Does Dashavatara has parallels to Darwin’s theory of Evolution?

A long-awaited post on “Does Dashavatara has parallels to Darwin’s theory of Evolution”

Certain of my page’s followers requested me to write on the following: “Striking similarities between Dashavatara and Darwin’s theory of evolution?” They certainly expected me to highlight the similarities between the two and justify that ancient Hindus had preconceived Darwin’s theory of evolution in the Dashavatara. But this post is meant to refute this very idea because the Theistic Dashavatara concept can never reconcile with Darwin’s theory of evolution, let alone have any parallels with it.

Background of this idea:
In his book “The Origin of Species”, Darwin gives a naturalistic (basically atheistic) explanation to the origin of life on earth and the evolution of various species from one another. He explains this evolution with what he called “The tree of life”. According to Darwin, God or a Supreme controller doesn’t exist and various species evolve on earth based on “Natural selection”, i.e. Nature selecting various species based on “Survival of the fittest”.

The reconcilers propose the following line of thought (These are not my thoughts, I am quoting them for refutation).

1. Darwin’s theory of Evolution is a scientifically proven fact.
2. There are many theories claiming that some links in the process of evolution are missing and are very mysterious as to how animals evolved as humans. Dashavatara of Lord Vishnu demonstrates a gradual evolution of species and thus could contain the idea of Darwin’s theory of Evolution.
3. Matsya represents the aquatic species. This is the first Avatar.
This is very similar to Darwin’s evolutionary model, according to which the initial species earth was aquatic.
4. The second Avatar is Kurma, which is an amphibian. Accordingly, they propose that this represents the species that came out of the ocean and started walking on the land.
5. The next step in evolution would be the ability to move freely on the ground. Thus developed the species with developed legs, represented by the Varaha Avatar or the Boar incarnation.
6. The next link would be the intermediate species, who were like the link between the animals and humans. They try to justify that this link is represented by the half-man and half-lion avatar of Narasimha, who has a Lion head and a human body.
7. Intermediate species are now becoming fully developed to a human being. But it took them some time to develop fully. Thus the initial human beings were dwarfs, represented by the Vamana avatar. This avatar according to them represents the newly evolved man-kind.
8. The next avatar is Parashuram, who according to reconcilers represents the early humans who lived in caves, who carried weapons made of wood and stones. Parashuram lived in mountains doing penance and carried an ax (made of stone and wood).
9. Coming out of their caves, the early human beings made rules and followed them to lay the foundation of a society that is based on righteousness. They gave more importance to relationships, respect, righteousness, and justice. The reconcilers associate this to Lord Rama, the next avatar after Parashuram.
10. The physical development has ended and humans start evolving in the mental, philosophical and metaphysical platforms. This development they say is represented by the Sri Krishna Avatar, who spoke the Bhagavad Gita.
11. They further continue – Man evolving in metaphysical platform start concentrating more on Moksha or liberation, thus came the idea of Nirvana given by Buddha.
12. And when Dharma is vanquishing from society, the most perfect, advanced and developed beings will begin the act of destruction. The reconcilers suggest that this is represented by the yet to appear and final avatar of Vishnu called Kalki Avatar. He will use the extremely powerful sword of his to destroy worlds. Species will be finished by him and the whole process of creation would take place again. The presence of nuclear weapons and the possibility of a nuclear holocaust is presented too.
[More information at https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/striking-parallelism-between-darwins-theory-of-evolution-and-lord-vishnus-dashavatar?fbclid=IwAR36ulMS4vHoS80xFvQVm8Ersk2t6zWwATiNIq8OI_U2pS2x04JKaXtP-2E ]

Ok, so here goes my review on this:

My first take at this – An absolutely non-sensical comparison!

I will list the refutations for this apparent parallelism between the Dashavatara and Darwin’s theory of Evolution.

1. Dashavatara is a purely theistic idea whereas Darwinism is atheistic. There you go, the basic premise itself is diametrically opposite to each other. Dashavatara represents the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu. So avatar means one who descends. From where? From his planet in the spiritual realm. Thus Bhagavan (God) descends in one of his avatars to protect the Dharmic (righteous) and destroy the Dushkrtam (demons). Whereas the root idea of Darwinism is various species evolve based on natural selection and not created by a God (so what to speak of accepting his Avatar or descending?)

2. If the initial species were aquatic and Matsya indeed represents those initial aquatic species, here comes my next question. Matsya avatar appeared for King Manu, who is a human. A civilization had existed during the times of Matsya avatar and Manu was the King, this is in no way similar to the condition of earth as represented by Darwin when the first aquatic species originated on this planet. According to the evolutionary model, there were no contemporary species on land during the appearance of Matsya avatar, what to speak of having a contemporary human civilization. Thus this parallelism fails in regards to Matsya avatara.

3. The same logic applies to the Kurma avatar and the further developed amphibian species. Kurma avatar had appeared for the Samudra-Manthan Lila in which the Devas (Demigods) and the Asuras (Demons) churn the ocean. There existed human or human-like species during the time of Kurma. Thus the parallelism fails again in regards to Kurma avatar.

4. Boar or Varaha is not the first land species to have manifested. Parallelism fails again.

5. Trying to justify Narasimha – The half man-half lion avatar as the intermediate species between humans and animals is rather absurd. Because according to Darwin, the first intermediate species was somewhere between apes and humans, and not between lions and humans. Thus parallelism fails again in this regard.

6. Further failures in this logic – Vamana avatar is represented by primitive human beings, who were probably dwarfed? Flawed logic again. Vamana avatar appeared during the times of King Bali, who was not a dwarf neither were other personalities during that time. Only Vamana appeared to be a dwarf, who later became Trivikrama, the most gigantic personality. Parallelism fails again for Vamana Avatara.

7. If Parushuram does penance and symbolism of Brahmin dominance over Kshatriyas. Again the existence of a proper civilization – Varnasrama. Parallelism fails again for Parashuram Avatara.

I could type further, but I guess this is enough to substantiate the irrelevancy of this logic. I find it rather unnecessary that some Hindus try to reclaim many of the narratives or concepts from the west. We don’t need to do that. We have our own identity, culture, religion, philosophy, history, etc. Theistic Hindus can never accept Darwin’s atheistic explanation, let alone trying to find similarities between the two.

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austin gordon says:

December 10, 2019 at 11:48 am

This is interesting, but I might suggest the question is better asked "Does the Dasa Avatar cycle represent the development of species as described in Padma Purana?" That avoids the nonsense of Darwin and makes it a meaningful question. The cycle does not seem to fit (as the material presented in the piece reflects), but at least the inquiry is not immediately cluttered by Darwin's confusion.
YS,
Bhutatma dasa (by the way I was recently in Bangalore Temple and thanks to all the kind devotees for their hospitality).