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VISHNU UPHOLDING THE UNIVERSE
From a sculpture at Mâmallapuram
Vishnu is a dark god with four arms; in one of his right hands he holds a warshell, and in the other a flaming discus, which destroys enemies and returns after it is flung; in one left hand he holds a mace, and in the other a lotus bloom.
The belief that the Supreme Being from time to time “assumes a human form ... for the preservation of rectitude and morality” is an outstanding feature of Vishnuite religion, which teaches that Vishnu was born among men as Ramachandra, Krishna, Balarama, and Buddha. These are the Avataras of the Preserver. Avatara means literally “a descent”, but is used in the sense of an “Incarnation”.
Rama Chandra is the hero of the Ramáyana epic, which is summarized in our closing chapters; he is the human ideal of devotion, righteousness, and manliness, the slayer of the demon Ravana, who oppressed and persecuted mankind.
Krishna and his brother Balarama figure as princes of Dwaraka in the Mahábhárata. Krishna is represented as the teacher of the Vishnuite faith, the devotional religion which displaced the Vedic ceremonies and links Upanishadic doctrines with modern Hinduism. It recognizes that all men are sinful, and preaches salvation by Knowledge which embraces Works. Sinners must surrender themselves to Krishna, the human incarnation (Avatara) of Vishnu, the Preserver, the God of Love.
This faith is unfolded in the famous Bhagavad-gita[169] in the Bhishma Parva section of the Mahábhárata epic. Krishna is acting as the counsellor and charioteer of the Pandava warrior Arjuna. Ere the first day's battle of the Great War begins, the human Avatara of Vishnu reveals himself to his friend as the Divine Being, and gives instruction as to how men may obtain salvation.
Krishna teaches that the soul is “unborn, unchangeable, eternal, and ancient”; it is one with the Supreme Soul, Vishnu, the First Cause, the Source of All. The soul “is not slain when the body is slain”; it enters new bodies after each death, or else it secures emancipation from sin and suffering by being absorbed in the World Soul.... All souls have to go through a round of births. “On attaining to Me, however,” says Krishna, “there is no rebirth.”