Krishna as avatarin?

[Shrisha Rao]

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Edwin Bryant wrote:

> an aMSa himself (I'm not sure I agree that this would be a strained
> reading of this particular verse, at least, although no doubt Madhva and
> the post-Ramanujans would have their own way of accounting for it -- do
> you have any of their commentaries on hand?)

Martin Gansten has already given a long explanation of this which is
broadly correct.  See http://www.dvaita.org/shaastra/gita/bg1041.html for
actual commentary by Madhva, etc.  One point to note is that per Madhva,
the eleventh chapter (vishvarUpa-adhyAya) of the Bhagavad Gita contains a
vindication of his position that ``Krishna'' is not merely to be
understood to refer to an individual limited in time and space, and that
the qualities of the `vishva-rUpa' given there applied to Krishna
generally and at all times, though Arjuna only realized them at that time.
This differs from the understanding of Gaudiyas and others who aver that
the `vishva-rUpa' was (an apparently unimportant) material creation for
the benefit of Arjuna.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

> Edwin Bryant