Krishna and Vishnu

Srimad-Bhagavatam and Brahma-samhita provide us with further information that the origin of Lord Vishnu is Krishna. Krishna is actually the original source of everything, even of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu and other Vishnu-like forms such as Narayana, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Aniruddha and Pradyumna, are forms of Krishna for accepting worship in awe and reverence. (Krishna has more intimate relationships with His devotees, as explained below.) These forms have slightly different bodily features and qualities from Krishna. Each of these forms presides over a particular Vaikuntha planet in the transcendental world. On each of these planets there are self-realized persons with superhuman, transcendental bodies who are constantly overwhelmed with ever-increasing ecstasy by glorifying and worshiping these Vishnu forms in a mood of awe and reverence. All activities in the transcendental world are performed out of ecstatic love and affection. There are no necessities or requirements, and so there is no need for any boring or unpleasant work. In the transcendental world, every step is a dance and every word is a song.

The activities performed in the transcendental world are described in detail in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Brahma-samhita, The Nectar of Devotion, and Caitanya Caritamrta. These texts also describe the transcendental bodily features of Krishna and His various Vishnu forms in great detail. They describe how Krishna and His forms create the physical world, interact with it, and perform pleasurable pastimes with Their devotees in this world. Krishna and His forms regularly visit the earth and other planets and perform activities that are full of exceptional power, compassion and love. The Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam consists of hundreds of pages describing some of the pastimes Krishna performed in His most recent appearance on earth five thousand years ago. Krishna appears on earth in a form visible to everyone once every 8.6 billion years.

The devotees on the Vaikuntha planets relate to the Vishnu forms in a mood of awe and reverence. But the devotees on Krishna’s planet Goloka Vrindavana relate to him in more intimate ways. On Goloka Vrindavana, Krishna’s special energyyogamaya makes the devotees forget Krishna’s omnipotent position. Thus, Krishna’s cowherd boy friends wrestle with Him and sometimes defeat Him, and He enjoys this. After being defeated, He also enjoys it when one of His friends says to Him “You are not such a big man, I can defeat you easily.” The Tenth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam contains detailed descriptions of the various kinds of intimate relationships the devotees have with Krishna in Vrindavana.