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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00017 Feb 2001

 
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Hare Krishna.

Thanks for your mails.

I merely presented what my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada has explained
in his books
with regard to the Archa Murti.

Mr Ramakrishnan, one thing though - we do not worship idols as Archavataram.
I would humbly venture to correct your goodself in this regard. We worship
the Archavataram
or the Deity of the Lord. Idol comes from ideational or an idea based on
sentiment. This may be the view
of certain Maayavaadins such as the Swamiji of the Ramakrishna Mission, but
the vaishnavic conclusion
is that the Lord's forms wherever they may be manifest be it as a maanasa
roopa, or a roopa made of metal, jewels, stone, etc. is not verily these
objects. 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. The Padma Purana says in this
connection,

nama chintamani krishnaha
chaitanya rasa vigraha
purna shuddho nitya muktaha
abhinnatvaan naama naaminoh

There is no bhinna or separation between the naama (name) and the possessor
thereof (naami) when it comes to the Lord.
Likewise with form. We may see a form of Parthasarathi on a Gita book and
think this is just paper. But no ! a pure devotee sees the Lord in the
picture and it is a fact that the Lord by dint of the presence of His form
is present there, but we lack purification to see things in that way.
Otherwise, how could Sripad Ramanujacharya speak to Varadaraja Perumal ? Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in so much ecstacy seeing Lord Jagannatha at Puri
that he was not able to even utter "Jaganaatha" but only "Jag", "Jag". But
the Acharyas are not fools to talk to some stone or to an icon that merely
represents an impersonal God. They verily worship and relate to the Lord who
has appeared out of His causeless mercy to allow us to serve Him. Otherwise
how could conditioned entities like us serve the Lord who is transcendental
to the gross and subtle senses in terms of His personal presence ?

Therefore, there is no question of idol as though Brahman is impersonal and
we fashion a form for it to be represented by an idol. As such, archavataram
and "idol" are diametrically opposed to each other and never the twain shall
meet.

Hare Krishna !


Your servant and ever well-wisher,
R. Jai Simman
Singapore

> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 03:44:32
> From: "G K Ramakrishnan" <gkrama@xxxx>
> Subject: Re: Idol and Icon are not accurate - Deity is more suitable ...
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> I enjoyed immensely Mr.Jaisimman's comments.We have a great tradition of
> worshipping idols as Archavatharam.You will be glad to know that
> Swami.Ranganathananda,the current President of Sri.Ramakrishna Order made
> this aspect the theme of his speech on the occasion of inaguration of
> Universal Temple at Chennai.
>
> Best Regards=GKRamakrishnan/Kuwait.
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 3
> Date: 23 Feb 2001 12:30:15 IST
> From: Chakravartula Krishna <chakravartula@xxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Idol and Icon are not accurate - Deity is more suitable ...]
>
> Sri Jai Simman pranamams,
>
> Very well said. Adiyen is in full aggrement with you. We Srivaishnavas
only
> worship the diety, not the icon or idol.
>
> Adiyen,
> Gopi Krishna Dasan
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>





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