Taratamya / Avatara QA

Answers by Smt.Meera & Shri Kesava Rao Tadipatri

MT: Mukhya Praana is superior and DIFFERENT soul occupying kaxa # 3. Thus Aham praana and Pravaha maruts are NOT amsha of mukhyapraana. They are different souls, with different posts, belonging to different kaxa. Pravaha belongs to kaxa # 11 while Aham praana is #9.

Mukhyapraana is all pervading in this universe meaning there is no place where he is not there [like space]as a controller under the command of Sri Hari. Being in all as a controller, He gives special strength to all maruts including Ahampraana and Pravaha vayu who are constantly aware of their [god-guru]special presence in them. Thus they have "aavesha" of mukhyapraana but NOT amsha of Mukhyapraana.

Amsha means "part of the whole" aka self same like Arjuna = Indra where Indra is the "whole aka amshi" while Arjuna is his amsha/part.

Each devagana is a post similar to how we have in our goverment. The jivas who occupy the posts wrt abhimaanitva are different with different yogyata, having taara-tamya aka superior-inferior souls.

Every manvantra has a set of 7 different devaganas who assist Indra. One of them is "marut-gana" consisting of 49 DIFFERENT souls. Except Pravaha and Aham praana, rest 47 come under kaxa #18.

I'm not very clear with 'amsha' avatara. We say Purandara dasaru is Narada amsha. Does this mean Purandara dasaru is a soul with the presence of Narada maharishi or is Purandara dasaru Narada himself. Could you please explain.

KT: AvatAra means descending form. This is a general term. Amsha means descending with partial ability.

So, Amsha is a selective form of AvatAra. In case of Narayana and Lakshmi, there is no such thing as with partial ability. So, in their case, amsha or avatAra mean just coming down with their full ability. In their case what ever is happening with mUla rUpa, the avatAra rUpa knows and vice versa.

But in case of other devatas, the avatAra or amsha will have less capability compared to their mUla rUpas. In Mahabharata tAtaparya NirNaya, Acharya mentions the how the capabilities of devatas in various yugas function regarding avatAras. (see verse 22-274 22-275, the numbers may vary across versions)

"sarve guNA AvRutA mAnuShatve yugAnusArAnmUlarUpAnusArAt |

kramAt surANAm bhAgato vyaktarUpA AdAnato AdAnato vyaktimAyAntyurUNAM |..."

(When devatas are incarnating as humans, their qualities are concealed according to yugas and according to MularUpas. Uttamadevatas can draw occasionally qualities from MularUpa.)

Thus for other devatas, whether one says avatAra or amsha, it is practically amsha only, as it is always prakAsha vyApti and it is both devatAnusAri and yugAnusAri. This means, the lower the devata, the lower amount of prakAsha comes down. Even for a given devata, the latter the yuga, the less prakAsha comes down. Further for other devatas (excluding prANadevaru), what happens in avatAra rUpa, the mUla rUpa knows. What happens in mUla rUpa, the avatAra rUpa does not know.

Specifically in case of Purandara Dasaru, it is Narada's prakAsha that descended, but not with full capability as in mUla rUpa.

Thus Arjuna had less prakAsha vyApti than Indra. But he had special privilege of having MukhyaprANa Avesha and Narayana's Avesh. Here Avesha means "a special ability given, which is simply need-based".

1. Who are yathudhana? (children of Kaikasa, wife of Kashyapa) Are they also sort of rakshasas? Are they on the daitya taratamya side? Narayanavarma seeks protection from those. So obviously they seem to be bad.

2. Where do rudra gaNa belong in taratamya?

Are they spread over all over the kaksha?

Like some satvika gana get bali in temple.

Rajasa and Tamasa are eliminated during puja etc. with apasarpantu ye bhutaah.....shivajnayaa

Are pisacha also part of rudra gana? Could they be tamoyogya too as were krodhavasha under Kubera, who himself was a devata?

3. Which gaNa come under gaNapathi?

4. Where do yamabhaTa belong in taratamya? All of them obviously don a horrible rupa as per Garuda Purana, but the work they do is not tamasa at all.

5. Do the daivas of tulunaDu have any place in taratamya? A lot of them are obviously avaidika. But some of them are also in houses of lot of Brahmins and in temples too. Could the ones in temples and getting puja in vaidika form be indeed part of rudra gana?

KT: 1. YAtudhAnas are similar to RakShasas, may be similar to pishAchas. I dont think that they explicitly belong to some kakSha in Daitya tAratamya. As you mentioned, seeking protection from them implies that they are trouble-makers.

2. RudragaNa (here taking that term to mean parivaragaNa, as there is also sheshagaNa/RudragaNa who are eligible to come to Rudra padavi and thereafter to SheSha padavi.) may have a spread across more than one kakSha and agin there is no explicit mention of them to be in any kakSha, as far as I know. However since they serve Rudra devaru from close quarters, they must be having Vishnu sarvottamatva jnAna and so must be muktiyogyas.

When "sAtvik form of bali(the word Blai means worshipping)" is given in temples, one must think that they are Vishnu bhaktas and pass on the prayers as per taratamya. "apasarpantu ye bhUtAH..." = "May the Earth-dwelling trouble-making evil spirited beings be destroyed, by the command of Shiva and the indweller of Shiva."

3. Part of Parivara devatas of Rudra themselves also serve Ganapati specially and Ganapati has them as his followers.

4. Same thing - it is hard to assign specific kakShas to Yama bhaTas. They are in various kakShas as apropriate and are muktiyogyas.

5. Graama devatas may spread in various kakShas. I don't think that they are RudragaNa. They are appointed deities and when we worship them, we have to do so, with the awareness that they are parivAra devatas.