Rama Navami—The Lord’s Multifarious, Merciful Forms

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you to the Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari Temple, on the auspicious occasion of the celebration of Lord Jagannatha’s Snana-yatra and Lord Rama’s appearance day, Sri Rama-navami. Now, for an ordinary person, it might be a question. This is the Radha-Giridhari temple, but we are worshiping Lord Jagannatha and Lord Rama. What is the connection? In fact, it is a common misunderstanding, that Hindus, of course, the very concept ‘Hindu’ is worth discussing, that Hindus worship many Gods, they are polytheistic. Now, we do not actually find the term ‘Hindu’ in any of the Vedic scriptures. The term ‘Hindu’ actually came from the Muslims who referred to the people living on the other side of the Indus River, but they couldn’t pronounce it in quite the same way, so they called it the Hindus River, and the people living across from the Indus River became known as Hindus. But actually, the term ‘Hindu’ is not found anywhere in the Bhagavad-gītā or any Vedic scripture. But let us say the followers of the Vedas, in a way, you could say the followers of varnashrama-dharma, or more properly, the followers of sanātana-dharma.

And in sanātana-dharma, which means one’s eternal occupation, we do not worship many Gods, we worship only one God, we are not polytheistic, but we are monotheistic. But that one God expands Himself into many forms, but They are not different entities, They are all the same Supreme Personality of Godhead, just manifested in different forms. One example that our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada gave is of the sun. Somewhere it is sunrise, somewhere it is noon, somewhere it is sunset, somewhere it is 10:00 in the morning, somewhere it is 4:00 in the afternoon. And the sun is seen differently from different angles of vision, but it is still the same sun. So, these different forms of the Personality of Godhead are not different entities or people, but they are the same Original Personality of Godhead, Krishna, Giridhari, seen from different angles of vision.

Another example is of the moon. There is new moon, there is full moon, there is half-moon, there is quarter moon, so many different phases of the moon. And the moon appears different in its different phases, but it is the same moon, but different aspects of the moon or different degrees of the moon are illuminated in different phases. So, Lord Rama, according to Vedic scriptures, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, Krishna is the Original Personality of Godhead, and Lord Ramachandra is an expansion of Krishna. He is the same as Krishna, but as Lord Ramachandra, Krishna is manifesting Himself a little differently. As Krishna, He manifested Himself fully as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As Lord Rama, He manifested Himself as the ideal ruler. And He showed Himself to be ideal in so many ways, He set this ideal example in so many ways; ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband. But mainly, He is known as the ideal ruler.

Now, Lord Jagannatha is a form of the Lord, you can see Him on the altar on the far right, He is a form of the Lord that looks like a statue. Krishna or Rama look like human beings, They are not human beings, They are God, but Their form resembles the form of human beings because They descend to attract human beings to their pastimes and service. But Lord Jagannatha’s form, as you can see on the altar, resembles a wood carving, you could say. Now, this raises another question about the arcā-vigraha, because it is another common misconception that Hindus worship idols, that Hindus are idol worshipers. So, what is the arcā-vigraha, or the deity form of the Lord worshipped in the temple? It is also the Lord Himself. We are not worshiping, as someone might imagine, a stone or metal or wood, we are worshiping God.

Now, God is all-pervading, He is omnipresent, omnipotent, He can appear anywhere and everywhere, at will. As it is, He is in the hearts of every living entity, He is in our hearts right now but we are unaware of His presence in our heart, we are unable to perceive Him in our hearts with our materially contaminated senses and minds. Our senses and minds are covered. And therefore, we cannot see the Lord in our hearts or outside of us. But when one is fortunate enough to attain the association of devotees and hear about the science of Krishna, the science of bhakti-yoga, one begins to inquire into the nature of ultimate reality, and at that stage, one may go further and inquire into the method by which we can realize the ultimate reality. And that process is called technically, bhakti-yoga. Yoga means to link with the Supreme, and bhakti means, in broad terms, devotional service, transcendental, loving service. And in the practice of bhakti-yoga, there are five practices that are especially powerful. And one of them is the worship of the deity in the temple. The deity is the Lord Himself, accepting a form that we can see. We cannot see Him at present in His original spiritual form with our materially covered senses. So, the Lord, out of His kindness, out of His mercy, appears in a form that we can see, a form of metal or marble or wood. That is His mercy, to enable us to serve Him, to develop our service mood, to awaken our love for Him, which is our ultimate goal.

So, this is a little mysterious, or the science is a little difficult for ordinary people to understand at first, but actually, it is not so difficult. Because again, God is all-powerful, He is omnipotent, and He has many energies. But principally, the spiritual energy, parā-prakṛti, superior energy, and the inferior energy, aparā-prakṛti, or material energy. But because He is all-powerful, He can change matter to spirit, or spirit to matter. Just like an expert electrical engineer. From electricity, he can make a heater or a cooler. It is the same electricity, but depending on how it is manipulated, it can create heat, hot air, or cool air. So, Krishna, being all-powerful and the origin of all energies, He can turn matter into spirit, and spirit into matter. And so, He comes in the form of the deity so that we can see Him and worship Him and serve Him. And that wood or metal or stone is transformed into spiritual energy, but we can still see it as if it were ordinary wood or metal or stone. So, someone might think, Well, this is all in your mind. You are worshiping the deity, you are offering flowers and food, you are imagining the deity accepts it, but it is all in your mind. Actually, nothing is happening.

Now, in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ, yo me bhaktyā

prayacchati, that if you offer him, with bhakti, with love and devotion, a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or some water, he will accept it. But some people might think that this is in your mind. We saw you offer the food, and the food on the plate that you offered came out the same after the offering, nothing happened. But actually, a lot happened. What happened is that the deity ate the food. Now, if He wanted to, He could have consumed it all, He could consume the whole universe if He wanted, He could have consumed it all and left nothing for you. Now, would you be very happy with that arrangement? [laughter] No. Out of his kindness, He eats it, and leaves His remnants for you. But those remnants are spiritualized. In fact, it is said that those remnants are mixed with the nectar of the lips of the Lord. And so, that prasāda; prasāda literally means mercy, the remnants or prasāda, is not ordinary food. It might look like it, but it tastes different, and it acts differently upon us.

I had a godbrother who, (godbrother means disciple of the same guru), who was in India in the Peace Corps. He had not met any of Srila Prabhupada’s devotees, but he was just in India in the Peace Corps. And while in India, he visited some of the large temples and had mahā-prasāda. And he noticed there was something different about it, it wasn’t just ordinary food. And it wasn’t just the ingredients or the recipe, but there was something different about it, a different quality. Then, he came back to the United States, back to Buffalo, New York. And there he met Srila Prabhupada’s devotees, and they invited him to the ISKCON temple, and there he had prasāda again. And he immediately recognized that, “Oh, this was that same special experience I had eating the food at the temples in India.” He could discern that this was different, this was spiritualized.

So, a lot goes on that we might not be able to see with our blunt senses. Even in the room, there is radio waves. If you have an instrument, you can pick up the radio, or pick up the wireless signal. So, a lot is happening, but it is beyond the range of our direct sense perception. And these are material things, just subtle material things. So, what to speak of spiritual things. So, the Lord eats and leaves the remnants for us, and by eating the Lord’s remnants, we become purified. And in India, big, big, people, big government ministers, very wealthy industrialists, they will stand in line just to get a little prasāda in their hand. They are not hungry, they could eat very nicely at home, but it is the Lord’s remnants, it is spiritual. And therefore, they can travel miles and stand in line for hours just to get a little of that prasāda.

So, our worship of the deity goes to the Lord. The deity is the Lord. It goes to the deity; it goes to the Lord. There is another school of foolishness that says, “You can imagine the Lord in any form, and for you, that is God.” Have you ever heard that nonsense? No. And here, Srila Prabhupada gives another beautiful example. The deity, in a sense, is like a mailbox, post box. If you put a letter in the post box, properly addressed and stamped, it is as good as delivering it to the destination because it will reach the destination. So, in that sense, the deity is like a mailbox, and your prayers to the Lord will reach the Lord. But you cannot say, “Oh, you can put a letter in any box and it will reach the same destination.” No, it has to be an authorized box of the postal department, then it will reach the destination. It has to be properly addressed and stamped and put into a proper receptacle authorized by the postal services, then it will reach the destination. So, you can’t just make any statue or form and says, “Okay, for me, this is God. I am going to worship this as God,” and think that it will have the same result, because it won’t. In that case, it actually may be a fact that you are worshiping it and nothing is happening, because it is not authorized, it is not proper. So, there is a great science to Krishna consciousness in general, bhakti-yoga and to deity worship, what to say about in particular.

So, today’s celebration of Snana-yatra. Snana means bath. Snana-yatra, yatra means journey. So, Snana-yatra is, you could say, the bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannatha. But it so happens that Lord Jagannatha appeared on the day of Snana-yatra. So, it is also the appearance day, or birthday, of Lord Jagannatha. And there is a whole history to how Lord Jagannatha appeared in the form in which we see Him, but the history is also just for the sake of the Lord’s pastimes or līlā. Otherwise, Lord Jagannatha is eternal, He has His own planet in the spiritual sky just like Krishna or Rama or Narayana, but He has His pastime of appearing in the material world. And that took place on this date of Snana-yatra. And in the great temple of Lord Jagannatha in Puri, in the state of Orissa by the ocean, this is one occasion when Lord Jagannatha is taken out of the deity room into public view. There is a pavilion, and in front of hundreds of thousands of devotees, He is bathed. And then, according to the tradition, He catches a cold. [laughter]

Now, this, of course, He has an eternal, spiritual body, but this is another one of His pastimes that He arranges to increase our devotion to Him, and to give us a chance to serve Him in a more intimate way. So, for two weeks, He is taken into seclusion to recover from His cold. And during the two weeks, the deity servants or Pujaris, they take care of Him as a sick person, as a patient, and they give Him various medicines in the form of fruit juices. The fruit juices represent different types of medicinal drinks. And also, during that time, because the Lord is appearing ostensibly in the form of wood, so during that time, little repairs are made on the body of Lord Jagannatha, which appears to be made of wood and paint, and so do a little touching up. And then, after two weeks, He comes out of seclusion and is again brought to the temple, and from the temple, He is brought for a procession, for Ratha-yatra.

In Puri, there is a period of two weeks between the Snana-yatra and Ratha-yatra. Here, we will be having Ratha-yatra next Sunday in Balboa Park, in one week. So, this is our facsimile of the procedures performed in Jagannatha Puri. And as it is said, absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, other than the Pujaris and intimate servants of the Lord, all the other devotees are deprived of seeing Him for two weeks. And during the two weeks, their eagerness to see Him again increases. So, when after two weeks He is brought out again, it is a very, very joyous occasion. And the Lord also has missed His devotees. While He was in seclusion, He was also missing his devotees. So, His mood on the Ratha-yatra is, He wants to go out and see all the devotees because He was feeling separation from them when He was in seclusion for two weeks. So, it is a very loving reciprocation between the Lord and the devotees during Ratha-yatra. And it is also a way that He bestows His mercy even on non-devotees. And it is said that the effects of seeing the Ratha-yatra are very powerful. In fact, it is said that one who sees the Ratha-yatra is liberated. Just by seeing the deity and dancing clapping one’s hand, singing in the Ratha-yatra, one is liberated.

Now, this might sound like a tall claim, but Srila Prabhupada has explained that at the time of death, all of our life’s memories pass through our mind. This is understood to be a fact by people in general, sometimes even in movies, they depict a person’s death and different thoughts are passing through his mind in his life. So, Srila Prabhupada explains that if one has seen the deity of Lord Jagannatha with devotion during the Ratha-yatra, when all the different memories of his life are passing through his mind like a movie, when it comes to that image of Lord Jagannatha, the movie freezes on that image, and the person will give up his body seeing the image of Lord Jagannatha, and he will go back home, back to Godhead. Hare Krishna.

And Lord Rama is better known among Hindus, and in a sense, His appearance and activities are more similar to Lord Krishna’s, and therefore, may need less elaborate explanation for those who have some sense of Lord Krishna’s appearance and activities and mission, because Lord Rama basically has the same purpose. But He is acting as the ideal king, the ideal human being, whereas Krishna is acting as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And therefore, Rama, to set the example for us, restricted His behavior in certain ways. For example, eka patni vrata, He accepted a vow to marry only once. And again, Sita and Rama are eternally related, they also have their planet in the spiritual world, Ayodhya dhāma, which is eternal. But when They come into the material world, They have Their pastimes of Rama’s taking birth and appearing, Sita’s taking birth and appearing, Their marriage being arranged and marrying, and so on, although They are eternally together. So, eka patni vrata, that was the example for us, marry only once.

Whereas Krishna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is the Supreme enjoyer. Although He did voluntarily follow some principles to set an example for us, but at other times, He asserted Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead who was beyond the religious principles that govern the lives of human beings. And so, when He was living as a king in Dvaraka, He had sixteen thousand, one hundred and eight wives, or queens. And that is unprecedented in the history of human society. [laughter] But He did that for that purpose, confirmed. [laughter] To show that He is the Supreme in every respect. God is not one-sided, but He is many-sided, He is the Supreme in everything. For example, in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says that of cheats, He is gambling. So, even in cheating, He is the Supreme, which is good for you to know. [laughter] Because if you try to cheat Him, He is a better cheat than you are, and you will end up being cheated. So, we shouldn’t try to cheat God, which many people do. That would be of course another topic, that could be a whole subject of discussion, but we should be sincere in our relationship with God. We shouldn’t try to cheat Him; He is the Supreme father.

Now, an ordinary child might, not guaranteed and I don’t want you necessarily to try it, but an ordinary child might be able to cheat his parents. He might say, “I am going for piano lessons” and do something very different from piano lessons that his parents might not approve of. And he might get away with it, but he might not, so don’t take a chance. But we might also think, even if we are convinced that Krishna is in the temple and we don’t want to do something in the temple that would offend Krishna, we might think, All right, He is in the temple, I was on good behavior, but I can’t keep it up all the time. So, let us go home, we will lock the door, we will pull down the window shades, and we will do what we want whether Krishna likes it or not. But Krishna is there, He is everywhere. So, you can’t cheat Him, this is my point. If you try to cheat Him, you will end up cheating yourself because you will get the reaction, you will get the reaction for your sinful activities. That is karma, you can’t escape the laws of karma. You might escape the laws of the state, you can’t escape the laws of karma, God’s laws.

So, Lord Rama set the example in so many ways, and by reading about Him or hearing about Him, we can learn much not just Him, but His associates also, about what it means to be an ideal son, an ideal brother, an ideal husband. From Sita we can learn what it means to be an ideal wife. There are so many ideal examples in the history of Lord Rama and His pastimes, which are recorded elaborately in Rāmāyaṇa, Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa. But there are two full chapters in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which are a summary of the Rāmāyaṇa. So, that description is very nice coming in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic literature, and translated and presented to us by Srila Prabhupada. So, we can learn much about how to behave from the example of Lord Rama and other ideal persons.

And Lord Jagannatha, He is Krishna, He is the Original Krishna. But He doesn’t look, to ordinary vision, like the original Krishna. But if your eyes are tinged with the love for Krishna, then you will see Lord Jagannatha as Krishna Himself. And it is described that when Sri Chaitanya was residing at Puri, and He would go to see Lord Jagannatha in the temple, He wouldn’t see Lord Jagannatha as we do, but He would see the original Krishna Shyamasundara. He was so eager to see Krishna before He arrived in Jagannatha Puri, He was so eager. And He was walking by foot, that was how people traveled by and large, and walking by foot all the way from Bengal. And when He finally entered the temple and He saw Lord Jagannatha, He fainted in ecstasy. To ordinary vision it is just sort of a crude statue painted in a very primitive style. We shouldn’t even qualify it as art, as high art by mundane standards. But Lord Chaitanya fainted, fell to the floor in ecstasy. He wasn’t seeing stone and wood; He was seeing Krishna for whom He was so eager.

So, tonight, out of the Lord’s mercy, we will see His bathing ceremony, we will see how the devotees made the Lord, according to scripture. And this is a very joyous celebration. The Lord is coming into the world, and when He comes, He brings light into the darkness, He brings knowledge to the ignorant, He brings peace to the troubled, He brings happiness to the suffering. So, it is a wonderful occasion. We will be welcoming Him and celebrating His appearance, and at the same time, we should also welcome Him into our hearts. Actually, the day before the Ratha-yatra, I don’t know if they observe it here or how they observe it here, there is a festival called Gundica-Marjana, cleaning the temple. Because in the Ratha-yatra, the Lord goes on a procession to another temple called the Gundica temple, and He stays there for some days, and then He returns to the original temple. So, they clean that temple very thoroughly because during the year, it is not really used, so all sorts of dust and straws and debris come into it.

Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, has explained that the cleansing of the Gundica temple can be taken as a metaphor for the cleansing of our hearts, that we want to clean our hearts so it becomes a fit place to receive the Lord. And that should be an ongoing, that particular festival, Gundica-Marjana, should be once in a year. But that should be our ongoing endeavor, that is the process of sādhana-bhakti, to cleanse the heart, the temple of the heart, to make it a fit place for the Lord to reside. And the main process for cleansing the heart is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

This chanting, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, it cleanses the mirror of the mind. Just like if you look in a mirror, but if the mirror is covered with a layer of dust or dirt, you can’t see anything, you can’t see who you are. So, because our mind, our senses, is materially covered, we don’t really know who we are. But in actuality, we are eternal servants of Krishna. So, when we chant, cleanse that mirror, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, clean the mirror of our consciousness, then we will be able to see who we are. And who we are is eternal servants of Krishna. And seeing ourselves clearly in the mirror of the mind means seeing ourselves not in isolation, but in relationship with Krishna. So, it means ultimately, seeing Krishna. Just like we can see Krishna in the temple and serve Krishna in the temple, when we are fully purified by chanting Hare Krishna, by saṅkīrtana, we will see not only who we are, but we will see who we are in relation to Krishna, and we will be able to serve Krishna in our spiritual forms. Because just like Krishna has a spiritual form, we also have spiritual forms, but not with the same potency as Krishna.

So, this is real self-realization. Self-realization includes God realization because that is who we are, we are servants of God. And so, the chanting, the worshipping of the deity in the temple, is very powerful. But there are some requirements; you need the deity, you may need some paraphernalia, you may need some knowledge, you may need some qualification. But the chanting, you can do anywhere and everywhere. There are no hard and fast rules for chanting, and therefore, it is the universal process, especially for the present age of Kali. So, we will chant together now. In all of our activities, of worshiping the deity for example, we also chant along with it. So, during the bathing ceremony, we will also be chanting the holy name. But the chanting is such we can do it anywhere and everywhere at any time. And we should do it, as far as possible, everywhere, at all times. That will cleanse our heart, we will realize who we actually are, which means realizing our eternal spiritual identities as loving servants of Krishna in full ecstasy. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.