THE HARMONIST OR
SHREE SAJJANATOSHANI
MARCH 1931
The Scriptures speak of the Archavatara. The Archa is of eight kinds. The Archa appears in this world in order to make available to us, who are most unfortunate and possessed of the densest of judgement, the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. Krishna appeared in this world in the remote Age of Dwapara. We are so unfortunate that we have been born after such a long period from that time. This would have made it impossible for us to have a sight of Krishna if His Holy Form as Archa had not condescended to bless our sight by His appearance in this world at all times. Those who do not accept the testimony of the Scriptures on this point are most unfortunate, indeed. Neither are they any more fortunate who persist in regarding the Archa as merely mundane symbol of the Divinity which can be set up mechanically by any ordinary workman in the same way as he makes dolls for children.
One must not regard the Archa of Vishnu as merely a piece of stone. One who thinks the Archa to be stone wholly misunderstands the Divine purpose. It is because Godhead is pleased to make His appearance among us in the Form of the Archa that it is at all possible for us who are possessed of extremely dense judgement and power of vision, to approach Him by way of worship. The worship of dolls made by man is no doubt idolatry. But the method of archana laid down in the Scriptures must not be confounded with idolatry. It is the special prerogative of the devotee of Godhead to bring about the appearance of the Divinity in the Form of the Archa Whom all people of this world may approach for the purpose of worship.
The installation of the Foot-Prints of Lord Chaitanya must be understood as an act inspired by the desire to serve the Divinity by this method enjoined in the Scriptures. It was in 1510 A.D. that Lord Chaitanya performed the Lila of visiting Sri Varahadeva at Jajpur. Some former devotee of the Lord in immemorial antiquity had been the agent for bringing about the appearance of the Sri Bigraha of Sri Varahadeva on the holy site on which His temple stands to this day, for enabling all persons to have an uninterrupted sight of Sri Varahadeva who originally appeared in this world in the antediluvian period of which the account has been preserved in the Puranas and which event took place long before the earliest hymn of the present collection of the Rig-Samhita was composed.
The Veda is identical with knowledge of the Divinity. The Veda is eternal. To the saints the knowledge of Godhead appears in its true form, which is spiritual and without beginning or end. But the Veda also appears in a symbolical form to the apprehension of worldly people. It does so in the exoteric form. This exoteric form is subject to seeming growth and disappearance. In this manner the Veda disappears from the view of the people of this world at the appointed periods. Then we have what is called in the Scriptures the great Deluge. From the bottom of the deep waters of this periodical Deluge the Supreme Lord in the form of the Holy Boar lifts the Scriptures. So the Scriptures even in their exoteric form are prevented from being lost to the world. The Holy Boar is one of the eternal plenary Forms of the Divinity. It must not be supposed that His Function of rescuing the Veda from the Flood is an event that belongs to the category of the events of this world. This event in its spiritual or esoteric form, is eternal. Therefore, it is possible for a person by the mercy of the Supreme Lord to be able to obtain the sight of the real Form of Sri Varahadeva at all times. The Archa of Sri Varahadeva at Jajpur presents only His exoteric view to those unfortunate persons who are constitutionally averse to the pure service of Godhead.
But the testimony of all the Godless people of this world can neither prove nor disprove the existence or appearance of the Holy spiritual Form of Sri Varahadeva at Jajpur. In this case we are necessarily placed at the mercy of the pure devotees of Godhead. They alone are privileged to have the sight of the Archavatara as He really is. No knowledge of the Divinity is possible unless it is made available by the causeless mercy of Sri Varahadeva. Sri Varahadeva prevails against the Deluge. This is the meaning of the worship of Sri Varahadeva. It is the favourite worship in the South of India. The worship of Sri Varahadeva is appropriately combined with that of Sri Nrisinghadeva. Sri Nrisinghadeva is the eternal Protector of the pure devotees of Godhead and the Subduer of all enemies of the devotees. The devotee can never be put down by the hostility of the enemies of Godhead.
Those who are sincerely inclined to serve the Truth realise in every act of service the enlightening and protecting functions of the Divinity. A devotee of Godhead has no ambition of conquering the enemies of the Truth by his own un-aided power. He knows very well that all power really belongs to the Supreme Lord. Unless this humility is realised there can be no real service of Godhead. Atheists refuse to accept the mercy of the Supreme Lord and His devotees. They do not want really to serve anybody or anything. It is their ambition to become possessors of all power by their own right. Such ambition is due to utter ignorance of their own real nature. They are infinitesimally small in comparison with Godhead. It is not possible for everything to serve such a small thing. There are many small things both in this world and in the realm of the Absolute. These small things may either try to lord it over one another, to co-operate with one another in lording it over themselves or they may serve things that are greater than themselves. In this world the small things pursue the first two methods. This is ego-worship. It is a very mean thing because the ego is so small. These ego-worshippers are punished by being endowed with an abnormal vision which is incapable of perceiving any thing which is really greater than themselves. To such persons the Archa of Sri Varahadeva appears as an idol made by man.
Lord Chaitanya taught the people the method of getting rid of their abnormal vision. This makes it necessary for all to worship the Feet of Lord Chaitanya as a preliminary to the worship of the Archa of Sri Varahadeva. Lord Chaitanya is no other than Lord Krishna Himself appearing in the Form of His own devotee. He taught the service of the Supreme Lord, that is of Himself, by Himself practising the same. But Lord Chaitanya is not a small thing. If Lord Chaitanya is supposed to be a small thing it will not be possible to follow His teachings or that of His associates. The Dispensation for the Kali Yuga has been proclaimed by Lord Chaitanya. This function, by the testimony of all the Scriptures, can belong only to the Divinity. Those who do not recognise the Divinity of Lord Chaitanya cannot have any faith in the method of worship taught by the Supreme Lord. Lord Chaitanya instituted the mode of worship in the form of the congregational chant (Samkirtan). The Scriptures have proclaimed the Samkirtanam to be the Divinely ordained form of worship for the Kali Yuga. It will not do to belittle the explicit testimony of the Holy Scriptures, because no worship can stand at all except on the Scriptures.
The shrines visited by Lord Chaitanya are thereby rendered, for this reason, the holiest tirthas of the Kali Yuga. They have always been holy tirthas. But in the Kali Yuga the Divinity is not visible to the people on account of the prevalence of atheism and hypocrisy. Therefore the holy tirthas themselves had become powerless to purify the hearts of men. It was necessary to infuse vigour into the sanctifying power of the tirthas themselves. This was done by the pilgrimage of Lord Chaitanya. The temple of Sri Varahadeva at Jajpur in Orissa was one of the tirthas that was sanctified by the auspicious visit of Lord Chaitanya.
There can not be a greater obligation on every follower of Lord Chaitanya than to undertake the pilgrimage to the holy tirthas visited by the Lord. They should specially visit the Varaha-Nrisingha temples in the South of India in order to obtain the enlightening and protecting mercies of the Supreme Lord. Without such mercy it is never possible for a person born in this faithless Age to acquire any strength of real spiritual conviction.