The Significance of Deities

and Deity Worship

By Stephen Knapp

 

         Deities play an important part in most temples of Krishna and other Divinities. But what is the significance of Deities and Deity worship? One thing to understand is that all the images or Deities in the Vedic pantheon, as found in the temples, are made according to explicit details and instructions found in the Vedic texts . Then they are installed in the temple in an elaborate ceremony wherein the Divine personalities are called to appear in the form of the Deity. Some of the Deities are demigods, while others, such as Krishna, Vishnu, or Ramachandra, are forms displaying various pastimes of the Supreme Being.

      Some people, however, do not believe that God has a form. But many verses in the Puranas and particularly the Brahma- samhita establish that the Supreme Being does have specific forms according to His pastimes. These texts also describe His variegated features, which include His spiritual shape, characteristics, beauty, strength, intelligence, activities, etc. Therefore, it is considered that the authorized Deities of the Supreme that are shaped according to these descriptions provide a view of the personal form of God.

      Those who have no knowledge of God or His form will certainly consider the temple Deities as idols. But this is because they think that the Deities are simply the products of someone's imagination. Of course, there are those who say that God has no form, spiritual or material, or that there is no Supreme Being. Others think that since God must be formless, they can imagine or worship any material form as God, or they regard any image as merely an external representations of the Supreme. But images such as those of the demigods are not additional forms of an impersonal God, nor are they equal to God. All such people who think in the above mentioned ways have resorted to their own imagination to reach such conclusions and are, therefore, idolaters. The imaginary images and opinions of God that are formed by those who have not properly learned about, seen, or realized God are indeed idols, and those who accept such images or opinions are certainly idolaters. This is because these images or opinions are based on ignorance and are not a true likeness of the Supreme Being's personal form.

      Nonetheless, God is described in the Vedic literature, which explains that God is sat-chit-ananda vigraha , or the form of complete spiritual essence, full of eternity, knowledge, and bliss, and is not material in any way. His body, soul, form, qualities, names, pastimes, etc., are all nondifferent and are of the same spiritual quality. This form of God is not an idol designed from someone's imagination, but is the true form, even if He should descend into this material creation. And since the spiritual nature of God is absolute, He is nondifferent from His name. Thus, the name Krishna is an avatara or incarnation of Krishna in the form of sound. Similarly, His form in the temple is not merely a representation, but is also qualitatively the same as Krishna as the archa-vigraha, or the worshipable form.

      Some people may question that if the Deity is made from material elements, such as stone, marble, metal, wood, or paint, how can it be the spiritual form of God? The answer is given that since God is the source of all material and spiritual energies, material elements are also a form of God. Therefore, God can manifest as the Deity in the temple, though made of stone or other elements, since He can transform what is spiritual into material energy, and material energy back into spiritual energy. Thus, the Deity can easily be accepted as the Supreme since He can appear in any element as He chooses. In this way, even though we may be unqualified to see God, who is beyond the perceptibility of our material senses, the living beings in this material creation are allowed to see and approach the Supreme through His archa-vigraha form as the worshipable Deity in the temple. This is considered His causeless mercy on the materially conditioned living beings.

      In this manner, the Supreme Being gives Himself to His devotees so they can become absorbed in serving, remembering and meditating on Him. Thus, the Supreme comes to dwell in the temple, and the temple becomes the spiritual abode on earth. In time, the body, mind and senses of the devotee become spiritualized by serving the Deity, and the Supreme becomes fully manifest to him or her. Worshiping the Deity of the Supreme and using one's senses in the process of bhakti-yoga, devotional service to the Supreme, provides a means for one's true essential spiritual nature to unfold. The devotee becomes spiritually realized and the Deities reveal Their spiritual nature to the sincere souls according to their spiritual development. This can continue up to the level in which the Supreme Being in the form of the Deity engages in a personal relationship and performs reciprocal, loving pastimes with the devotee, as has previously taken place with other advanced individuals.

      At this stage, having darshan or seeing the Deity is not simply a matter of looking at the Deity in the temple, but to one who is spiritually realized it is a matter of experiencing the Deity and entering into a personal, reciprocal relationship with the Supreme Personality in the form of the Deity. At that stage, you may view the Deity, but the Deity also gazes at you, and then there is a spiritual exchange wherein the Deity begins to reveal His personality to you. This is what separates those who are experienced from those who are not, or those who can delve into this spiritual exchange and those who may still be trying to figure it out. For those who have experienced such an exchange with the Supreme or His Deity, at this stage the worship of the Supreme Being in the Deity moves up to a whole different level, with no limits as to the spiritual love that can be shared between the devotee and the Deity.

 

Where Do The Fallen Souls Fall From?

On learning that the material world is not our real home,
we naturally wonder, "How did we get here?" 

By Jayadvaita Swami 

WHEN WE HEAR that we live in this material world because we
are "fallen souls," it's natural for us to ask, "Where have
we fallen from?" 

Srila Prabhupada says that as living souls we are all
originally Krsna conscious. But what does that mean? Were
we all originally with Krsna in the spiritual world? And if
so, how could we ever have fallen? In Bhagavad-gita Lord
Krsna says, "Once you attain to that spiritual world, you
never fall." So how then could we have fallen from there to
begin with? 

Some have tried to work around this problem by suggesting a
different idea: We fell not from Krsna's personal abode but
from the brahmajyoti, the effulgent light that surrounds
it. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, yogis who seek the
impersonal aspect of the Supreme may merge into that
effulgent light -- only to fall back later to the material
world. Perhaps, then, we originally fell from the
brahmajyoti. 

Srila Prabhupada rejected this idea. Those in the
brahmajyoti, he wrote, are not Krsna conscious, so they too
are fallen. "So there is no question of falling down from a
fallen condition. When fall takes place, it means falling
down from the non-fallen condition." 

Well, then, since we're called "eternally conditioned,"
eternally illusioned, perhaps we've never really fallen at
all -- we've just always been down. 

That idea, too, Srila Prabhupada rejected. "Eternally
conditioned," he explained, simply means that we've been
down so long that when we fell is no longer possible to
know. 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, three generations before Srila
Prabhupada in the line of spiritual teachers, put it this
way: "Please avoid the misleading question 'When were these
jivas [living beings] created and enthralled?' The Mayik
time has no existence in spiritual history, because it has
its commencement after the enthrallment of jivas, and you
cannot, therefore, employ Mayik chronology in matters like
these." 

  
"The Relationship is Eternal" 

Here, then, is how Srila Prabhupada described our original
state and the way we fall and leave it. 

"Constitutionally," he said in one letter, "every living
entity, even if he is in the Vaikunthaloka [the personal
spiritual abode of the Lord], has a chance of falling down.
Therefore the living entity is called marginal energy." 

"Usually," he explained, "anyone who has developed his
relationship with Krsna does not fall down in any
circumstance, but because the independence is always there,
the soul may fall down from any position or any
relationship by misuse of his independence." 

In another letter, Srila Prabhupada gave further insights.
"We are always with Krsna. Where is Krsna not present?" But
"when we forget this fact we are far, far away from Him. In
the Isopanisad it is clearly stated, tad dure tad v antike:
'He is very far away, but He is very near as well.'
(Isopanisad, Mantra Five). So this forgetfulness is our
falldown. 

It can take place at any moment, and we can counteract this
forgetfulness immediately by rising to the platform of
Krsna consciousness." 

Our relationship with Krsna is never lost, Srila Prabhupada
said. "Simply it is forgotten by the influence of maya. So
it may be regained or revived by the process of hearing the
holy name of Krsna, and then the devotee engages himself in
the service of the Lord which is his original or
constitutional position. The relationship of the living
entity with Krsna is eternal, as both Krsna and the living
entity are eternal; the process is one of revival only,
nothing new." 

In still another letter, Srila Prabhupada restated this in
yet another way: "We are all originally situated on the
platform of Krsna consciousness in our eternal personal
relationship of love of Krsna. But due to forgetfulness we
become familiar with the material world, or maya." But when
we chant the Hare Krsna mantra sincerely and without
offense, our original Krsna consciousness is at once
revived. "So naturally everything about Krsna is originally
known to us all, and as soon as we begin to associate with
the devotees of the Lord and chant His holy name, this
memory gradually becomes stronger as we remember our
constitutional position of always serving Krsna in
different ways." 

Our separation from Krsna, Srila Prabhupada taught, is like
a dream. We dream, "I am this body," and we dream of
happiness in material relationships. This dreaming
condition is our non-liberated state. But although this
state of dreaming may seem to last for lifetimes, as soon
as we become Krsna conscious we awaken, and the dream at
once disappears. "After millions and millions of years of
keeping oneself away from the lila [pastimes] of the Lord,
when one comes to Krsna consciousness this period becomes
insignificant, like dreaming." 

 
Don't Figure It Out -- Get Out 

Ultimately, Srila Prabhupada would stress, puzzling over
when we fell or where we fell from won't solve our problem.
"The conclusion is that whatever may be our past, let us
come to Krsna consciousness and immediately join Krsna." 

Again: "One should know he is in conditioned life and try
to cure it.... Forgetfulness of Krsna is the disease, so
let us keep ourselves always in Krsna consciousness and get
out of the disease. That is healthy life." 

Still again: "Rather than taking account of how things
happened that [we] came here, our best occupation is to get
out of the scene by constantly chanting Hare Krsna and
being engaged in the transcendental service of Lord Krsna."

The advice is clear enough. But still the intellect hangs
on, trying to figure out what can't be figured out. So we
delve into books to find out what was taught by other great
acaryas (spiritual teachers) of the past. And what do we
find? Different teachers -- all Krsna conscious -- seem to
express different views. So then what? We take sides with
one view or another, or simply become confused. Our mental
circuits start to burn out. 

Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati Thakura, therefore gave this advice. We should
avoid, he said, "vain empirical wranglings," which he
called "false and full of specious verbosity." He reminds
us, "What the unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Lord says is
all true and is independent of any consideration of
unwholesome pros and cons." 

When such pure devotees disagree, he says, there is "the
element of mystery in their verbal controversies." And
"those whose judgment is made of mundane stuff" can't
"enter into the spirit of the all-loving controversies
among pure devotees." Lacking pure devotion, such people
"are apt to impute to the devotees their own defects of
partisanship and opposing views." Therefore, he counsels,
whenever such disputes arise about the pastimes of the
Lord, we should remember what was taught by Lord Caitanya
Mahaprabhu and His associates the Gosvamis, "that the Truth
Absolute is ever characterized by spiritual variegatedness
that transcends the variegatedness of mundane phenomena;
but He is never featureless." 

Endless Arguments: Maya's Trick 

The Mahabharata tells us that we can't know the truth
simply by logic and arguments (tarko 'pratistah). Acintyah
khalu ye bhava na tams tarkena yojayet: "There's no use
arguing over that which is inconceivable." After all, it's
inconceivable. 

Sripada B.R. Sridhara Maharaja, one of Srila Prabhupada's
Godbrothers, respected for his deep philosophical
realization, used to stress the same point, one of his
followers told us. Repeatedly asked about where the living
beings fell from, Sripada Sridhara Maharaja grew weary of
the question. "Why do you always ask about the most
difficult thing to understand?" he once responded. "Why not
try to understand the most easy thing?" That is: how to
become Krsna conscious and go back to Godhead. 

Pure devotees of Krsna avoid endless arguments. Such
devotees know that such arguments are merely another
distraction offered by maya. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam
( 6.4.31): 

yac-chaktayo vadatam vadinam vai

vivada-samvada-bhuvo bhavanti

kurvanti caisam muhur atma-moham

tasmai namo 'nanta-gunaya bhumne 

"Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the
all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has
unlimited transcendental qualities. Acting from within the
cores of the hearts of all philosophers, who propagate
various views, He makes them forget their own souls while
sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing among
themselves. Thus He creates within this material world a
situation in which they are unable to come to a conclusion.
I offer my obeisances unto Him." 

Therefore, the student in transcendental science is best
advised to simply accept what has been accepted by his own
bona fide Krsna conscious acarya, or spiritual master. As
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says, "It is a
great offense to disrespect the acarya and to seek to
establish a different doctrine in opposition to him." 

 
The Crow-and-Fruit Philosophy 

To illustrate the uselessness of arguing about where the
soul fell from, Srila Prabhupada once gave the example of
the crow and the fruit of an Indian palm, the tal fruit. On
the top of a tree was a nice tal fruit. A crow went there
and the fruit fell down. Some learned scholars saw this and
began discussing. The fruit fell because the crow shook the
limb, one said. No, said another, as the crow was landing
the fruit happened to fall. This frightened the crow, so
the crow flew away. No, said a third, the fruit was ripe,
and the weight of the crow's landing broke the fruit from
the branch.... 

"What is the use of such discussion?" Srila Prabhupada
said. 

Whether we came from Krsna's pastimes or from some other
spiritual source, Srila Prabhupada said, "at the present
you are in neither. So the best policy is to develop your
Krsna consciousness and go there [to Krsna], never mind
what is your origin." 

"At the present moment you are in maya's clutches," he
wrote, "so our only hope is to become Krsna conscious and
go back to home, back to Godhead." 

Don't waste time with the crow-and-tal-fruit logic, Srila
Prabhupada advised. "Now the fruit is there. Take it and
enjoy." 

NOTE: The letters from Srila Prabhupada quoted in this
article appear at greater length in Srila Prabhupada
Siksamrta, Volume Two, pages 1157–1176. The quotations from
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura come from his
commentary on Sri Brahma-samhita. The quotation from Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura comes from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu --
His Life and Precepts.