How Does God Manifest Himself in the Deity
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2012
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Nam Vishnupadya Krishna Prastaya Bhutale, Srimati Bhaktividanta Swami Dinnamini, Namaste Saraswati, Gauravani Pracharini, Nirviche Sashunnavadi Paschatyatesha Tari Vancha Kowpataravishcha Kripa Sindu Vivacha Pattitanam Pavane Biovishnava Byonawma.
J Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Sri Advaita Gdathara Srivasa Ghora Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hhareari raam rama rama hari Ajanu Lambi Jokana Kavadata sankirtanaika pitara taksa, viswambaru dviavaru Yuga Dharma Palu Vandeja Gatpriakaru Karunavataram, Yundak Pravishamamavachamam Prasuptam, Sanji Vayatakila Shakti daraxwadhamna anyamschahastacharana sramanatva gadim pranandamo bhagavati purusayatuyam.
Modern culture and media influence
Hare Krishna. I'm very happy to see all of you here. It's very important that you take interest in this philosophy and culture.
Unfortunately, this culture here in India quickly becomes forgotten due to the history, difficult history of India for the last several centuries and especially because of the aggressive invasion of uh TV and internet in our lives.
Before we had invaders like Muslims and British, now we have another kind of invasion and everyone has the invaders in their homes. That's called TV.
TV is a very powerful tool for the so-called modern civilization to control your minds. Actually the tool to create desires in your head. According to very culture, perpetual desires which we have is a problem.
But according to modern culture it's fun. The whole modern culture is based on proliferation of these desires.
People are constantly bombarded by different messages so that the fire of desires would be increasing and increasing in their hearts.
This is how the modern culture, the modern economy, the modern civilization, so to speak, is based. You know you have to have fire of desires, insatiable fire of desires burning more and more brightly in your heart.
That actually makes people slaves.
All these advertisements, they're there and TV is only uh it's only used for this, you know, to implant in you different commercials. That's the only use. Ultimately that's what they want. The purpose of TV is to implant the desire to buy all this junk which is there.
And especially in India people are still very innocent in one sense. And innocent people are easily spoiled by this. In the West people are more sophisticated so they don't go for it so easily.
Material desires versus spiritual satisfaction
But in India they're like anyway, they're eager to get all this garbage which is and spoil their lives. But ultimately, the very culture is there to make us happy.
The modern culture, the amazing feature of the modern culture is that it satisfies your increasing desire, but everyone becomes more and more and more progressively unsatisfied.
That's what we see in the West. I'm coming from this background, so I know it perfectly well. And unfortunately, Indians they don't have some brains to see what's going on in the West.
People are totally completely unhappy in the West, especially in America. Every Indian wants to go to America. But this is the country where people are completely totally unhappy.
Despite all these material opulences and everything which they have, the dissatisfaction is growing and growing and growing.
And there are different means to kind of put it down a little bit, but ultimately the reality or the truth is that the spirit soul, which is spirit by nature, cannot be satisfied by any amount of matter.
That's the mistake.
The very serious mistake, fundamental mistake of the modern civilization is that it tries to make people happy, and the premise of this culture is that you will become happy if you have matter. And the more matter you have, the happier you are.
But how, tell me, how the soul, which is spiritual by nature, can be satisfied by matter. First of all, matter cannot become the part of the soul. It will always remain outside of the soul, outside of us.
It will always remain something like you know which is external to us. It's interesting that in Hindi, as far as I know, and definitely in Sanskrit. That I know for sure there is no verb to have.
You can always say mere pas, right? It's near to me. You cannot say I have it because and it's a different concept. You know, in English you say I have it. You know, you don't have it. It's just near to you.
It will never become, no matter how much you try, the matter will never become part of you. You will never possess it. Because if something, if if you would possess something, you will never lose it.
And all material things you will lose. This is my blessing. This is not the blessing, this is the reality.
You know, people may they they they're so obsessed uh by trying to get some matter but ultimately you know you lose matter.
The illusion of material possession
There is a nice story I'm I'm coming to the topic which you gave to me. India was the richest country. For millennia, India was the most rich country because ultimately there was this treasure of spiritual culture.
And this treasure, this root, this mool of spiritual culture ultimately created material culture as well. And Alexander the Great, he was the first invader who came here to India. But you know, he died very young.
He was the emperor of the whole world. He was the richest person, the most powerful person. You know, the thousands of years back he was very powerful.
So when he was dying, when he it was clear that he is dying, he said please when you take me in my last journey in a nice box decorated with all kinds of riches which I have. Please make my hands go like this.
Usually when people are dead, their hands are like this. But he said, specifically, make my hand go like this.
And when they asked uh you you know why did want why do you want to have the hands like this so that everyone would see that my hands are empty that will be the proof, you know, I have everything, but you know I cannot take anything with me.
Because ultimately we cannot possess anything in this world. We can only have some mental feeling that I have something. Ultimately, whatever possession we have, it's just a mental feeling.
You know, like people, especially nowadays, nowadays as this rich people, all their riches is just is just basically the zeros in the computer system, more or less. There is no even, you know, material things there.
Oftentimes it's all it's just some kind of concept which is there in the computer. And you can take few zeros, you can add, anyway, I don't know how it works. But ultimately there is nothing material even for this.
It's just some and but when people have this, of course they have some power, they have some influence, but they feel very strong because of this mental concept.
If somebody has much in the material sense he has a very, you know nice feeling inside. I'm so special. But ultimately, this is not special in the eyes of God. In the eyes of God, it's just nothing. It's just zeros.
Prabhupāda used to say, no matter how much zeros you have it's all zeros. Unless you have one in front of them and one in front of them is God.
If there is one, then you know you can have many zeros then they they have meanings otherwise you know people uh they have God especially here in India people they have some concept of God or some understanding of God.
But God is somewhere on the back side. So they have all the zeros in front and the ones somewhere on the back. And all the zeros are zeros. It's meaningless. It's just zero, zero, zero. Sunya sunya sunya sunya.
And ultimately if we after this sunya, after this empty material things in this world, our life will become sunya. Our heart will become empty. Completely zero. Nothing.
The real purpose of human life
So uh the very culture teaches that there is truth, and this one truth which we need to understand is the most essential meaning of human life. Ultimately, we can be called humans only if we fulfill this purpose.
All these material things anyone can have. Dogs and hogs and everything, they are very happy creatures. They don't have depression, they don't have they don't have, you know how you call this, you know, stress.
You know, it's it's uh it's much happier life. Human life is such a headache, you know. Depression and you know, so many people commit suicide and so much stress is there and you bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.
Uh But uh uh and therefore so many human beings choose to become hawks in the next life because it's uh it's much happier alternative.
But ultimately human life is very precious because in human life you can understand God.
You can understand your own nature. You can understand your real need, your real your real desire. Actually the desire is there to understand God.
And Vedic culture, every element of Vedic culture is designed in such a way to push people in this direction, to try to help people, to concentrate their consciousness on God and to make them happy and fulfilled inside.
The pursuit of modern people is also to become happy but they are trying to find happiness outside. There was a very nice story about one rich person. He was a very rich person and he once went on pilgrimage.
And when he went on pilgrimage because he was rich, you know, some thief, he thought it's a good chance for me.
He's there alone and I will become his companion and somehow or other I will see where he keeps his money, his wealth.
So this thief, he pretended that he's also a pilgrim and he said, Let's go together, I will go with you to holy places.
And he would see that you know during the day he was using his money but somehow or other he would he would mysteriously hide this money somewhere at night.
So at night the thief was you know, waking up and very quietly he was trying to find money. He was looking everywhere, here and there and everywhere until he couldn't find.
In the morning, again the same thing would happen, you know, somehow or other he would this rich man he would get his money.
But at night he couldn't find, you know, that repeated the story repeated itself night after night after night. Finally, this thief he thought this man must be a mystic yogi. He's hiding it so nicely.
Must be some trick behind this. So he decided, he became so curious about this. So he came to this rich man and he said, You know, I want to confess to you, I'm a thief. And I wanted to get your money.
But somehow I couldn't find them. I was looking everywhere at night when you were sleeping. I couldn't find. the money. Can you please tell me where did you hide the money?
And the rich man he smiled and he said, I knew that you were the thief. So I hid the money in the place where you would never look for it under your pillow.
This is the place where I kept money because I knew that you will be looking everywhere, not under your own pillow.
Seeking happiness within the self
So, the lesson of this little story is that people are looking for happiness everywhere, but not in the place where the happiness is. That is our own heart, our own soul.
You know, the fulfillment of our own soul is the happiness. When we feel fulfilled, when we feel that we are living with some meaning, that our life has meaning, deeper meaning.
Meaning which is not limited by the life which we have, then only happiness will be there, satisfaction will be there.
And that only possible if we are somehow or other trying to connect our limited soul with unlimited spirit created this world. You know, we will always remain unfulfilled if we are not trying to connect with the whole.
I was telling the other day when I was giving lecture that the part cannot be happy outside of the whole.
You know, if you if you take any part, if you take, let's say, you know, any part, you know, you take riksha. And there are so many parts there. And when part is there as a part of the whole, it feels very fulfilled.
It's just, it's proper, it's normal. But you know, if it's just lying somewhere on the street, you know, who needs it? Nobody needs it. It's useless. So what happens with us when we are not part of the whole?
When we are loitering on the street, it's the same as if you know it's just some spare part of the riksha lying somewhere. Who needs it? Nobody needs it. This is the definition of the part.
The definition of the part is very interesting. Part is meant to serve the whole. And where part? Do you have some objection against it? Somebody thinks that he is the whole? That he is the complete whole? No.
We're not the whole. We will never be whole. But we can become very useful part of the whole, if we connect ourselves with the whole. When we're not connected with the whole, we're useless.
You know, you take any part of your body. It's very useful. But only as long as it is connected with the body. You know, you take this finger. It's a very nice thing, right? It's very useful, you know.
Can do so many things, you know. Clean your nose or do so many other things. But just cut it off and you know do you need it? Does anyone need it?
If this nice finger is cut off, let's say this finger will decide that from now on I'm independent. I will live on my own. And I will decide what I want. Right? It will become useless. Totally useless rotten thing.
So when the human being has this rotten consciousness of independence. I am independent of God. He is useless. He is absolutely useless.
So the glory of Vedic culture is that it explains by different means that you are not independent. First of all, you are dependent on your parents. Even if we take just you know, that just the culture as it is, you know.
People are told that you're dependent on your parents, you're dependent, you're dependent, you're dependent, you're dependent on your guru, you're dependent, you're dependent. Why?
Ultimately, to give you understanding that you're dependent on God. And in every culture there are so many representatives of God. I'm coming to the point.
In every culture, you know, in every culture there is a glorious understanding that God is everywhere and God can be represented in this world for us.
And we can practice our dependence on somebody, who is the representative of God?
Like in Upanishads, in Chandogya Upanishad, it is explained that when guru would bade farewell to his student, he would tell him a mantra, very important mantra.
Seeing representatives of God in culture
The guru, when the student would finish his course, he would tell him the most important thing. It's like graduation ceremony.
Like if you get some bachelor degree or master's degree, you know, they put this funny thing on you and, you know, and give you some useless paper. But in Vedic culture and this graduation ceremony was different.
Nobody would put funny thing on you. You know, the guru would tell you the most important thing.
And the most important thing which would be there is that uh you know Matri Deva Bhavo, Pitri Deva Bhavo, Acharya Deva Bhavu, Titi Deva Bhavo.
The Guru would say to you that you're looking for God. Here is the representative of God. Plenty potential representative of God, your mother, your father, Guru, and even guest, just guest comes to you.
This is God who is coming in the form of the guest to test you. Do you understand anything or not? You know, all these things are there for us to understand our dependence on God.
It is also said in very culture that the king is representative of God. You have to treat him as God. You have to treat your guru as God. You have to treat your mother as God.
And you know, so many gods are there, and you have to treat them as God. And you know, everything you have to treat as God. Why? Because ultimately everything is God.
Because God is the source of everything, and your relationship with everything else, if you understand that God is behind everything, then you will understand how to relate to God.
And ultimately, what we have to understand that God is coming to our life in so many different forms. Sometimes people say, show me God. Once Prabhupada was giving lecture and he was sitting and deity was there.
Prabhupada was giving lecture and one man challenging, hippie in a funny dress. He was, you know, in the hippie culture sometimes people would wear weird things.
He had long robes with big stars in it. Blue robes with big stars in it, you know. And he stood up. And he asked Prabhupada in a very challenging mood. Have you seen God? Do you see God? And Prabhupada looked.
And he said, Yes, I see him, but you are on the way. So what is in reality happening with us? We cannot see God because we are on the way. Because ultimately our concept is wrong. It's not difficult to see God.
It's not difficult to feel God.
Recognizing the omnipresence of God
It's not difficult to feel the presence of God because God is everywhere. God is Vishnu. The first name in Vishnu Sahastranam, the thousand names of Vishnu, which Bhīṣma teaches to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira.
The first, the very first name is what? Do you know? Vishva. And Vishva means what? Universe. The world. You know, this is the first name of Vishnu. The very name Vishnu means Vishate, the one who entered. Where did he enter?
Everywhere. He entered every atom. He entered our heart. He entered everywhere. He is there. He is everywhere. God is everywhere. Our problem is that we are so stupid that we don't see him. And we say, please show us God.
He's everywhere. He's there. You know when Hirṇyakaśipu asked Prahlāda, is God in this column? He was very proud.
He was in his palace and he was showing the you know the Prahlāda was saying, God is everywhere, God is everywhere, God is everywhere. God is hiding in your heart. And you know, Hiraṇyakaśipu said, show me.
Is he in this column? If he is everywhere, he must be in this column. And at that very moment they say that Prahlāda looked at this column and he saw God there, Nṛsiṁhadeva. And God, it twinkled him.
Meaning you know you see me and I see you and this fool doesn't see me. You know. The meaning is very simple. God is everywhere, he's in this column. He is. And of course he is in his murti.
You know, he can be anywhere because he is, he entered everywhere. In Brahma-saṁhitā, there is a very nice verse. Tamaham Bhajami. I'm worshiping Gavinda, the primeval Lord. Why?
Because by the means of His energy, He entered everywhere. He entered every atom. Andantarasta paramanu chayantarasta. He is inside every atom and he is outside of every atom.
So this is a very important understanding and foolish people they they they cannot understand this. You know, we're always fighting with these foolish Christians. I'm really sorry I love Christians.
They're very nice people but sometimes they are so foolish it's just unbelievable. Why? Because they say you worship idol. You know, they say that it's all idol worship. And I'm sure you heard this.
You know, all this Hinduism is just pagan idol worship. It's not idol worship. It's God worship. And they themselves, they worship, you know, they worship these little pictures which they have icons.
And it's also a picture of God. The point is that if God is everywhere, why he is not in his murti? He is everywhere, and one can say this, but
The significance of temple deity worship
you know the very important understanding here is that it's not enough for us to know that God is everywhere. Listen very carefully. It's important, it's an important starting point.
To understand that God is everywhere, that He is in everyone's heart, that He is in the heart of every living being. And you can only understand this if you start treating some living beings as representatives of God.
You know this understanding real anub experience will come to you only if you start treating other people properly. But that's only beginning.
Some people, some foolish people, they say, oh God is everywhere, why should you go to the temple? You know the very foolish people, very gross people, they say, you know, God is nowhere.
Stupid people they say, you know, anyway, so but foolish people say God is nowhere. But you know, some less intelligent people they say God is everywhere, why should I go to the temple? Why should I go to the deity?
Why should I worship the deity? He's everywhere. You know, the very simple answer to this: water is everywhere, isn't it? Water isn't there in the in the air, right?
You know, water is there in this in this nice asana, water is there in this stone, in this marble, water is there in this floor, right? It's there. You know, some little chemistry, right? It's there. It's definitely there.
And if you are thirsty and you come to somebody and say, please give me some water and you tell you water is everywhere. You know, you give him some piece of wood and say, you know, here's water, you know, take it.
Water is there in the air, right? You know, take it, you know what is the problem? So much water is there. My question to you, can you quench your thirst by this water? No. How you can quench your thirst?
You can take water where? In a glass, right? And then only you can quench your thirst. So what is happening with us? We have the thirst for God. Everyone, every single living entity has the quench for God.
He wants to find God. And it's absolutely not enough for him to know that God is everywhere to quench this thirst. You have to tell him that God is hiding in his full complete form.
And for this, deities are there in the temple. You have to tell him that if you want to quench your thirst for God, you have to go to guru because he is the complete representative of God.
And if you properly establish your relationship of service with Guru, you will quench your thirst for God. You will understand, you will really understand, you will see God. You will see God in your own form.
You will see God in the heart of every living entity. If you establish this relationship with guru. And besides that, you know, God is there in the temple, in the form of deity.
And this is a very important understanding because Krishna takes this form of the deity to see how sincere we are.
Krishna doesn't he's not in a hurry to come to us because he knows that we don't really we want him and at the same time we don't really want him. As I said, everyone wants God, but at the same time, everyone's wants you know you know it's just it's a very mixed feeling which we have towards God.
You know you know I yes I want you but please leave me alone. Something like this. Yes we want you but we want to be on our own. You know, I want to be, I want to do what I want, not what you want from me.
So uh and that's a problem. That's why God is not in a hurry to come in front of us in person. That's why He comes in front of us in the form of the deity.
The reason here being that you know, God for those who don't like him, he will just remain a deity. For those who don't believe in him, who neglect him, he will just remain a deity. No harm.
Like, you know, there it's it's very simple reason every one of you can understand this. Would you like to go in a society of people, in a sango of people, where people don't appreciate you?
Don't like you you know when they have some ill feelings against you you would not like to go you know if you had to go you would rather send your photograph to them. So it's exactly what God is doing with us.
Because He does not really feel confident that we need him. He just sends his picture, his statue, his form.
And according to our feelings towards this form in the temple, he may represent completely fully or he may not represent at all. Like Muslims, they are very active you know fighters against this idol worship.
And I once spoke with one Muslim and he said, You have such a stupid religion. That's what he said. I'm sorry for quoting this in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda, but I'm making important point which he couldn't understand.
He said you have such a stupid religion because you say the God is there in the temple. And what will happen if I go to this God and I kick him. Isn't it stupid you know that you know I can kick?
You know that the the simple answer to this stupid question and stupid understanding is that God will not be there when you kick him. And ultimately, because you are kicking God, you will get kicked by him.
Because God says, Yayathamamprapah statamiya bhajanyaham. How one relates to me, I relate with him the same way. God, He will not be there. If somebody does not understand that this is God, God will not be there.
Addressing misconceptions about divine nature
But if somebody understands that this is God, and if somebody serves this image of the deity with love and devotion, God completely, fully will be there and will reciprocate with him.
And God is perfectly capable of doing this. Sometimes again, stupid people ask the stupid question: can God create a stone which He will not be able to lift? It's the most stupid question I have ever heard.
Because people they say, you know, if if you say that God can create a stone which he will not be able to lift, then it means that he is not almighty, that he is not all powerful, because he cannot just leave this stone.
And if you say that he cannot create the stone which he cannot lift, then it again means that he is not almighty. Either he cannot lift it or he cannot create it. In either way he is not all powerful.
And this is such a stupid question. It's just an unbelievably stupid question. People think that by asking this stupid question they defeated God. And this is this is the most stupid proposition I have ever heard.
Because ultimately they only prove their own stupidity, nothing else. They didn't prove that God doesn't exist. Because God He can create the stone which he cannot lift. It's no problem for him.
And then he will lift it because you know it's no problem for him. Because God is not static. You know, he can create the stone which he cannot lift, you know.
When he was little Krishna, he couldn't lift even sandals of Nanda Mahārāja. It was a very difficult task for him to lift the sandals. But at the same time, he can lift universes.
It's just it's just the stupidity of people. So in the same way, when people say that you know God cannot be in this image. It's ultimately limiting God.
When people of this religion say, you know, once I spoke with some of them, they wanted to convert me into them into their religion.
And they started saying that this is this and this is that, God is this and God is that, and ultimately, you know, God is very great.
The only thing which they can say about God is that He's very great and say, Oh, He's so great. And you ask them how great He is, they say, no, we don't know how great, but He's very great. You know.
But then I I was I was little naive when I was speaking with them and I said uh you know maybe uh yeah I I don't remember exactly how the conversation went but the basic thing is that I said to them that God is joking, that God is just laughing. And they became so offended and they said God cannot laugh. Why? Because he cannot laugh. It would diminish his greatness.
But ultimately in reality what they say that God cannot laugh, God cannot cry, God cannot do this, God cannot do what you know, He's almighty, He's so powerful, but He cannot do all these things. You know.
How is that he is all-powerful? The real understanding of all-powerful God is that he can do anything. He can laugh, he can cry. He can become very weak. Because he is almighty.
You know, if you say that he cannot become weak, it means that he cannot, but he can everything because he is almighty. He can become weak. He can become anything.
And he can reciprocate with you from the image in the temple. Only if you perfectly know that He is God and the God is there.
The story of Sakshi Gopal
There is a nice story which Caitanya Mahāprabhu very much appreciated. This is the story about Sakshi Gopal.
Sākṣī-Gopāla was the deity in Vṛndāvana and this Sākṣī Gopāla He walked for a long distance to Vijayanagar, Vidyanagar in South India.
And he long he walked because two brāhmaṇas I, don't I will not go into this story, probably you have heard it. If you didn't then you can read Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
But the gist of this story is that two brāhmaṇas they came to Vṛndāvana and an elderly brāhmaṇa was from a very high class family and younger brāhmaṇa who was his assistant in this pilgrimage he was from a low-class brāhmaṇa family.
And the rich brāhmaṇa in front of the deity he said, I want to give my daughter to you.
And the young young brāhmaṇa said, Please don't do this because you know because your son will never allow this, your relatives, you know, there's caste system. Such complicated system, you know, I'm a low-born brāhmaṇa, you're a high-class brāhmaṇa. It will never happen.
But the rich brāhmaṇa he was insisting: you're such a nice boy, you have such a nice service attitude, I like you so much. I for sure I am the master of my words, I will give my daughter to you.
And sure enough, when they came back to the village and the rich brāhmaṇa said to his family, I want to give my daughter to this boy. The family was so upset.
His wife said, I will take poison if you give my daughter to this useless guy. And his son, who was an atheist, he said, no, this is forget it. It will never happen. I will not give my sister to this guy.
And the father said, but I promised in front of God in the temple. I give my solemn promise in front of God. How can I, how can I take back my word? I cannot do this because God is there.
He is the Sakshi. He is the witness. He said, oh, that's no problem. That's no problem.
You just, you just, when this young brāhmaṇa will come, you just tell him that you don't remember what you promised and I will take care of everything else.
So this young brāhmaṇa came to their house, and he said: I really am sorry, I know it's bad news for you, but your father promised to give your sister and
daughter to me in marriage. And they kied the father, and this young brāhmaṇa said: Did you promise it?
He said: Oh, I really don't remember, you know, I... I... I have become little senile. I may have promised it, I may have I don't really know. And the younger brother asked, he was an atheist.
The brother of this sister, the son of this rich brāhmaṇa, he asked: did you have any witness? He said, Yes, of course, we had witness. God Himself is our witness.
He said, Oh, if God Himself is your witness, please bring him here. He should confirm it. You know, if he is the witness, you know, we should have the fair hearing.
So this poor brāhmaṇa went all the way to Vṛndāvana and he said, I don't know anything, my dear Lord, but you have to come with me. I hate to bother you.
I know you like it here in Vrindavan, but you have to come with me. Why? Because otherwise this rich Brahman he will commit sin. He actually didn't want it for himself. He couldn't care less about this stupid girl.
You know, he he was not greedy after this girl. He was sorry for this elderly brāhmaṇa who promised to him and he was ready and who was ready to break his words. So he said to this deity, my dear Lord, please come with me.
And then Lord was really puzzled. His Gopāla was really puzzled. And he said to him: You know, don't you know that statues don't walk? You know normally statues they don't walk.
And this young brāhmaṇa said, my dear lord, statues usually don't talk either. But you just spoke with me, you know. And then he said a very nice śloka.
He said, Pratima na me He said you are not pratima to me, you're not a statue. You're not just a doll. You are Sākṣāt Vrajendranandana. You're directly the Supreme Lord.
And because you're the Supreme Lord, you can walk, you can talk, you can do whatever you like. And Gopāla was so pleased with his logic he said, you're right, you know, if I can talk, I probably can walk. I can try it.
He said let it be. I will go behind you. But please don't look back. Anyway, so he came. He came back to Vijayanagar then he came to Orissa, he's still there in Orissa. But he came back because of the bhāva of devotee.
Because the devotee had such a strong bhāva, such strong faith. You're not pratima. You're God. Then when God has somebody with such a faith, he cannot hide anymore. He comes out and he reciprocates.
It all depends on your bhāva. If you just stand and you look and you say, you know, this is this is a nice statue, you know, it will remain a statue to you.
But if you come to God, and you can try it, if you come to God, to Rādhā-Rāsa-bihārī, and you say to him, Pratima na me, Then you know Rādhā-Rāsa-bihārī can talk to you and say something. Very nice. How are you? He can ask.
He can do whatever he likes because he's God. And he takes the form of a statue to accept our service. That's the only reason why he takes this form.
He takes this form of the mūrti in the temple to accept our service and to give us the experience of the pleasure of the service.
You may notice it very nicely if you go in front of the Lord and you chant, you have one experience, and you just go your home and you try to chant and it's completely different experience. No comparison.
If you are there in front of the Lord and you try to do something, then the Lord will reciprocate.
If you are sincere according to the level of your sincerity, if you have sincere faith, then Lord will definitely give you some experience which will have a lasting effect in your heart. So he's there, he's in the temple.
And it all depends on you. If you think he is a stone, he will remain a stone. If you think he is God, he will be God. And he will accept your service and gives you some nice glow in your heart.
So that's in very simple words, the understanding of God in the temple. How he is God. He is God. There is no doubt because he is everywhere.
If he can come from the column, from the pillar, if he is in the heart, you know he's there for sure. This is the authorized form which is according to
the which has come according to the desire of great devotee. But now it depends on you how you relate to him. And if you relate to him with all sincerity, he will also reveal himself into your life.
And you will feel he is there. He is guiding me. He is with me every moment of my life. So that's that's something I could tell. Do you have any questions?
Proper consciousness in performing worship
No questions. Is it really very necessary to uh do the poja perform poja in a very accurate manner?
Like suppose if somebody does not know will it be fine if he just worship the way he wants or he feels that Krishna will accept his worship. In the beginning see what is puja?
Puja is a ritual which is supposed to manifest our relationship with God. Our love for God, I'll surrender to God. That's what puja means. Puja means worship.
And ultimately, when you have strong love for God, it actually for God it doesn't matter whether you do it very accurately or not.
If you forgot some mantras, you know, for God it's just you know, he could care less about all these mantras. But in the beginning, it's important for us to do everything properly because this is our way to manifest love.
If you do something sloppy, you know it's it's also it's a neglect. We if we have but when we come to the Lord we just want to do everything properly.
Ultimately on a very high level of love, you know, people can do with God whatever they like. And it just gives this. You know, like there are so many stories about deity worship in a very unorthodox way.
You know, sometimes great devotees they would worship deities in a very strange way. There was a great disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, spiritual master of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
His name was Vaṁśīdāsa Bābājī Mahārāja. And he had Gaurāṅga-Nitāi deities. And once a thief came to his little
cottage, he was living very poorly and you know he didn't have any practically anything in his possession, so that he ultimately he took one pot in which he cooked for the deities and ran away with this pot.
When this Vaṁśīdāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, he came and he found out that a thief uh did this uh to him. He became so angry and he started chastising his Gaurāṅga-Nitāi. He said, you know, you're just such a nonsense.
Why did you allow this thief to take away this pot? So from now on you will starve. You will fast. I will not cook for you anymore. He was chastising them. You know that's okay for him.
Uh it probably not okay for you, you know. There's sometimes it's very difficult.
Uh once this same Vaṁśīdāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, he was walking in the street and because he was little strange looking, he was like avadhūta, he
had long matted hairs and and the street boys started teasing him and throwing uh throwing stones at him and he became so angry but not at these boys. He became angry at Krishna. He said, Krishna, this is nonsense.
Why do you allow these boys to throw stones at me? I will go and tell mother Yaśodā what you are doing to me, and she will nicely punish you. Because you're doing. I will complain to her about this.
Anyway, the point is that in the beginning when we want to do something uh we have to try to do it properly. And that's how our relationship with deity will manifest.
But you know if you reach some high platform they they you know they don't do this proper things they just do something with love and
if you do something with love, Krishna will accept it. Even if you don't do it very properly. If you have this understanding that this is my reciprocation with God, you just give him.
He says, patram pushpam phalam toyam bhaktyā yaḥ prayacchati. He says, give me just one fowl, one flower, and one leaf, and a little water. He doesn't say give me two kilos of oranges and some pineapple.
He says just give me one, something, it doesn't matter. But do it with bhakti.
Probably sometime and in the center and uh sometime might uh duty nature then then sometimes we feel that very good and sometimes we are not it's not so interesting sometime feeling that we're really but uh uh sometime when we are doing that there is something different feeling.
Yes.
Fluctuations of the material mind
Some that time feeling that the something is advancing, but uh same time then what is really it means that you are still in the material world.
It means that you still have material mind, which has a very flickering nature. Material mind is very unstable. And sometimes it's you know it depends on the modes of material nature.
We are conditioned living entity and conditioned means that we're depending on the modes of nature. And you know now, and the modes are there in the mind. Primarily the seed of the modes of material nature is our mind.
So and if the modes are nice, you know, if we are somewhat satvik, then we do something and you know it's some nice feeling comes to our heart.
And then if we are rājasik and we do something and we feel like you know I I want to go and take some Coca-Cola as soon as possible. You know or how long I can do it. I just need to do something else, you know.
So it depends. It's it's only manifestation of unstable nature of our mind.
And when uh due to spiritual practice, due to sadhana, the nature of the minds changes, when the minds become stable, when the influence of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa becomes less, then you will always feel this nice feeling. That's the only thing.
Then you always feel and have some experience. Now you can only have this experience if you are in a proper frame of mind in a proper mood and a proper modes of nature. That's that's the same one question means uh
as I seen that uh in Iskan temple the details are so media and other places means I am not comparing but uh means there is some difference. There is difference, no doubt about it.
Then we we think that this is the Lord Himself and He is so beautiful. We don't know real form, but we are God. He is Himself Lord. Then why that form is not so beautiful.
Because in this temple Krishna accepts so much love and so much feelings that it becomes very beautiful. That's simple. Very simple.
It's just see, Krishna accepts the feelings and uh you can also feel his feelings when he is very happy with the worship which people do, you know that he's he's more present.
It's like you know if if something is really interesting is happening in your life then you're more present here if you are with somebody whom you love. You're very much present.
And if you have somebody whom you know sometimes some people you know bother you, some some people just come to you uh you know and they just want something from you and you can't care less about them and ultimately you know that they can care less about you.
You know, you're not really present in this exchange. You're half present or whatever, you just want to get rid of them.
So in the same way, when people are coming, you know Lord can be very much present if He feels their love and He can be half present there.
So you go to some other temple and people are not really worshiping God with love, they just want something from Him and He just wants to get rid of them, you know, and just, "Don't bother me so much." So this is this is the feeling which you have.
When you come to this temple and God is there, that's for sure, but He's not fully present there. Why? Because the worship which is conducted in this place is not really according to his liking.
See what is the difference between our school and
any other school's, practically any other schools, even bhakti schools in India, you know, because in other schools, in other uh movements and sampradayas people they want to see God as they want. And in our sampradaya, we want to see God as He wants us to see Him.
You know that's Krishna. Krishna is. We don't impose anything on God.
And that's why He is so much present in our temples. We want Him to be as He is in the most natural form. And that's Lord Chaitanya's teachings. We want to find God for his own sake, not for our own sake.
And in other sampradayas, it's more or less different because you know I want God to fulfill my desire and my desires first. Anyways, something. But that's a fact. You go somewhere and it's just not the same experience.
You go to some other temple, it's not the same experience. Not the same. Because God is not fully present there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.