Lord Vishnu, one of the Hindu Trinity, entrusted with the job of maintaining / protecting / taking care of creation. And He has come down to Earth 9 times when things really got out of hand. The chronological order of incarnations is as below.
1) Meena
2) Koorma
3) Varaha
4) Nara Simha
5) Vamana
6) Parashurama
7) Rama
8) Krishna
9) Budhha
10 Kalki (yet to happen)
Ashtapati Jayadeva, a 12th century poet, composed the Gita Govindam which beautifully describes each of the incarnations, which were inscribed into the Hindu literature a long long time before Jayadeva's time. Are these mythological stories created to amuse kids or fool adults into a false sense of security you can mess up and God will care, or is there something more?
Even a casual observance will show that each of the incarnation is a evolutionary milestone in the animal kingdom, although covering only vertebrates and not going into too much detail.
Meena in Sanskrit is Fish (aquatic), Koorma is tortoise (amphibian), Varaha is boar (land animal), Nara is man and Simha is lion, half man and half animal, Parashuram was a man of temper, Ram, the calm and composed, Krishna, a yogi and householder, Buddha, the renunciate and Kalki, the warrior, who symbolizes waging war against the negative tendencies in your own self.
So the story of evolution was taught to the kids in the form of colorful stories. At least 700 years before Darwin (1809-1882) and his contemporaries were even born.
How cool :)
1) Meena
2) Koorma
3) Varaha
4) Nara Simha
5) Vamana
6) Parashurama
7) Rama
8) Krishna
9) Budhha
10 Kalki (yet to happen)
Ashtapati Jayadeva, a 12th century poet, composed the Gita Govindam which beautifully describes each of the incarnations, which were inscribed into the Hindu literature a long long time before Jayadeva's time. Are these mythological stories created to amuse kids or fool adults into a false sense of security you can mess up and God will care, or is there something more?
Even a casual observance will show that each of the incarnation is a evolutionary milestone in the animal kingdom, although covering only vertebrates and not going into too much detail.
Meena in Sanskrit is Fish (aquatic), Koorma is tortoise (amphibian), Varaha is boar (land animal), Nara is man and Simha is lion, half man and half animal, Parashuram was a man of temper, Ram, the calm and composed, Krishna, a yogi and householder, Buddha, the renunciate and Kalki, the warrior, who symbolizes waging war against the negative tendencies in your own self.
So the story of evolution was taught to the kids in the form of colorful stories. At least 700 years before Darwin (1809-1882) and his contemporaries were even born.
How cool :)
