It is typical for religious traditions to offer a vision of the end of the world. We intuitively sense that the world is fragile. At some point, we reason, the world came into existence, and so, inevitably, it must reach its terminus.
The world is subordinate to the higher being that created it, who did not begin and lives without end, and so this higher being will witness the collapse of the secondary creation.
Various accounts of this end of the world scenario, which is known as an apocalypse in the Greek (αποκάλυψη), depict it as a future golden age (satya yuga), or as a time of terrible strife, natural disaster, persecution of the just, martyrdom, and suffering.
In this article, we focus in particular on two versions of the end of the ages, one from the perspective of Hinduism, and one from the perspective of the iconoclastic German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche.
- The End Times and the Return of the Avatar in Hinduism
- Nietzsche’s übermensch: Idea of the Overman
- Conclusion: Overman or Kalki?
- Author Bio: Dr. Daniel Dal Monte
The End Times and the Return of the Avatar in Hinduism
Hinduism views the temporal flow of events as an expression of the eternal will of the Lord Vishnu. Time unfolds according to different yugas, or epochs, which vary with respect to their alignment with dharma, or the moral law pervading the cosmos, calling people to righteous conduct. Some yuga are extremely dark, with many lost in confusion, straying from the path of the dharma and sowing discord with themselves and other people. Other yuga are very bright, with noble civilizations forming around core moral principles derived from the dharma.
The transition of these yuga witnesses various incarnations of the Lord Vishnu. There are ten major incarnations, or dashavatar, of the Lord Vishnu. These dashavatar, though representing distinct stages of evolution that some believe correspond to the Darwinian account of the evolution of primitive life towards progressively greater complexity, share a common purpose. This is to restore humanity to the light of the dharma, and remove the scourge of immoral conduct.
The most recent dashavatar humanity has witnessed, according to conventional Hindu wisdom, is Mahavira Buddha, who appeared in the Kalyuga, which is the time period in which we currently exist. We know the teaching of the Buddha as a remedy for suffering, by the dissolution of egoistic desires.
But, as we struggle through the travails of the Kalyuga, we cannot help but wonder if something new is being born. There is a great tension in the world, on both an interior level and a macro-level. We cannot help but feel that the current time of fragmentation, disorder, confusion, and daily struggle, must yield to a new stage of evolution. What comes next?
Hinduism offers to modern humanity the prospect of the avatar, Kalki, who will be the tenth incarnation of Vishnu. Lord Kalki will end the spiritual degradation and blindness that characterizes our age in revolt against dharma. Lord Kalki is the boon yearned for by spiritually-minded people who thirst for justice even in the midst of near civilization collapse. Scholar Kim Knott writes, “By the end of the Puranic [Puranas] period ten principal incarnations or avataras had been recorded. These were Matsya, the fish, Kurma, the tortoise, Varaha, the boar, Narashimha, the man-lion, Vamana, the dwarf, Parashurama or ‘Rama with the axe’, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki, ‘the white horse’ who will come at the end of the dark age or kali yuga.” (Kim Knott, Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction, pg. 52).
Perhaps we can get a glimpse of this new age, under the aegis of Lord Kalki, by contemplating the connectivity introduced by a world connected by the internet. It only takes split seconds to message someone across the planet. We can travel in hours over distances that used to require months. AI, using large language models, can process almost all written content ever produced in less than a second, predicting patterns that allow it to mimic human conversation. We are seeing a possible manifestation of the Akashic Record, a kind of book of life that contains all possible and actual information, past, present, and future.
Regardless of how exactly the appearance of Lord Kalki unfolds, there is a consistent theme in the incarnations of Vishnu. Each incarnation is a fulfillment of the promise that, “whenever injustice and darkness rule on the earth, I shall incarnate, again and again, to annihilate evil an uphold Truth.” Lord Krishna, another incarnation of Lord Vishnu, uttered these words, at the time of intense darkness on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. This promise assures us that all incarnations of Vishnu have the common purpose of restoring humanity to the eternal dharma. The incarnations change, but the purpose remains single. There is one eternal Truth. Human history is a story of our inconsistent following of it and the constant efforts of the divine to restore its supremacy.
Nietzsche’s übermensch: Idea of the Overman
This progressive notion of history, in which humanity moves forward to new stages of awareness of itself and the divine, from more primitive precursors, finds some echo in the work of the great Western (German) philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. One of the concepts for which Nietzsche is famous is that of the Übermensch, or Overman. As one might guess from the title, the Overman is a higher stage of humanity, that has surpassed its current iteration. We learn about the Overman mainly from the work, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Who is this mysterious figure, and how does he compare to Kalki?
Nietzsche depicts Zarathustra as a wise man who descends from the heights of meditation to convey to humanity a stunning truth: that God is dead. The transcendent being, and the ground of the moral law, to Whom each person is accountable, has somehow died and left the heavens vacant.
Zarathustra’s message of the Overman enters into the void created by the death of God. Humanity is like a tightrope stretched across an abyss. Humanity, that is, is not a final destination, but a passage to the other side of the abyss, where we will convert to the Overman. On the side prior to humanity, are beasts.
Humanity laughs at the primitive beasts that have preceded it. Humanity has developed at a much higher level, mastering the sciences and the arts. But, the Overman will also laugh at humanity. The Overman has unimaginable capacities for brilliance, technological mastery, and self-preservation. We become the Overman when we purge ourselves of the worm that still lingers partially within us as our animal inheritance.
We might enthusiastically embrace the idea of the Overman. Part of being human is a desire for transcendence. We yearn for an experience deeper and richer than our often difficult and finite lives.
The Overman, says Zarathustra, is the meaning of the earth. The meaning of the earth is opposed to supernatural hopes. This is the first clue that the Overman is significantly different from Kalki. We have seen how Kalki will come to restore dharma, and dharma has a basis in the cosmic presence of Lord Vishnu. In a way, dharma is a supernatural aspiration, since it aligns with the will of the Lord Vishnu.
But, the Overman is demanding that we transition away from supernatural aspirations. We need to embrace the meaning of the earth, of what is immediate, physical, and grounded in our desires. With the death of God, the notion of sin, a violation of the will of God, is now irrelevant. The violation we need to worry about is the violation of the earth, and its drive to produce a higher iteration of humanity.
We can see now that the idea of the Overman is a deeply revolutionary idea, that breaks away from the cosmic order, to generate a new principle grounded in the exaltation of humanity. To me, the idea of the Overman is somewhat disturbing, since it suggests an overturning of the natural law, the law built into the nature of things and founded ultimately on the divine will. Is humanity supposed to become a law unto itself? Must we not follow a given law?
Zarathustra condemns the ascetism that sought to move beyond the body, to sustain the spirit. Ascetics fast and renounce bodily pleasures, so as to activate spiritual desires. But, the Overman is supposed to have a hearty embrace of the body. Zarathustra condemns his listeners for being too focused on spiritual goods, at the expense of bodily appetites. “Not your sin but your complacency cries out against heaven, the very stinginess of your sin cries out against heaven!” (Thus Spake Zarathustra, I.3). In other words, sin is no longer the problem, after the death of God. The problem is being too stingy with sin—we ought to sin more generously!
Conclusion: Overman or Kalki?
The astonishing truth of the Overman is that he is kind of an anti-Kalki. Instead of restoring humanity to alignment with dharma, the Overman is going to initiate a rebellion against dharma. The Overman makes his own will the universal law, violating the cosmic principle of dharma.
I think we can close with a possible objection to my argument here. Perhaps we might read the idea of the Overman as a critique in particular of Christianity, which has a strong orientation to the supernatural, i.e. what transcends nature, like heaven. Hinduism, on the other hand, we might argue, is not supernaturally oriented, but seeks to close our sense of dualism, so that we no longer see nature and some heavenly realm as distinct. Sankara, the great father of the Advaita Vedanta tradition in Indian philosophy, thought any distinction in reality is merely verbal, since all is one (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.1.4). So, perhaps we can, through the Advaita Vedanta tradition, unify Nietzsche and Kalki. Nietzsche is saying not to look elsewhere, to the supernatural or the transcendent, for meaning, because we are actually one with what we perceive as transcendent.
Author Bio: Dr. Daniel Dal Monte
Dr. Daniel Dal Monte is a philosophy professor and author based in Philadelphia, USA. He earned his doctorate from Temple University, focusing on philosophical inquiries into agency and moral law. His works often intersect ethics, metaphysics, and theological ideas, emphasizing the structure of human motivation and happiness. As an author, he is known for The Realm of Possibility, a science fiction novel exploring themes of grief and the moral implications of reversing death. His scholarly work includes examining Kantian philosophy and exploring Stoic and Epicurean ideas in contemporary contexts.
You can reach out to Prof. Daniel Dal Monte directly here to learn more about his experiences.
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