While the Supreme One incarnated many times, ten avataras of His are usually spoken of elaborately. And of these ten, the Rama avatara and Krishna avatara are considered purna avataras, that is the most complete avataras. And of these two, the Krishna avatara is superior, thereby making it the best of all the Lord’s avataras, said Kidambi Narayanan, in a discourse. Rama showed the importance of adherence to dharma. The word dharma itself is, however, hard to define, often being different in different situations. That is why we talk of sadharana dharma and visesha dharma. We are asked to be merciful and forgiving. But what if someone is a ruler? Can he forgive mistakes and move on? Will that not harm his subjects? He is in the position of having to punish. So, the sadharana dharma of forgiving does not hold good in his case. His visesha dharma is to punish. Given the difficulties in properly defining what dharma is, Rama’s constant keeping to dharma is an admirable trait of His.
But why is it then that the Krishna avatara is said to be even greater than the Rama avatara? It is because of Krishna’s leelas. Rama is not known for His leelas. In just ten slokas, Valmiki talks of His birth, His being named, His education, etc. He says the four sons of Dasaratha studied the Vedas, and so they always abided by dharma. Rama’s childhood is covered very quickly. But Krishna’s birth itself is a leela — born in a prison and carried away the same night to Gokulam. Every leela has a message. The lifting of the Govardhana hill gives us the message that He will always save us, if we trust Him. Brahma Mohanam shows us that we should shed our ego, for in this leela, Brahma is taught a lesson because of his ego. Rasa leela shows that we can serve Him only if He wills it.
