The Study Circle of Sector 15A, Noida, invited its resident Kavita Sharma to talk about the two avatars of the Hindu pantheon, Rama, and Krishna. It was a mesmerizing forty five minute talk heard by a large audience, in pin drop silence. It began with the concept of avatar or the god’s descent on earth to right the cosmic order or rta disturbed by the overreach of someone on earth even if because of the boons granted by the gods themselves.
Rama and Krishna, both avatars of Vishnu, she pointed out, belong to two different yugas, the former to Treta and the latter to the end of Dwapar going towards Kaliyuga. This defines their different purposes of taking birth on earth, the events of their childhood and their actions after that. Treta yuga being a highly ethical and moral age, measured by the standards of its time. Drawing upon Valimiki, she said that Rama came to destroy the rakshas or the spreading evil. He did not have to assert his divinity as there was societal consensus of his actions. He upheld the social order even when it was seemingly unjust according to our thinking, as in his treatment of Sita. Focussing on the Krishna of Mahabharata, she pointed out that he had to manifest his divinity repeatedly because of the morally degenerate society. Hence, his purpose was to dismantle it and begin anew. This explains the annihilation in Mahabharata war and support to Yudhisthira over Duryodhana.
