avatara
अवतार avatāraA 'descent': the act by which Vishnu, or God, takes tangible form in the world to restore dharma. The classic statement is Bhagavad Gita 4.7-8, 'age after age.'
Where this term appears
- How many gods does Hinduism have? Deities
There is no single fixed number, and the widely repeated figure of 330 million gods rests on a mistranslation. The oldest texts speak of thirty-three gods, not…
- What is an Avatar? Deities
That coming-down has a name, and the name has since wandered into films and video games, but its origin is one of the great ideas of Hinduism. The word is avatara , and it means a descent.
- Who is Krishna? Deities
…ishnu Purana and across much Vaishnava thought, is that Krishna is an avatara , a "descent" of Vishnu, one in the standard list of ten that includes the fish, the boar, Rama, and others.
- Who is Vishnu? Deities
The tradition itself, much later, read the three strides as the Vamana avatara, the dwarf who grows to bestride the worlds.
- Hinduism and Buddhism: the difference Essentials
Hinduism and Buddhism grew from the same soil in ancient India and share a great deal: belief in karma, rebirth, the cycle of samsara, the ideal of non-violence,…
- Is Hinduism monotheistic or polytheistic? Essentials
Hinduism is genuinely both monotheistic and polytheistic, and also monistic and panentheistic, depending on the level at which you look, and this is not a…
- What is the Bhagavad Gita? Scriptures
By the fourth chapter he is speaking as Ishvara , God as personal Lord, and he describes his own recurring descent into the world, the doctrine of avatara , the "coming down" of the divine into form.
- What is the Ramayana? Scriptures
He is worshipped as an avatara , an earthly descent, of the god Vishnu , counted among Vishnu's principal incarnations.