Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Ādi 1.68

dui-rūpe haya bhagavānera prakāśa

eke ta' prakāśa haya, āre ta' vilāsa

SYNONYMS

dui-rūpe — in two forms; haya — are; bhagavānera — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; prakāśa — manifestations; eke — in one; ta' — certainly; prakāśa — manifestation; haya — is; āre — in the other; ta' — certainly; vilāsa — engaged in pastimes.

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead exhibits Himself in two kinds of forms: prakāśa and vilāsa.

PURPORT

The Supreme Lord expands His personal forms in two primary categories. The prakāśa forms are manifested by Lord Krishna for His pastimes, and their features are exactly like His. When Lord Krishna married sixteen thousand queens in Dvārakā, He did so in sixteen thousand prakāśa expansions. Similarly, during the rāsa dance He expanded Himself in identical prakāśa forms to dance beside each and every gopī simultaneously. When the Lord manifests His vilāsa expansions, however, they are all somewhat different in their bodily features. Lord Balarāma is the first vilāsa expansion of Lord Krishna, and the four-handed Nārāyana forms in Vaikuntha expand from Balarāma. There is no difference between the bodily forms of Śrī Krishna and Balarāma except that Their bodily colors are different. Similarly, Śrī Nārāyana in Vaikuntha has four hands, whereas Krishna has only two. The expansions of the Lord who manifest such bodily differences are known as vilāsa-vigrahas.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness