SrI: SrImatE rAmAnujAya namaH namO nArAyaNa! Dear SrI Jai Simman and other devotees, > I merely presented what my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada has explained > in his books > with regard to the Archa Murti. I know that you are a follower of SrI BhaktivEdAnta SwAmi and you sincerly try to reflect his views in your writings. While I am not against you following the views of that SampradAya, I would like to remind you that this list has the basis of SrI VaishNava SampradAya. Kindly read the following on what SrI-VaishNavas has to say on the philosophical issues which you had written. 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. >It is verily the Lord Himself since in the ultimate issue there is > no difference between the Lord and His form, wherever It may be manifested > in as much as the Lord is present wherever Harinama is chanted because there > is no difference between Him and His Name. Earlier, you wrote on these lines in another SrI VaishNava list also. I had written few mails explaining from Brahma-SUtras (+SrI-BhAshya) and other pramANas that Lord is different from His divine body which is another tattva{reality} called Suddha-Sattva. While you made a blanket statement that these things are "mAyAvAda" etc, I had explained as to how Bhagavad RAmAnuja follows Sage VyAsa and Upanishads correctly regarding this issue. I also enlisted some books for your reference. Still, you have written the very same thing probably thinking that your understanding is same as that of SrI-VaishNava sampradAya {and probably forgot everything of what I wrote earlier}. There is a lot of difference between Lord's picture and His archA-avatAram like either Vigraha Or SAlagrAma-MUrti. The former is only a representation of Him with His divine form {the paper etc being prakruti only} and the latter is verily Himself with the suddha-sattva form {either due to consecration by Aagamas Or taken by Lord Himself on His own}. Lord eternally has divine form at SrI-VaikuNTham. The archa-avatAram is the descent of that Para-VAsudEva {avatAram = descent) in making the materialistic forms made of Gold etc as Suddha-Sattva because of the procedures of the Aagama SAstras lovingly followed by His devotee and assumes that form out of abundant mercy for all the devotees to worship, serve and benifit. SwAmi dESikan quotes from AgamAs and says that, the excessive amount of milk when mixed with water, still remains as milk ( eg: 10 litres of milk + 1 litre of water gives 11 litres of milk ie. the milk and water are so well mixed that the difference between milk and water can't be found). Similarly, the thirumEni of PerumAL in arcAvatAram has excessive suddha sattvam mixed with matter(prakruti) such as gold , and we shouldn't distinguish between suddha sattvam and the gold present. Thus, arcAvatAra thirumEni is suddha sattavm only ( similar to how 11 litres of milk is referred to as milk, though technically 1 litre of water is present). Actually, its a very great sin to view the archa-thirumEni as something made up of some materialistic substance. One important siddhAnta is that even during the advanced stages of bhakti-yoga like Para-bhakti, the yOgi has only the darSana-samAna sAkshAtkAram ie. not actual sAkshAtkAram but mental image of Lord acquired by his yoga attains a very good stage, which is similar to the actual suddha-satva thirumEni viSishTa SrIman nArAyaNa, but not the same. I am not interested in any further discussion etc due to my time constraints and other important commitments. You can refer the books for your further doubts. If you are interested, I can send you an article of mine that was written on this issue. I would like to conclude reminding 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 You Or Yours, 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 I am 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 true}. SwAmi DESikan thiruvaDigaLE SaraNam aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan, anantapadmanAbhan.
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