BANGALORE: NAVA VIDHA BHAKTI PART 5
The fifth item in the process of devotional service is archanam — the process of deity worship. Prthu Maharaj adopted this method to achieve perfection. Prthu Maharaj was born out of the churning of the dead body of Vena Maharaj, who was killed by the sages through mantras, for forbidding conducting of sacrifices to Lord Vishnu and thus becoming responsible for the greatly reduced production of food grains by mother earth. Vena Maharaj was an atheist and tyrannical ruler, whose misrule resulted in poverty and rampant food shortage in his kingdom. Seeing the suffering citizens, the sages approached the king and tried to counsel him but to no avail.
When all their means failed, they resorted to the extreme step of killing him to free the kingdom from his despotic rule. After this, the sages worshipped Lord Vishnu for a righteous king who would rule the citizens well and bring about peace and prosperity in the kingdom and then churned the body of Vena Maharaj, from which came forth King Prthu, an empowered incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
As soon as Prthu Maharaj was coronated by the sages, the emaciated citizens approached him and prayed to him for succour. Immediately, he summoned mother earth and threatened to kill her unless she produced ample food grains for his suffering citizens. She then requested him to perform sacrifices to satisfy Lord Vishnu so that she could do the same. Hence Prthu Maharaj organized for ninety nine ashvamedha yajnas to be performed.
In sacrifices, the shaligrama shila is worshipped as the yajna purusha. However, in Prthu Maharaj’s case, such was his dedication and devotion to Lord Vishnu that Lord Vishnu personally appeared in the sacrifices. Being pleased with the sacrifices, Lord Vishnu’s blessings resulted in widespread prosperity within Prthu Maharaj’s kingdom. Due to his unflinching austerities, he finally developed love of Krishna. At the last stage, concentrating his mind on Lord Krishna’s lotus feet, he voluntarily gave up his material body and was transported to Vaikuntha loka. Thus by dedicating all his royal activities for the pleasure of Krishna and offering everything to Lord Vishnu in sacrifice, Prthu Maharaj finally achieved the highest destination.
The Vedas recommend that every householder should have Krishna or Vishnu’s deity at his home properly installed as per the pancharatra regulations. And in kali yuga, the prescribed form of yajna to satisfy the deity is sankirtana yajna — singing the Hare Krishna Maha mantra in a group. The deity forms of Lord Krishna worshipped in the temples are not imaginary forms nor is it mere idol worship. The deity forms made as per the directions of the shastras are authorised forms, just like post boxes are authorised representations of the post office. Thus by engaging in deity worship and performing sankirtana yajna in the temples of Lord Krishna or Vishnu, one can achieve the same perfection achieved by Maharaj Prithu.