Do all incarnations appear in India?
From Siddharth: It is a bit of stretch that all the incarnations appeared in India. Or am i mistaken?
The question, It seems too much of a coincidence that Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu and all the primary expansions chose to appear in the Indian continent. Or am I mistaken? Answer, Yes, it is a slight mistake to think that all the incarnations appear in India. Because, what to speak of India or even the earth, there are incarnations which appear on other planets.
If we look at the appearance of Varahadev, he appeared at a time when the whole earth had lost its balance and had sunk into the ocean. And he came and lifted the earth out. So, if he lifted the earth out, obviously he was not appearing on the earth.
What to speak of appearing in India? So, there are many incarnations and not all of them appear on the earth. Or if we look at Vamanadev, he appeared as the son of the Aditi, who was the mother of the demigods. So, he appeared in the heavenly planets.
Now, so in this way the various avatars appear in different parts of the universe. But when they come on earth, where do they come? The puranic record that we have of the avatars is not exhaustive. The Bhagavatam says that there are unlimited avatars by indicating that there are as many avatars as there are waves in an ocean.
Why does Krishna incarnate unlimitedly? Because his love for us is unlimited. And so he wants to offer his unlimited opportunities to become attracted to him by hearing about his pastimes. Now, the Bhagavatam records a few of his incarnations.
And a few of his incarnations are talked about in the other scriptures. But among the incarnations that we know, we may make the argument that they are only in India. But as there are unlimited incarnations, there can be incarnations in other parts of the world also.
Our historical record of the world dates back only to a few thousand years. And that is, from the Vedic point of view, a very, very insignificant time span as compared to the totality of the time for which the universe has been existing. Now, still, within that insignificant time span, we may argue, whatever records we have within the scriptures, the insignificance of the time span from the Vedic perspective makes it unlikely that our history of 5,000 or 10,000 years will record any avatar even if he had appeared in other parts of the world.
Because the reach of our history is so less. So, how do we know about the avatars? It's not from empirical historical records, empirical or inferential historical records. It is from scriptural accounts.
The scriptural accounts talk about many incarnations. Do all of those appear in India? We may argue like that, but we have to also understand that India was not a small part of the Indian subcontinent that it is now. From the Vedic perspective, and there is there is some historical evidence that India's influence extended far beyond not just the Indian subcontinent, but far beyond Asia also.
That is a different issue. For the time being, even if we say the avatars appeared in India, from India, they have ruled the whole world. So, it doesn't mean that they came to redeem only Indians.
But still the question may come, why did they appear only in India? The Lord appears for multiple purposes. Three of the prominent purposes are talked about in the Bhagavad Gita, fourth chapter, eighth verse, he says, to deliver the pious, to destroy and deliver the miscreants, and to re-establish dharma. But the next verse, 4.9 tells that the most important purpose he appears is is to attract all of us to return back to his abode.
So, when the Lord comes to this world, he comes to a place which is receptive for him, because that is where he can execute his mission the best. As if a Prime Minister goes to some town, he can stay anywhere, but if he has an old friend in that town, he may probably go and stay in that friend's town. So, India is the place where since time immemorial there have been great sages who have performed austerities for spiritual and divine realizations.
And because India is a place where people have been seeking for God, that is why God chooses to appear here and radiate his mercy outwards from here. So, is this an Indocentric view of looking at the world? Not at all. Now, we may think, we should not think that actually because we are Indians and the scriptures were written by some Indian people, so they imagine that all the avatars came in India.
Rather, the scriptures talk about the universe far beyond India and the world and the universe that we know about also. The Vedic view is much much bigger than what we may imagine it to be. But, still, the point may be raised that do the avatars appear only in India and this is because the Indians have imagined it like that? Not at all.
Rather, this India is a holy place because of the great sages having appeared over here and the Lord chooses to appear over here and we, by some good fortune based on some past good karma or some mercy, have had the fortune of being born in India. So, it is not that we are Indians and somehow we, in our scriptures, have visualized that all the avatars appear in India. Rather, the scriptures are eternal revelations that come from the spiritual world and the Lord comes here because this is the place where people are longing to be with Him and they are receptive for Him and we are fortunate to be born here.
Our situation is like a beggar who may be begging in any part of the world but he happens to be begging in a place where the landlord is very charitable and the landlord gives profuse charity. Unfortunately, if the beggar, instead of taking the charity, starts doubting the landlord, why are you so charitable? That is the beggar's great misfortune. If he has got a fortune, instead of doubting the fortune, he should relish the fortune and enrich himself.
Similarly, we Indians are so immensely fortunate that we are actually not Indians, we are souls, but somehow we are born in the land where the Lord has chosen to appear in the past and thus we have the opportunity to rise from being spiritual paupers to becoming spiritual millenials by receiving the Lord's mercy. But because of centuries and even millennia of foreign rule and foreign indoctrination, Indians have developed a deep-rooted national inferiority complex because of which we are inherently suspicious about everything Indian and so, instead of relishing our good fortune at being born in a place where the Lord has chosen to appear historically, we start doubting our good fortune and when we doubt our good fortune, that can be our greatest misfortune. Therefore, to summarize, first point, the Lord appears not just in India or Earth, but in various parts of the universe.
Even when the Lord appears on Earth, He may have appeared in many other places which the scriptures do not tell us because the scriptures give us a limited report of the incarnations of the Lord and the historical record doesn't reach back to that far in time. Now, when what is revealed to us in scriptures, the Lord may seem to appear in India, but that is because India is the place where people are receptive for Him and from here He can radiate His mercy outwards to the rest of the planet. And India was, from the Vedic perspective, the ruler of the whole world in the past.
And fourthly, it is not our endocentric imagination that has conceived all the avatars appearing in India. Rather, India's sacredness has attracted the avatars and it is our good fortune that we are born here. So, instead of being suspicious about our good fortune, let us relish our good fortune.