@tuxfan............Completely agree with u!
@anandk..........I think u havent read a complete Bhagvad gita. Take a full fledged bhagvad gita containing all the slokas and all the pictures from ur grandparents or elders. And then u'll find ultimate enlightenment. AND for god sake...dont use words like we "hindus hijacked him". Hinduism is the oldest religion!! The world has accepted this fact...the research proves this. And Gita itself gives the verdict.
I agree since it is the oldest religion .....it has developed various notions and rumours like krishna came before ram and some twists tooo! It is similar to a situation like when u pass a sentence to a friend e.g "There are 63 gurls in my batch of 90 and 10 are OBCs and one is like arjun sungh" (yah obscure example) and then ur friend passes to someone else with figure batch of 70, 15 OBCs ,3 arjun singh and nos keep on twisting whenever there is a pass of this sentence. This is very common.
So generations have passed and there are various twists in the story of hinduism. Thats why I ask u to pick up a good fat old book of bhagvad GITA and read it thoroughly!!
Neways whoever has written this [
http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Ten Avatars.htm ] is in some sort of dilemma or is himself confused!!
Balrama is not a Vishnu's avatar! But was a an avatar of "Shesh Nag".
U'll always find in popular Vishnu's avatar a person accompanying the avatar himself.
Like Lakshman with Ram, Balram with Krishna etc. Both lakshman and balram were avatars of "Sheshnag" who symbolises Eternity, is the couch of Lord Vishnu.The poplar Ramayan serial that comes today also itself shows this.
So dont read abt Hinduism online. Most of the publishers are confused or are trying to create confusion. Get urself a good old reference!