has form

Avatara-literally means "one who descends." A partially or fully empowered incarnation of the Lord who descends from the spiritual sky to the material universe with a particular mission described in scriptures; When Krsna descends from the world of spirit into the world of matter, His appearance here is called avatara. The Sanskrit term avatara (one who descends) is often rendered into English as incarnation. It is wrong, however, to think that Krsna incarnates in a body made of physical elements. The Seventh and Eighth Chapters of Bhagavad-gita distinguish at length between the material nature (apara-prakrti), visible as the temporary substances of earth, water, fire, air and ethereal space, and God's own spiritual nature (para-prakrti), which is invisible (avyakta), eternal (sanatana) and infallible (aksara). When the Lord descends, by His mercy the invisible becomes visible. As He Himself states in Bg. 4.6, I descend by My own nature, appearing in My form of spiritual energy (prakrtim svam adhisthaya sambhavamy atma-mayaya). In Bg. 4.9 He declares, janma karma ca me divyam, My appearance and activities are divine. God has many avataras. But of all of them, that form described in Bg. 11.50 as the most beautiful (saumya-vapu) is His own original form (svakam rūpam). This is the eternal form of Sri Krsna, the all-charming lotus-eyed youth whose body is the shape of spiritual ecstasy. SB 1.3.28 confirms that Krsna is the original form of Visnu: ete camsa-kalaḥ pumsaḥ krsnas tu bhagavan svayam indrari-vyakulam lokam mrḍayanti yuge yuge, which means, All of the incarnations of Visnu listed in the scriptures are expansions of the Lord. Lord Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead. All avataras appear in the world whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists. The Srimad-Bhagavatam also provides us with the authorized list of scheduled incarnations of Godhead, of whom the Dasavatara (ten avataras) are particularly celebrated. The ten are 1) Matsya (the Lord's form of a gigantic golden fish), 2) Kūrma (the turtle), 3) Varaha (the boar), 4) Sri Nrsimha (the half-man, half-lion form), 5) Parasurama (the hermit who wields an ax), 6) Vamana (the small brahmana boy), 7) Sri Ramacandra (the Lord of Ayodhya), 8) Sri Baladeva (Lord Krsna's brother), 9) Buddha (the sage who cheated the atheists), and 10) Kalki (who will depopulate the world of all degraded, sinful men at the end of the present Age of Kali). There are two broad categories of avataras. Some, like Sri Krsna, Sri Rama and Sri Nrsimha, are Visnu-tattva, i.e. direct forms of God Himself, the source of all power. Others are individual souls (jiva-tattva) who are empowered by the Lord in one or more of the following seven ways: with knowledge, devotion, creative ability, personal service to God, rulership over the material world, power to support planets, or power to destroy rogues and miscreants. This second category of avatara is called saktyavesa. Included herein are Buddha, Christ and Muhammed. The Mayavadis think that form necessarily means limitation. God is omnipresent, unlimited and therefore formless, they argue. When He reveals His avatara form within this world, that form, being limited in presence to a particular place and time, cannot be the real God. It is only an indication of God. But the fact is that it is not God's form that is limited. It is only the Mayavadis' conception of form that is limited, because that conception is grossly physical. God's form is of the nature of supreme consciousness. Being spiritual, it is called sūksma, most subtle. There is no contradiction between the omnipresence of something subtle and its having form. The most subtle material phenomena we can perceive is sound. Sound may be formless (as noise) or it may have form (as music). Because sound is subtle, its having form does not affect its ability to pervade a huge building. Similarly, God's having form does not affect His ability to pervade the entire universe. Since God's form is finer than the finest material subtlety, it is completely inappropriate for Mayavadis to compare His form to gross hunks of matter. Because they believe God's form is grossly physical, Mayavadis often argue that any and all embodied creatures may be termed avataras. Any number of living gods are being proclaimed within India and other parts of the world today. Some of these gods are mystics, some are charismatics, some are politicians, and some are sexual athletes. But none of them are authorized by the Vedic scriptures. They represent only the mistaken Mayavadi idea that the one formless unlimited Truth appears in endless gross, physical human incarnations, and that you and me and I and he are therefore all together God. And since each god has a different idea of what dharma is, the final truth, according to Mayavada philosophy, is that the paths of all gods lead to the same goal. This idea is as unenlightened as it is impractical. When ordinary people proclaim themselves to be God, and that whatever they are doing is Vedic dharma, that is called dharmasya glaniḥ, a disturbance to eternal religious principles. Therefore Krsna came again, 500 years ago, as the Golden Avatara, Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He established the yuga-dharma, the correct form of sanatana-dharma for our time (sahkirtana). Lord Caitanya's appearance was predicted in SB 11.5.32: In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by congregational chanting of the holy names of God. See Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krsna.    (More...)