Srila Prabhupada and Deity Worship

Giriraj Swami: My dear devotees, I will begin by reading two sections from my book, I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story, about deity worship. The first section is very important.

READING from I’ll Build You a Temple: The Juhu Story

From one perspective, the history of the Juhu project can be viewed as the story of Srila Prabhupada’s personal service to Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari. “My dear Sir,” he told Sri Rasabihari—and Them both—“You just stand here and I will build You a temple.” Yet at the same time as he was serving Their Lordships, he was also training us, his disciples, in the process of deity worship.

In Calcutta, he had raised the question, “What is the duty of the spiritual master, and what is the duty of the disciple?” Then he had given the answer: “The duty of the spiritual master is to serve Krishna, and the duty of the disciple is to assist the spiritual master.” He had given the example that it was his duty to see that the temple floor was clean, and so the disciple washing the floor could think, “It is my spiritual master’s duty to keep the floor clean, and I am assisting him by cleaning it.”

In his eight stanzas glorifying the spiritual master, Srila Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thakura states,

śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-

śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau

yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato ‘pi

vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

“The spiritual master is always engaged in the temple worship of Sri Sri Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. He also engages his disciples in such worship. They dress the deities in beautiful clothes and ornaments, clean Their temple, and perform other similar worship of the Lord. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master.” (Sri Gurv-aṣṭaka 3)

Srila Prabhupada explains, “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, proper decoration and dressing, as also by mandira-mārjana, the matter of cleansing the temple. 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.” (SB 2.3.22 purport)

So, when we, his disciples, made mistakes in our service to the deities, he corrected us.

Because of our material conditioning and atheistic tendencies, we may tend to neglect the deity—to think the deity is merely a stone or metal statue, not the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This tendency is acknowledged—and criticized—in shastra:

arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhir
viṣṇor vā vaiṣṇavānāṁ kali-mala-mathane pāda-tīrthe ‘mbu-buddhiḥ
śrī-viṣṇor nāmni mantre sakala-kaluṣa-he śabda-sāmānya-buddhir
viṣṇau sarveśvareśe tad-itara-sama-dhīr yasya vā nārakī saḥ

“One who thinks the deity in the temple to be made of wood or stone, who thinks of the spiritual master in the disciplic succession as an ordinary man, who thinks the Vaiṣṇava in the Acyuta-gotra to belong to a certain caste or creed, or who thinks of caraṇāmṛta or Ganges water as ordinary water is taken to be a resident of hell.” (Padma Purāṇa)

Done in the proper mood, with faith and veneration (śrī-mūrtira śraddhāya sevana), worshipping the deity is one of the five most potent processes of devotional service. As stated in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.

COMMENT

So yes, in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rupa Gosvami enumerates sixty-four items of devotional service. He says that of those sixty-four, five are most potent, and even a slight association with any one of them can awaken dormant love for Krishna. And the five are: sādhu-saṅga, nāma-kīrtana, bhāgavata-śravaṇa, mathurā-vāsa, and mūrtira śraddhāya sevana. So the last one, mūrtira śraddhāya sevana means to worship the deity with faith and veneration, the five most potent items of devotional service, deity worship.

READING (continued)

Done in the proper mood, with faith and veneration (śrī-mūrtira śraddhāya sevana), worshipping the deity is one of the five most potent processes of devotional service. As stated in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.90), śraddhā viśeṣataḥ prītiḥ/ śrī-mūrter aṅghri-sevane: “With love and full faith one should worship the lotus feet of the deity.”

But if we mistake the deity for a stone, metal, or wooden statue, or idol, we are doomed. Referring to the deity of Krishna, Srila Krishna- dasa Kaviraja Gosvami, the author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, states,

sākṣāt vrajendra-suta ithe nāhi āna yebā ajñe kare tāṅre pratimā-hena jñāna

“Without a doubt He is directly the son of the King of Vraja. Only a fool considers Him a statue.” (Cc Ādi 5.225)

sei aparādhe tāra nāhika nistāra

ghora narakete paḍe, ki baliba āra

“For that offense, he cannot be liberated. Rather, he will fall into a terrible hellish condition. What more should I say?” (Cc Ādi 5.226)

Commenting on this verse, Srila Prabhupada states, “Those who are actually very serious about devotional service do not differentiate between the form of the Lord made of clay, metal, stone, or wood and the original form of the Lord. . . The statue of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are not different, because the Lord is absolute. . . Even if one has not developed this consciousness, one should accept it theoretically from the instructions of the spiritual master and should worship the arcā-mūrti, or form of the Lord in the temple, as nondifferent from the Lord.” And thus he kindly trained us in the course of, and as part of, his service to the deities.

COMMENT

And then, one more section. Yes, Srila Prabhupada stayed in Juhu for three months while we were working on getting the permission. And during that time, he spoke on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, “Teachings of Lord Kapila,” and his lectures in Juhu were compiled in a book called Teachings of Lord Kapila, the Son of Devahuti.

READING (continued)

So, continuing his talks on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25, Prabhupada came to verse 35:

paśyanti te me rucirāṇy amba santaḥ

prasanna-vaktrāruṇa-locanāni

rūpāṇi divyāni vara-pradāni

sākaṁ vācaṁ spṛhaṇīyāṁ vadanti

“O My mother, My devotees always see the smiling face of My form, with eyes like the rising morning sun. They like to see My various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent, and they also talk favorably with Me.”

He related the verse to our beautiful deities of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari and the benefit people receive by appreciating Them:

“Here it is said, paśyanti te me rucirāṇi. Krishna is so beautiful, rucirāṇi. Rucira means very attractive. Now, fortunately, people in Bombay say that our deity here is most beautiful. They say there is no such deity in Bombay city. So, this is our duty, to dress Krishna in such an attractive way that people at least see that it is very beautiful. Then a person becomes a devotee, simply by appreciating. Simply by appreciating, if they say, ‘Now the deity worship is very nice,’ they go a step forward—immediately, simply by appreciation. Then other things will come gradually. Therefore the temple worship should be exactly to the routine, to the instruction of the shastra and guru and acharya, so that the worshiper as well as the visitor, both of them will benefit. They will be gradually seeing [the results].

“Krishna is so kind that He has consented to appear in a way that we can see. At the present moment we cannot see Krishna, as He is spiritually embodied, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, because we have no eyes to see sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. Here is also sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, arcā-mūrti. It is not idol worship. The atheist class may say so, but it is not so. Those who have got eyes, they can see. Just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when He entered the temple of Jagannatha, immediately He fainted: ‘Oh, here is My Lord. Here is My Lord.’ So, one has to become santaḥ. Then one can see. But it is by culture. Premānjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva (Bs 5.38). When you develop that culture, when you develop that love for Krishna, then you will see immediately, and you will faint: ‘Oh, here is my Lord.’”

COMMENT

So, one other note: I happen to be in Srila Prabhupada’s room here in Mayapur when a couple of devotees came in to present to him the Archana-padhati, their proposal for the manual of deity worship. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Keep it simple. In Kali-yuga, our main process is hari-nāma, and we should always remember that.” And Srila Jiva Gosvami says that deity worship should always be accompanied by a kirtan. So, this is my little presentation about deity worship to all of you students of deity worship, pujaris, and future pujaris.

And now, if any of you have any questions or any comments, any reflections you want to share, you can raise your hand. Alright, anyway, the main thing is to see that the deity is the Lord Himself. That is the main thing. And Srila Prabhupada said, in deity worship, the two main factors are cleanliness and punctuality. So, if we see the deity as the Lord and serve in the mood that the deity is the Lord, and are very careful about cleanliness and punctuality, then our deity worship will be pleasing and satisfactory to the Lord and to us.

Okay, thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: We see that during the eclipse period, we see a lot of temples are closed, and Mayapur is not closed. So, what is the principle about during the eclipse period? What should be the worship? Should the temple be open? Should it be closed?

Giriraj Swami: Well, you are saying that here they don’t close in Mayapur.

Devotee: They don’t close the darshan, but a lot of other places in India, they do close the temple. Not in Mayapur. So, what is the standard that is set by Srila Prabhupada?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I don’t recall any incident when there was an eclipse when Prabhupada made any statement. But yes, I think recently we were in Vrindavan during an eclipse, and they closed the temple darshan. I guess it could go either way, depending on what the authorities think is most appropriate under the circumstances.

Devotee: Actually, today we were discussing with some devotees if there is some person dies and their family members giving mahā-prasāda to the devotees. So, when we offer such food to be offered to the Lord, and when other devotees will take prasādam, some people were saying we should not take such food because it takes a lot of karma and all. So, my question is, so if it is offered to the Lord, then there is no question of all these things. So, can you clarify?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I agree with you. If the food is offered to the Lord with love and devotion, the Lord accepts it, and it becomes prasādam. So, there is no question of karma. In fact, as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, those who prepare food for their sense enjoyment verily eat only sin, but those who eat food offered in sacrifice are released from all sins. So, it is prasāda, and we should honor it, and we will be purified by accepting it.

Devotee: Devotee who has been serving the deity for a long time, how can he, come from a more intimate relationship with the deity? And he gave an example like Govinda Ghosh. . .So, how can one come to that platform of intimacy?

Giriraj Swami: Well, our most important process is chanting the holy names. And by sincere, attentive japa or kirtan, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, all the dirty things within the heart become cleansed. And Srila Prabhupada says the first dirty thing is to think I am this body. And Srila Prabhupada also said that by deity worship, you confirm that you are not this body. So, when you are on the spiritual platform, you can worship the deity with faith and veneration. And Srila Prabhupada says, in special cases, a deity can speak to the devotees. Sometimes a deity also appears in the dream of devotees. But the basis, I would say, is good chanting. If our chanting is good, then our service to the deity will be more pure and intimate. So, we should really chant nicely to cleanse our hearts.

Devotee: Thank you very much. Sorry for the late presentation, but I also want to say thank you for your inspiration and example from yourself. Usually, I am not used to this, but I use this only to listen to how you chant your japa, how you do your service. It is very inspiring. My question is about Srila Prabhupada. We know that Srila Prabhupada raised the standard of deity worship is very high, very beautiful quality of service. And from where Srila Prabhupada raised the standard because we can see temples, they don’t follow such a nice, great standard. So, from where Srila Prabhupada raised the standard? It was from family, from childhood, and also we see how the movement was developing in those days. It was very free. [Unintelligible 00:39:40]

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura also had a high standard of deity worship. What we see in the Gaudiya Math temples now may not be to the standard that we have, that Srila Prabhupada gave us. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had a high standard, and Srila Prabhupada gave us a high standard. He also saw that we Westerners had some talents and abilities that could be nicely engaged in deity service. And yes, the deity worship in ISKCON is spectacular. People don’t see that kind of deity worship, that kind of decoration of the deities, dressing of the deities; they don’t see that anywhere else. I have also never seen it anywhere else. So, that is Srila Prabhupada’s mercy and potency that he established such a high standard of deity worship and dressing and decoration in ISKCON. Does that answer your question?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:41:50]

Giriraj Swami: Well yes, you have seen pictures. Srila Prabhupada did the first ārati to Krishna-Balaram in Vrindavan. There are also nice pictures of him at the deity installation of Sri Sri Radha-Gokulananda in London. He installed many deities personally, Sri Sri Radha-Parisishvara. Yes, he was very personal in his relationship with the deities and in his service to the deities. And he showed by his example how we should relate to the deity, treat the deity, serve the deity, worship the deity. And he had a special relationship with Sri Radha-Rasabihari because he had promised them, “You come here, and I will build you a temple.” And so, he carried a picture of them with him wherever he went, and then he ended up in Vrindavan, of course, and he left in Vrindavan. So, that picture that he carried, that picture of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari that he carried with him, is now in Vrindavan. At one stage, he said, he is not so keen on the Juhu land. He said, “We have money, we could get land anywhere, but we invited the deity, and then to drive the deity away would be a great insult. So, I could not tolerate that.”

Devotee: As a pujari, sometimes we have to be very strict according to the temple management and the authorities. And many devotees feel offended. So, I feel very sorry at that time. So, how to deal with such situations?

Giriraj Swami: Why should they feel offended? What would you do that would make them feel offended?

Devotee: Sometimes they bring some flowers, or they bring some bhoga, and it is too late, and they want us to offer it. Then we have to say no. So, how to be personable with them and. . .?

Giriraj Swami: Well, we want to encourage them. They want to do some service for the deity. So, I think you just say that, it is too late for this offering, but we will, use it in the next offering, if it is possible. Just say, “We will just use it in the next offering.” And they should know the timings, and if they want you to offer something, they should bring it early enough. But if by chance they are too late for the offering you are doing, then you say, “I appreciate what you brought for me to offer, but it is too late for me to offer it at this time, but we will offer it at the next opportunity.” I think they should be all right with that.

Devotee: I have kind of an interesting question because a few times, on different occasions, devotees have brought something to the altar and asked me to offer it. For example, a laptop, an Apple laptop, and an iPhone at another point. And they are nice devotees; they are very sincere, and they want me to offer it to deities, put it on the altar, something like that. So, just wondering, I was a little hesitant to know exactly what should be done.

Giriraj Swami: I don’t think you can put those items on the altar, but you can say that this is a very nice sentiment. In your mind, you will offer those items to the deity, but you can’t physically place the item on the altar.

Devotee: I have one question. In Prabhupada’s time, things were quite simpler and small, and now we see everything is bigger, anything like festivals or temples. And sometimes devotees feel not connected because of such a vast area and we have a lot of people. And we often hear that in Prabhupada’s time, the process was more simplified. Now we have added so many things to the process. How do you see that, even when we perform festivals, in Prabhupada’s time, quite simple, now everything has grown bigger and larger. So how do we, when devotees asked questions that it was much simpler those times, why do we have to do these all other procedures or other activities? So how do we balance that?

Giriraj Swami: We can keep it simple the way it was during Prabhupada’s presence. There are devotees who have that inclination to do more elaborate worship and more complicated rituals, and in principle, there is no harm if they do that, if that is their nature and that is their propensity. But it is not necessary, and I also tend to favor the more simple methods that Prabhupada introduced.

Devotee: Actually, we see the devotees dedication towards Prabhupada’s movement, it is really very inspiring. So we like to know the secret of your success. How you are going tirelessly, always in devotional service, and so many. So how we can also develop, so what is the secret?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it is simple, I have faith in Srila Prabhupada and in the principle that by serving the spiritual master and pleasing the spiritual master, one achieves all success. So, I try to follow his instructions—and there are general instructions and specific instructions. So we follow the general instructions for sadhana, and then specific instructions, in my case, he told me to write. Repeatedly he instructed me to write, so I do that with keeping his instruction in the forefront. And yes, just keeps getting better and better. It is meant to get better and better, and it does get better and better. Yes, just stay with it.

Devotee: Maharaja, any pastime you would like to share with Radha-Rasabihari at that time? Would you like to share any pastime?

Giriraj Swami: Well, this one is a sort of odd one. So one day, the demolition squad from the municipality came, supported by the police, and they said that the permission for our small temple had not been renewed, which was false because I had met the municipal commissioner, and he had extended the permission for another year, and I had the letter in my file. And I went and I got my file to show to them, but they were not interested because they had been bribed; they had been paid off by Mr. Nair. So, they started to demolish the temple, and one by one, the devotees came forward to stop them, and they were taken and put in the police paddy wagon. And there was one lady named Matheli, sort of a big-bodied American woman, and yes, she just wouldn’t let them come close to the deities, and she was a woman, so it was hard for them to deal with her. But eventually, they did, and as they were pulling her away, she was kicking and screaming. And later Prabhupada said that she will go back to Godhead, kicking and screaming.

So, we were all taken to the police station, except there is one devotee, Manasvi dasa, he was Gujarati. He didn’t come forth with the rest of us, but he was crouching in the bushes and witnessing it all. And he found one of our friends, named Kartikiya Mahadivya, and told him what was happening and asked for some help. And Kartikiya Mahadivya called Bal Thackeray, who was the leader of the Shiv Sena political party and a staunch Hindu. And Bal Thackeray phoned the municipal commissioner and told him, “You have to stop this.” And the municipal commissioner falsely said that we don’t have permission, and Bal Thackeray said, “Don’t forget who owns this city,” which was sort of a veiled threat. “Don’t forget who owns this city.” So then the municipal commissioner said, “All right, Balashaeb, all right, I will stop it.” And the municipal commissioner phoned the K-Ward. We were under the K Ward, and the K-Ward officer came running personally to the site to stop the demolition.

Then, in the meantime, we were released from police custody, and we came back, and they had demolished a lot of the temple, and they were just getting to the deities’ room when the demolition was stopped. And when we came back, we had a picture of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva right on above the deity’s doors. It seemed like Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva protected them. And then there was a whole question about rebuilding the temple, and there were a lot of intricacies, but eventually, we rebuilt it. And one of the heroes was P L Shethi. He was Punjabi, a very staunch devotee of Srila Prabhupada, a bit of a kshatriya. So Nair had the local municipal corporator, Pushkant Mahatre, with him. So, when we were rebuilding the temple, Mahatre came and he said, “You can rebuild the temple, but I am going to come with fifty guṇḍās and break it down again.” And Mr. Shethi said to his son, Brijmohan, “Bring my rifle and revolver.” And he said, “How many, use the word ‘cartridges,’ do I have?” And Brijmohan said, “Two hundred and fifty.” So Mr. Shethi told Mahatre, “Fifty guṇḍās won’t be enough. You have to bring at least two hundred and fifty-one because I am going to shoot and kill the first two hundred and fifty.” So then, they didn’t disturb us again.

Devotee: I have a question. How is our education and our process of deity worship connected to our daily chanting? Should it enhance our experience of japa, or is just chanting just enough? Is there a connection between japa and other services, especially education and deity worship? So how is that connected? Does it affect our japa, or is just chanting as it is separate?

Giriraj Swami: Well, everything is interrelated, and if we do a good job, that will help us in our studies and in our deity worship. And if we study nicely and worship the deity nicely, that will help our consciousness, and that in turn will help our japa. So everything we do well will help us to do everything else better. Yes, they are all interconnected.

Devotee: I had a question regarding the demand of the temples for needing second initiation and compared with the eligibility of the candidate. So, what do you see as someone ready for second initiation, and then the temple needs it right now?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think different temples have different requirements for second initiation. Some require the candidates to take an exam, to take Bhakti-shastri, and it is good to have a high standard for second initiation. And if a temple urgently needs pujaris, I suppose the candidate could be given second initiation without meeting all of those requirements, on the condition that the devotee will subsequently fulfill the requirements. But the requirements should be fulfilled because they are important for a brahman.

Devotee: Srila Prabhupada established the Ministry in 1976, the Ministry of Education, and also two ministers. And what is the vision about these ministers? Because now, ISKCON is very weak, the ISKCON management is very weak, and sometimes we don’t know what is going on. [Unintelligible 01:03:15]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, well, the ministers have an important role to play. Just like GBC secretaries, they have a geographical area for which they are responsible. So the ministers have an area of service for which they are responsible. And we have a minister of deity worship, Narayana Kavacha and Narasingha Kavacha Prabhu. And we recently had the installation in Mauritius of the Pancha-tattva, and so he came and yes, the ministers have an important role to play. And yes, we need both people who are responsible for geographical areas and then people who are responsible for areas of service. Prabhupada conceived that we needed both; we could benefit from both.

Devotee: So this type of service, if I am minister of some department, so my service is a little bit wide. It is like supervision. When the minister is there, do they supervise all different aspects of that?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, supervising, yes, exactly. Basically, they supervise.

Devotee: In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna said in the Ninth Chapter, in the Second Verse, He said,

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

This pratyakṣa. How does it apply for us? Basically, how should we feel right now? Because sometimes Prabhupada said that “Work now, samadhi later.” And should we have the direct Krishna conscious experience of Krishna right now in sadhana stage, or it will come later?

Giriraj Swami: No, one can experience it now. rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ, you can have some experience now. As we are reading, we don’t have the eyes necessarily to see Krishna in His original form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha as such, but we can see the deity as Krishna, and the deity can reveal Himself to us as Krishna and reciprocate with our service. So we don’t have to wait for that.

Alright, so what is next?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]