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Deity Worship Questions
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Subject: Deity Worship Questions
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From: Dave <krishna@krishna.org>
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Date: Mon Nov 04 16:48:49 1996
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Message-Id: id7016
Dear Dave
Hello. Hare Krishna. Sorry for the delay in answering your letter.
It is a very big letter and in many ways Deity worship is a practical thing one
really has to experience for himself. It's really quite simple. Krishna is
spiritual and we can't see Him with our materially contaminated senses so He
mercifully agrees to appear before us in the form of the Deity to accept our
service and offerings made with love and devotion. It is Krishna on the alter,
not a stone statue or an idol. But unless our eyes are purified we can't see
Krishna, we think He is a statue... But He is Krishna. We worship Krishna, not
a "form of Krishna" or a "statue of Krishna". But it is something you have to
experience. The only way to expereince it is to surrender to Krishna and serve
Him. That is the process:
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My
path in all respects, O son of Prtha.
PURPORT
Everyone is searching for Krsna in the different aspects of His
manifestations. Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is partially
realized in His impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence and as the all-pervading
Supersoul dwelling within everything, including the particles of atoms. But
Krsna is fully realized only by His pure devotees. Consequently, Krsna is the
object of everyone's realization, and thus anyone and everyone is satisfied
according to one's desire to have Him. In the transcendental world also, Krsna
reciprocates with His pure devotees in the transcendental attitude, just as the
devotee wants Him. One devotee may want Krsna as supreme master, another as his
personal friend, another as his son, and still another as his lover. Krsna
rewards all the devotees equally, according to their different intensities of
love for Him. In the material world, the same reciprocations of feelings are
there, and they are equally exchanged by the Lord with the different types of
worshipers. The pure devotees both here and in the transcendental abode
associate with Him in person and are able to render personal service to the
Lord and thus derive transcendental bliss in His loving service. As for those
who are impersonalists and who want to commit spiritual suicide by annihilating
the individual existence of the living entity, Krsna helps also by absorbing
them into His effulgence. Such impersonalists do not agree to accept the
eternal, blissful Personality of Godhead; consequently they cannot relish the
bliss of transcendental personal service to the Lord, having extinguished their
individuality. Some of them, who are not firmly situated even in the impersonal
existence, return to this material field to exhibit their dormant desires for
activities. They are not admitted into the spiritual planets, but they are
again given a chance to act on the material planets. For those who are fruitive
workers, the Lord awards the desired results of their prescribed duties, as the
yajnesvara; and those who are yogis seeking mystic powers are awarded such
powers. In other words, everyone is dependent for success upon His mercy alone,
and all kinds of spiritual processes are but different degrees of success on
the same path. Unless, therefore, one comes to the highest perfection of Krsna
consciousness, all attempts remain imperfect, as is stated in the
Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.3.10):
akamah sarva-kamo va
moksa-kama udara-dhih
tivrena bhakti-yogena
yajeta purusam param
"Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is
desirous of all fruitive results, or is after liberation, one should with all
efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete
perfection, culminating in Krsna consciousness." (Bhagavad-gita 4.12)
-----------------------
So it's a practical thing... I have a book here, the "Arcana-Paddhati", The
process of Deity Worship. It gives all the details, but it's not much use if
you're not going to do it. It's not a theoretical thing, it's practical. The
main thing is to understand the principle that Krishna is personally present
and then go about serving Krishna.
All these things will remain a mistry to us until we surrender to Krishna by
surrendering to Srila Prabhupada and actually follow his instructions including
chanting at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, following the
four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no
intoxication), getting out of bed before 4:00 am and seeing the Mangal-aroti at
4:30, chanting Hare Krishna, worshipping Tulasi Devi, hearing the
Srimad-Bhagavatam, only eating Krihsna Prasadam (remnants of the food offered
to Krishna), etc...
So we have to follow the process. Chanting 16 rounds, following the four
regulative principles and reading Srila Prabhuapda's books can not be avoided.
There is no question of understanding anything about Deity worship unless we
are at least doing these things. It's a practical thing, not understandable
without surrendering to and following the instructions of a bona-fide spiritual
master:
tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire
from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul
can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth." (Bhagavad-gita
4.34)
So that is the key. Krishna consciousness is not unnatural, it is our original
consciousness, it is within all our hearts. It is not something we learn is is
something we uncover. So we have to follow the process of "Saddhana-Bhakti", it
means following the rules and regulations, otherwise how can we expect to
understand anything?
>
>Questions:
>
> What is the proper terminology when discussing deities and deity worship?
>There would appear to be many terms that I do not know, as noted above --
>What is the process called where by a deity becomes present in the physical
>object? What is the correct name for the object that the deity becomes part
>of? Is the term "idol" proper or improper to use?...etc....etc...
>
The Deity is Krishna personally present. He is a person, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and we serve Him and worship Him. We cook nice meals for
Him seven times a day bathe and dress Him, offer Him worship in so many ways,
chant and sing songs for His pleasure...
"Just like if you call a friend, you ask him, "My dear friend, what do you like
to eat?" Then it is etiquette. And that is going on. Similarly, you have
invited Krsna here. He has come. Don't think He has not come. He is here,
saksad vrajendra-nandana- hari. The atheist may say, "Oh, these rascals are
worshiping a stone," but that is not the fact. We are not spending so much
energy and money for installing a stone. Stone is already there. Therefore
it is forbidden, arcye sila-dhir gurusu nara-matih. If you think the Deity
as sila, means stone, and gurusu nara-matih, if you think guru as ordinary
human being, vaisnave jati-buddhi, and if you think a Vaisnava, "He is
American Vaisnava. He is Indian Vaisnava," jati-buddhi naraki--you become
naraki immediately. These are the descriptions." (from Srila Prabhupada's
Lecture 17 April 1976 Bombay)
> Normally I think of Sri Krishna being present in an "alter deity" -
>can other expansions and demi-gods be "invoked" into a deity? Would one
>want the presence of other demi-gods in an alter deity? What other demi-gods
>and expansions of Sri Krishna are "standard" in Vaishnava temples?
Demigods can also be present in their deities. You can read in the
Srimad-Bhagavatam of the dacoits who were trying to offer a man-scrifice in
front of the goddess Kali. They were trying to kill Jada Bharata, a great
devotee of Krishna who was acting as a deaf and dumb madman to avoid
associating with ordinary people. So as they raised the chopper to kill Jada
Bharata the Goddess Kail burst out of her deity form and killed the dacoits and
saved Jada Bharata. All the demigods are devotees of Krishna and they cannot
bear seeing the devotees being put into difficulty. It is described in the
Srimad Bhagavatam Fifth Canto Chapter Nine.
>
> Is it possible for Sri Krishna to be present in different deities under
>different aspects (like can Sri Krishna be present as Lord Jagannath, a Gopal
>Deity, Sri Caitanya, Radha-Krishna) at the same time in different deities in
>the same temple? Would one want this type of multiple deities of Sri Krishna?
>What are the major titles for the basic deities of Sri Krishna?
Anything is possible for Krishna... When Krishna is present He is not there
alone, Krishna means all Krishna's incarnations as well. Srila Prabhupada's
"standard" temple is Gaura-Nitai (Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda),
Radha-Krishna and Jagannatha, Baladeva and Lady Subudra. So there are three
Krishna's. Jaganatha is Krishna, Guranga is Krishna and Krishna is Krishna...
Different devotees are attached to different forms of Krishna. We are
particularly attracted to Gaura-Nitai, Radha-Krishna and Jagannatha, Baladeva
and Lady Subudra. Gaura-Nitai and Jagannatha are very merciful and therefore
they have come to the West to deliver everyone...
"...And our direct worshipable Rama is Balarama, Krsna-Balarama. We have
opened the temple of Krsna-Balarama in Vrndavana. So Rama is there.
Ramadi-murtisu kala-niyamena tisthan nanavataram akarod bhuvanesu kintu.
Krsna has got many, many incarnation. Rama is also one of them. So when we
speak of Krsna, it means including all the incarnation--Rama, Nrsimha,
Varaha--everything. Ramadi... Therefore ramadi, "taking Rama as the
original," murtisu, "in such forms," ramadi-murtisu kala-niyamena tisthan,
"He is existing." Krsna is not alone. He is always existing with His
different incarnations, Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, Matsya, Kurma--so many. So
either you worship Krsna or Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, Matsya, Kurma, anyone
you can worship. We don't say that don't worship Rama. We never say,
because Rama and Krsna, the same. We shall... In future we have got a hope
we shall start an Rama-Laksmana murti, yes, in some temple. That is our
worshipable Deity. We have got in my room Lord Ramacandra's murti,
Sita-Rama. So it is not that we are neglecting worship of Ramacandra. There
is. Yes? Somebody else?" (from Srila Prabhupada's Lecture 27 October 1975)
>
> I have seen "murtis" (what is a "murti"?) of Srila Prabhupada in ISKCON
>temples - is Srila Prabhupada present within the murti in the same or similar
>similar way as Sri Krishna is in a deity?
"Murti" means form. The deity of Srila Prabhupada is non-different from Srila
Prabhupada and we serve Prabhupada and worship him in the same way as we
worship Krishna. The spiritual master is the representative of Krishna so He is
worshipped on the same level as Krishna. He is not taking the worship for
himself, he is a transparent via-medium. We serve Srila Prabhupada and Srila
Prabhupada offers it to his spiritual master and so on up to Krishna. That is
the system. We don't serve Krishna directly, we serve Krishna through Srila
Prabhupada. There is a move in ISKCON to change this. They have turned
everything upside-down. They have developed a "new" system of worshipping the
Deities where they offer everything to Krishna first and then offer
Krishna-prasadam, the remnants of Krishna's offering to Srila Prabhupada. It is
completely incorrect and means they have not the slightest idea at all of
what's going on. Srila Prabhupada warned if they changed the Deity Worship
everything would be spoiled so they have done it...
>
> What is the process where by Sri Krishna is "invoked" to be present in
>a deity? Is this the same for all Krishna expansions and demi-gods? What
>about Srila Prabhupada murtis? What takes place in an "installation" ceremony,
>both physically (what one sees) and spiritually? After the "installation" what
>are the requirements of the temple with respect to the deity? If a temple is
>closed, or a deity damaged is it possible to "de-install" a deity? If not,
>what happens to the deity?
It is not possible to "de-install" a Deity...
"Regarding your question whether you may go to Rathayatra festival, yes,
you may go because in your present temple the Deities are not regularly
installed. So you can close the temple for a few days keeping in front of
the Deities some dried fruits and a tumbler of water. When the Deity is
installed it is called niyama seva. That means the routine seva prescribed
after installation you cannot stop. But Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very
kind to the fallen souls of the Kali Yuga and He is satisfied with chanting
of Hare Krsna mantra. And for chanting the Hare Krsna mantra there is no
hard and fast rules and regulations, so if you are absent for chanting Hare
Krsna mantra somewhere else, it is as good as to chant the Hare Krsna
mantra in the temple. Your chanting may not be stopped; it does not matter
where you chant." (70-06-13 Letter to: Revatinandana)
"Regarding the closing of the temples, no temple can be closed for any
reason. You have done a great mistake. I am sending you a copy of a letter
I have written in this connection. We have to consider very carefully
before opening a center, and once opened it cannot be closed. It is
disastrous. What you have done is not at all allowed. I am very
disappointed that you have done this. Even you did not consult me. Why?
"Now you want to purchase a farm, but can you manage? Why are you closing
all the temples and then opening a farm? do you have sufficient men to
maintain a farm? Why are you purchasing a farm?" (Letter to Hansadutta)
>
> When the "image-that-will-be-worshipped-as-a-deity" is being made, are
>there any regulations as how it is to be manufactured, and what it is to
>be made of? Are there any regulations as to it's appearance or physical
>shape? All the "deities" I have ever seen (not too many!) have always been
>(more or less) generally a three-dimensional figure (human shaped - even
>Lord Jagannath), is it possible that a deity could be a picture, or animal,
>or plant (Tulasi? what/who is Tulasi? what is it's relation to deity
>worship?) Within ISKCON, who makes deities, can a householder have a deity
>present in a home alter - if so, are these deities "installed?" Who is
>authorized to install temple deities? Who is authorized to install home
>deities (if such a thing is possible)? Is "home deity worship" different
>from temple deity worship? Are the requirements of maintaining a
>home deity (if possible) different than a temple deity
>
The Deity is made by a devotee, but the devotee doesn't try to "make" Krishna.
He prays for Krishna to appear in the form of the Deity. Sometimes Deities are
self-mainfest, noone "makes" them. It is a spritual affair from beginning to
end. There are many forms of Deities, Krishna can appear in any form, but
Krishna is not marble or brass... That is a material vision. Krishna appears in
a form we can see and serve with our present senses. Paintings of Krishna are
also Krishna and can be worshipped as Krishna. Even one worship Krishna in the
mind, that is another form of Deity. Srimati Tulasi Devi is one of Krishna's
pure devotees. Householders can have a Deity of course, if they can worship
Krishna properly. The household Deities may or may not be installed, it
depends. Srila Prabhupada installed Sri Sri Radha Govinda in the house of one
of his disciples, in London. I don't think he installed any others. But it is a
serious thing. One started the Deity worship cannot stop.
"I am not in favor of closing even a small temple. It is not a plaything
to close a temple or to start a temple. When we open a temple we are
inviting Krsna. So you can' t say to Krsna, go away. You have no feeling
what are the ideals of a temple. You should always consider that we have
invited Lord Caitanya, Lord Jagannatha, and Radha Krsna, and if we close
it, it is an insult. How can we call Them, and then say get out. We should
always feel when we open a temple that the Deity is living and not dead
stone or wood. It is a great offence. Before opening a temple it must be
considered a hundred times, and after opening it cannot be closed. It must
be maintained." (74-09-12 Letter to: Hamsaduta)
> With respect to deities, deity worship, and temple services, I have seen
>terms like PUJA, ATATI (mangala-arti, sandhy-arti) NITYA-SEVA, and so on.
>What are the meanings of these terms? Are there other related/similar terms
>with respect to deities, and deity worship? What are the specific temple
>worship services, what takes place during them, and at what time do they
>take place?
>
It is a big question... There is a book. Arana-Paddhati. Perhaps you would like
to read that. It is a big topic.
> Who is authorized to touch, dress, bath, etc. deities? How often are
>deities required to be dressed, bathed, given naps(?), and other such
>functions? How does one offer food to a deity in order for it to become
>prasadam? (In the Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta I remember reading that when
>Srila Prabhupada first lived in New York City he would only eat what he
>cooked, and that he would eat only prasadam -- how was the food he cooked
>"changed" into prasadam before the presence of a temple (and deities)?
If you make a nice offering for Krishna with love and put it on a plate in
front of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada, Krishna will eat the offering. He is a
person, He accepts offerings made with love by his devotees... It has to be
understood by practice. All devotees only eat prasadam, the remnants of the
food offered to Krishna. We don't eat anything cooked by a non-devotee, only
Krishna prasadam.
>
> My understanding is that after a deity has been "installed", Sri
>Krishna is REALLY present (physically? spiritually?) within the material
>form -- any actions performed relative to the deity are performed in the
>actual physical and spiritual presence of the deity -- is that correct?
The Deity is Krishna. 100% absolute completely Krishna. It has to be
experienced. You can talk to Krishna and He will talk back. He is there on the
alter waiting for us to surrender to Him and serve him, only then will He
reveal Himself to us...
naham prakasah sarvasya
yoga-maya-samavrtah
mudho 'yam nabhijanati
loko mam ajam avyayam
I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am
covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am
unborn and infallible.
PURPORT
It may be argued that since Krsna was present on this earth and was visible
to everyone, then why isn't He manifest to everyone now? But actually He was
not manifest to everyone. When Krsna was present there were only a few people
who could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the
assembly of Kurus, when Sisupala spoke against Krsna's being elected president
of the assembly, Bhisma supported Him and proclaimed Him to be the Supreme God.
Similarly, the Pandavas and a few others knew that He was the Supreme, but not
everyone. He was not revealed to the nondevotees and the common man. Therefore
in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that but for His pure devotees, all men
consider Him to be like themselves. He was manifest only to His devotees as the
reservoir of all pleasure. But to others, to unintelligent nondevotees, He was
covered by His internal potency.
In the prayers of Kunti in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.8.19) it is said that
the Lord is covered by the curtain of yoga-maya and thus ordinary people cannot
understand Him. This yoga-maya curtain is also confirmed in the Isopanisad
(mantra 15), in which the devotee prays:
hiranmayena patrena
satyasyapihitam mukham
tat tvam pusann apavrnu
satya-dharmaya drstaye
"O my Lord, You are the maintainer of the entire universe, and devotional
service to You is the highest religious principle. Therefore, I pray that You
will also maintain me. Your transcendental form is covered by the yoga-maya.
The brahmajyoti is the covering of the internal potency. May You kindly remove
this glowing effulgence that impedes my seeing Your sac-cid-ananda-vigraha,
Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge." The Supreme Personality of Godhead
in His transcendental form of bliss and knowledge is covered by the internal
potency of the brahmajyoti, and the less intelligent impersonalists cannot see
the Supreme on this account.
Also in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.14.7) there is this prayer by Brahma: "O
Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, O master of all mystery, who can
calculate Your potency and pastimes in this world? You are always expanding
Your internal potency, and therefore no one can understand You. Learned
scientists and learned scholars can examine the atomic constitution of the
material world or even the planets, but still they are unable to calculate Your
energy and potency, although You are present before them." The Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna, is not only unborn but also avyaya,
inexhaustible. His eternal form is bliss and knowledge, and His energies are
all inexhaustib (Bhagavad-gita 7.26)
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!!
Madhudvisa dasa
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Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!