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Incarnations of God – Avatars: The Sankhya View (With Surprising Christian Insights)

Incarnations of God

To someone who wrote about the nature of avatars–incarnations of God.

The Sankhya view (on which Yoga is based) of avatars is that when perfectly illumined and liberated souls return to earth to teach spiritual wisdom, they are avatars: incarnations of God in the sense that the divine is fully manifested in them. It can be said of them as Saint Paul said about the Lord Jesus:

“In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

Just think:

“They brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them” (Acts 5:15).

“And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11-12).

When I read this as in my early teens I realized that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were not just “born again” and “good Christians.” They had become Christs, gods upon the earth. They were “incarnations” of God. This is in keeping with the Bible:

“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:34; Psalms 82:6).

It is interesting how little “Bible Christians” understand or believe of the Bible. Especially those who boast that they believe the Bible literally.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12).

So we see that believing in Jesus entails a lot more than Christians even want to realize. This is why Swami Abhedananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, wrote an pamphlet entitled “Why a Hindu Accepts Christ and Rejects Churchianity.”

We are all meant to be incarnations of God

All human beings are intended to become Sons of God. It is spiritual ignorance that clouds the issue. Of course God alone is God, yet the rishis of India realized that our spirit (atman) is inseparable from God, like the wave from the ocean. But as Shankara wrote:

“O Lord, you do not belong to me, but I belong to you. The ocean can say, ‘I am the wave,’ but the wave cannot say, ‘I am the ocean.’”

Further Reading:

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