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  • Bhanu Krishna Das July 2, 2015 at 12:00pm

    All the bodies we see in this world are temporary and made of matter. They're material bodies.We're different from our material bodies. Our bodies are structures composed of material elements—solids, liquids, gases—but our self, the spirit animating the material elements, is different. When the self, or spirit, leaves the body, the body ceases to function; it has no value on its own. The spirit is the real and valuable component of the body. We can't see it, but we know it's there by its symptom—consciousness.

    As matter has its characteristics, spirit does also. The characteristics of spirit are sat, chit, ananda—eternity, knowledge, and blissfulness. Krishna is known as sat-chit-ananda-vigraha—His spiritual form is the embodiment of eternity, knowledge and bliss. Whenever He appears within the material worldHe does so in His spiritual body. This means Krishna's body isn't temporary or made of matter; it always exists, and it doesn't degrade over time.

    Brahma-samhita, 5.1: "Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes."

    We also have our own original, spiritual forms. Right now, they're covered by material elements. We are not our bodies, but Krishna is His body. There's no difference between Himself and His form.

    Bhagavad-gita, 4.5-6: "The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy! Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form."

    In the purport to that verse, Srila Prabhupada says,

    "Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity. And although His body does not deteriorate like a material body, it still appears that Lord Krishna grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth. But astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kurukshetra, He had many grandchildren at home; or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculations. Still He looked just like a young man twenty or twenty-five years old. We never see a picture of Krishna in old age because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the whole creation—past, present, and future. Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore, it is clear that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence."

    Krishna says elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gita that anyone who understands His appearance and activities no longer has to be born again in another material body. (Bg 4.9)

    Material Body | Krishna.com
  • Volunteer
    Shravn Prabhu July 2, 2015 at 11:52am

    SB 10.21.5

    barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ
     bibhrad vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām
    randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayāpūrayan gopa-vṛndair
     vṛndāraṇyaṁ sva-pada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ
    Translation: 
    Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karṇikāra flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayantī garland, Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vṛndāvana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories.
    Purport: 

    The gopīs remembered all the transcendental qualities of Kṛṣṇa mentioned in this verse. Kṛṣṇa’s artful way of dressing and the beautiful blue flowers placed over His ears excited the gopīs’ romantic desires, and as He poured the nectar of His lips into His flute, they simply lost themselves in ecstatic love for Him.

  • Volunteer
    Shravn Prabhu July 2, 2015 at 11:49am

    Krishna's Transcendental form

    The Vedas tell us that spirit is composed of eternity, knowledge (or consciousness), and happiness. Both God and we souls possess spiritual forms, which are free of the limitations of material form. For example, each part of a spiritual body can perform the function of any other part.

    Krishna’s body never changes; He is an eternal youth.

    Unlike us ordinary souls, who may possess a material body, Krishna and His body are always identical.

    A Description of Krishna

    form.jpg

    The Vedas describe Krishna in this way: He is a beautiful youth with a glowing complexion the color of rain clouds. He plays a flute, attracting the hearts of all. His cheeks are brilliant, His smiling enchanting. He wears a peacock feather in His curly black hair and a flower garland around His neck. His beautiful garments are the color of lightning. His toenails resemble the light of the moon.

    Not only do the Vedas tell us what Krishna looks like, but pure souls have received His audience and written of their encounters. And fifty centuries ago, Krishna revealed His transcendental form to residents of India when He lived there for 125 years, sometimes showing and sometimes hiding His divinity.

    "Ornaments caress Krishna's body, but His transcendental body is so beautiful that it beautifies the ornaments He wears. Therefore Krishna’s body is said to be the ornament of ornaments. Enhancing the wonderful beauty of Krishna is His three-curved style of standing." –Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya 21.105

  • Volunteer
    Shravn Prabhu July 2, 2015 at 11:43am

    Chapter 4: Transcendental Knowledge

    TEXT 6
    ajo 'pi sann avyayatma
    bhutanam isvaro 'pi san
    prakrtim svam adhisthaya
    sambhavamy atma-mayaya
    TRANSLATION
    Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.
    PURPORT
    The Lord has spoken about the peculiarity of His birth: although He may appear like an ordinary person, He remembers everything of His many, many past "births," whereas a common man cannot remember what he has done even a few hours before. If someone is asked what he did exactly at the same time one day earlier, it would be very difficult for a common man to answer immediately. He would surely have to dredge his memory to recall what he was doing exactly at the same time one day before. And yet, men often dare claim to be God, or Kṛṣṇa. One should not be misled by such meaningless claims. Then again, the Lord explains His prakṛti or His form. Prakṛti means nature as well assvarūpa, or one's own form. The Lord says that He appears in His own body. He does not change His body, as the common living entity changes from one body to another. The conditioned soul may have one kind of body in the present birth, but he has a different body in the next birth. In the material world, the living entity has no fixed body but transmigrates from one body to another. The Lord, however, does not do so. Whenever He appears, He does so in the same original body, by His internal potency. In other words, Kṛṣṇa appears in this material world in His original eternal form, with two hands, holding a flute. He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body and is Lord of the universe, it still appears that He takes His birth like an ordinary living entity.
    Despite the fact Lord Kṛṣṇa grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth, astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, He had many grandchildren at home; or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculations. Still He looked just like a young man twenty or twenty-five years old. We never see a picture of Kṛṣṇa in old age because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the whole creation-past, present, and future. Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore, it is clear that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence.
    Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun's rising, moving before us, and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun is set, and when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually, the sun is always in its fixed position, but owing to our defective, insufficient senses, we calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky. And, because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary, common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal, blissful knowledge by His internal potency-and He is never contaminated by material nature. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, yet He still appears to take His birth in multi-manifestations. The Vedic supplementary literatures also confirm that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhāgavatam, He appears before His mother as Nārāyaṇa, with four hands and the decorations of the six kinds of full opulences. His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according to the Viśvakośa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all of His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another body. He is the Lord of all living entities because He performs wonderful and superhuman activities while He is on this earth. Therefore, the Lord is always the same Absolute Truth and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body.
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