Lord's Divine Form : Some more issues ..

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SrI:

SrI Lakshminrusimha ParabrahmaNE namaH

SrI Lakshminrusimha Divya-PAdukA SEvaka SrIvaN -

SaThakOpa SrI nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESikAya namaH

 

namO nArAyaNa!

 

Dear devotees,

 

Earlier, articles like " NArAyaNa and His thirumEni " ,

" Brahma-SUtras on Lord as being different from His

Body " etc were posted on this issue. This posting is

on further clarifications in contrast to the view-points

of ISKCON {who feel that Lord is identical with

His Divine Body also} and Neo-Advaitins like

SrI RAmakrishNa, the master of SrI VivEkAnanda.

 

On the usage of the word Idol :

The Sanskrit term " Vigraha " is very much used to denote

archA-avatAram of PerumAL {Like " Vigraha AarAdhanam " etc}.

" Idol " is its English equivalent. There is nothing wrong

in that word as such to denote PerumAL. But some modern thinkers

started criticizing " Idol Worship " etc and the name " Idol " got

involved in such issues while referring to PerumAL => Usage

of this word became mis-leading. Thus, we may resort to other

terms.

--------------------------------

On Lord's Form :

 

Lord's Form is made up of Suddha-Sattva and not merely made of

materialistic substances like clay. Suddha-Sattva material as

such is highly luminous - the radiation of light from Lord's

thirumEni (divine form) is described very well in various

Scriptures. But many do not see this luminosity from the

thirumEni of Lord in archA-avatAram because, its finally

Lord who makes a person to see His divine Form completely,

based upon the qualifications {in terms of bhakti} present

in that devotee. While the likes of AzhwArs were able to

cognize the suddha-sattva thirumEni of Lord with its multitude

splendour, the likes of me can only cognize whatever

Lord chooses to reveal. The ardent devotees of Lord would have

certainly experienced the splendor of Lord's form during His

vibhava-avatAras like that of RAma and KrishNa, while the

likes of DuryOdhana could never experience it.

 

ParamAtma, who is characterized by Satyatvam,jn~Anatvam,anantatvam

etc {Which is also called as Divya-Aatma-Swaroopam <DAS>},

eternally has a form as at SrI-VaikuNTham. Those who claim that

they meditate upon God without His divine form, should actually

be meditating upon DAS characterized by Satyatvam etc. But, its

almost an impossibility, especially for the people of this

progressing kali-yuga.

 

The penultimate chapter of SrI VishNu PurANam describes

the various stages of bhakti yOga, wherein the yOgi starts

with the meditation of PerumAL <DAS> alongwith divine body +

ornaments + weapons, and slowly reduces one by one {weapons,

ornaments etc} in the focus of meditation and finally attains the

*sAkshAtkAram* {realization} of the divyAtma-swaroopam as

" satyam,jn~Anam,anantam,nirmalam etc " without the divine body.

Only at this stage of Bhakti Yoga, can one claim that he sees God

everywhere. Then, the yOgi can finish the upAsana of his liking

from the Upanishads and attain moksham - eternal Bhagavad

anubhavam and kai~nkaryam to the Divya-Dampati.

 

But, even the performance of jn~Ana yOga is almost impossible

these days {not for merely ordinary people; To also those

who are well versed in SAstras, VairAgya,bhakti etc}. While one

can know that God is everywhere because of the teachings by

SAstras, its extremly difficult to meditate upon and that too

to attain the SAkshAtkAra {Full realization} as mentioned above.

The pre-requisite for meditating upon the " infinite " Lord is the

" SAkshAtkAram " of the finite JIvAtma, which is also

" jn~AnAnanda " in its swaroopa like Lord. The twin disciplines

of karma-jn~Ana yOga should appropriately be practised to

perfection to meditate upon JIvAtma and attain its sAkshAtkAram.

The intermediete step involved in this process is the continuous

meditation upon Lord's Divya-ma~ngaLa-vigraha {Divine Form

made of Suddha-Sattva}, which burns the sins that obstruct the

yOgi from attaining JIvAtma SAkshAtkAram {For more details,

refer Bhagavad GIta} - Here, the focus is not upon the meditation

upon DAS, but on the thirumEni of Lord, which by itself is

" SubhASrayam " . Only after attaining JIvAtma SAkshAtkAram,

which is beyond the reach of almost everyone at present, can one

start the process of bhakti-yoga.

 

Its just a fancy, if one claims that he is meditating upon God

without Form, while he has no idea of what is meditating upon

" jn~Anatvam " , " anantatvam " etc aspects of God - While for

that matter, he would not see even Lord's thirumEni will

its multitude splendour in the first case.

-------

 

aDiyEn would like to conclude with the 17th verse {ViSvAtiSAyi..}

of VaradarAja Pan~chAsat by SrI VEdAnta DESika, which

beautifully states {in a characteristic style of SwAmi DESikan}

that (even) Bhakti-Yogins meditating upon Lord gets the

doubt/confusion as to whether the divine form is Either Lord Or

Lord's, as both are declared in VEdas to be of the same nature

as that of jn~AnAnanda-maya.

 

While the two are actually different in tattva, Lord VaradarAja's

divine body's mAhAtmyam {greatness} is also something unimaginable

--conveys SwAmi DESikan. Thank God that unparalleled PUrvAchAryas

of our sampradAyam like BhagavAn RAmAnuja and BhagavAn VEdAnta

DESika have very well explained the intricacies of SAstras

and aDiyEn is no more in such a confusion as even other great

yogins might have :-) {On a lighter note } <But the hidden

message about our PUrvAchAryas is ofcourse true>.

 

 

AzhwAr,YemperumAnAr,DESikan,Azhagiyasingar thiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

anantapadmanAbhan

KrushNArpaNam.