who is lord krishna according to advaita theory ?

[the sadhu]

Hes the supreme "personality" of God.

God has no personality, because God is All personalities, God is Infinite so God cannot be limited to any limited quality of nature.

but out of all the billions of forms of the formless God, Krishna is often considered the best.

Krishna(as well as Shiva) are considered the perfect Jnani, the supremely enlightened being, fully aware of his or her divinity, who knows infinite spirit (shared by all beings)like mentioned in the isa upanishad, and knows their body as a small part of Nature.

i recall krishna saying
All beings are in me(spirit),but all beings are not in me(body).. this is my supreme mystery.


In Advaita, when the impersonal is given a personality, it becomes God(the deity).
Brahman + human Ego = God

thats why half-baked Jnanis(not enlightened) will go around saying im God! Im God! because they realized the singular divine essence of all creation but they still have a big ego, after months or years of meditation on the omnipresent spirit, the ego falls away and vanishes.
then the jnani is no longer "God", he becomes NO-thing(named or unnamed), then he is enlightened.

[kallol]

Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu / Narayana. Krishna is suppposed to the most complete avatar.

If we say Krishna is all of Brahman then we and others are outside Brahman. If we say we and others are Brahman the Krishna is outside Brahman.

Or we can say Krishna was a person with multi person skill (superhuman) which cannot be surpassed. However superhuman he is - he had birth and death - as other humans. So as humans, we all belong to Brahman.

Now if we want to replace Vishnu / Narayana with Krishna - there might be a need to define Vishnu / Narayana.

However to alleviete of of these it would be interesting to understand the phenomenon of avatar. What is said

"yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Praritranaya Sadhunam
Vinashaya Cha Dushkritam
Dharamasansthapnaya
Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge."

"Whenever there is decay
of righteousness O! Bharatha
And a rise of unrighteousness
then I manifest Myself!

For the protection of the good,
for the destruc­tion of the wicked and
for the establishment of righteousness,
I am born in every age."

Why and how does it happen ? Is there someone who is constantly watching and reacting or is it a rule based ?

If there is less bad people then there is no avatar, if the bad people are overwhelming then there is avatar. How does it happen ?

The answer lies in understanding the rebirth phenomenon. How and why rebirth happens ?

[rama_t]

Can someone clarify the meanings of words
Narayana and Vishnu which represents Ultimate source of all life.

[the sadhu]

Its a natural process of nature, when there is a degeneration of society and a corruption of he genuine teaching of dharma, the conditions become ripe to produce a revolutionary or a saint

These beings are recognized as avatars...

Just to seperate it from personal bias of readers; a good example is found in Shinto, were all beings are Kami(or Gods) but only dead people and nature spirits are called that because its an honorific term

The same goes with Brahman, every entity in existence is a Avatar of Brahman, but only the great teachers are bestowed the honorific title "Avatar"

[Sriram257]

Narayana can interpreted in a number of ways "Nara" means the very goal of all Jivas and "Ayana" means the travel of those Jivas, So Narayana can mean the very attempt to get to the absolute or the attempt of the absolute to get to the Jivas if Saguna Brahman is accepted. The Puranas in general take Narayana to means one who is in water in the sense Narayana is suppose to be in the causal ocean of the whole creation , from this causal oceans many universes are suppose to be forms kind of like the multiverse theory.

Vishnu is interpreted as "Vyapnoti Vishwam Pravishati cha" That which is omnipresent and has entered into every thing. As per the Puranas when Brahma actually made the creation it was simply a shining egg, so Vishnu entered this egg and as a result this egg expanded into the existing universe. This is the Puranic version of the big bang theory. Hence he was called Vishnu

[jopmala]

Namaste

If we respect the teachings of Srimad Bhagavad Gita , should we not recognize Krishna as ultimate destination which is regarded as brhman by jnani or bhagavan by bhakta or paramatma by yogi. Krishna has solved all disputes by saying that he is nirgun nirvishes nirakar as well as sagun savishes and sakar. jnani ,bhkata , yogi every one is dear to him. After going through Gita , can we think of any other entity beyond sri krishna who himself describes " nothing can excel me".

[kallol]

Namaste

If we respect the teachings of Srimad Bhagavad Gita , should we not recognize Krishna as ultimate destination which is regarded as brhman by jnani or bhagavan by bhakta or paramatma by yogi. Krishna has solved all disputes by saying that he is nirgun nirvishes nirakar as well as sagun savishes and sakar. jnani ,bhkata , yogi every one is dear to him. After going through Gita , can we think of any other entity beyond sri krishna who himself describes " nothing can excel me".

There is no problem in recognizing the same, as long it rightly defines "me". However unfortunately most of Krishna bhaktas limit the "me" to the body of Krishna. The trouble begins there.

[smaranam]

However unfortunately most of Krishna bhaktas limit the "me" to the body of Krishna. The trouble begins there.

namaste

That is your assumption about them

If we say Krishna is all of Brahman then we and others are outside Brahman. If we say we and others are Brahman the Krishna is outside Brahman.

This is not correct. Krishna IS all of Bramhan and we are His parts as individuals, and later either remain pure individuals in bhakti or attain His nature as Bramhan. Bramhan goes back to Bramhan.
However, acc. to advaita, we are the non-existent ones, we are the outsiders not Him. We don't exist, remember?

However superhuman he is - he had birth and death - as other humans.

VaishNav scriptures like Shrimad BhAgavatam as well as KRshNa Himself in the Bhagvad Gita will tell you otherwise.

This thread (page 2 onwards) discusses appearance and disappearance of KrshNa but for those eyes who are not skeptical of the scripture itself : http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...shna%27s+death

[brahman]

Hari hari govinda.
Namaste advaitians.

I believe advaita is the most authentic dharma.Because it is purely based on vedas. I know lord krishna is the image, embodiment of parabramhan.

but From advaita pvf, i would like to know who is krishna?

What upanishadas say about lord krishna?

I hope someone intelligent advaitian will answer it according to upanishadas.

Hari govinda.

Dear HK et al.

It is in the semantic analysis of the word-content that the full certitude of vedāntism gains its full validity; and therefore ‘the word of the Guru’ is an inevitable counterpart involved in every knowledge situations in regard to Brahmavidyā (or the science of the Absolute).

Read More(This was posted earlier in another thread in reply to a different topic; but we think the same is again relevant here for a broader understanding of this topic.) Love

[kallol]

namaste

That is your assumption about them



This is not correct. Krishna IS all of Bramhan and we are His parts as individuals, and later either remain pure individuals in bhakti or attain His nature as Bramhan. Bramhan goes back to Bramhan.
However, acc. to advaita, we are the non-existent ones, we are the outsiders not Him. We don't exist, remember?

VaishNav scriptures like Shrimad BhAgavatam as well as KRshNa Himself in the Bhagvad Gita will tell you otherwise.

This thread (page 2 onwards) discusses appearance and disappearance of KrshNa but for those eyes who are not skeptical of the scripture itself : http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...shna%27s+death

Thanks Saranam for the clarification. Thw advaitins feel that all are part of brahman and perceives that in vaisnav way there is Krishna and ther are others.

Now if you say that Krishna is brahman and rest are part of it - then vaisnav way and advaita way are same - then why so much debates.

Again if you come back to bhagavatam which was meant for tuning the laymen's mind toward the ultimate truth then it is another instance that the moot point might have been missed.

Anyway more learning helps both.