Sanatan dharm and Avtaar-Waad [Re-incarnation of God]

Sanatan dharm and Avtaar-Waad [Re-incarnation of God]

By: Khurshid Imam

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A. Concept of Avtaar-wad

Avtaar-Wad or the Concept of reincarnation of God is fundamental belief of Hinduism [except aryasamaj]. According to this belief; God comes down to earth and takes form of human being or animal. Now-days, anyone who does good thing is considered re-incarnation of God [Avtaar of God].

1. This concept is not from the very beginning. During Vedic era people did not believe in it. Even idol worship was not practiced during Vedic era. By Vedic era i mean the period during which original ved was in the life of people. I am not aware of any vedic mantr that preaches Avtaar-wad.

Later on, with the adulteration in pure teachings of God, several new concepts came into existence. Avtaar-wad is one among them. Probably; puranas paved way for this concept. People refer to a shlok in Shrimad bhagwad Puran and Bhagwad geeta in support of Avtaar-Wad.

No wonder – Aryasamajis strongly reject the concept of avtaar-wad. They say avtaar-wad is against Vedic teaching.

2. One of the ways of division of Hindus is through Shaiv (Primarily worship Shiva), Vaishnav (Primarily worship Vishnu) and Shakt (Primarily worship Shakti). Earlier, only vaishnav believed in Avtaar-wad. Shaiv and shakt did not believe in this concept. But today almost all sects and groups of Hindus believe in it.

3. How many avtaar (reincarnations of God) were there? Initially 10 avtaar of Vishnu were accepted, later on, this number was increased to 24. Today there is no limit to number of avtaar, everyone who does good is considered as avtaar.

According to hindu tradition; 10 avtaar of Vishnu (god) are:

1. Matasya Avtaar i.e. God reincarnated as Fish
2. Kaschap Avtaar i.e. God reincarnated as Tortoise
3. Varaah Avtaar i.e. God reincarnated as Pig
4. Narsingh Avtaar i.e. God reincarnated as Man-lion
5. Waman Avtaar i.e. God reincarnated as Dwarf
6. Ram. Believed to have come in Treta yug
7. Parshuram
8. Krishna. Believed to have come in Dwapar yug
9. Balraam. Believed to have come in Dwapar yug
10. Kalki Avtaar. The much awaited avatar.

B. AvtaarWad contradicts several mantr of Vedas

1. God is one, unique, master-sustainer of the universe:

“The Only Lord of all created beings. He fixed and holds up this earth and heavens.

Who by His grandeur has became sole ruler of the moving world that breaths and slumbers; He is Lord of men and Lord of cattle.

By Him the heavens are strong and earth is steadfast, by Him light’s realm and sky-vault are supported: by Him the regions in mid-air were measured. What gods besides Him shall we adore with our oblation?" Rigved 10:121:1,3,5

"One who has control over the whole universe, established difference between day and night.” Rigved 10:190:2

“He alone is the master of the whole universe. Every creature bows down before Him. Only He is eligible to be worshipped.” Atharvaved 2:2:1

2. God is free from image, likeness, death, birth etc.

a. Na tasy pratima asti, yasya namah mahadhsha - There is no image of that God, remembering him itself is great act. Yajurved 32:3

b. He can not be grasped in any direction. Yajurved 32:2

c. Those who worship natural things enter into darkness of hell; those who worship man made things enter more into darkness of hell. Yajurved 40:9

d. sah akayam - He is bodiless and pure. Yajurved 40:8

e. Na mamar na jiiryati - He does not die,nor grows old. Atharvved 10:8:32

f. He is beyond the imagination of death. Atharvved 13:4:46

Above vdic-mantr define God in such a way that contradicts with the assumption that God comes down to earth, takes form, lives and dies .

3. Can God be ideal for human being?

It is said that we should emulate Avtaar. Is this possible?

Almighty God is free from any error, any weakness [Refer Yajurved 10:8]. God can not commit mistake or sin. We human being are creature with weakness. We can be biased, we can err, we can commit mistake. How can we try to emulate God?

The logical alternative is that we should try to emulate human being who has very high level of piety, God consciousness and righteousness. Only a human being can be ideal for human being.

C. Avtaar-wad is against common sense and logic

Look at the world around. How big our earth is; huge mountains, large oceans.
What is the status of earth in our galaxy? Almost nothing. Our galaxy has more than 1000000000000 stars!!! Each star is thousands of time greater than Earth!! How many galaxies are in the universe? More than 100000000000!!!!! 
So how many stars are there in the universe? Probably Uncountable?How big our universe is? Infinite? And this gigantic universe is continuously expanding!!!

Who is the creator of this huge universe? It’s Almighty GOD – who is the master, planner and sustainer of this ultra complex universe. 
   
When we say:
The creator of this universe took birth in India.
Almighty God married and had kids.
Almighty God died because of arrow.
Almighty God was searching his spouse.
Almighty God did not recognize his son.
Almighty God lived in uttar pardesh [India].
…………. Then for sure we are demeaning the status of God. We are giving ungodly qualities to God. We are contradicting the definition of God given in scriptures. 

    How can we imagine God taking any form?
    How can God be confined to time and space?
    How can we say that God lived and died in india? 
    How can we think of God being man or animal? 
    Do we need to review and introspect regarding the concept of Avtaar-Wad?


D. yuga and Avtaar-Wad: how much compatible?

As per Hindu tradition - life time/era is divided in 4 yuga or era.

a. Sat yug – era of truth. 4 avtaar came

b. Dwapar yug – more truth, less evil. 3 avtaar came.

c. Treta yug – more evil, less truth. 2 avtaar came.

d. Kal yug – era of evil. 1 avtaar came.

All sects of Hinduism, including, aryasamaji believe in the concept of yug or era. Present era is Kal yug or era of evil. Very soon sat yug or era of truth will come. As per this concept; number of avtaar is 4,3,2,1 in Sat yug, dwapar yug, treat yug and kal yug respectively.

Ponder upon the number of avatar and portion of evil present in the era.

It is said that in sat-yug when everywhere there was peace, truth and happiness then god came down to earth 4 times. Please remember – the purpose of incarnation of God is to fight and destroy evil. When there was peace and happiness in sat-yug then why it was necessary for god to come down – [and fight evil powers]- to earth 4 times? 
It can be argued that sequence is reverse; i.e. since God came down to earth 4 times - so there was peace and prosperity. Fair enough.

However, when it is kal-yug – era of evil, crime, filth – then god is supposed to come down to earth only 1 time?

There is logical inconsistency in the concept of yug and number of avatar in each era. In kal-yug – ideally – there should have been more avtaar because of so much of evil. Even though it is believed that kalyug is about to end yet no avtaar has come yet.

It’s very clear that as evil is increasing number of avtaar is decreasing which is against logic.

E. Shri Ram chandr ji as avtaar

One of the most popular avtaar is Shri Ram chandr ji. His story is mentioned in the epic Ramayan. The Ramayana that you know is very different from the first book of Ramayana written by valmiki ji. For detail, refer to the article – “Difference between original Ramayan and the Ramayan you know”

1. As per the epic of valmiki ramayana; Shri Ram chandr ji was a human being. He had human qualities, some positive, some negative. He himself used to worship God.

2. He took birth, he married, he had children – these all are qualities of human being and not that of God.

3. His wife was abducted by Ravana. It took Shri Ram chandr ji several years to know whereabouts of his wife and rescue her.
“God knows all the domains, all the places and origins”. Yajurved 31:10

“God knows all dimensions and directions”. Rigved 6:9:3

“God knows everything”. Rigved 1:145:1

4. At the end; he died. Can God die?

5. Any honest person; after going through the story of Shri Ram chandr ji will agree that he could have been a great man or noble person.But to say that he was Almighty God - it will be exaggeration. God is one, unique, the master-creator-sustainer of the universe.

F. Shri Krishn ji as avtaar

Another very popular avtaar is Shri Krishna. He forms the central character in Bhagwad Geeta. Bhagwad Geeta is nothing but few chapters from another great epic – Mahabharat. Mahabharat is an epic attributed to Ved vyas ji that speaks about the War. The advice given by Shri Krishna to Arjun in the battlefield is called Bhagwad Geeta.

1. Shri Krishna took birth just like any other human being takes.
2. He grew up old. His naughty activities during childhood and teenage are famous in hindu traditions.
3. At the end; he was killed by an arrow. The wound could not be healed and resulted in death. 

Can God suffer this fate?
“None can ever obstruct or deviate you from your path (Oh God!)”. Rigved 4:54:4
“God is the giver of life’s breath. He is the lord of death”. Rigved 10:121:2

No need to say that God does not take birth. God cannot be hit by arrow. God does not die. So Shri Krishna could have been a great person. To claim that Shri Krishna was God is exaggeration and against definition of God.

G. Substitute of Avtaar-Wad – DutWad [Prophet hood]

What is the solution? God is not confined to time and space. God is not like anything, he is the creator, sustainer and planner of the whole universe. There is need to introspect about the concept of Avtaar-Wad. This concept is not divine. It is not given by God.

The original concept was dutWaad or Prophet Hood. While Avtaar-Wad speaks about God coming down to earth for destruction of evil; concept of prophet hood says that Almighty God reveals his message to human being called messenger or the prophet. The messenger or the prophet then delivers the message of God to people. This concept is pretty well defined in Quran, bible etc. Even Holy Ved talks about prophet hood or dut-waad.

Which concept is more logical – AvatarWad OR Prophet hood?

Ved is considered to be God’s word. So how Vedas came into existence?
Did God himself come to the world and spoke words of ved? No.
Surprisingly; though our Hindu brethren love Shri Ram chandr ji and Shri Krishna ji to great extent, yet they never associate any of them with Vedas. 

No one claims that Vedas were brought by Shri Ram chandr ji or Shri Krishna ji.
Then how come Vedas reached to us? Only option is: through human source.

There can be two ways:
1. God came down to earth, took human form and spoke mantr of Vedas.
OR
2. God inspired Vedic mantr to his chosen person called as Ish-Dut or rasul or Prophet.

To know more about the subject kindly read the book – “Lost prophets Of Hinduism and India”. Prophet Muhammad is the last messenger of God on whom Quran was revealed.

H. Conclusion

1. The concept of Avtaar-Wad is one of the fundamental beliefs of Hinduism. This belief is not divine; it’s not present in Vedas. This was gradually accepted by followers; earlier only vaishnav used to believe in this concept.

2. As per Avtaar-Wad - God takes form of human being in order to destroy evils.

3. This concept is against the Vedic teachings. Ved speaks against AvtaarWad. Morever – it goes against logic and common sense.

4. The correct concept is Prophet Hood. Almighty God does not take human form rather he appoints human being as the messenger for delivering his message. 

5. Prophet Muhammad was the last and final messenger of Almighty God.

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What will happen after death - Awagaman i.e. Life death life death cycle Or life hereafter???

WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER DEATH? Death-Life-Death-Life… cycle?

By Khurshid Imam

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A. Introduction

Dear friends.
This is the question we hardly ponder over. We are so much busy in our personal life that rarely we realize that we have come to this world for a very short time - may be 10 years, 40 years or say 90 years. 
After that?
We don’t have any idea. 
But do we *want* to get idea? Answer is 'NO' - in general.

Every day in newspaper we read people dying, leaving this world - but it is not sufficient to make us ponder over our purpose of life. Our body, wealth, family, house, and business - nothing will go with us when we die. Though we read about others dying yet we don’t realize that even we can die any day any time.

In India, generally, there are two categories of belief regarding what will happen after death.
1. Some people say that after our death, we will be reborn in the form of human, animal or plant - depending upon our deeds. If a person has done more good things then he/she will take birth in the form of human being. If someone's bad deeds are more then he will reborn as animal or plant or as poor, or handicapped, or with deformities. This concept is called Transmigration of soul or awagaman.

2. Other groups of people say that actually there is ONLY one worldly life. After our death, we will not take birth in any form. But rather, on Day of Judgment all human beings will be raised again. All will be held accountable for their deed. And depending upon the deeds people will be rewarded paradise and hell. That life will not be like our worldly life. And that life hereafter will be eternal life.

Obviously, both views can not be true at the same time. Every human being has to undergo any one system after death.

B. Awagaman is against logic, common sense, science and Hindu scriptures

1. Evil increasing so population should decrease!!!
Today we know that evil is increasing day by day. All kind of crimes are increasing in numbers and nature. Also, as per the popular belief of YUG - Time is divided into 4 yug - kalyug, satyug, dwapar yug and treta yug - present era is kalyug. It means in present time evil is far more than goodness.

So it means most of the people are dying by earning more sins - hence all these people who die should take birth as animal or plants - and thus eventually the population of the world should? DECREASE!
But we all know that the population of the world is increasing! Hence clear-cut contradiction between awagaman and the fact.

2. Do we EAT our forefathers????
Awagaman concept says that all plants and animals are so because of sins committed by them in the previous life. When we eat plants or animals then does it mean that we are eating our forefathers or relatives or other people who did sin in previous life????

3. Animals and plants doing good and bad deed?
We understand that human being can do good or bad deed. We have the free will and we make a choice. But what about animals and plants? When we will consider a lion to be good lion? If lion does not eat zebra then we will understand that lion is good? If a donkey allows us to put more and more weight then it will be considered good donkey else bad one? What bad deed a sheep can do?
What is good and bad for plant? If a banana tree gives us apple then we will assume it to be good? 
Of course, all these are illogical statements. A donkey is donkey because God has created it so. A lion is lion, a banana tree is so because God has made them in that manner. Animals and plants will not be held accountable for their deeds.

3. Obeying God can lead to the destruction of human beings????
All will agree that a person should love God, he/she should follow the commandments of God, not indulge in sins, don’t do bad deeds. But what will happen ultimately? As more and more people will be obeying God, after their death they will NOT take birth in the form of plants and animals but they will be borne as human beings. Result? Agriculture, plants, trees, fruits, animals, milk, curd etc will disappear in due time and there will be drought and hunger. People will not have vegetables, fruits to eat, milk to drink - agriculture will vanish and people will die of hunger. By obeying God people will be heading towards their extinction?? It does not go to common sense.

4. Disobeying God can lead to prosperity of human beings????
Going vice versa - if people become disobedient to God, they sin a lot, do lot of crime - after their death they will take birth as animals and plants. Result? There will be lot of trees, plants, fruits, animals, milk etc. The problem of pollution, environmental concerns will be solved. Hence by disobeying god people will prosper. is this logical?

5. Safe side theory
Talking in terms of very simple words; lets us assume that there is 50-50 chance of awagaman and life hereafter concept being true.
      Suppose a person A believes awagaman to be true and person B believes paradise-hell based life to be true.

Suppose after death it was found that Awagaman was correct, hence the belief of Mr. A was right and that of Mr. B was wrong. Then no loss for both of them. Both will take birth in a form depending on their deeds.

But.... But... but Suppose after death it was found that Life hereafter is correct and awagaman is wrong then no harm for Mr B. He will be rewarded paradise as he obeyed God. But if Mr. B has not lead life as per GOD then Mr. B will land up in eternal hell.

Taking both scenarios into account - which is more logical and safer side belief?

6.Principal of Natural justice
A natural principle is that if someone is accused of some crime then he/she should know about his/her crime. You can't put someone behind bar without explaining his/her crime.
As per awagaman - all animals and plants exist because they have done some crime in their previous life. Is this not against principle of natural justice? They should at least know what crime they did? Until and unless they will know of their crime how they can reform? This principle is violate by awagaman.

7. Principle of natural justice continues...
Not only a person should know about charges against him/her, but also it should be proved. Just by accusing someone of theft - a thief can not be put behind bar. In court of law - his/her crime must be proved, otherwise, it will be injustice. In the case of awagaman, neither plants nor animals nor poor people know their crimes in previous life nor was it proved to them. A cat does not know what sins it did in previous life. An owl also does not know, a rose flower too is unaware of sins of previous life.

8. Helping needy/poor is against humanity?
It is a common sense and teachings of all faiths that - one should help poor and needy people, feed hungry people, give charity to poor, help blind and handicapped people - everyone agrees that these are good deeds.

Suppose police catches a criminal, proves in the court of law that this man has robbed and killed people and eventually court puts him behind the bar for a certain period. Now, if a person thinks that he should help this criminal by helping him escape the prison or help in some other way that eases his punishment - this will be considered illegal act in the eyes of law. And any person engaged in such activity will be punished.

As per awagaman - poor people, handicapped people, people born with deformities, people suffering from hunger - they are undergoing sins committed by them in the previous life. They are criminal undergoing punishment; it means one should not help them, one should not feed them, and one should not give them charity?? 

Is this not against humanity? 

If awagaman is correct then helping poor is wrong. If helping poor is right then awagaman is wrong.

9. Simple Scientific facts refute awagaman (transmigration of soul concept)
After the creation process, initially this earth was hot mass, gradually with the passage of time it cooled down. After many years plant kingdom came into existence. After thousands and lakh of years, animal kingdom came into existence. After thousands and lakh years, human beings came into existence. So the chronology is - first there were plants, then came animals and then human being.
According to awagaman - Animals+plants are collectively called BHOG YONI i.e. birth as a result of punishment/reward and Human beings are called KARM YONI i.e birth in which Karam or deeds can be done. Now 100$ questions is - how there was bhog yoni (plants+animals) before karm yoni(human beings)?

Because as per awagaman all these plants and animals were human being some time. So ideally - human being should have come to the world and then these human being should have taken birth as animals and plants - but this is absurd as per science. So, awagaman does not hold good. Plants were plants, animals were animals and human being were human being.

10. When was human population 100000 billion
Just have a look at any lawn. Look at grasses. Can you count them? 
May be extremely difficult, but yet possible. 

How many grasses would be there in a small lawn? May be millions or billions. What about number of grass+plants in a city? In a country? In whole world?

Billions? Trillions?
How many plants + animals + sea creatures + insects + birds in the whole world? Uncountable.

As per awagaman these plants + animals + sea creatures + insects + birds are due to their sins in their past life. So it means that there should have been billions of billions of billions of human beings who would have done sins?

When was human population trillions of trillion? Even today there are only 7 billions people on the earth. This simple analysis goes against concept of awagaman.

But now - 1 question arises naturally - if concept of awagaman is wrong then how it became popular? How people started believing in that???
Please read response below which will make all things clear.

11. Sanatandharmi Scholars against awagaman theory

Scholar Dr. Rahul Sankrityayan; he writes in his famous book of philosophy - Darshan Dig Darshan under the topic of Punarjanam that the concept of awagaman was not their in vedic period. Vedic Scholars were completely unaware of this concept. This concept was given first by Chandogya Rishi in his book Chandogya upnishad.

Also, in order to explain why some people are born with disabilities, why some people are poor, why some people suffer from disease - scholars gave the argument that there was a previous life in which they committed sins and hence undergoing punishment.

12. Another Scholar testifies
Similarly another Scholar Dr. S. Radhakrishnan - who has translated vedas into english - he writes in his book - Upnishadon ki bhumika - that this concept of awagaman is not in vedas and it was given by scholars afterwards.

13. Vedas are against awagaman or transmigration of soul conceptVedas are absent from this concept of awagaman or life death life death cycle. Not only that concept of awagaman is NOT present - but also - opposite of awagaman i.e Concept of life hereafter is there in vedas. It is so unfortunate that as people went away from God's word they started believing something which was against God's teachings. Vedas give lot of details about Life hereafter. for example - in Atharv Ved 4:34:2-7 Vedas speak about life of paradise. Similarly at so many other places vedas speak about paradise, hell.

14. A community being misled for thousands of years
Waitttttt. All is not over. Something extremely important:
When a person dies then priest is asked to recite religious text for the peace of dead soul. Through this ritual, it is assumed that dead person will get peace. What priest reads is a part of Garud Puran called Pret kalp. You know what it says?? Since it is recited in Sanskrit so people don't understand. It speaks regarding what will happen to the dead person after death. It says that if the dead person had done good deeds then he will be taken by yamdut to paradise where he will have joyful life.
              Moreover, it says that if dead person had done bad deeds then he will be punished in different ways.

Amazing!!!!! is not it?

When a person is alive then it is told to him that he will NOT go to paradise or hell rather he will take birth in this world only, but when he dies then it is told to him that he will be punished in hell if he had sinned.... Is this not a big fraud against the whole community?

Think................

My dear brothers and sisters
Just think over above points - don’t you think that concept of awagaman is against logic, against science and against God's teachings?

The Correct concept is the concept of life hereafter i.e paradise and hell. Every human being, on the day of judgment will be raised again (this is actual punrajanam) and will be rewarded paradise if he has lead life as per teachings of God and will be punished in hell if he has disobeyed GOD.

C. Conclusion

1. The popular Indian belief is that after death human beings take the birth in the form of human being, plant, animal, lower caste person, person with disabilities or diseases.

2. This concept is against logic, against common sense, against science and against Vedas.

3. After death there will be no birth in this world – rather there will be rebirth on the Day of Judgment where people will be held accountable for their deeds and will be rewarded or punished depending upon their deeds.

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