Vishnu’s 24 incarnations (Avataras) – Shreemad Bhagavata
There was once a time when the kings on earth became evil and began to ignore the brahmanas. The kings were kshatriyas. The kshatriyas constituted the second of the four classes and their primary duty was to bear arms and protect the world from evil. When it was found that the kings had themselves became evil. Vishnu was born as Parashurama. This was his sixteenth incarnation. Parashurama destroyed all the Kshatriyas in the world twenty-one times, so that good might once again prevail.
Thereafter, the seventeenth incarnation (avataras) was born. This was Vedavyasa, the son of Maharishi Parashara and Satyavati. Vedavyasa recompiled the sacred texts of the vedas so that they might become more easily understandable to men. It was thus that there came to be four vedas. Vedavyasa’s real name was Krishna Dvaipayana. He came to be known as Vedavyasa because he had divided the Vedas.
The eighteenth incarnation was Rama, about whom we have read in the Ramayana. The nineteenth and twentieth incarnations were born as Yadavas. Their names are also familiar to us, this time from Mahabharata. The nineteenth incarnation was Baladeva or Balarama and the twentieth was My Lord Krishna.
The twenty-first incarnation was Buddha, the originator of Buddhism. The twenty-second incarnation is yet to come. It will be Kalki, the son of a brahmana named Vishnuyasha. Kalki will arrive at the end of Kaliyuga and destroy the evil of the world. And a new righteous order will be established.
The Bhagavata Purana actually lists only twenty-two. It however points out that such incarnations occur whenever there is evil on earth and there is a need to destroy evil and establish righteousness.
