#godkrsna

“Lord Krishna is the original Absolute Personality, the Godhead, and all the other Viṣṇu forms – with four hands, decorated with conch, lotus, club, and wheel – are plenary expansions of Krishna. These twenty-four forms are known as the vilasa manifestation of the prabhava (four-handed) form, and they are named differently according to the position of the symbolic representations (conch, lotus, club, and wheel).

The expansions of Lord Kṛṣṇa who come to the material creation are called avatars, or incarnations. The word avatar means “One who descends”, and in this case the word specifically refers to one who descends from the spiritual sky. In the spiritual sky there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and from these planets the expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead come into this universe.

There are six kinds of incarnations 1) the purusha-avatar, 2) the lila-avatara, 3) the guna-avatara, 4) the manvantara-avatara, 5) the yuga-avatara, and 6) the saktyavesa-avatara.

Kṛṣṇa first incarnates as the three purusa-avataras, namely the Maha-Viṣṇu or Karanodaksayi avatara, the Garbhodakasayi avatara and the Ksirodakasayi avatara.

Kṛṣṇa’s lila-avataras include 1) Kumaras, 2) Narada, 3) Varaha, 4) Matsya, 5) Yajna, 6) Nara-narayana, 7) Kardami Kapila, 8) Dattatreya, 9) Hayasirsa, 10) Hamsa, 11) Dhruvapriya or Prsnigarbha, 12) Rsabha, 13) Prthu, 14) Nrsimha, 15) Kurma, 16) Dhanvantari, 17) Mohini, 18) Vamana, 19) Bhargava (Parasurama), 20) Raghavendra, 21) Vyasa, 22) Pralambari Balarama, 23) Kṛṣṇa, 24) Buddha, 25) Kalki. These 25 lila-avataras appear in one day of Brahma, which is called a Kalpa (Refer to cosmic manifestation section for details on day of Brahma). Therefore, these lila-avataras are sometimes called Kalpa-avataras. Out of these, the incarnation of Hamsa and Mohini are not permanent, but Kapila, Dattatreya, Rsabha, Dhanvantari and Vyasa are five eternal forms, and they are more celebrated. The incarnations of the tortoise Kurma, the fish Matsya, Nara-narayana, Varaha, Hayasirsa, Prsnigarbha, and Balarama are considered to be incarnations of vaibhava (two handed) form.

Kṛṣṇa’s manvantara-avataras include 1) Yajna, 2) Vibhu 3) Satyasena, 3) Hari 5) Vaikuntha, 6) Ajita, 7) Vamana, 8) Sarvabhauma, 9) Rsabha, 10) Visvaksena, 11) Dharmasetu, 12) Sudhama, 13) Yogesvara, 14) Brhadbhanu. Out of these fourteen manvantara-avataras, Yajna and Vamana are also lila-avataras. These fourteen manvantara-avataras are also known as vaibhava-avataras. There is no possibility of counting the manvantara-avataras. In one kalpa, or one day of Brahma, fourteen Manus are manifested. One day of Brahma is calculated at 4 billion 320 million years, and Brahma lives for one hundred years on this scale. Thus if fourteen Manus appear in one day of Brahma, there are 420 Manus during one month of Brahma, and during one year of Brahma there are 5,040 Manus. Since Brahma lives for one hundred of his years, it is calculated that there are 504,000 Manus manifest during the lifetime of one Brahma. Since there are innumerable universes, no one can imagine the totality of the manvantara incarnations.

Kṛṣṇa’s yuga-avataras are four based on the four yugas i.e. Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yugaand the Kali-yuga. In each millennium the Supreme Lord incarnates, and each incarnation has a different color according to the yuga. In the Satya-yuga, the incarnation of God is white, in the Treta-yuga He is red, in the Dvapara-yuga and the Kali-yuga He is blackish. However, in special Kali-yuga, His colour is yellowish (as in the case of Caitanya Mahaprabhu).

Actually God has no particular name. By saying He has no name, we mean that no one knows how many names He has. Since God is unlimited, His names also must be unlimited. Therfore we cannot settle on one name. For instance, Kṛṣṇa is sometimes called Yasoda-nandana, the son of mother Yasoda; or devaki-nandan, the son of Devaki; or vasudeva-nandana, the son of Vasudeva; or Nanda-nandana, the son of Nanda. Sometimes He is called Partha-sarathi, indicating that He acted as the charioteer of Arjuna, who is sometime called Partha, the son of Prtha.

God has many dealings with His many devotees, and according to those dealings, He is called certain names. Since He has innumerable devotees and innumerable relations with them, He also has innumerable names. We cannot hit on any one name. But the name Kṛṣṇa means “all attractive”. God attracts everyone; that is the definition of God. We have seen many pictures of Kṛṣṇa and we see that He attracts the cows, calves, birds, beasts, trees, plants, and even the water in Vrndavana. He is attractive to the cowherd boys, to the gopis, to Nanda Maharaja, to the Pandavas, and to all human society. Therefore if any particular name can be given to God, that name is “Kṛṣṇa”.

Some people say that God has no name – that we can call Him only “Father”. A son may call his father “Father”, but the father has a specific name. Similarly, “God” is the general name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose specific name is Kṛṣṇa. Jesus, as the son of God, has revealed to us the actual name of God: Christ. We can call God “Father”, but if we want to address Him by His actual name, we have to say “Christ”. “Christ” is another way of saying Krsta, and “Krsta” is another way of pronouncing Kṛṣṇa, the name of God. Jesus said that one should glorify the name of God. Therefore whether you call God “Christ”, “Krsta”, or “Kṛṣṇa”, ultimately you are addressing the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning “the anointed one” and Christos is the Greek version of the word Kṛṣṇa. So when we address God as “Christ”, “Krsta” or “Kṛṣṇa”, we indicate the same all attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Krishna is a name of the god, one of a kind Supreme Person, the origin of all that exists. God has many names that describe an alternate part of his identity. Krishna appears as changed sorts of God—images—to make and keep up the universe. God never made any religion in the lead position.