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An avatar is something used to represent you in an online environment. This is usually in the form of a small picture. Usually it is something that you can upload yourself, however sometimes it is something you "build" on the site to represent you. Other times you choose from a list of possible icons to represent you as your avatar.

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In Hinduism, an avatar is the bodily incarnation of a deity on earth. The god can become incarnate in one place at a time as a full avatar or in many places simultaneously through partial avatars called amshas, such that the main form of the god can still communicate with the partial materializations. One could view avatars as embodying the concepts of pantheism (god is all) and polytheism (many gods).

The belief in Hindu avatars is similar to the Christian heresy of Docetism, which is the belief that Jesus Christ only appeared to be human. Docetism teaches that Jesus’ body was spiritual, rather than physical; thus, He was unable to suffer physical pain. In Hinduism, the avatar appears to the devotee in whatever form the worshipper envisions, which, according to Hindu belief could be Mohammed, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha or any other personal god. An “unqualified” person would take the avatar to be an ordinary human.

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