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  Kṛṣṇa is the highest Īśvara, svayaṃ bhagavān, the container of avatāras, and the chief cause of everything. The infinite Vaikuṇṭha and the infinite avatāras, the infinite Brahmā-worlds—he is the receptacle of all of these. He is Vrajendranandana [the son of Nanda the lord of Vraja], whose body is sat, cit, and ānanda; he possesses all majesty, all śaktis, and is full of all rasa.55

  The Paradigmatic Vigraha and Its Manifold Bodily Forms

  In the Gauḍīya discourse of divine embodiment, the paradigmatic body is the svayaṃ-rūpa, the essential form of the vigraha, which is distinguished by a number of bodily features and marks. Bhagavān’s svayaṃ-rūpa is that of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, who has the form of a cowherd boy (gopa-mūrti), with two arms (dvi-bhuja), eyes like lotuses (ambujākṣa), and a dark blue-black (śyāma) complexion the color of a rain-cloud. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa has distinctive body marks such as the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest and sixteen marks on his feet, wears yellow garments and a crest of peacock feathers on his head, is adorned with a garland of forest flowers and jeweled ornaments, and carries a flute (veṇu, vaṃśī, or muralī) as his most characteristic emblem. He is celebrated for the extraordinary beauty (saundarya or lāvaṇya) and sweetness (mādhurya) of his eternally youthful (kiśora) absolute body.

  Kṛṣṇa is represented as the polymorphous Godhead who, while maintaining the integrity of his absolute body, multiplies himself and assumes an innumerable array of bodies in order to fulfill particular functions on the transcosmic, macrocosmic, and microcosmic planes. The Gauḍīyas maintain that these bodies, as aṃśas or kalās of Kṛṣṇa’s svayaṃ-rūpa, are not part of the material realm of prakṛti where the māyā-śakti reigns, but rather, like the svayaṃ-rūpa, they are nonmaterial (aprākṛta) and consist of sat-cit-ānanda. In the Gauḍīya taxonomy of divine forms, as we shall see, these bodies are classified in a complex multi-tiered schema with attention to the bodily features of each category and are ranked according to the extent to which these features conform to or diverge from the paradigmatic svayaṃ-rūpa. In this taxonomy Kṛṣṇa is represented as “appearing in” (root bhū + prādur, root bhū + āvir, root as + āvir, or root vyañj) or “assuming” (root dhṛ, root bhṛ, or root grah) or “entering” (root viś + ā) different types of bodies, which are variously termed mūrti, vapus, tanu, or deha. The range of corporeal forms includes not only the bodies of deities but also human bodies, animal bodies, and a variety of hybrid forms, such as half-human/half-animal bodies and semidivine forms. These bodily forms of Kṛṣṇa are distinguished according to their age (vayas), ranging from perpetual five-year-olds to the grandfather of the gods, and according to their color (varṇa), whether black, blue-black, green, golden, tawny, rose, red, or white. They are further distinguished by their number of heads (mukhas or śīrṣas), ranging from a single head to four or five heads to a thousand heads, and by their number of arms (bhujas or bāhus), which can range from two to four to a thousand. The other characteristics that distinguish Kṛṣṇa’s various bodily forms include specific body marks (aṅkas), modes of dress (veśa), ornaments (bhūṣaṇas) and embellishments (upāṅgas), weapons (astras), and other emblems (lakṣaṇas).

  Divine Bodies and Space

  In addition to their bodily features, a second factor that distinguishes Kṛṣṇa’s divine forms is their relationship to space as delineated in Gauḍīya cosmography, which maps the location and configuration of their respective abodes and spheres of influence. In this section I will provide a brief overview of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s representations of this cosmography in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, in which he expands on Rūpa Gosvāmin’s reflections in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta. Later, in Chapter 5, I will examine the framework for Gauḍīya cosmography that is delineated by Rūpa in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta and elaborated on by Jīva Gosvāmin in the Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha, in which the Gosvāmins are concerned in particular with developing an ontology of the dhāmans (abodes) of Kṛṣṇa.

  Gauḍīya cosmography, as represented by Kṛṣṇadāsa, appropriates and adapts certain aspects of Purāṇic cosmographies, particularly as elaborated in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa, and is divided into three principal domains. Two of these domains—Kṛṣṇaloka and Paravyoman—are transcendent (parama), eternal (nitya), and nonmaterial (aprākṛta) manifestations of the svarūpa-śakti. Although spatial language and imagery are used at times to represent Kṛṣṇaloka as a transcendent space, both Kṛṣṇaloka and Paravyoman are considered beyond the material space-time continuum of prakṛti and beyond Brahman. The third domain is the material realm of prakṛti where jīvas dwell, which is delimited by the finite boundaries of time and space and governed by the māyā-śakti.56

  The center of Gauḍīya cosmography is Kṛṣṇaloka, the transcendent dhāman where Kṛṣṇa engages eternally in his unmanifest (aprakaṭa) līlā as svayaṃ Bhagavān. As mentioned earlier, Kṛṣṇaloka is subdivided into three dhāmans: the innermost dhāman of Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja, and the outer dhāmans of Mathurā and Dvārakā. According to this hierarchical cosmography, Kṛṣṇa manifests himself “most fully” (pūrṇatama) in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, where he engages in līlā that is characterized by mādhurya, divine sweetness; he manifests himself “more fully” (pūrṇatara) in Mathurā, where he engages in līlā that is characterized by a mixture of mādhurya and aiśvarya, divine majesty; and he manifests himself “fully” (pūrṇa) in Dvārakā, where he engages in līlā in which aiśvarya predominates.57 Whereas in Goloka-Vṛndāvana he resides eternally in his svayaṃ-rūpa, his most full and complete form as Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, in Mathurā and Dvārakā he appears in four divine manifestations known as the ādi catur-vyūhas, which, as I will discuss later, are classified in the taxonomy of divine forms as prābhava-vilāsas. Kṛṣṇadāsa emphasizes that while Goloka-Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, and Dvārakā exist beyond the material space-time continuum as the transcendent (parama), infinite (ananta), and eternal (nitya) abodes of Kṛṣṇa’s unmanifest līlā, they appear within the circumscribed boundaries of space and time when Kṛṣṇa descends to the material realm and engages in his manifest līlā.58 More specifically, the earthly region of Vraja in North India is understood to be the immanent counterpart of Kṛṣṇa’s transcendent Vraja-dhāman, Goloka-Vṛndāvana, and the site where he manifests his svayaṃ-rūpa, his two-armed form as a cowherd boy, in the material realm and displays his manifest līlā.

  In Gauḍīya cosmography, as articulated by Kṛṣṇadāsa, Kṛṣṇaloka is surrounded by Paravyoman (or Paramavyoman), the transcendent domain beyond vyoman, the subtle element of space that is the finest level of objective material existence. Paravyoman is presided over by Kṛṣṇa in his four-armed form as Nārāyaṇa and is the domain of Kṛṣṇa’s innumerable divine rūpas that are classified in the taxonomy as vaibhava-vilāsas and avatāras, each of which has his own abode, or Vaikuṇṭha. The transcendent domains of Kṛṣṇaloka and Paravyoman are at times represented as a lotus-maṇḍala in which Kṛṣṇaloka is the pericarp (karṇikāra), the seed-vessel in the center of a lotus, and the Vaikuṇṭhas of Paravyoman are the countless petals that encircle the pericarp.59 Paravyoman is in turn encircled by a luminous ring of light, which is the undifferentiated effulgence of Brahman that shines forth from Kṛṣṇa’s absolute body and which is called siddha-loka because it is the abode of those who have attained sāyujya and merged with Brahman.60 Encircling the effulgence of Brahman is the endless ocean of causality, kāraṇābdhi or kāraṇārṇava, which is also known as Virajā and which is made of consciousness (cit) and acts as a moat separating Paravyoman from the material realm of prakṛti that is governed by the māyā-śakti. The material realm comprises limitless Brahmā-universes (brahmāṇḍas, literally, “Brahmā-eggs”), which are depicted as floating on the ocean of causality in the form of cosmic eggs, each of which contains its own Brahmā the creator.61 These Brahmā-universes each contain a hierarchy of f
ourteen material worlds (lokas or bhuvanas), with the earth, bhūr-loka, in the middle and six higher worlds above the earth and seven lower worlds beneath the earth.62 As we shall see, the avatāras of Kṛṣṇa are represented as descending periodically from their eternal abodes in Paravyoman to the material realm of the Brahmā-universes in order to fulfill specific cosmic functions.

  Divine Bodies and Time

  In addition to their bodily features and relationship to space, a third factor that distinguishes Kṛṣṇa’s divine forms is their relationship to time. The avatāras’ descent into the material realm of prakṛti is a descent into the material space-time continuum, and the various classes of avatāras are associated with different cycles of time. The early Gauḍīya authorities appropriate in this context Purāṇic cosmogonic conceptions in which creation occurs in endlessly repeating cycles of creation and dissolution. Purāṇic cosmogonies distinguish four basic units of time that compose these cycles: yugas, mahā-yugas, manvantaras, and kalpas. A mahā-yuga is a cycle of four yugas, or ages—Satya or Kṛta Yuga (1,728,000 years), Tretā Yuga (1,296,000 years), Dvāpara Yuga (864,000 years), and Kali Yuga (432,000 years)—comprising a total of 4,320,000 years. One thousand mahā-yugas (4,320,000,000 years) constitute a kalpa, a single day of the creator Brahmā. Every kalpa, or day of Brahmā, is also subdivided into fourteen manvantaras, or intervals of Manu, each comprising seventy-one and a fraction mahā-yugas. In Purāṇic cosmogonies these units of time are incorporated in a more encompassing framework that distinguishes between sargas, primary creations, and pratisargas, secondary creations. A sarga occurs at the beginning of each new lifetime of Brahmā, whereas a pratisarga occurs at the beginning of each new day in the life of Brahmā, or kalpa. At the end of each kalpa Brahmā sleeps for a night and a minor dissolution (pralaya) occurs, after which Brahmā awakens and initiates a new pratisarga. At the end of Brahmā’s lifetime, which consists of one hundred years of Brahmā days and nights, a major dissolution (mahā-pralaya) occurs, after which a new sarga begins As we shall see, the Gauḍīya taxonomy of divine forms correlates the five principal classes of avatāras with these Purāṇic cycles of time: the puruṣa-avatāras are ascribed a critical role in the sargas and pratisargas; the guṇa-avatāras, in the pratisargas; the līlā-avatāras, in the kalpas; the manvantara-avatāras, in the manvantaras; and the yuga-avatāras, in the yugas.

  Taxonomy of Kṛṣṇa’s Divine Forms

  I shall turn now to an analysis of the Gauḍīya classificatory system, focusing in particular on the ornate hierarchical taxonomy delineated by Kṛṣṇadāsa in Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.20 and 1.5, which expands on and adapts the categories presented by Rūpa in the Laghubhāgavatāmṛta. This system, as delineated by both Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa, distinguishes three encompassing categories of Kṛṣṇa’s rūpas—svayaṃ-rūpa, tadekātma-rūpa, and āveśa-rūpa—each of which is further divided and subdivided into a series of subsidiary categories.63 An overview of this classificatory system is provided in Figure 2.

  1 Svayaṃ-Rūpa. Rūpa defines svayaṃ-rūpa as “that rūpa which is not dependent on anything else (ananyāpekṣin).”64 He identifies the svayaṃ-rūpa with Kṛṣṇa’s gopa form as Govinda, the keeper of cows, whose absolute body (vigraha) is described in Brahma Saṃhitā 5.1 as consisting of sat-cit-ānanda: “Kṛṣṇa is the supreme Īśvara, Govinda, whose body (vigraha) consists of sat, cit, and ānanda, who is beginningless yet the beginning of all, the cause of all causes.”65 Kṛṣṇadāsa, building on Rūpa’s identification of the svayaṃ-rūpa with the vigraha, emphasizes the singular nature of Kṛṣṇa’s perfect form as a gopa, a two-armed flute-playing cowherd boy, who revels eternally in mādhurya, the sweetness of his unmanifest līlā in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the transcendent Vraja-dhāman. He maintains, moreover, that the svayaṃ-rūpa appears in two forms: as the svayaṃ-rūpa itself and as prakāśa.66

  1.1 Svayaṃ-Rūpa. The svayaṃ-rūpa itself is one (eka) and undivided: Kṛṣṇa in the form of a gopa (gopa-mūrti) in Vraja.67

  1.2 Prakāśa. Prakāśa is a manifestation of the svayaṃ-rūpa that is nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa’s essential form. Kṛṣṇadāsa further subdivides prakāśa into two categories: prābhava-prakāśa and vaibhava-prakāśa.

  1.2.1 Prābhava-Prakāśa. Kṛṣṇadāsa’s understanding of prābhava-prakāśa draws on Rūpa’s definition of prakāśa, although Rūpa himself does not classify prakāśa as a subdivision of svayaṃ-rūpa: “The manifestation (prakaṭatā) of one body in many places at the same time, identical with the svarūpa in every respect, is called prakāśa.”68 Prābhava-prakāśa, in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s formulation, is when the one vigraha appears in many forms (rūpas) in many places simultaneously and there is no difference between the many forms and the svayaṃ-rūpa. The paradigmatic example of prābhava-prakāśa is Kṛṣṇa’s performance of the rāsa-līlā, the circle dance with the gopīs, the cowmaidens of Vraja, in which he multiplies himself and assumes a separate form for each gopī, and each form is equally real and nondifferent from the svayaṃ-rūpa.69

  1.2.2 Vaibhava-Prakāśa. Vaibhava-prakāśa is when the one vigraha, without changing its essential bodily shape (mūrti), manifests forms that are assigned different names due to differences in sentiment (bhāva), color (varṇa), or other features. When Kṛṣṇa, without abandoning his svayaṃ-rūpa, manifests temporarily a four-armed (catur-bhuja) form characterized by aiśvarya in his kṣatriya-bhāva (royal mode) as Vāsudeva, the Yādava prince who is the son of Vasudeva and Devakī, this four-armed form is an example of vaibhava-prakāśa. Balarāma, who appears as Kṛṣṇa’s cowherd brother in Vraja, is also considered a vaibhava-prakāśa because his form is the same as Kṛṣṇa’s svayaṃ-rūpa in every respect except for the color of his complexion, which is white rather than blue-black.70

  2 Tadekātma-Rūpa. Tadekātma-rūpa is the second of the three encompassing categories into which Rūpa divides Kṛṣṇa’s forms (see Figure 2). Rūpa uses the term tadekātma-rūpa to designate divine manifestations of the vigraha that are different in shape (ākṛti) and other features from the svayaṃ-rūpa.71 Kṛṣṇadāsa expands on this definition: “That body [vapu] takes different forms, and has different reflections; and the name of it when different in sentiment [bhāva], emotion [āveśa], and shape [ākṛti] is tadekātma-rūpa.”72 Kṛṣṇadāsa follows Rūpa in subdividing tadekātma-rūpa into two categories: vilāsa, a category of divine manifestations; and svāṃśa, a category of divine forms that comprises five different classes of avatāras.73 As we shall see, this taxonomy reverses the hierarchy in the prevailing Vaiṣṇava paradigm—in which Kṛṣṇa is represented as simply one among many avatāras sent forth by the avatārin Viṣṇu—by asserting that Kṛṣṇa himself is the avatārin who is the source of all avatāras and the source of all vilāsas, including Viṣṇu in all of his manifestations.

  Figure 2 Taxonomy of Kṛṣṇa’s Divine Forms.

  2.1 Vilāsa. A vilāsa is a divine manifestation of the vigraha that is distinguished from the svayaṃ-rūpa primarily by a difference in bodily shape (ākāra). Rūpa provides the following definition of vilāsa: “When [Kṛṣṇa’s] svarūpa, by means of his śakti, appears for the sake of līlā in another shape (ākāra) that is for the most part the same as the [absolute] body, it is called vilāsa.”74 While Kṛṣṇadāsa initially follows Rūpa in highlighting difference in shape (ākāra) as the distinguishing mark of a vilāsa,75 he goes beyond Rūpa in highlighting a number of additional bodily features that differentiate a vilāsa from the svayaṃ-rūpa, including name (nāma), color (varṇa), number of arms (bhujas), mode of dress (veśa), and weapons (astras). He also goes beyond Rūpa in constructing an elaborate system of vilāsas that is subdivided into two categories: prābhava-vilāsas and vaibhava-vilāsas. This system enables Kṛṣṇadāsa to organize the various names and forms of Viṣṇu celebrated by historically discrete Vaiṣṇava traditions—including the Pāñcarātra theory of vyūhas—into a single overarching
framework that relegates Viṣṇu, in all of his forms, to a subsidiary position as a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa, svayaṃ Bhagavān.

  2.1.1 Prābhava-Vilāsa. In developing his system of vilāsas, Kṛṣṇadāsa invests the older Pāñcarātra conception of vyūhas with a distinctively Gauḍīya inflection by identifying the prābhava-vilāsas with the ādi catur-vyūhas, the four primordial vyūhas, divine manifestations: Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. Whereas in Goloka-Vṛndāvana, the innermost realm of Kṛṣṇaloka, Kṛṣṇa remains eternally in his gopa-bhāva alongside his cowherd brother Balarāma, his vaibhava-prakāśa, and engages in līlā characterized by mādhurya, in Dvārakā and Mathurā he manifests four different shapes (ākāra) as the ādi catur-vyūhas and engages in līlā characterized by aiśvarya: Vāsudeva, the four-armed manifestation of Kṛṣṇa in his kṣatriya-bhāva; Saṃkarṣaṇa, a manifestation of Balarāma in his kṣatriya-bhāva; Pradyumna, the son of Kṛṣṇa by his wife Rukmiṇī; and Aniruddha, the son of Pradyumna. The ādi catur-vyūhas, as partial manifestations of Kṛṣṇa’s svayaṃ-rūpa, are full of sat, cit, and ānanda.76

  2.1.2 Vaibhava-Vilāsa. In Kṛṣṇadāsa’s system of vilāsas the vaibhava-vilāsas comprise twenty-four manifestations termed mūrtis, which are manifested from the ādi catur-vyūhas and reside in Paravyoman, the transcendent domain that surrounds Kṛṣṇaloka. The most important of these twenty-four mūrtis are a second set of catur-vyūhas in Paravyoman—Vāsudeva, Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha—who replicate the ādi catur-vyūhas in Kṛṣṇaloka. Here they surround Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s four-armed form who is the presiding deity of Paravyoman. Each of the four vyūhas has three mūrtis, and these twelve mūrtis are ascribed the role of presiding deities of the twelve months (see Figure 2).77 Each of the four vyūhas also manifests two additional forms, and these eight manifestations are termed vilāsa-mūrtis (see Figure 2).78 The twenty-four mūrtis together are associated with the cardinal directions, with three mūrtis presiding over each of the eight directions. Thus the vaibhava-vilāsas, while residing in Paravyoman beyond the material space-time continuum, are ascribed the special function of presiding over space and time. One of the striking aspects of Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account is his emphasis on the bodily forms of the twenty-four mūrtis, which he claims are distinguished from the svayaṃ-rūpa and from each other by their shape (ākāra), dress (veśa), and weapons (astras). All twenty-four mūrtis are represented as having four arms (catur-bhuja) and as wielding the four weapons that are emblematic of Viṣṇu—discus (cakra), conch (śaṅkha), club (gadā), and lotus (padma)—but are here recast as emblems of Kṛṣṇa in his aiśvarya mode. The most significant feature that differentiates the twenty-four mūrtis, according to Kṛṣṇadāsa, is the unique configuration in which the four weapons are held in the four hands of each mūrti. A second noteworthy aspect of Kṛṣṇadāsa’s account is his claim that a number of the twenty-four vaibhava-vilāsas, while remaining established in their eternal abodes in Paravyoman, become embodied in the material realm of the Brahmā-universes as mūrtis, ritual images, enshrined in temples in particular locales in India. For example, among the twelve mūrtis presiding over the months, Keśava descends to the material realm and becomes embodied in a temple mūrti in the earthly city of Mathurā and Viṣṇu descends and becomes embodied in Viṣṇukāñcī (Kāñcīpuram). Among the eight vilāsa-mūrtis, Puruṣottama descends to the material realm and becomes embodied as Jagannātha in Nīlācala (Purī) and Hari descends and becomes embodied in Māyāpura. In Kṛṣṇadāsa’s conception of vaibhava-vilāsas, a direct connection is thus established between the mūrti as a special category of divine manifestations in the transcendent domain of Paravyoman and the mūrti as an arcā-avatāra, image-avatāra, embodied in a temple on earth.79