Krishna is not an avatar. He is the source.
Gaudiya theology reverses the usual order: Vishnu is Krishna's expansion rather than the other way round. It is the doctrinal signature of the line and it is stated on page one.
In the standard Vaishnava account Vishnu is the supreme form and Krishna one of his descents. Gaudiya Vaishnavism, following Chaitanya and the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, reverses it: Krishna is svayam bhagavan, God in his own person, and Vishnu is his expansion. This is not a technicality — it decides which name is chanted, which form is installed in the temple, and what the goal of practice is. ISKCON states it in the first pages of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, which is why some Hindus find the movement's presentation of Hinduism narrow, and why Gaudiya Vaishnavas find it exactly right.
The same ground, other faiths
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