Visishtadvaita stresses the importance of the archa form of the Lord and emphasises that this form of the Lord leads us to moksha. How does one worship Him in archa form?
One should not think of His idol as a mere stone, worked into a shape through skilled hands. His idol should be seen as the Supreme One Himself, said M.S. Srikanth in a discourse. Tiruppanazhvar, in his Amalanadipiran, shows us how His form should be worshipped. Through his emotive verses, he captures the delights of archa worship, describing in detail Lord Ranganatha’s eyes, navel etc.
When one worships Him in idol form, one must keep in mind Upansihadic references to the Lord. While describing the Supreme One’s eyes, the Chandogya Upanishad says, yathA kapyAsam pundareekam evam akshinee. The Upanishad draws attention to the red eyes of the Supreme One.
While Ramanuja’s teacher Yadava Prakasa gave an unacceptable explanation for this statement, Ramanuja explained that what the Upanishad meant was that the Supreme One’s eyes were red like lotuses. In the Ramayana, it is said of Rama, ‘rAmO rAjeeva lOchana’ — Rama has eyes like lotuses. Vedanta Desika, in his Vegasetu stotram, which is in praise of Yatoktakari, the deity of a temple in Kanchipuram, says that He acts as a bridge that helps us cross the ocean of samsara. Desika describes the Lord as bhaktimatAm yathoktakArI — that is He does what His devotees want. He is bhakta anugantuh — that is He follows His devotees. He is also saraNam upagatAnAm AdeSa kArI — One who obeys the orders of those who have surrendered to Him.
So, it becomes clear that when the Lord said in the Gita, mAm Ekam, He meant the archa form in temples. The Lord was pointing to His archa form as the form that liberates us.
