Page 20 - Hinduism

blessing the devotee or bhakta by revealing His form made of love or kṛpā. Even punishment or dandana is dāyākārya as its real object is to reform the offender and not repress him. Avatāra is not descent from a higher place to a lower place with a physical body. It is spiritual descent into human and even subhuman planes and is due to divine love and accessibility or saulabhya. The Itihāsas refer to ten chief avatāras of Viṣṇu of which the most important are Rāma and Kṛṣna. The earlier avatāras like those of the fish, the tortoise, the boar and the man- lion and the dwarf or Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha and Narasimha and Vāmana were made on critical occasions in cosmic history to restore the cosmic moral and spiritual order and establish the kingdom of righteousness. Rāma was born to punish the evil- doers like Rāvaṇa and establish righteous rule or Rāmarājya based on the eternal rules of dharma. The Rāmāyaṇa and the Gitā refer to the avatāra as the very embodiment of Divine Love and they guarantee salvation or mukti to all Jīvas regardless of their birth and status, including even the subhuman species. The Avatāra is, therefore, extolled and adored as sarva-loka-rakṣaka or universal redeemer.
Arca
The worship of God as arca or vigraha made of stone, wood or copper is very popular among the Hindus as a permanent incarnation of Divine grace and love, sanctified by the hymns of the Ālvārs, 20