Krishna represents the highest ideal of godhood, says Dr Asha Goswami
A large variety of notions, diversity of tastes of the Indian people have led to conceptualise Krishna in various forms — as an ideal playful child personifying sweetness and beauty; as a youth, the most-sought after beloved of the village folk gopis; as a great ruler and warrior surpassing all in valour; as an ideal ascetic, greatyogi and last but not the least as a lord with 16 kalaas, who due to his absolute greatness in all spheres represents the highest ideal of godhood as is said: “Krishnastu bhagvansvayam”, for, the greater the number of kalaas associated with a deity or an avatara proves his utter fullness as an avatara of godhead representing “the animus figure of perfection in the form of the fullest revelation of God permeating men with his ultimate spiritual reality in the form of glorious conception as a highest godhood and the most excellent of all the beings (Purushottama).”
Hence, Shri Krishna in the right earnest is acclaimed as the full incarnation or purnaavatara of God Vishnu. As he has all the 16 virtues of a perfect man symbolically delineated as kalaas, which include shringara or sensuousness which Shri Rama does not have and he has just 14 attributes to his credit whereas Shri Krishna has all the 16 kalaas and hence is widely acclaimed as Purna Kalaavatara where as Shri Rama is mostly proclaimed as the Maryada Avatara.
According to the Vaishnava theology, the well-known types of avataras of God Vishnu are titled as Yugavataras, Amshavataras, Aveshavataras and lilavataras. The first category also known as Kritavataras to signify those manifestations or descents of God in which he appears for the purpose of creation and furtherance of the evolution of the world in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as well as for presiding over the four yugas as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and Nrisimha.
The second category signifies the Avataras of Balarama and Krishna as the partial incarnations of the godhead when they are stated to have been transformed from the white and black hair of God Vishnu. The third category as Aveshavatara includes all descents and manifestations of the almighty which he resorts to by taking possession of a person and making him a poet, prophet and king to help the mankind in times of crisis.
Rama, Buddha, Vyasa, Valmiki and Narada belong to such category of avataras. Fourth category signifying lilavatara constitutes that incarnation who indulges in leelas ie pastimes or playful activities for his own satisfaction and his own sake without having any regard to any objective . Hence, Krishna is also a perfect leela avatara. Resorting to hisleela, and by accepting prakriti, the organ of creation, he creates the world as well as ever sports with the worldly beings represented by gopas and gopis.
While the concept of Kalaavatara in its basic concept represents the degree of power he possesses and which in turn symbolises the powers of the moon who too is held as super power incarnate. However, according to the lexicon, the termkalaa connotes a small part of any single part or portion of the whole. It also signifies a 16th part or 16th digit of the moon’s diameter and thus turns to be a symbol of part of the whole. While, the term 16 kalaas or digits connote “the sense of fullness , completeness, as the moon with 16 kalaas is representative of full completion and at the same time its 16 digits ranging from the no form to the form of fullness represent the totality in fullness of the circumference which bears similarity with the cosmos”.
Thus, Krishna, the avatara with 16 kalaas, denotes that “being nearer to the completeness in every aspect of human periphery, he represents the avatara of superlative degree, a complete avatara of the almighty possessing 16kalaas in the form of absolute spirit endowed with which he could manifest varied forms of his virtuous excellences”.
According to Radhatantra, Krishna with 16 kalaas corresponds to the notion about his being the lord of the 16 gopis, including Radha, who are also thought to symbolise the 16 svaras and better known as kalaas too proves Krishna as the distinctKalaavatara who besides being a ideal student had learnt all these kalaas or sciences during his student life.
Kalaavatara imagery of Krishna is also due to his supreme aesthetic sense, symbolically implying the sweetened bhavas endowed with which he is depicted as playing music instrument like flute and indulging in dance forms like raasa on the bank of Yamuna.
Besides, Krishna as Dandi in three bent pose (tribhanga wearing crown of peacock feathers, adorned with all ornaments in yellow attire , playing on flute) too while transmitting aesthetic emotions in abundance proves himself a perfect Kalaavatara with complete effulgence of supreme beauty. To arrive at the true implication of the mystical number 16 associated with Krishna as lord with 16 kalaas, recourse be made to the relevant source material available to us.
According to the Upanishads, 16 virtues or qualities of the soul enumerated as “five maha bhutas, faith, senses, atman or praana, mind, food, energy, austerity, mantras, sacrifice, cosmic, and individual bodies” and stated to have proceeded from the breath of the supreme are supposed to reside in every creature besides the almighty who himself is also acclaimed as an embodiment of these 16 virtues: “Sodashaaatmakah murtiman”.
According to the Samkhya philosophy, prakriti is endowed with 16 vikaras which be taken as identical with Krishna’s 16 kalaas possessing which he becomes full with all those modifications of his creative power, the prakriti.
Skandapurana even goes to the extent of maintaining that 108 wives of Krishna in total represent the multiple forms of the 16 kalaas of the moon incarnate Shri Krishna “Chandrarupi matah Krishnah Kalaa rupa taah smritaah”.
Besides, the term 16 also refers to the 16 qualities or gunas with which this cosmos is believed to have been formed. Recapitulating the discussion it be finally asserted “that greater the number of kalaas attributed to Krishna and his being addressed by multiple names due to his multifarious deeds and qualities, sufficiently coincide with his utter fullness as avatara of the supreme God head”.
The writer is noted Indologist and authority on Krishnaite studies
