How to See the Lord

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

How to " See " the Lord

 

 

Shastras tell us that the Lord is present in five forms. The first and

foremost is the Paramapurusha whose abode is Sri Vaikuntam, where He reigns

supreme along with His Consort and the emancipated souls. Though this Cosmic

form of His is in the constant sight of the nitya sUrIs ( " sadA pasyanti

sooraya: " ), it is way beyond the ken of mere mortals like us, says the Veda

Purusha- " na sandrusE tishttathi roopam asya, na chakshushA pasyati kascha

nainam " . Similarly, the VyUha roopams, those of Sri VasudEva, reclining on the

snaky bed in the Milky Ocean, Sri Pradyumna, Sri Aniruddha and Sri SankarshaNa,

are too exalted to form the subject matter of our faulty sight. Maharshis like

Sri Narada and the inhabitants of the SvEta dveepa might be endowed with the

good fortune of seeing these moorties, but not poor mortals. In the Vibhava

avatArAs, constituting His descent to this earth assuming various forms like

those of a fish, a boar, a man-lion, a giant turtle, the Princes of Ayodhya and

Mathura and so on, He was indeed visible to mortal eyes, making Sri

Koorattazhwan wonder at His accessibility-the Supreme Parabrahmam making itself

visible to errant humanity ( " nanu lOchana gOcharO bhoo: " ). However, all those

avatArAs were in the distant past, with absolutely no access to the present-day

inhabitants of this planet. In His dimunitive form as the antaryAmi, the Inner

Dweller of all beings, our accumulated baggage of Karma makes us unable to see

Him within us, though He is present at extremely close quarters and in as

splendorous a form as the one at Paramapadam.

 

 

 

All that is left is the arcchAvatAra, the beautiful forms in stone, wood and

mud, that the Lord assumes at various temples and it is only these fantastic

figures of the Lord that we are able to see and admire. Thus, the Lord who is

normally totally beyond the impaired vision of errant humanity, makes Himself

perceptible to mortals, out of His infinite Mercy, and out of a desire to

entice, enthral, enchant and finally ensnare recalcitrant humans, weaning them

away from the debilitating path of sin. Whatever be the glory of His other

forms, which we have only heard of and have no means of confirming, we are able

to see for ourselves, with our very own eyes, the immeasurable beauty of the

Lord in His arcchAvatAra-so much so that Sri Tirumangai Mannan holds the

readily-available, blissful experience afforded by the arcchAvatara to be

superior to that attainable at distant Paramapadam, admittance to which is

restricted to the elite who perform Bhakti or Prapatti, and which is achievable

only after herculean effort. Would anyone hanker after the flesh of a yet-to-be

caught crow in the sky, which is anyway of dubious taste, when one has already

captured a rabbit, which offers a delicious fare, enquires Sri Kalian, likening

arcchavatara anubhavam to tasty hare flesh and the bliss of Sri Vaikuntam to

that of the crow- " ErAr muyal vittu kAkkai pin pOvadE? " . True to his fame of

having Sri Kalian's sweet words etched in his heart ( " Kalian urai kudi koNda

karrutthudayOn " ), Swami Desikan too spurns Celestial Bliss for that afforded by

the ecstatical sight of Sri DevAdi RAjA of Kanchi, prepared to swear on the

point- " Satyam sapE VAraNa saila nAtha! Vaikunta vAsEpi na mE abhilAsha: "

 

 

 

Be it the Azhwars or Acharyas like Sri Koorattazhwan, Sri Bhattar or Swami

Desikan and countless others-- they appear to consider the very sight of

Emperuman in various temples to be blissful and each visit to the shrine an

extremely rewarding experience, so much so that they feel capable of rejecting

any offer of alternative bliss in the exalted Paramapadam, of which the Shruti,

Smritis and itihAsAs speak volumes. The arcchavatara must therefore have

afforded them such unalloyed pleasure, such deep delight and such immeasurable

ecstasy, that they feel it to be superior to any other form of the Lord.

 

 

 

However, when we go to temples and stand before the Lord with hands dutifully

folded and eyes ready to drink in His magnificence, while we do feel a certain

amount of inner peace, we are unable to experience the sort of bliss described

by Sri Kalian or Swami Desikan. We stand on an equal footing with these

venerated worthies in that we and they used only these mortal eyes to see the

Lord. While the Lord's decorated idol does generate in us a lot of aesthetic

pleasure, why does it not afford us as much bliss as it did to them? After all,

the Emperuman at divya desams is the same today as was worshipped by our

Poorvacharyas, the temples are the same but for some periodical cosmetic uplifts

and the eyes too are the same, characterised by the same degree of frailty as

present in all mortals.

 

 

 

Given this, we find only two possible reasons for our not being able to derive

as much delight from the sight of the Lord, as did our Acharyas. One might be

that the Lord has made up His mind to be less pleasurable to us than to our

worthy Acharyas, due to their infinite superiority in matters of wisdom, bhakti

or adherence to Shastras. However, given Emperuman's predilection for favouring

the underdog rather than the perfect person, we find this reason untenable. The

other possible reason for our deriving less pleasure out of Bhagavat anubhavam

is that something is wrong with our eyes, our vision, in the way we look at the

Lord. This appears to be a much more plausible explanation and one which

requires us to look deep into ourselves to diagnose the possible impairment our

visual equipment could have suffered.

 

 

 

When we go the temple and stand before the Lord, what do we see? At best, what

people like me see is a beautiful, highly decorated idol that is pleasing to the

sight, with impressive height and girth, with any number of adornments to

enhance its looks. We are unable to see in the idol the all-powerful Lord, who

is the epitome of all auspicious virtues and the antithesis of all that is bad,

the sole repository of all imaginable good, the Universal Protector, one who is

ready to take ten giant steps towards us and come running to embrace us, if only

we would lift our foot to take one tiny step towards Him. We are unable to see

beyond the stone and mortar and wood that the Lord, out of His inifinite mercy,

resides in, out of a desire to be the subject matter of our mortal eyes. We do

not take in the beautiful form in full and are satisfied with a superficial and

overall look at Him, as shallow in our devotion as we are in our other secular

endeavours (perhaps more so, since our human bosses are more demanding than the

Lord, who is the personification of tolerance).

 

 

 

How should we " see " the Lord, when we are before Him at the sannidhi? Sri

Nammazhwar shows us the way, in his pasurams on Tirukkurungudi. According to

him, the only way to enjoy the matchless magnificence of the Lord is to take Him

in inch by blissful inch, part by splendorous part, with undivided attention

paid to one particular aspect of Emperuman's tirumEni or adornments or AyudhAs,

at a time. This is because the Lord's brilliance is too much for us to absorb,

all at once. Like a child with its favourite sugar candy, we too should stretch

the experience to the maximum possible, savouring the boundless beauty of the

Lord little by little. Kamban says that this too is impossible, for those who

set sight on a particular aspect of Emperuman is unable to pry his eyes away

from that part of the tirumEni, ( " tOL kaNdAr tOLE kaNdAr " ) with the result that

the onlooker is unable to proceed to enjoy the next part of the divine body.

 

 

 

Coming back to Sri Satakopa Muni's experience, the Azhwar's eyes first lock on

the snow-white conch adorning the Lord's left hand, capable of striking terror

in the heart of His foes with a single booming emission. After having enjoyed

the sight to his heart's fill, he moves on to the dazzling Discus inhabiting the

Lord's right hand, which at once serves as the ultimate weapon and an adornment

par excellence. It is significant that Sri Poygaiyazhwar too mentions the Conch

and Discus among the principal items of visual attraction on the Lord's perfect

physique- " serukkiLarum pon Azhi kaNdEn, puri shankham kai kaNdEn, en Azhi vaNnan

pAl indru " . Moving on with reluctance, Azhwar's eyes are ensnared by the Lord's

own, the eyes famed for their length, breadth, blackness, brilliance and size,

resembling a beautiful lotus in full bloom. The divine eyes lock with Azhwar's

own, full of love and affection. The eyes speak indeed volumes ( " toodu sei

kaNgaL koNdu ondru pEsi " ), obviating the necessity for words. The long

eye-brows, forming a perfect bow on the Lord's forehead, clamour for attention

too. Difficult though it is to pry his gaze away, Azhwar does so with difficulty

and manages to travel down the Lord's face, till he is captivated by the coral

mouth, with its rows of orderly pearl-white teeth, which demands its share of

Azhwar's attention, impeding further progress. The long, perfect and extremely

shapely nose, from which emanate all the Vedas and the beautiful throat commend

themselves to the Azhwar's attention next, followed by the Lord's jet black

locks, which fall bewitchingly on His forehead and shoulders. Only part of the

beautiful hair is visible, the rest of it being contained by the long and

majestic kireetam, set with the most brilliant of gems, signifying the Lord's

supremacy by its very magnificence. The broad and beautiful chest, adorned by

the matchless TirumagaL, swims into view next and completely captivates the

onlooker, embellished by the microscopic Kousthubham and the Vaijayanti mAlA.

The four strong shoulders culminating in slender but strong arms, holding the

Discus Sudarsanam, the Conch PAnchajanyam, the mace KoumOdakI, and the

invincible bow Sarngam, with the sword NAndakam hanging by His side, refuse to

release Azhwar's vision, with the shining black torso competing for his

attentions. The white YagyOpaveetam lies across the black chest like a flash of

lightning in an overcast sky, with the several strands of TitutthuzhAi competing

with garlands of pearls and fragrant flowers, to embellish the Lord's chest. The

entire picture is one of unmatched magnificence and blinding brilliance, one

which makes Azhwar dizzy with bliss and incapable of taking his eyes away to see

mundane sights. It is this pinnacle of joy that made Sri PANanAthan too exclaim,

" en amudinai kaNda kaNgaL mattrondrinai kANAvE " .

 

 

 

It is thus that we should " see " Emperuman, with each of His perfect aspects

leaving an indelible impression in our eyes and hearts. We should let ourselves

be swept away by the wonderful waves of splendour emanating from the Lord,

letting His beauty seep through each and every pore of our body, making us weak

with delight, with our eyes filling with tears of joy and yet affording an

uninterrupted view of the Lord's magnificence, our voices aquiver with

uncontainable emotion, each individual hair on our head and body erect in

enthrallment, with the palms automatically folding themselves in supplication

and the head bowing in an involunatary gesture of submission and veneration.

There should be thoughts in our mind only for the Lord, only about His glorious

form and endearing exploits, with all other contemplations banished for the

nonce, the mind verily an abode of pure love reserved solely for the Divine

Inhabitant. In sum, the sight of the glorious Lord should reduce us to a state

of utter incapability to turn our eyes, ears and other faculties away from Him

even for a second, for fear of missing that second's delight. This state of

bliss is described vividly by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal thus-

 

 

 

" baddhEna anjalinA, natEna sirasA, gAtraischa rOmOdgamai:

 

kanttEna svara gadgadEna nayanEna utkeerNa bAshpAmbunA

 

nityam tvat charaNAravinda yugaLa dhyAnAmrita AsvAdinAm

 

asmAkam SaraseeruhAksha! satatam sampadyatAm jeevitam "

 

 

 

If we are able to achieve this sort of vision and emotion while in the Lord's

presence, the delectable experiences Sri Azhwan and Swami Desikan were able to

imbibe from the arcchavatara, prompting them to contemplate foregoing eternal

bliss in Paramapadam, would definitely be ours too. We would be awash with the

same sort of ecstasy and endless delight as Azhwars and Acharyas, if only we

cultivate the habit of truly " seeing " Emperuman, instead of merely looking at

Him as a showcase doll . This sort of experience which dedicated devotees

undergo is extremely difficult to describe to third-parties. To sceptics who

might feel all this to be exaggeration and embellishment, Sri Nammazhwar's

advice is to look at the Lord through his (Azhwar's) eyes and heart, viz., eyes

filled with devotion and a heart brimming with love and affection- " en nenjinAl

nOkki kANeer " . " Cast away your glances full of avarice, scepticism, half-belief

and insincerity and look at the glorious Lord through eyes like mine, filled

with genuine emotions, and you would definitely see Him truly and experience the

indescribable bliss it affords " says Sri Nammazhwar to us, in a homily worth its

weight in gold.

 

 

 

Finding his plodding friend seeing everything that he himself does, but not

deriving the same incisive and didactic insights therefrom, Sherlock Holmes

tells Watson, " Alas, Watson! You see, but you don't observe " . Such is our plight

too, it would appear. We do see the Lord, but we fail to let the spectacle make

an indelible impression on us. The next time we stand before the Lord in any

sannidhi, we would definitely find the difference if we try emulating even

one-hundredth of the Azhwar's attitude.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan