Srimad Bhagavatam 2.1.19

tatraikavayavam dhyayed

avyucchinnena cetasa

mano nirvishayam yuktva

tatah kincana na smaret

padam tat paramam vishnor

mano yatra prasidati

SYNONYMS

tatra -- thereafter; eka -- one by one; avayavam -- limbs of the body; dhyayet -- should be concentrated upon; avyucchinnena -- without being deviated from the complete form; cetasa -- by the mind; manah -- mind; nirvishayam -- without being contaminated by sense objects; yuktva -- being dovetailed; tatah -- after that; kincana -- anything; na -- do not; smaret -- think of; padam -- personality; tat -- that; paramam -- Supreme; vishnoh -- of Vishnu; manah -- the mind; yatra -- whereupon; prasidati -- becomes reconciled.

TRANSLATION

Thereafter, you should meditate upon the limbs of Vishnu, one after another, without being deviated from the conception of the complete body. Thus the mind becomes free from all sense objects. There should be no other thing to be thought upon. Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vishnu, is the Ultimate Truth, the mind becomes completely reconciled in Him only.

PURPORT

Foolish persons, bewildered by the external energy of Vishnu, do not know that the ultimate goal of the progressive search after happiness is to get in touch directly with Lord Vishnu, the Personality of Godhead. Vishnu-tattva is an unlimited expansion of different transcendental forms of the Personality of Godhead, and the supreme or original form of vishnu-tattva is Govinda, or Lord Krishna, the supreme cause of all causes. Therefore, thinking of Vishnu or meditating upon the transcendental form of Vishnu, specifically upon Lord Krishna, is the last word on the subject of meditation. This meditation may be begun from the lotus feet of the Lord. One should not, however, forget or be misled from the complete form of the Lord; thus one should practice thinking of the different parts of His transcendental body, one after another. Here in this verse, it is definitely assured that the Supreme Lord is not impersonal. He is a person, but His body is different from those of conditioned persons like us. Otherwise, meditation beginning from the pranava (omkara) up to the limbs of the personal body of Vishnu would not have been recommended by Sukadeva Gosvami for the attainment of complete spiritual perfection. The Vishnu forms of worship in great temples of India are not, therefore, arrangements of idol worship, as they are wrongly interpreted to be by a class of men with a poor fund of knowledge; rather, they are different spiritual centers of meditation on the transcendental limbs of the body of Vishnu. The worshipable Deity in the temple of Vishnu is identical with Lord Vishnu by the inconceivable potency of the Lord. Therefore, a neophyte's concentration or meditation upon the limbs of Vishnu in the temple, as contemplated in the revealed scriptures, is an easy opportunity for meditation for persons who are unable to sit down tightly at one place and then concentrate upon pranava omkara or the limbs of the body of Vishnu, as recommended herein by Sukadeva Gosvami, the great authority. The common man can benefit more by meditating on the form of Vishnu in the temple than on the omkara, the spiritual combination of a-u-m as explained before. There is no difference between omkara and the forms of Vishnu, but persons unacquainted with the science of Absolute Truth try to create dissension by differentiating between the forms of Vishnu and that of omkara. Here it is indicated that the Vishnu form is the ultimate goal of meditation, and as such it is better to concentrate upon the forms of Vishnu than on impersonal omkara. The latter process is also more difficult than the former.