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"The Divine Form"

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sadagopaniyengar • January 25, 2003 


                               
Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

               The Divine Form

       A benign and beautiful countenance, a broad forehead capped by a long and glittering crown, eyes like fresh lotus blooms-long, broad and red-lined, truant locks of curly hair falling on the forehead, the body of a well-built wrestler but delicate beyond measure, two hands raised upwards and holding the discus and conch respectively, with two other hands held out in protective and munificent mudrAs respectively, the broad and manly chest adorned by the constant presence of the Consort and innumerable garlands of Tulasi, lotus feet which are the source of the sacred Ganga and the refuge of the righteous---this is how we know our Lord. Even if one of the aforesaid features is absent, we feel something lacking.  On the rare occasions that people like me think of Emperuman, we picturise Him only thus. We think of Him as being a Rama or a Krishna, a Divine Being with unimaginable beauty and with countless adornments, with a divya mangala vigraham that is a delectable treat to the eyes, that is an unfailing 

What gives us the idea that the Lord is indeed like this and not anything else? How can we be sure that this is indeed His form? From our childhood, we have stood before His image in various temples innumerable times, drinking in, willy nilly, all His extraordinary beauty, which imprints itself indelibly on our mind's screen. It is this impression that throws up the aforesaid image of the Lord in His arcchAvatAra, whenever the mind has an occasion to think of Him, which, alas, is not often. Thus it is the Lord's divine form as found in various temples, the arcchAvatAra, which is the source of our knowledge of His looks. This is reinforced by Scriptural descriptions, which wax eloquent on the subject at the least provocation, glad to recount once more the bewitching features of the Supreme Being.

All of us must have come across our "enlightened" brethren who are of the firm view that a God with four arms and all the paraphernalia mentioned above, is a mere figment of human imagination/ creation. To these people, all the temples, all the utsavams, all the scriptural recitations, and in short, the whole idea of the Lord having a form, is laughable. They accuse us of demeaning the Supreme Being by endowing Him with a human body and faculties, be they however extraordinary. Once we even think of Him as having a body, they say, we lower Him to our level, the level of mortals with perishable bodies and subject to the enshackling bonds of Karma. We may say that the Lord's form that we have in mind is infinitely superior to that of mere mortals, but our friends are not convinced and insist that we do Him great injustice by even thinking of Him as having hands, legs and other body parts like us. Ipso facto, the entire practice of ritualistic worship, including offering Him a sacred bath, food, etc. become irr

Our friends are not atheists, but believe firmly in a God who is all pervasive, all-powerful and all knowing, without any constricting form whatsoever, be it with two hands or four. The entire universe is His form, they say, and aver that temples, rituals and formalised congregationist worship are all wrong. What we have to meditate upon is a formless, attributeless, colourless Brahman, which is bereft of all features, whether redeeming or otherwise-an impersonal God who would be extremely difficult to relate to, to love and cherish, to worship and to remonstrate with in times of distress.

To us, used to temple worship with all its trappings, it appears as if our friends are talking through their hats. However, our knowledgeable friends come up with several authoritative scriptural texts in favour of a formless Lord. They quote the Shruti, which declares, " na tasya pratimA asti, yasya nAma mahat yasha:"(He, whose glory knows no bounds, has no images-VAjasanEyi Samhita of Shukla Yajur Veda). This is fortified by another quote, which specifically denies the Supreme Being a body-" na tasya kAryam karaNam cha vidyatE".

In arriving at the true purport of Veda vAkyAs, the aid of upabrahmanas (clarificatory and supportive texts) like ItihAsAs ( Srimad Ramayana and Sri Mahabharata) and PurANAs (like the Sri Vishnu Purana), is indispensable. No scriptural text can be taken in isolation and its meaning arrived at on that basis. The Veda Purusha himself is reported to be afraid of those who misinterpret the Shruti based merely on superficial study ("bibhEti alpa shrutAt Veda: mAm ayam pratarishyati iti").

The interpretation our friends place upon the text " na tasya pratimA asti" belongs to the aforesaid category, and is without an appreciation of the true meaning of the word "pratimA". Our friends take it to mean "image" and arrive at the erroneous conclusion that the Lord has no images, and hence deny sanctity to the numerous images of the Lord in various temples, making us all fools worshipping mere stones. Our Acharyas, on the other hand, favour the other meaning of the word, viz., "equal". This leaves us with the more acceptable version, which reads, "He has no equals". In English too, when we say "He is the spitting image of GOpAla", we mean that he is equal in all respects, especially looks, to GOpAla. This interpretation is also more appropriate to the context, considering what follows-"yasya nAma mahat yasha:". The whole sentence would now mean, "He, whose glory knows no bounds, has no equals", which makes eminent sense. And the meaning of "equal" ascribed to the term "pratimA" is quite a popular usa

Another oft-quoted Srimad Bhagavata sloka is as follows, which supposedly terms all worshippers of images immature, and accepts maturity only to those who are able to see Him everywhere.

"PratimAsu aprabuddhAnAm, sarvatra samadarsinAm".

 While we have no quarrel with the second half of the sloka ascribing wisdom to those who see everything as His form, it would be a travesty of the scripture to say that millions of faithful worshippers, who flock to countless temples and are moved beyond measure by the Lord's divine form, are fools. 

  The inaccuracy in such an interpretation also comes to the fore, when we find Sri Rama worshipping in the temple of Sriman Narayana as a prelude to His Coronation. The night prior to the great event, Sri Raghava, along with Sri Mythily, visits the temple of Sriman Narayana within the palace precincts and, after a purifying bath and with a balanced mind, worships the Lord to His heart's content, offering Him food and partaking of the same as bhagavat prasAdam. Here are the worthy words of Sri Valmiki-

"GatE purOhitE Rama: snAtO niyata mAnasa:
 saha patnyA VisAlAkshyA NArAyaNam upAgamat.

Pragrihya shirasA pAtreem havishO vidhivat tadA
MahatE daivatAya Ajyam juhAva jvalitE analE."

It is crystal clear from the aforesaid that during Sri Rama's times, there were temples to the Lord, that ritualistic worship was indeed in vogue and the Lord was offered food, which was partaken of by the devotee later as "prasAdam".

Similarly, in Sri Mahabharata too, the BhIshma Parva contains slokas, which comment with wonderment on the occasional strange behaviour of the Lord's images in His temples. It appears that the divine vigrahAs used to shake, roar with laughter, spit blood and fall down by themselves-

"DEvatA pratimAschaiva kampantE hasanti cha
 vamanti rudhiram cha asyai: svidyanti prapatanti cha"

Innumerable such texts can be found in the scripture to establish the sanctity of idol worship.

The Rigveda Samhita (eighth ashtaka, eighth adhyAya, 13th sarga, 3rd khanda) too provides more proof, if further proof were needed, by referring to the wooden image of the Lord which floats in the ocean, unsculpted by human hands, to which the devotee is exhorted to pay obeisance-

"adO yat dAru plavatE sindhO: pArE apourusham
  tat Arabhasva durhaNO tEna gaccha parastaram".

After racking our brains needlessly about the legitimacy of the arcchAvatAra, it finally occurs to us that all this exercise is indeed futile. All we have to remember is that Azhwars, endowed with unblemished wisdom ("mayarvara madinalam") were enthusiastic votaries of the Lord in His arcchAvatAra, often travelling thousands of miles on foot to have a glimpse of the Lord ensconced on some remote mountain peak amidst inhospitable environs. And if Sri Kalian remarks, "ErAr muyal vittu kAkkai pin pOvadE", expressing his preference for the easily worshippable Lord in the temples vis a vis the unseen and unknown Supreme Being reigning in Paramapadam, do we need further proof of the sanctity of idol worship? The thousands of pasurams poured out by Azhwars in praise of the Emperumans at various divyadesams stand as unshakeable testimony of the legitimacy of the arcchAvatAra and its worship.

Having successfully silenced our learned friends, we relax in the relief of not having to concentrate on a formless, colourless, odourless Brahmam, devoid of the ananta kalyANa guNAs like boundless love, infinite mercy, total accessibility, matchless magnificence, etc., secure in the Azhwars' assurance that our Lord is indeed one with all auspicious attributes, ever ready to impress us with His exploits as a cowherd, a half-lion or a Delightful Dwarf, displaying a kaleidoscope of enthralling forms and features, all with the purpose of emancipating us and affording us eternal bliss in His exalted company.

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

dasan, sadagopan 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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