[Advaita-l] Siddhantic significance of Nama-japa and Murti-puja

[V Subrahmanian]

A beautiful thought in this post by Shri Natraj Maneshinde:

In this brief video, Shri Ramananda Saraswati Swamiji explains the tattvik
significane of Nama-japa and Murti-puja in the light of Advaita Vedanta. 

Here is the gist :

When we hear a word, say mango, a vritti of the form of a mango is
generated in our minds. Similar is the case when we behold any object. Our
mind assumes the form of that particular object. All the objects that we
listen about or visually see in the kaarya-prapancha, generate a
kaarya-vritti in us. This kaarya-vritti further creates samskaras related
to the vyavaharika world and hence entangles us into samsara.

But we know of Ishvara as the Jagat-karana  Brahman. Hence, when we hear
the words like Rama,Krishna, Devi, Shiva etc, a vritti of the form of the
devata is generated in our mind.  We begin to think of Rama,Shiva, Devi as
the one who creates, sustains and subsumes the Jagat.  Hence, nama-smarana
or vigraha-aradhana generates a ‘kaarana-vritti’ in us. And, this
Karana-vritti plays a major role in countering the ‘kaarya-vritti’ which is
generated from the objects of the materialistic world. Thus, as we do
nama-smarana of Bhagavan - the Jagat-karana Brahman - a Kaarana-vritti is
generated in us, which in turn subsumes the Kaarya-vritti and weakens our
samasaric vasana.

Here is the full video : https://youtu.be/y7oRAx8_l6c