Plenary Expansions

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila

Prabhupada!

 

I have a question regarding the concept of "plenary expansion." I had

formerly understood this term to refer to an expansion of Krishna (such as

Rama, Narayana, Vishnu, etc) who is equal in every respect to svayam

bhagavan. This is based on the dictionary definition of "plenary" - "Full;

entire; complete; absolute" as per Webster's online dictionary.

 

However, recently I have seen this term "plenary expansion" used in a

different sense. In SB 5.6.6, Lord Rishabhadeva is referred to as a "plenary

expansion of Lord Vaasudeva, Krishna." This is in spite of the fact that he

has been explicitly described as a shakytaavesha avataara, or empowered

jiiva, both by Srila Prabhupada (in the synonyms just above) as well as by

Jiva Gosvami in his Bhagavat Sandarbha.

 

This brings to mind the following question - what exactly does it mean to be

a plenary expansion of Krishna/Vishnu if even the shakytaavesha avataaras

can be described as plenary expansions of Him? I thought that the difference

between Krishna's full expansions and His shakytaaveshas was that the latter

are jiivas empowered by Vishnu, and not actually Vishnu Himself.

 

If a shakytaavesha avataara can be described as a plenary expansion of

Vishnu, then can the demigods and other jiivas also be correctled described

as plenary expansions of Vishnu? In what sense are these "non plenary"

expansions actually "plenary" if they can be described as plenary

expansions?

 

yours,

 

Krishna