The 10 Avatars of Lord Vishnu and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
The similarities and distinctions between the Dashavatars and the theory of evolution
Life on earth took its first step around 3.7 billion years ago. When we look at life now on earth. There are around 8.7 million species. Up until the 1800s, there had been a great debate among critical minds about the reason behind the existence of life on this planet. The theory of life then was dominated by ‘Creationism theory’ which believes God is omnipotent and he created life. But in 1859, it changed the whole landscape of the belief systems on how life came to be on this planet. Charles Darwin published the book called On the Origin of Species and he proposed for the very first time, the theory of evolution by natural selection.
But there has been disagreement among people of various cultures about whether or not the theory of evolution was first proposed only 163 years ago, or has been already explained in Hinduism, thousands of years ago by Indian Sages. Thus it deserves an analysis of the similarities between the Dasavatar of Lord Vishnu and Darwin’s theory of Evolution and draws some conclusions that whether or not the basic foundations of Darwin’s theory of evolution are rooted in Vedas and/or Purans.
‘Whenever there has been a decimation of religion, I will incarnate in this world under a different guise.’
These were the words of Lord Krishna (one of the Avatars of Lord Vishnu) to Arjun before the war of Kurukshetra. Dashavatars means ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Originally there had been 24 Avatars of Lord Vishnu mentioned in Shrimad Bhagavatam, but to draw the analogy, we are only going to mention ten.
The very first stage of Evolution states that
‘Life had its origin in water and that happened during the Cambrian period.’
In the same way, the Matsya (fish) Avatar of Lord Vishnu was actually fish which is an aquatic life and originated in water obviously hinting at the fact that they both carry a lot of similarities.
The second stage of evolution explains the fact that life slowly progressed to occupy not only water but the lands too. This was the origin of the Amphibians (animals that could live on both land and water.) Similarly, the Kurma avatar of Lord Vishnu was a Tortoise which is an Amphibian.
The third stage of Evolution dictates that animals slowly evolved to live fully on land and so was the origin of Terrestrial animals. The Varaha Avatar of lord Vishnu which is a Boar is a land animal nonetheless.
During the fourth stage of evolution, there had been a transition of apes to humans, which tries to draw the link stating the fact that humans evolved alongside orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. The half-man, a half-animal avatar of Lord Vishnu was Narshimha.
The fifth stage of evolution is a complete transformation into human form and draws put relation with our closest ancestors, Homo Sapiens. Also, dwarves and midgets were there due to the presence of adverse climatic conditions. There’s a Vamana Avatar of Lord Vishnu who is basically a short man.
The sixth stage of evolution is the iron age where humans were tall but violent savages who roamed around the earth wielding weapons. In a similar manner, there’s Parshuram Avatar of lord Vishnu, who is a man wielding an axe.
The seventh stage of evolution, was when humans were more logical and concise. They started living in a community, had awareness of what was happening out there, and started making better weapons like bows for themselves. In a similar manner, there’s another Avatar of Lord Vishnu, Shree Ram who’s a moral man, a beacon of rectitude, courage, and morality.
The eighth stage of evolution of the dawn of advanced human civilization which we could draw an analogy to Lord Krishna, another Avatar of Lord Vishnu who was a self-conscious man with inner awareness, the reason behind the Bhagavad Gita.
The ninth stage of evolution is the dawn of Homo Sapiens with self-realization and inner enlightenment. The Buddha Avatar of Lord Vishnu was a spiritual man who reached Nirvana (state of being in ultimate enlightenment).
The final and tenth stage of Evolution is the stage of Homo spiritus, having the realization of God and resurrection. The Kalki Avatar of Lord Vishnu has been reflected upon by many sages to be the ultimate Avatar of Lord Vishnu, who will one day manifest himself, cause a holocaust and finally end the process of evolution once and for all.
Though many people would like to believe that there is a great similarity between Vishnu Dashavatar and the theory of evolution, it just remains speculation nevertheless. If one really looks into the reasons behind their belief system being true then they could find plenty of data that will support their claim. If we just cherry-pick that data then we could find a correlation between almost anything.
If we just understand the concept at a basic level then yes, this all seems to make a lot of sense. But once we go deeper into scientific territory and understand what Darwin was basically trying to say, we could find a clear difference between these two matters at hand.
Dashavatars of Vishnu is not random incarnation but has been incarnated with some intent, like saving a man from a flood or defeating a demon. There was a reason behind it, whereas if we look at Darwin’s theory of Evolution, it almost seems mechanistic as nature works like a machine, and though we humans have developed consciousness and are clear as a day about our purpose, Nature doesn’t care about it all. That if we fail to be competent at ‘Struggle for existence, we will vanish from this Earth nonetheless. One of the primary distinctions between the Dashavatars of Vishnu and Darwin’s theory of natural selection is that the former is a function of creative imagination passed in the form of scriptures from generation to generation while the latter is a result of calculated observations and evidence. If you find any similarity between the two, you are simply trying to fit one into the other. While Charles Darwin was baptized as a kid and his familial background was utilitarian, he had little to no association with the ideologies of Hinduism or Hindu scriptures, at least not according to the documented sources we have today. It clearly indicates that this could be an attempt to try and fit the former into the latter.
If you think otherwise and want to give your opinion regarding this fascinating analogy, leave your responses to the story.
Contributed by Rishab Karki and curated by the author.
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