Archanam is the ritualistic worship of God. Every religion in the world has its own rituals and rites. By following these rites, the worshiper shows his loyalty, love and devotion to God. Worship by prescribed rites is pleasing to man. Man likes established rituals and rites. They give him comfort. And the rituals prescribed by the sacred texts give definite results. These can be fulfillment of material desires like health, wealth, home, wife, children, fame, name, power etc. Archanam can be done for the welfare of all such as pooja for rains, for abundant food and water for all, for peace and prosperity in the land. Archanam is also done for increasing bhakti, self transformation, and self realization. The blessings of this world and the other world can be achieved by archanam. Prithu Maharaju adopted this method and achieved perfection as a king and later in life achieved the highest results possible – Self realization. This is the story of Prithu Maharaj and his worship:
King Vena was an atheist and a tyrant. His misrule resulted in poverty and food shortage in his kingdom. Seeing the suffering of the people, the sages counselled the King. When nothing moved the King, the sages killed him to free the kingdom from his tyranny. Then the sages worshipped Lord Vishnu to grant a just and good ruler for the kingdom. With help of mantras, the sages churned the dead body of the King and created a new King. This new King was King Prithu, a minor incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
As soon as King Prithu was crowned as King, the starving and suffering citizens sought him to solve their problems. Immediately he summoned Mother Earth and asked Her to produce ample food grains for his hungry subjects. She said She would do it, if the King performed worship – archanam, in order to satisfy Lord Vishnu and Lord’s blessings were obtained. So King Prithu organised ninety-nine ashvamedha yagnas and performed them.
The ashvamedha yagnas have elaborate rituals and need proper preparations. The shaligrama shila is worshipped as Lord Vishnu – the Yagna Purusha or the receiver of the rites of worship. King Prithu’s dedication and devotion was so strong that Lord Vishnu personally appeared and accepted the worship. With the blessings of Lord Vishnu, there was all round peace and prosperity in the kingdom. King Prithu was the first ruler who had planned cities and townships on Earth. He put in his best efforts and dedicated all his royal work to the Supreme Power.
As the peace and prosperity of his kingdom had been received due to the Grace and Blessings of Lord Vishnu, King Prithu engaged all his subjects in worship of the Supreme Power. He ensured that his subjects were prosperous and engaged fully in faithful worship of Lord Vishnu. As he grew old, King Prithu gave up his vast and rich kingdom and went to the forest for tapas. Under the instructions of Sanat Kumara – one of the sons of Lord Brahma, he practiced austerities. He gave up cooked food and lived on fruits and leaves. Then he lived only on air. He was continuously engaged in thinking of the Lord. With his mind focused on the Lotus Feet of the Lord, King Prithu gave up his physical body voluntarily and attained self-realisation.
We cannot perform large expensive yagnas like King Prithu. But we can do regular worship in our homes and temples. We can to archanam of God and Guru in our hearts with mental worship. By being sincere and disciplined in our worship, we receive Grace and are guided and taken to the highest goals of human existence – self realization.
