SB 2.3.22 – Deity-Welcoming Program

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. We have gathered on the most auspicious occasion for the welcoming of the deities, Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. To honor the occasion, I will read about the importance of deity worship. We will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, pure devotional service. When I first arrived, I spoke on Text Twenty-Three, and today I will speak on Text Twenty-Two. Please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Please repeat.

TEXT 22

barhāyite te nayane narāṇāṁ

liṅgāni viṣṇor na nirīkṣato ye

pādau nṛṇāṁ tau druma-janma-bhājau

kṣetrāṇi nānuvrajato harer yau

TRANSLATION

The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu [His forms, name, quality, etc.] are like those printed on the plumes of the peacock, and the legs which do not move to the holy places [where the Lord is remembered] are considered to be like tree trunks.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Especially for the householder devotees, the path of Deity worship is strongly recommended. As far as possible, every householder, by the direction of the spiritual master, must install the Deity of Viṣṇu, forms like Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa or Sītā-Rāma especially, or any other form of the Lord, like Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, Gaura-Nitāi, Matsya, Kūrma, śālagrāma-śilā and many other forms of Viṣṇu, like Trivikrama, Keśava, Acyuta, Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa and Dāmodara, as recommended in the Vaiṣṇava-tantras or Purāṇas, and one’s family should worship strictly following the directions and regulations of arcana-vidhi.

COMMENT

Should I repeat what I read?

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, and your children are here?

Devotee: Yes [00:25:57 inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Oh, okay. And your wife?

Devotee: She went to look for the small daughter.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, I see, she found her. Okay, all right, please listen attentively to the translation.

TRANSLATION

The eyes which do not look at the symbolic representations of the Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu [His forms, name, quality, etc.] are like those printed on the plumes of the peacock, and the legs which do not move to the holy places [where the Lord is remembered] are considered to be like tree trunks.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Especially for the householder devotees. . .

COMMENT

How many here are householders? Most, almost all.

PURPORT (continued)

Especially for the householder devotees, the path of Deity worship is strongly recommended. As far as possible, every householder, by the direction of the spiritual master, must install the Deity of Viṣṇu, forms like Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa or Sītā-Rāma especially, or any other form of the Lord, like Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, Gaura-Nitāi, Matsya, Kūrma, śālagrāma-śilā and many other forms of Viṣṇu, like Trivikrama, Keśava, Acyuta, Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa and Dāmodara, as recommended in the Vaiṣṇava-tantras or Purāṇas, and one’s family should worship strictly following the directions and regulations of arcana-vidhi. Any member of the family who is above twelve years of age. . .

COMMENT

How old are you? Let each child stand up and say how old you are.

Child 1: Only nine.

Child 2: Nine.

Child 1: We are both twins.

Giriraj Swami: All right, let’s start again. Okay, how old are you?

Child 1: Nine.

Child 2: Nine.

Giriraj Swami: You are both nine, are you twins? Oh, okay. And then the other one?

Child 3: Twelve.

Giriraj Swami: Twelve! Okay, we got you! We got your number.

PURPORT (continued)

Any member of the family who is above twelve years of age should be initiated by a bona fide spiritual master, and all the members of the household should be engaged in the daily service of the Lord, beginning from morning (4 a.m.) till night (10 p.m.) by performing maṅgala-ārātrika, nirañjana, arcana, pūjā, kīrtana, śṛṅgāra, bhoga-vaikāli, sandhyā-ārātrika, pāṭha, bhoga (at night), śayana-ārātrika, etc.

COMMENT

Some of the terms might sound foreign. Maṅgala-ārati, we know that’s first every day; nirañjana, that’s a type of worship; arcanam, it’s a general term for deity worship; puja, also a general term. Kirtan, now we all know kirtan, and I’ve heard that one of the children here is very good at kirtan. Okay, śṛṅgāra, what does śṛṅgāra mean? Dressing and decorating. Bhoga-vaikāli, what is that? Offering food, offering bhoga, offering food. Sandhyā-ārātrika, evening ārati; pāṭha, reading and reciting Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; bhoga, at night; and śayana-ārātrika that’s the last of ārati of the night.

PURPORT (continued)

Engagement in such worship of the Deity, under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, will greatly help the householders to purify their very existence and make rapid progress in spiritual knowledge. Simple theoretical book knowledge is not sufficient for a neophyte devotee. Book knowledge is theoretical, whereas the arcana process is practical. Spiritual knowledge must be developed by a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, and that is the guaranteed way for attainment of spiritual perfection.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada explains—I mean, based on shastra, that there are two processes; one is called bhāgavata-mārga, which is essentially chanting and hearing about Krishna, and the other is pāñcarātrika-vidhi, which is the path of deity worship. For very advanced devotees like paramahamsas, chanting and hearing is sufficient, but for other devotees, which means most devotees, both are required. Those two paths of bhāgavata-mārga and pāñcarātrika-vidhi are compared to two tracks in a railway; in order for the train to go forward it needs to be on both tracks, if it’s on only one track it can be derailed and fall over. That’s why we emphasize both, and pretty much in all of Srila Prabhupada’s temples both are practiced.

PURPORT (continued)

Spiritual knowledge must be developed by a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge, and that is the guaranteed way for attainment of spiritual perfection. The training of devotional service for a neophyte devotee completely depends on the expert spiritual master who knows how to lead his disciple to make gradual progress towards the path back home, back to Godhead. One should not become a pseudo spiritual master as a matter of business to meet one’s family expenditures; one must be an expert spiritual master to deliver the disciple from the clutches of impending death.

COMMENT

There is a very important verse in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that says; gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt pitā na sa syāj. The idea is no one should become a guru, no one should become a father, no one should become a mother, no one should become a spiritual—a superior, one should not accept a superior position unless one can deliver his or her dependent from the repetition of birth and death. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada says; “One must be an expert spiritual master to deliver the disciple from the clutches of impending death.” But this responsibility lies not only with the spiritual master for his disciples but also with the husband, for delivering his wife, and for the parents for delivering their children.

In his purport Srila Prabhupada explains that one must be very responsible in discharging his or her duties, and the only way that one can deliver one’s dependence from the repetition of birth and death is if one becomes a pure devotee. So, everyone who’s a guru, or a father, or a mother, or a husband is responsible to deliver his or her dependents from impending death, and that can be done only if one becomes a pure devotee. A pure devotee can be defined in different ways, but a practical working definition is someone who is surrendered to the orders of the spiritual master.

In one letter Srila Prabhupada wrote to a disciple. That disciple thought that one of the devotees in ISKCON was a pure devotee, and from the way Prabhupada replied to the letter, it seemed that that disciple was suggesting that only that pure devotee should be followed and not others. Srila Prabhupada wrote back that; “So and so is a good soul, but do not be mistaken, anyone who is sincerely following the orders of the spiritual master, surrendered to the spiritual master, is a pure devotee.” We can take that definition of pure devotee, which is something that we can all attain. We should, if we are going to be a mother, father, or husband, we have to in order to discharge our duties properly.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has defined the bona fide qualities of a spiritual master, and one of the verses in that description reads:

śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-

śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau

yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato ‘pi

vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

Śrī-vigraha is the arcā, or suitable worshipable form of the Lord, and the disciple should be engaged in worshiping the Deity regularly by śṛṅgāra, by proper decoration and dressing, as also by mandira-mārjana, the matter of cleansing the temple.

COMMENT

Well, that’s also part of deity worship, cleansing the temple. In fact, once in Calcutta, Srila Prabhupada raised the question, “What is the duty of the spiritual master and what is the duty of the disciples?” and then Srila Prabhupada gave the answer; “That the duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krishna and the duty of the disciples is to assist the spiritual master.” He gave the example that the spiritual master, as a servant of Krishna, is responsible to see that the temple is clean. The disciples can clean the temple and be thinking that they are doing this to assist their spiritual masters in his service to Krishna. So, cleaning is very important. Srila Prabhupada said, “The more you clean the temple, the more you clean your heart.” And there is no gradation on the absolute platform of devotional service, it’s not that the service of offering ārati on the altar is higher and the service of cleaning the temple is lower. No, that is not the correct understanding, all service is absolute, and cleaning the temple is as important as offering the ārati. In fact, one might get more mercy by cleaning the temple then by offering the ārati.

PURPORT (continued)

The spiritual master teaches the neophyte devotee all these kindly and personally to help him gradually in the realization of the transcendental name, quality, form, etc., of the Lord.

Only attention engaged in the service of the Lord, especially in dressing and decorating the temple, accompanied by musical kīrtana and spiritual instructions from scriptures, can save the common man from the hellish cinema attractions and rubbish sex-songs broadcast everywhere by radios.

COMMENT

Well, the same principle applies. Of course, people have other ways of tuning into this nonsense besides radios now, which—well, anyway, but the idea is that to give up the inferior, we have to be engaged in the superior, we cannot just negate that no maya, but we have to have the positive alternative of Krishna. There is a beautiful verse in the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, yat-pāda-paṅkaja-palāśa-vilāsa-bhaktyā, and the idea is that material desires flow like waves in a river without cessation, and there is no way to overcome those material desires other than devotional service to Krishna, Vasudeva. In the purport Srila Prabhupada gives the example that yes, material desires are like the waves of the river, which flow without cessation, but the river flows somewhere, it flows into the ocean. And sometimes it happens at high tide that the waves of the ocean become more prominent than the waves of the river, and the waves of the ocean over flood the river. And thus, the desires to serve Krishna become more prominent than the material desires. That’s the only escape from material desires, which bind us to the material world and cause us to suffer in so many ways, and that is if we develop superior desires, and those desires become more prominent than the material desires.

PURPORT (continued)

If one is unable to maintain a temple at home, he should go to another’s temple where all the above performances are regularly executed. Visiting the temple of a devotee. . .

COMMENT

And that obviously can apply to our ISKCON temple.

PURPORT (continued)

Visiting the temple of a devotee and looking at the profusely decorated forms of the Lord well dressed in a well-decorated, sanctified temple naturally infuse the mundane mind with spiritual inspiration.

COMMENT

Then the second part of the verse says that people who don’t go to the holy places, their legs are like the trunks of trees. Now Srila Prabhupada says;

PURPORT (continued)

People should visit holy places like Vṛndāvana where such temples and worship of the Deity are specifically maintained.

COMMENT

The two go together, the temple worship and the holy places.

PURPORT (continued)

Formerly all rich men like kings and rich merchants constructed such temples under the direction of expert devotees of the Lord, like the Six Gosvāmīs, and it is the duty of the common man to take advantage of these temples and festivals observed in the holy places of pilgrimage by following in the footsteps of great devotees (anuvraja).

COMMENT

We discussed this word “aṇu” the other day in relation to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.11. Anukirtana, “aṇu” means to follow, so one should engage in kirtan constantly, following the ways of the great authorities and continuously, continuously. Now the Six Gosvamis were mendicants, they didn’t have any money, but sometimes—well, the Persians kings or merchants became inspired to offer service and the Six Gosvamis had them built temples. One such case was Srila Sanatana Gosvami, who had a deity named Madana-mohana. Sanatana Gosvami was a poor mendicant and he would just beg alms and get some atta, some wheat flour, and he would make dough from the wheat flour, make balls, cook the balls in fire and offer that to Madana-mohana. One day Madana-mohana said to Sanatana Gosvami, “Every day you just offer me these bread balls, is that the best you can do?” And Sanatana Gosvami said, “Lord, whatever you provide I offer You.” Madana-mohana said, “Well, can’t you at least offer me some salt with the bread?”

Shortly thereafter there was a big barge, a boat, carrying a large shipment of salt to be sold, and that barge got stuck on a sandbar on the banks of the Yamuna. It would not move, and the owner, one Mr. Kapoor, was very worried, what is going to happen to his salt and his barge? So, he was looking for some help, and back then, 500 years ago, Vrindavan was not very populated, and in fact, even in recent times—Srila Prabhupada had a nice devotee and supporter who lived in Vrindavan near the Krishna-Balarama temple named Bhagatji. His actual name was Vishvambhar Seth I believe, and he said in his childhood he could walk all the way from Vrindavan to Govardhana and never see the sun because the trees were so thick, and that was whatever, a hundred years ago.

Anyway, there were not many people in Vrindavan then. So, Mr. Kapoor was looking for some help, and he saw a little light on the hill, so he came up the hill. He met Sanatana Gosvami and he said, “This is the problem, I don’t know what to do,” and Sanatana Gosvami said, “Well, I don’t know if I can help you, but I think Madana-mohana, my deity, He can help you.” I guess they prayed to Madana-mohana, and the boat got freed from being stuck, and he was able to sell his shipment of salt and make a good profit. He felt very indebted to Sanatana Gosvami and Madana-mohana, so he built the beautiful temple that’s still there in Vrindavan.

PURPORT (continued)

Formerly all rich men like kings and rich merchants constructed such temples under the direction of expert devotees of the Lord, like the Six Gosvāmīs, and it is the duty of the common man to take advantage of these temples and festivals observed in the holy places of pilgrimage by following in the footsteps of great devotees (anuvraja). One should not visit all these sanctified pilgrimage places and temples with sightseeing in mind, but one must go to such temples and sanctified places immortalized by the transcendental pastimes of the Lord and be guided by proper men who know the science. This is called anuvraja. Anu means to follow.

COMMENT

Fortunately, in Vrindavan and Mayapur and Jagannatha Puri we have devotees who are competent to guide visitors, pilgrims, and give them the proper vision with which to see the deities and the holy places, and to engage in service in the holy places.

PURPORT (continued)

It is therefore best to follow the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master, even in visiting temples and the holy places of pilgrimage. One who does not move in that way is as good as a standing tree condemned by the Lord not to move.

COMMENT

In other words, if you are not going to go to holy places, to temples, then you might as well be a tree and stand still, because your, going to other places, has no value.

PURPORT (continued)

One who does not move in that way is as good as a standing tree condemned by the Lord not to move. The moving tendency of the human being is misused by visiting places for sightseeing. The best purpose of such traveling tendencies could be fulfilled by visiting the holy places established by great ācāryas and thereby not being misled by the atheistic propaganda of moneymaking men who have no knowledge of spiritual matters.

COMMENT

There are certainly many attractions for sightseers. Recently some devotees from—well, two devotees from Mumbai came to California, and one of the devotees has a sister who lives in California, and the sister was planning to take them to Disneyland. Now, at that time—and the plan was that after Disneyland they were going to come and cook for me, so the lady who was there to cook suggested, “Actually, it’s better that they come a few days early so they can learn how we cook for you and then they’ll be able to do it properly.” So, I wrote them this idea and they immediately dropped the plan to go to Disneyland, which is just as well in my humble opinion, I’ve never been to Disneyland, but I’m not envious if someone goes. I’m just saying that I think their time was better utilized by coming to our ashram, that should be our motto. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate, that one can give up the inferior taste of sense gratification by the superior taste of devotional service, Krishna consciousness. And, of course, all activities should be accompanied by the chanting of the holy name, including deity worship. Srila Jiva Gosvami states very emphatically that—and that’s how we have all of our āratis, accompanied by kirtan.

Just one other point about deity worship which Srila Prabhupada makes in a purport in the Bhagavad-gītā, and that is that the worship that we offer to the deity—of course, in one sense the duty is the Supreme Lord, but he says that the worship offered to the deity goes to the Supreme Lord. And he gives the example that if you put a letter in a mailbox, it’s as good as putting the letter in the—well, in India they would say the GPO, the main post office, but you can’t put the letter in any box, it has to be an authorized box of the postal department, and it has certain characteristics that indicate this is a place where you can deposit your letters for the postal service. He is saying in the same way the worship that we offer to the deities is as good as offering it directly to the Supreme Lord.

But you can’t just worship any form, I mean, there are—well, unfortunately, of course one category is demigods, but we already discussed that, it’s an offense to consider the demigods to be equal to or independent of Lord Vishnu or Krishna, so no demigods. Sometimes people even make up deities, there was—I don’t know, it was a movie or something, Jay Santoshi Maa in India. It turns out that Santoshi Maa was made up, there actually was no such thing as Santoshi Maa, they just made it up. No demigods, no imaginary made-up forms.

I’ve heard in India people say, “As long as you have faith, it doesn’t matter what you worship, you get the same result, it’s just a matter of faith.” But that’s not true, I mean, it has to be authorized, and Srila Prabhupada has repeatedly stated that the deity worship must be done in the authorized way, under the guidance of the spiritual master, and according to the shastra. He said that as soon as we start to concoct in the matter of deity worship, everything will be spoiled, so that’s very important. Of course, there is basic instructions in the Nectar of Devotion, and then our Governing Body Commission (GBC) has put together some books on deity worship with all the mantras and details. It’s good when we worship the deity to know the proper methods and to apply them. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: I understand the importance of deity worship, thank you for stressing on that, but in a poor country like India, where there are not enough material resources to take care of basic necessities, how does it make sense to build temples and spend the resources on deity worship?

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good question, but I’m not sure if the basis of the question is correct, that there are not enough resources, because the other day I was hearing Srila Prabhupada speak about how Krishna provides food for everyone. And he was saying that in a room there could be hundreds of ants who need one grain of sugar or whatever, and they are all getting their one grain. And in the jungle, there are elephants who eat forty kilos a day, and they get their forty kilos. He is saying that actually God is providing food for everyone, and it’s only the human beings who face the illusion of scarcity because of not living in harmony with God’s laws. Temples are meant to distribute prasāda, and in fact, in our temple in Mayapur, Srila Prabhupada said that no one within ten miles of the temple should go hungry. So, the temples do distribute prasāda. In fact, Srila Prabhupada said that previously they didn’t have restaurants in India because people could just go to the temples and get mahā-prasāda. All the big temples distribute profuse prasādam and ISKCON temples do too. If people come to temples and they become God-conscious then they definitely won’t have any hunger problem. Generally, if devotees have a problem related to eating, it’s how not to eat too much, how to accept all the food that the other devotees are offering them.

Devotee: Prabhupada made it very clear that actually the world could have ten times the amount of population, the problem is not that—there is no lack of resources, it is bad management. I remember very clearly how Prabhupada emphasized that everything is available, just like here in America we have a huge amount of everything. In fact, I think we throw away 60 percent of our food, so there is no lack of food in the world, there is poor government management and there is corruption due to the desires for sense gratification, lust, greed, all of these propensities are there. In the times of the rajas, the kings, when they were properly understanding what was required, they maintained the population. Everything was satisfactory and if a man was poor, he didn’t aspire to have more, but he had enough – that’s the problem.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, that’s true, they often dispose of food because they want to keep the price up, so it’s true, there is no scarcity. In fact, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, used to say that there is no scarcity, the only scarcity is of Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: What if there are no deities in the ashram, but pictures, is it also bona-fide?

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, I mean, there are different substances of which deities can be made, wood, metal, stone. And one is paint, so a painting or a picture can also be a deity, and you can offer ārati to the picture, you can offer your food to the picture, but some of the other items, dressing and decorating, you can’t. You might or might not know the story of Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, but He was one of the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan, and the other of the Six Gosvamis had deities, not just the Six Gosvamis, many devotees in Vrindavan had deities. But he had only a śālagrāma-śilā, so on the eve of Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśi the devotees were decorating their deities and preparing for festivals, and Gopala Bhatta Gosvami was feeling sort of sorry that He couldn’t decorate His śālagrāma-śilā the way they were decorating their deities. That śālagrāma-śilā manifested the most beautiful form, considered the most beautiful form of any of the deities in Vrindavan – Radha-Ramana. So that deity of Radha-Ramana in Vrindavan started as Gopala Bhatta Goswami’s śālagrāma-śilā. Maybe your picture will become a deity or not. Any other questions? Yes sir.

Devotee: You were talking about the post box.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Being authorized. Now there are many deities available in the markets, in the shops. When does it really become authorized? How do we know these are bona-fide deities? In the home how do we understand that it is authorized?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I mean, we had a prana-pratishta in our ashram in California which was performed with the help of His Holiness Indradyumna Swami and Sri Prahlada dasa. Sri Prahlada dasa was very learned, he lived in Mayapur for many years with Bhakti Vidyapurna Swami; he learned a lot. He explained, and it was true, it struck me as true, that the prana-pratishta is to create faith that the deity has entered into that form, and along with that, a commitment to service of the deity. But actually, because Krishna’s absolute, His form and He are not different, so the deity form of Krishna or Gaura-Nitai is Krishna or Gaura-Nitai.

In that sense you don’t really need to do the prana-pratishta, which is there for the purpose of creating faith and inspiring commitment to the service. So, if you get a bona fide deity in the form of Radha-Krishna or Gaura-Nitai, then even without the prana pratishta ceremony, They are Radha and Krishna and Gaura-Nitai, or Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra. The main thing is the consciousness, as Srila Prabhupada said, “If you see the deity as Krishna, the deity will speak to you. And if you see the deity as stone, then for you the deity will remain a stone forever.” Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante; If you surrender to the Lord, He reciprocates, and if you approach the deity as the Lord, then the Lord will reveal Himself in the form of the deity.

Devotee: There is a story in that regard that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada was supposed to come somewhere to install a deity, and one of his disciples was getting everything ready and getting the deity ready for the installation. And when Srila Prabhupada Sarasvati Thakura arrived, he said, “Oh, this deity has already been installed.” He was saying that because his disciple had done this preparation with so much love; because the disciple had that consciousness, therefore Krishna had come.

Giriraj Swami: That’s very nice. Yes, Lalita devi.

Devotee: Should our focus be on home deities, or temple deities?

Giriraj Swami: Well, that’s true, I mean, Srila Prabhupada did want the devotees to worship the temple deities, and he was concerned that if they were in a position to go to the temple, he was concerned that if they had home deities, they might neglect the temple worship, so that is true.

Devotee: Prabhupada also said that the reason why we have to have deities is that we do not have enough appreciation in the neophyte stage and therefore we have to see the deity in order to appreciate the presence of the Lord.

Devotee: It is getting a little late and the whole—

Giriraj Swami: I was just looking for the host, I was just going ask the host what’s next?

Devotee: [01:21:36 inaudible] and we move on to the temple room, it is a little smaller, but they are requesting that we move there and perform the ārati, and then somebody will sing kirtan. And then the prasāda will be served.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, we got our marching orders. All right, Srila Prabhupada ki jaya, Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra ki jaya, gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya.