arca-vigraha

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1. In the Krsna-sandarbha, Anuccheda 93, Sarva-samvadini commentary by Srila

Jiva Gosvami, the acarya quotes the SB 5.17.14:

 

"To show mercy to His devotees in each of these nine tracts of land, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead known as Narayana expands Himself in His quadruple

principles of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. In this way He

remain near His devotees to accept their service."

 

Srila Jiva Gosvami comments:

 

sannidhanam cedam saksad-rupena sri pradyumnadau gati-vilasader varnitatvat.

tatra catmana svayam evety uktam tatha nityatva eva salagram-siladisu

narasimhatvadibhedas ca sangacchate. tat-tad-avatara-sannidhyad eva hi

tat-tad-bhedah.

 

"This passage describes how, in the presence of His devotees, the Lord

personally appears in the form of Pradyumna and other visnu-tattva expansions.

This passage describes the direct appearance (atmana) of the Lord. The Lord also

appears eternally in the form of the Deity, such as the form of Lord Nrsimha and

other forms manifested among the Salagrama-silas. In this way the Lord

incarnates in many forms."

 

Srila Prabhupada comments on SB 5.17.14 citing Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti

Thakura as follows:

 

"In this connection Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura informs us that the demigods

worship the Supreme Lord in His various Deity forms (arca-vigraha) because

except in the spiritual world, the SPOG cannot be directly worshiped in person.

In the material world, the Lord is always worshiped as the arca-vigraha, or

Deity in the temple. There is no difference between the arca-vigraha and the

original person, and therefore those who are engaged in worshiping the Deity in

the temple in full opulence, even on this planet, should be understood to be

directly in touch with the SPOG without a doubt. As enjoined in the sastras,

arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matih: "No one should treat the Deity in the

temple as stone or metal, nor should one think that the spiritual master is an

ordinary human being." One should strictly follow this sastric injunction and

worship the Deity, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without offenses. The

spiritual master is the direct representative of the Lord, and no one should

consider him an ordinary human being. By avoiding offenses against the Deity and

the spiritual master, one can advance in spiritual life, or Krsna consciousness.

 

"In this regard, the following quotation appears in Laghu-bhagavatamrta:

[sanskrit excluded see full text in SB]

 

'In the Padma Purana it is said that in the spiritual world the Lord personally

expands in all directions and is worshipped as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna

and Aniruddha. The same God is represented by the Deity in this material

world..."

 

2. Regarding the translation of the Padma Purana verse so often cited, here is

the breakdown according to a compilation called Vaisnava Verse Book:

 

arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matir vaisnave jada buddhir

visnor va vaisnavanam kali-mala-mathane pada-tirthe 'mbu-buddhih

sri-visnor namni mantre sakala-kalusa-he sabde-samanya buddhir

visnau sarvesvarese tad-itara-sama-dhir yasya va naraki sah

 

arcye--the worshipable; visnau--deity of Lord Visnu; sila-dhih--thinking Him to

be mere stone; gurusu--the spiritual masters; nara-matih--thinking them to be

mere men; vaisnave--a Vaisnava devotee of the Lord; jati-buddhih--thinking him

to belong to a particular caste; visnoh--of Lord Visnu; va--or; vaisnavanam--of

the Vaisnava devotees; kali--of the worst kind; mala--dirt; mathane--churned up;

pada-tirthe--in the water that washes the lotus feet; caranamrta or the Ganges;

ambu-buddhih--the thought that it is ordinary water; sri-visnoh--of Sri Visnu,

the Supreme Personality of Godhead; namni--the Holy Name; mantre--the mantra;

sakala-kalusa-he--which destroys all kinds of impurities; sabde--ordinary sound

vibration; samanya-buddhih--the thought that they are equal; visnau--Lord Visnu;

sarva-isvara-ise--the controller of all other controllers;

tat-itara-sama-dhih--the thought that anything else can be equal to Him;

yasya--of whom; va--or; naraki--a resident of hell; sah--he (is).

 

"That person who considers the Deity of the Supreme Lord to be dead matter made

out of stone, wood or metal; or the spiritual master, who is an eternal

associate of the Supreme Lord, to be an ordinary man who is prone to die; or the

Vaisnava to be coming from some caste; or the water which washed the feet of the

pure devotee or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be ordinary water,

although such water has the potency to destroy all the evils of the age of Kali;

or to consider the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord or mantras dedicated to Him,

which are able to destroy all sin, to be ordinary sounds; or to consider the

Supreme Lord of all, Lord Visnu, to be equal with other demigods, is considered

to possess a hellish mentality. A person who thinks in this way is certainly a

resident of hell."

 

3. CommentRV: What access can the living beings have to the realm of spirit

while in an embodied condition unless the Lord gives them access by some

extraordinary means. We know that our means of access are numerous by the Lord's

grace: mantra, arca-vigraha, prasadam, the sacred rivers, the Vedas, the pure

Vaisnavas, etc. One could argue that all of these are composed of material

energy. However, as Sukadeva Gosvami explains in the Prayers to the Personifed

Vedas, the Lord has not only given us access to this world through intelligence,

senses, mind, etc. but also access to liberation (see SB 10.87.2). He is able to

empower words to act in an extraordinary way (apart from their usual references

to material items) to express the Absolute Truth and to put us in direct contact

with spiritual reality. He can make the indescribable describable. In other

words, by the special mercy of the Lord, Brahman becomes sabditam, "literally

denoted by words." Otherwise, without the Lord's exceptional grace, the words of

the Vedas cannot reveal the Absolute Truth (extracted from purport of SB

10.87.2). In fact the entire 87th chapter of theTenth Canto deals with this

theme. In fact, I think one could go further to say that the entire process of

sadhana-bhakti is a series of experiential (apparently mundane) mechanisms by

which the transcendence can be directly perceived. It is a mystery, but it is

also the essence of Vaisnavism--the direct experience of that which beyond the

purview of the organic senses by the Lord's grace. The Holy Name (nama-avatara),

the Deity (arca-vigraha), the Vedas(sabda transcendental sound vibration), etc.

afford us the correct combination which opens the otherwise unopenable lock,

just as a safe can be opened by one who knows the correct combination. So by the

correct combination of sounds, sights, etc. spiritual reality is gradually

revealed. This is possible by the Lord's entry into and empowerment of prakrti

to act in a completely spiritual way. That is our proposal as Vaisnavas and that

is the recorded experience of the sages stretching back thousands/millions of

years. If we do not recognize that the materialty of the above is only apparent,

then we have missed the essence of our philosophy.