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Question re Krishna and Visnu

• Subject: Question re Krishna and Visnu
• From: Lars M
• Date: Wed Jun 14 17:35:57 1995
• Message-Id: id516

Dear Lars M

Thank you for your letter.

>The question is as follows: When is the Lord called Krsna and
>when is the Lord called Visnu?

There are three things in the creation. The Visnu-tattva, "God" if you like, Jiva-
tattva, "us", the living entities and matter...

We are called the "marginal potency", just like a portion of the sand on the beach
is "marginal". Sometimes it is covered by the water sometimes it is not. So we
sometimes associate with the spiritual energy and sometimes, by misusing our
limited independence, we associate with the material energy...

So all the incarnations of Krishna are Visnu-tattva... There are many, many
incarnations. Kurma as a tortise, Hiranyakasipu as half-man, half-lion, Lord Rama
as a great king... There are lists of the "incarnations of Visnu". So Visnu can
refer to any of the incarnations, although when one talks of Visnu he generally


means the four-armed form of Visnu who is in everyone's heart and who is presiding
in all the Vikuntha-loka planets.

The devotees of Visnu worship Him in awe and reverence, just like we would worship
a king. But Krishna is special. The devotees of Krishna often don't know He is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thay are covered by Krishna's Maha Maya. They
think Krishna is one of them so they play with Him as a friend, they treat Him as
their child, thinking, "If I don't feed Krishna, if I don't protect Him, He will
certainly die." And the gopis, the most confidential devotees of Krishna dance
with Him. So Krishna is special. One can relate with Krishna in any of the five
relationships: santa - neutral, dasya - in service [like the Visnu worship as a
king], sakya - as a friend, vatsalya - as a parent and madhuriya - as a lover. The
relationships we see in the material world are all perverted reflections of these
original relationships with Krishna in the spiritual world.

The first canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam gives a list of the incarnations of Visnu
and includes Krishna in the list, but at the end of the list, to distinguish
Krishna from the other incarnations of Visnu, the following verse is given:

      ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
         indrari-vyakulam lokam mrdayanti yuge yuge

"All the above mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of
the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality
of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created
by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists." (Srimad-Bhagavatam
1.3.28)

So Krishna has a special position. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He
is the source of all the other incarnations. He has two hands, he plays on His
flute, He is very beautiful...

>Recently I read Srimad-bhagavatam and I think it was a little
>confusing that these two names of God was used simultaneously.

There are many names of Krishna and many names of Visnu. They all refer to the
same person, but in different moods or forms. For example Krishna is called
Damodara because when His mother caught Him stealing butter she chased him and
tied Him to a wooden grinding mortar as punishment. He is called Govinda because
He is the friend of the cows and the Brahmins. He is called Gopinatha because He
is the master of the Gopis. He is called Madhusudana because He destroys the demon
of doubt. He has so many names.

>I always thought, until i read Bhagavad-gita for the 117th time,
>that Visnu has four arms and Krsna has two but that could not
>be, 'cause when Arjuna asked Krsna to see his four-armed form
>that argument must be discarded.

It's a difficult thing to comprehend. God is one yet He manifests Himself in
different ways. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead manifested His
universal form to Arjuna. This universal form is a little different. It is for the
less intelligent. Some people can't understand God has a personal form so for them
the conception of the universal form is there. Each part of the universe is
compared to part of the body of the Lord. It is true, of course, but the universe
is temporary so the universal form is not an eternal transcendental form like the
forms of Krishna and Visnu...

When Krishna showed Arjuna His four-handed form, He was still Krishna. He was just
manifesting another of His forms... A nice example is given in regard to the Visnu
forms within everyone's hearts. Visnu is in all our hearts, he is witnessing our
activities and sanctioning our desires. But it is described as being similar to
the reflection of the sun in millions of pots of water... The sun is in each pot
but the sun is one...

So Krishna is the param-brahman, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead and
He has two hands, he is playing on His flute and He is dancing with the gopis.

Keep reading the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam. These are not ordinary
books. You can read them again and again and again, every time you read them they
are fresh and every time you will get new realizations from them. And always chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama
Rama Hare Hare.

Thanks for the question. I hope what I have said makes some sense to you, if not,
or if you have more questions please write to me.

>
>Hare Krsna Lars Mulvad
>
>PS: Sorry to disturb you with such an ignorant question but I just got to know.

It's not a distraction at all. We like very much to talk about Krishna and your
question gives me an opportunity to think about Krishna, to talk about Krishna, so
it is very good for me, it helps me to come closer to Krishna...

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