DOES AVATARS IN SANATAN DHARM HAVE SUPERNATURAL AND MIRACULOUS POWERS

Avatars NEVER have any miraculous powers, and establish Dharm by example. Hindus have different set of rules for presentation of Avatars during different phases of society’s growth and capabilities

What type of powers does Avatars have is an important question, which needs a detailed answer? But before answering this, let us understand and appreciate the duration of a Mahayug, i.e. a period which consists of Satyug, Treta Yug, Dwaaper Yug and Kalyug.

A Mahayug (Kalp, according to us) is fairly long and as per Puraans and Surya Siddhant, the duration is as follows:

Satya Yuga ............14, 40, 000 yearsTreta Yuga ............10, 80,000 yearsDwapar Yuga .........7, 20,000 yearsKali Yuga ...............3, 60,000 yearsSandhi Kaal: ...........7, 20,000 yearsTotal ................ ....=43, 20,000 years

Unfortunately no definition of time has been provided, and as such till today this important statement from our ancient culture, remains unverified. Not to get bogged down, in an altogether unrelated issue, it is better to approximate the possible values of this as per definition of solar year we know. Read: DURATION OF A KALP

Satya Yuga ............... 5, 18,400 yearsTreta Yuga ............... 3, 88,800 yearsDwapar Yuga .......... 2, 59,200 yearsKali Yuga ................ 1, 29,600 yearsSandhi Kaal: ............ 2, 59,200 yearsTotal ...... = ............15, 55,200 years

Note: The current Kali-Yug began at midnight 17 February / 18 February in 3102 BC

The reason why these periods have been provided is for readers to understand that evolution undergoes lot of phases during this time. It passes through difficult period, critical period also for relatively lesser time, good period too, and there is no definable pattern. Difficult period, perhaps also become unmanageable at times, just like critical period, and Lord Vishnu do come on this earth to ensure passage through these unmanageable difficult times. It is important to define ‘Difficult Period’ and ‘Critical Period’. 

DIFFICULT PERIOD: As and when the society is not impacted by extreme scientific growth, then normally, Avatars are NOT required, and even if Avatars are required, they come for a limited purpose, like Vaman Avatar and Narsingh Avatar.

CRITICAL PERIOD: when the society witnesses extreme scientific growth, then the correction to be made by God as Avatar is more difficult. Lord Vishnu as Avatar devotes an entire life period (as applicable to humans) for making these corrections. Shri Krishna and Shri Ram are example of these. During Treta Yug, Shri Ram had to come immediately after Lord Parashuram, as Lord Parashuram could not resolve all the problems.

Now back to the subject. First thing first; Avatars are human incarnation of God that means they are just like all other humans, and as such can NEVER have any miraculous and super natural powers. Avatars only establish Dharm by example. But Sanatan Dharm has different set of rules for presentation of Avatars during different phases of society’s growth and capabilities.

1) When the society is less developed, and scientific growth is negligible, or in the primary stage, the presentation of Avatars and history of the period of Avatars is with characters having supernatural powers. This allows increase in emotional content of preached Dharm, ensuring that society has absolute faith in God and that the society understands that the redressed of all problems lies in worshiping God, who is eager to help those who remember/worship HIM. Obviously the REAL Dharm established by Avatars is NOT told to that society.

An example is that during serious survival crisis faced by humanity all over the world, immediately after Mahabharat war, the emotional content of the religion was increased, and this was further increased during 1000 years of slavery, so that Hindu Society could keep its head down and survive the severe pressure of conversion. During this time the society was told that the main reason for Avatar of Shri Ram was to kill the demon king Ravan, though the actual reasons for avatar were as follows:[The actual reasons would be obvious, only when we will accept Ramayan as History]

2) When the society is passing through a phase of growth including education and economic growth, the history of Avtars is told without supernatural Powers, keeping current society as reference point. 

As such the actual reason for Shri Ram's avatar are as follows:

1) To end atrocities on females, and ensure that draconian religious laws (Dharm) such as Agni Pariksha is declared as Adharm 2) To ensure weaker section of people are provided rightful place. Vaanars were evolved humans, with tails who were not even recognized as humans by kingdoms and Shri Ram ensured them rightful place and equal status. 3) To establish Ram RAJYA, a just rule of law with no exploitation.

It is important to understand that one can appreciate REAL Dharm established by Avatar only without use of supernatural and miraculous powers. But why this is done and so designed?

One has to understand that Sanatan Dharm is the oldest Dharm, and is there from the start of civilization. A religion can survive that long only when it has flexibility of approach and that flexibility has been explained above.

Unfortunately after independence, Hindu Samaj had the capacity to appreciate and accept REAL Dharm established by Avatars, and that would have made the Hindu Society more proactive and participate in much better way in managing Hindu dominated India. But that has NOT happened and after independence emotional content has further been increased by the Dharmic Gurus, which could result in slavery once again.