tirumēni — The Sacred Form of Bhagavān
Tirumēni (Tamil: tiru = sacred/auspicious + mēni = form/body) refers to the sacred, auspicious form or body of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. The term is used across multiple registers in Śrī Vaiṣṇava theology: the transcendental divya-maṅgala-vigraha (eternally auspicious form) in Śrī Vaikuṇṭham; the avatāra forms in which the Lord descends to the world; and supremely, the arcā-mūrti consecrated in temples and households — the most accessible manifestation of that sacred form.
In Visiṣṭādvaita philosophy, unlike in Advaita Vedānta, the Lord's form is not a limiting adjunct or a māyic projection — it is the Lord's own eternally real, auspicious body of pure divine substance. Rāmānuja's Vedartha-saṅgraha and Brahma Sūtra Bhāṣya argue extensively that scriptural passages affirming the Lord's form should be taken literally, not sublated into a formless Absolute. The tirumēni is thus a theological reality of the highest order.
In the temple context, tirumēni refers specifically to the arcā-mūrti through which the Lord dwells in the Divya Deśams. The Pañcarātra Āgamas prescribe how the tirumēni is to be served: with daily rituals (nitya thiruvaradhanam), periodic festivals, adorning with garments and flowers, offering of cooked food (naivedyam), and the chanting of the Divya Prabandham in the Lord's presence. All these services are directed at the tirumēni as the literal, present body of the Lord — not as a symbol.
The Āzhvārs' vision of the tirumēni is the heart of the Divya Prabandham. Periyāzhvār's Tirumozhi celebrates the tirumēni of the child Kṛṣṇa with extraordinary lyrical love. Āṇḍāḷ's Tiruppāvai builds to the moment of the direct vision of the Lord's tirumēni at Śrīraṅgam. Nammāzhvār's Tiruvāymozhi offers the most sustained meditation on the tirumēni as the Lord graciously revealed Himself to the Āzhvār. In all these pāsurams, the physicality of the Lord's form — His color, ornaments, posture, eyes, and smile — is celebrated as auspicious reality, not metaphor.