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Sri Vaishnavism believes that Vishnu is source of all incarnations, including Krishna and Rama. They consider Krishna to be purna avatar(complete incarnation). My question is how do they view bodies of avatars. For eg. Do they believe Krishna's body is suddha sattva not made of matter or just a normal body made of 8 elements. What exactly do they mean when Krishna is considered purna avatar. What other avatars are considered purna avatars? How do they view other avatars?

Are the body of the avatar and soul same? or is it that in the body of avatar, paramatma resides and thus he is considered avatar? How is avesha avatar different? Do they have material or non-material body?

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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – The Destroyer ♦
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 18:11
  • Pancharatra texts like Laxmi Tantra etc. are discussing the avatars and types in details. I will try to write an answer based on pancharatra texts which are accepted in Sri-Vaishnava sampradaya.
    – SwiftPushkar
    Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 9:57

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My question is how do they view bodies of avatars. For eg. Do they believe Krishna's body is suddha sattva not made of matter or just a normal body made of 8 elements.

Suddha Sattva. Your question was asked by Arjuna and answered by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

When discussing the "avatara rahasya" portion of the 4th Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Ramanuja has clearly said that the body of the Lord during an avatara is non-physical / non-material.

They key portions are:

  • "sambhavAmi Atma mAyaya" (BG 4.6) - Ramanuja clarifies "AtmamAyayA" to mean "Atmasa~Nkalpena" rendering the translation "I incarnate by my own will without abandoning my essential attributes such as being the Lord of all, being free of sins, having auspicious attributes, etc."
  • "janma karma cha me divyam" (BG 4.9) - According to Ramanuja, Krishna is differentiating His own birth from that of an ordinary soul by using the word 'divyam' meaning extraordinary and non-physical whereas the birth of ordinary beings is caused by Karma associated with Prakriti and its three Gunas producing the evil of bondage.

You can read the entire book here. I have reproduced the verses 5-9 and Ramanuja's interpretation of them with English translation to provide more context.

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    you can remove screenshots and add English Translation of Ramanuja's Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Adidevananda from gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/…
    – YDS
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 3:35
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    @hashable, which city/country do you live in ?
    – ram
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 5:29
  • I upvoted, also include answers to other questions, what is purna avatar? Who is not purna avatar? I edited the question to add one more question.
    – user16618
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 6:28
  • @ram - currently in the Bay Area, California, United States.
    – hashable
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 22:29

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