"Lord Krishna is the original Absolute Personality, the Godhead, and all the other Viṣṇu forms - with four hands, decorated with conch, lotus, club, and wheel - are plenary expansions of Krishna. These twenty-four forms are known as the vilasa manifestation of the prabhava (four-handed) form, and they are named differently according to the position of the symbolic representations (conch, lotus, club, and wheel).
The expansions of Lord Kṛṣṇa who come to the material creation are called avatars, or incarnations. The word avatar means "One who descends", and in this case the word specifically refers to one who descends from the spiritual sky. In the spiritual sky there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and from these planets the expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead come into this universe.
There are six kinds of incarnations 1) the purusha-avatar, 2) the lila-avatara, 3) the guna-avatara, 4) the manvantara-avatara, 5) the yuga-avatara, and 6) the saktyavesa-avatara.
Kṛṣṇa first incarnates as the three purusa-avataras, namely the Maha-Viṣṇu or Karanodaksayi avatara, the Garbhodakasayi avatara and the Ksirodakasayi avatara.
Kṛṣṇa's lila-avataras include 1) Kumaras, 2) Narada, 3) Varaha, 4) Matsya, 5) Yajna, 6) Nara-narayana, 7) Kardami Kapila, 8) Dattatreya, 9) Hayasirsa, 10) Hamsa, 11) Dhruvapriya or Prsnigarbha, 12) Rsabha, 13) Prthu, 14) Nrsimha, 15) Kurma, 16) Dhanvantari, 17) Mohini, 18) Vamana, 19) Bhargava (Parasurama), 20) Raghavendra, 21) Vyasa, 22) Pralambari Balarama, 23) Kṛṣṇa, 24) Buddha, 25) Kalki. These 25 lila-avataras appear in one day of Brahma, which is called a Kalpa (Refer to cosmic manifestation section for details on day of Brahma).