them null would be the insult of the demigods who bestowed them to Karna or Dronacharya. Hence, to make them make the desired effect it was necessary for them to consume the chariot of Arjun which they had just now done.

Arjun now realized that it was lord Krishna because of whom he had emerged victorious. It was not his but lord Krishna’s victory; as it was the victory of good over evil and without Lord Shree Krishna, Arjun could never defeat the enemy army and its Maharathis the way he did in the Mahabharata war of Kurukshetra.

In this way we get to know that the chariot of Arjun-from being given to him to being consumed by the harsh fire of explosion- had its own significance in this majestic epic and this tale of his chariot is very intriguing in its own.

Hey friends, I have written my debut novel, “The Monsoon Marigolds”! read it and show me some love! 🙂 It will be very special for me!

By-Shekhar Srivastava

God is watching us! Part 1

I’ll start with a short story. Once a blind beggar was begging in a train and when he passed by; a man on upper seat wished to give him some coins but was far so asked the man sitting beneath to pass the beggar the coins he wished to give. The man sitting beneath did so and passed the coins to the beggar. The beggar took it happily and said, “bhagwan apka bhala kare” ( may god bless you). Hearing this, the man sitting beneath who had just passed the coins to the beggar mocked at the man who actually gave the coins saying- “paise diye aapne aur dua mujhe mil gai”(money was given by you and blessings came to me)to the man. To this, the blind beggar said-“saahab andha Mai hun uparwala nahi”(sir it is I who is blind, not the God). To this the man got speechless. This is not just a story but the truth of the world today. These days, it has become very common thing that whatever we do in life or whatever action we take; many of those actions are taken by two reasons- either we want to impress someone or make them happy to get blessings(for our own benefit in return)or we do it to portray ourselves in a particular manner. This trait of humans has become not less than a fashion trend these days to do something and show or prove the world what we are and how we do what we do or what kind of person we are.Many people today do charities and post the pictures while doing so on social media platform. Many of them say that if we are doing charity or helping others then why can’t we expect some admiration and praise from others. Some of them say that if no one will witness us doing something for the welfare of others, then how will they get to know how humanitarian we actually are. Here comes the topic which I have dedicated this blog post of mine to. Actually someone always witness what we do and how we do it and besides all this what is the intention that we are having in our mind while doing anything. That being is known to us as the god almighty.

 

No matter what we do, or if we do it for someone else or ourselves, or we do it in seclusion or in front of thousands of people; someone always keeps a close watch on us and witness all our deeds and that being is god. Here some can argue that what about those who do not believe in god? The answer is that god always doesn’t mean that a superpower being is looking at you; this god has a deeper meaning. That god sometimes is our conscience-our mind’s power to tell what is right and what is wrong. No matter how secluded we are, this self conscience always keeps a close watch on us and not only does it tells us what is right or wrong but it also enables us to feel extremely powerful while getting involved in philanthropy. Similarly if we are taking any action to make someone happy or just to impress someone or to portray ourselves in a particular manner, this self conscience tells us that it is wrong no matter how desperately we want to do it. But all this realization happens with us only when we are self aware and know how to demarcate wrong from right. The gist is that our actions should not be based on our desire to portray ourselves in specific way or to take it just to impress others for their happiness and blessing or favors by them in return. It also should not be just for getting the desired result from the god. It solely should be based after analytic scrutiny that whatever we are doing is justified and good and in case of charity or philanthropy, whatever we are doing is for other person’s welfare who is concerned and not for “our” benefit. If the inner self tells us that yes this is right then do it and if no, then don’t do it. There is no need to show or prove it to someone all this while because our god always watches us and our conscience knows whether our actions are right or wrong and it is our god who blesses us for our deeds and not the people concerned or other spectators.

 

By-Shekhar Srivastava