Do all incarnations have spiritual bodies?

From: Dhananjay

Lord Ram & Buddha both are the incarnation of Krsna. Lord Ram was having Spiritual Body(made up of sat,chit & ananda), so what about the body of Buddha?Buddha’s body was spiritual or material?

Krsna also incarnated as tortoise & fish?

Was the body of this tortoise & fish made of spirit?

Question from Dhananjay 2. Lord Ram and Buddha, both are incarnations of Krishna. Lord Ram was having a spiritual body made of sacchitananda.

So what about the body of Buddha? Was it spiritual or material? And when Krishna incarnated as a tortoise and a fish, were those bodies made of spirit? Answer. There are different grades of avatars of the Lord. Sometimes when the Lord manifests as a shaktyavesh avatar, so as a specially empowered manifestation, at that time those avatars have a material body.

But along with that they have an extraordinary spiritual power. Now, we can say that even the shaktyavesh avatar, their body is also spiritual in the sense that it is being used for spiritual purposes. So we can look at the word material and spiritual from two contexts.

One is the constitution or composition and the second is the application. So if the body is made of sacchitananda, then it is spiritual. If the body is made up of material tattwas, then it is material.

That is the analysis from the constitutional composition point of view. From the application point of view, whatever is used for spiritual purposes is spiritual. So if we look at it from the application point of view, even the shaktyavesh avatars have a spiritual body because their body is used entirely for spiritual purposes.

But their body may be said to be material from the point of view of composition. They have a material body. Now, Lord Buddha is in different yugas having different roles.

Sometimes he is a shaktyavesh avatar and sometimes he is a full avatar. So whenever he is a full avatar, he has a transcendental body. Whenever he is a shaktyavesh avatar, he may or may not have a transcendental body.

So in general, if we look at the list of the avatars that is mentioned in 1.3 and later in 2.7 in the Bhagavatam, there in both places Buddha is mentioned. And in both places, Buddha is mentioned as among the list of the avatars. So Rupa Goswami's Bhagavatam elaborates this further.

He says that in some cases, the Buddha may be a shaktyavesh avatar. So therefore, if the Buddha is a shaktyavesh avatar, his body may be material. But if he is a full avatar, his body is always spiritual.

Now we have to also understand that the word Buddha refers to an enlightened being. Now we, historically, we know of one Buddha, that is Siddhartha Gautam Buddha. But even Buddhists themselves consider Buddha as a state of enlightenment.

It's a very high state and not many people can attain that. But the word Buddha refers primarily to a state of enlightenment. And a person who is within that state of enlightenment.

So there are, if you look at the Bhagavatam, different personalities referred to in different sections, who are called avatars and who are referred to by the name Buddha. So depending on who is being referred to and whether that person is a shaktyavesh avatar or is a full avatar, then that will determine whether the body is material or spiritual. As far as Kurma and Meena are concerned, tortoise and fish, they are described to be full avatars and their body is transcendental.

We shouldn't think that just because the body is of a non-human or sub-human species, it cannot be transcendental. No, I would not say they appear in a half-man, half-lion body, but then, his body was so extraordinary that it was the ultimate object of devotion for Prahlad, who was himself completely transcendental in his attachments. So he would have had no attraction for a material form.

Similarly, those who are worshipping Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma, they won't be attracted to any material form. These forms are also transcendental. In fact, that is the precise question that is asked by Parishad Maharaj in the 8th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, when the Meena avatar is described, Matsya avatar is described.

Actually, if you look at the 8.4 billion species, the aquatics are among the lowest. So, he asks, why does the Lord accept the Jigut Sitam Rupa? This is an abominable form. Shukadeva Maharaj clearly answers that any form that the Lord accepts is transcendental.

So in that sense, actually speaking, the Lord's forms are transcendental whenever he is coming as an incarnation. Thank you.