As most of us have deities of lord krishna as laddu gopal or gaur nitai or radha krishna in our homes, temples do those deities are really God or just we have faith? Any experience or anubhooti plz share.Hare krishna
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I will quote from one of the class that I had attended in IYF Pune. This class was during my initial days of KC. The topic was about the Idol worship v/s ideal worship. In this class there was a past time from Srila Prabhupaada's time that was quoted. Once a New brahamachari was giving the SB class in presence of Srila Prabhupaada. He was speaking about the deity worship. He made a statement that "Krishna is present in the deity". Then Prabhupaada immediately stopped him and questioned "Which part of deity is Krishna present". That devotee was bewildered as what to answer. Then Prabhupaada explained that Krishna is not present in the deity but KRISHNA IS DEITY.
You can read the Brahama Samhita and you will be amazed to know what Krishna is.
The Deity is made according to scriptures which describe the proportions of the body of the lord and various poses in which he can be worshiped as a deity. A deity is called as Archa Vigraha in sanskrit. Archa means worshipable and vigraha means a person. So the complete translation means that the deity is some one who can be worshiped.
There are soo many past times of Lord where it was proven that deity is non different from Krishna.
1)Sakshi Gopal - walked from Vrindavan to a place near Bhuvaneshwar to solve the dispute of 2 brahamans who had promised to give his daughter in marriage to the other and had this deity in vrindavan (then) as witness.
2)Kheer Chor Gopinath - Gopal stole the pot of condensed milk to give to his pure devotee madhavendra puri.
3)There is a past time in which the deity felt very hot and asked for applying sandalwood past. which became Chandan yaatra.
4)Radha Dhamodar in Vrindavan - It was a Goverdhana Shila - a black pebble sort of stone. This was with one of the Goswamis of vrindavan while all other goswamis had deities of Krishna. He was praying that he could not decorate the deity as he could have done to the form as Krishna standing in 3 folded form. the next day, the saligram shila had grown as Dhamoder ji in his magnificent 3 folded form with a flute in his hand.
5)Tota Gopinath in Puri - Gauranga gave this deity to Srivas aacharya(I think it is him Please correct if am wrong). He was very old and could not reach the head of the deity to decorate. So once he told the deity that because his body is old and could not serve him properly. The deity listen to the prayers of his devotee and sat down on the platform. This deity was almost 6 feet tall and is really very beautiful. The radha rani deity is still standing and when you see them in Jagannath puri, you will be surprised to see Radha rani and Gopinath are of almost same height. But the fact is, Gopinath is sitting in Lotus posture and Radha rani is standing. The poojari said this is the only deity in the whole creation where Lord has a siting posture!!!
I hope you have heard these past times. If not let me know and I can give the details. If you feel these are very old past times and hard to believe, you can visit Sridham Mayapur and take dharshan of Sri Sri Ugra Narashima dev. There is a book published with the dealings of Lord with various devotees. One mataji got Narashima dev in her dream and Lord asked for Mango pickles as the pickle she had offered last year was very nice. It was not Mango season and she was saying to Lord that there are no Mango now and he has to wait for next season. Next day when she went to marked to her great surprise, there were nice green juice raw mango. Hari bol!!
Another incident happened very recently in US. I do not remember the temple but there were a devotee couple who had a small daughter. May be 4-5 years old. The temple had Lord Narashima dev. She liked the Narshima arti soo much that she would always sing and chant Narashima arti and Lord Narshima dev's names. One day when the girl was playing out, her parents were in their apartment which was I believe on second or third floor. They were watching her as she was playing. The ball went on the road and the girl went to pick it up and suddenly a massive truck appeared on the road. She was soo scared and a small little girl. Her parents came running down and by then the truck had passed and the girl was not to be seen on the road. However, the couple found the girl few meters away from the road on the other side. Parents were very happy to see her alive. They asked her how she came here? She replied that she got very much scared when the truck came close and then she started singing Narashima arti as always used to!!! Hare Krishna... Then when she opened her eyes, she was in the field. When they opened her dreess which had blood stains, they were shocked to see the marks of the claws of a Lion!!!! Just as Lord Narashima dev appeared to save prahalad maharaj, Lord appeared to save this small little girl who even did not know any KC philosophy.
Lastly my personal experience, I stayed in pune temple for close to 2 months during my college holidays, and I used to observe the deities every day in morning mangalarti (4:30 am) Sringaraarti (7:15 am) and shayanaarti(8:15 pm) I could clearly make the difference in the mood of the deities according to the time of the day.
Lastly Krishna says in BG 4.11
ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàs tathaiva bhajämy aham mama vartmänuvartante manuñyäù pärtha sarvaçaù
TRANSLATION
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Påthä.
Soo, just give a try and surrender unto Him and he will reveal Himself to you.
Sudheendra S > Deepika ShrivastavaJune 29, 2011 at 11:29am
Hare Krishan Mataji,
I remembered something more about Tota Gopinath. Sri Chaitnya Mahaprabhu stayed in Puri for 18 years after taking sanyaas. He ended his leela in this material world in this very temple. All devotees were singing harinaam in the temple in presence of Lord Sri Chaitnya Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu entered the deity of Tota Gopinat and ended his past times. Some fools who argue that Mahaprabhu was not supreme lord can learn from this past time that he was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna himself.
priya kamboj > Sudheendra SJune 27, 2011 at 6:05pm
Thankyou prabhu ji for giving so many leelas of lord.thankyou so much.All one needs is full faith complete surrender and clean heart and also Lords mercy.
Since we can not see Krishna’s universal form with our materially contaminated senses, he agrees to appear before us in the form of the Deity to accept our service...
Unless our eyes are purified we can't see Krishna. It is something we have to experience the only way to experience it is to surrender to Krishna and serve.
Depending on you worship of the various Deities in you homes, you should worship Them as authorized by the various shastras.. then the Deities will be present else who will stay when you don't treat them properly?
I'll quote Prabhupada..who better?
" Lord is not only incarnation in a sound form. He is incarnated in many other forms, in many other forms. Just like arca. Arca means the form of the Lord situated, I mean to say, established in some temple and worshiped. That is also incarnation of God. That is not idol worship. People do not know that this is an authorized process of realizing God, or they have never tasted or practiced it. They cannot understand. They say it is idol worship. No. It is not idol worship. It is not idol worship. I'll give you one example. Just like in the front of your door there is a box -- "U.S. Mail," it is written. And you put your letters within that box, and after few days you get reply from your friend that "I have received your letter, and this is such and such, such and such." Now, if somebody puts another box like that, exactly imitation: "Then why shall I spend postage to putting letters in this box, U.S. Mail? I require postage. But then why shall I not put up a box like that? Let me prepare a box like that so that it can go without postage. I want to save postage." Now, he is going on, putting letters in that without postage. And after sometimes he sees all the letters are lying there; it has not been dispatched -- because it is imitation. And the box which is supplied by the post office, that is authorized. In the matter, in material, you will find this box and that imitation box is the same thing. So this is a science. You see. Although we find that "This form of the Lord... The Hindus, they have established one statue in the temple, and they are worshiping as the Lord? How is that? Is it Lord is a stone? It is wood?" But he does not know that because it is authorized, because it is authorizedly worshiped, therefore even it is stone or wood, it can act. It can act. Just like the authorized post office, although seemingly it is a box which I can prepare, but it is acting because it is authorized, similarly, the authorized, authorized symbol or representation of God is also God. He's not different from God. Then why God is like that? It is His mercy. Because I cannot see God with my these eyes -- I can see stone and wood and material things -- therefore God is kind enough (to appear) in a form suitable to my seeing and accept my service. It is His kindness. And besides that, if everything is God, because everything has link with the God, with the Supreme Truth, then God, being omnipotent, why He cannot represent Himself in everything? If everything is God, everything is emanation of God, then God has got the power to manifest Himself in everything. That is His omnipotency. So these are consideration."
Replies
Hare Krishna.
PAMHO. AGTSP.
I will quote from one of the class that I had attended in IYF Pune. This class was during my initial days of KC. The topic was about the Idol worship v/s ideal worship. In this class there was a past time from Srila Prabhupaada's time that was quoted. Once a New brahamachari was giving the SB class in presence of Srila Prabhupaada. He was speaking about the deity worship. He made a statement that "Krishna is present in the deity". Then Prabhupaada immediately stopped him and questioned "Which part of deity is Krishna present". That devotee was bewildered as what to answer. Then Prabhupaada explained that Krishna is not present in the deity but KRISHNA IS DEITY.
You can read the Brahama Samhita and you will be amazed to know what Krishna is.
The Deity is made according to scriptures which describe the proportions of the body of the lord and various poses in which he can be worshiped as a deity. A deity is called as Archa Vigraha in sanskrit. Archa means worshipable and vigraha means a person. So the complete translation means that the deity is some one who can be worshiped.
There are soo many past times of Lord where it was proven that deity is non different from Krishna.
1)Sakshi Gopal - walked from Vrindavan to a place near Bhuvaneshwar to solve the dispute of 2 brahamans who had promised to give his daughter in marriage to the other and had this deity in vrindavan (then) as witness.
2)Kheer Chor Gopinath - Gopal stole the pot of condensed milk to give to his pure devotee madhavendra puri.
3)There is a past time in which the deity felt very hot and asked for applying sandalwood past. which became Chandan yaatra.
4)Radha Dhamodar in Vrindavan - It was a Goverdhana Shila - a black pebble sort of stone. This was with one of the Goswamis of vrindavan while all other goswamis had deities of Krishna. He was praying that he could not decorate the deity as he could have done to the form as Krishna standing in 3 folded form. the next day, the saligram shila had grown as Dhamoder ji in his magnificent 3 folded form with a flute in his hand.
5)Tota Gopinath in Puri - Gauranga gave this deity to Srivas aacharya(I think it is him Please correct if am wrong). He was very old and could not reach the head of the deity to decorate. So once he told the deity that because his body is old and could not serve him properly. The deity listen to the prayers of his devotee and sat down on the platform. This deity was almost 6 feet tall and is really very beautiful. The radha rani deity is still standing and when you see them in Jagannath puri, you will be surprised to see Radha rani and Gopinath are of almost same height. But the fact is, Gopinath is sitting in Lotus posture and Radha rani is standing. The poojari said this is the only deity in the whole creation where Lord has a siting posture!!!
I hope you have heard these past times. If not let me know and I can give the details. If you feel these are very old past times and hard to believe, you can visit Sridham Mayapur and take dharshan of Sri Sri Ugra Narashima dev. There is a book published with the dealings of Lord with various devotees. One mataji got Narashima dev in her dream and Lord asked for Mango pickles as the pickle she had offered last year was very nice. It was not Mango season and she was saying to Lord that there are no Mango now and he has to wait for next season. Next day when she went to marked to her great surprise, there were nice green juice raw mango. Hari bol!!
Another incident happened very recently in US. I do not remember the temple but there were a devotee couple who had a small daughter. May be 4-5 years old. The temple had Lord Narashima dev. She liked the Narshima arti soo much that she would always sing and chant Narashima arti and Lord Narshima dev's names. One day when the girl was playing out, her parents were in their apartment which was I believe on second or third floor. They were watching her as she was playing. The ball went on the road and the girl went to pick it up and suddenly a massive truck appeared on the road. She was soo scared and a small little girl. Her parents came running down and by then the truck had passed and the girl was not to be seen on the road. However, the couple found the girl few meters away from the road on the other side. Parents were very happy to see her alive. They asked her how she came here? She replied that she got very much scared when the truck came close and then she started singing Narashima arti as always used to!!! Hare Krishna... Then when she opened her eyes, she was in the field. When they opened her dreess which had blood stains, they were shocked to see the marks of the claws of a Lion!!!! Just as Lord Narashima dev appeared to save prahalad maharaj, Lord appeared to save this small little girl who even did not know any KC philosophy.
Lastly my personal experience, I stayed in pune temple for close to 2 months during my college holidays, and I used to observe the deities every day in morning mangalarti (4:30 am) Sringaraarti (7:15 am) and shayanaarti(8:15 pm) I could clearly make the difference in the mood of the deities according to the time of the day.
Lastly Krishna says in BG 4.11
ye yathä mäà prapadyante
täàs tathaiva bhajämy aham
mama vartmänuvartante
manuñyäù pärtha sarvaçaù
TRANSLATION
As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Påthä.
Soo, just give a try and surrender unto Him and he will reveal Himself to you.
Hare Krishna.
Awesome Prabhuji..
i knew about the Sakshi Gopal and Kheer Chor Gopinath…
Thanks for sharing "Tota Gopinath in Puri" and "Radha Dhamodar in Vrindavan" leelas of Krishna
Beautiful..
Hare Krishna!!!
Hare Krishan Mataji,
I remembered something more about Tota Gopinath. Sri Chaitnya Mahaprabhu stayed in Puri for 18 years after taking sanyaas. He ended his leela in this material world in this very temple. All devotees were singing harinaam in the temple in presence of Lord Sri Chaitnya Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu entered the deity of Tota Gopinat and ended his past times. Some fools who argue that Mahaprabhu was not supreme lord can learn from this past time that he was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna himself.
Hari bol!!!
Since we can not see Krishna’s universal form with our materially contaminated senses, he agrees to appear before us in the form of the Deity to accept our service...
Unless our eyes are purified we can't see Krishna. It is something we have to experience the only way to experience it is to surrender to Krishna and serve.
Hare Krishna!!
Jai Shri Krishna..
Depending on you worship of the various Deities in you homes, you should worship Them as authorized by the various shastras.. then the Deities will be present else who will stay when you don't treat them properly?
I'll quote Prabhupada..who better?
" Lord is not only incarnation in a sound form. He is incarnated in many other forms, in many other forms. Just like arca. Arca means the form of the Lord situated, I mean to say, established in some temple and worshiped. That is also incarnation of God. That is not idol worship. People do not know that this is an authorized process of realizing God, or they have never tasted or practiced it. They cannot understand. They say it is idol worship. No. It is not idol worship. It is not idol worship. I'll give you one example. Just like in the front of your door there is a box -- "U.S. Mail," it is written. And you put your letters within that box, and after few days you get reply from your friend that "I have received your letter, and this is such and such, such and such." Now, if somebody puts another box like that, exactly imitation: "Then why shall I spend postage to putting letters in this box, U.S. Mail? I require postage. But then why shall I not put up a box like that? Let me prepare a box like that so that it can go without postage. I want to save postage." Now, he is going on, putting letters in that without postage. And after sometimes he sees all the letters are lying there; it has not been dispatched -- because it is imitation. And the box which is supplied by the post office, that is authorized. In the matter, in material, you will find this box and that imitation box is the same thing. So this is a science. You see. Although we find that "This form of the Lord... The Hindus, they have established one statue in the temple, and they are worshiping as the Lord? How is that? Is it Lord is a stone? It is wood?" But he does not know that because it is authorized, because it is authorizedly worshiped, therefore even it is stone or wood, it can act. It can act. Just like the authorized post office, although seemingly it is a box which I can prepare, but it is acting because it is authorized, similarly, the authorized, authorized symbol or representation of God is also God. He's not different from God. Then why God is like that? It is His mercy. Because I cannot see God with my these eyes -- I can see stone and wood and material things -- therefore God is kind enough (to appear) in a form suitable to my seeing and accept my service. It is His kindness. And besides that, if everything is God, because everything has link with the God, with the Supreme Truth, then God, being omnipotent, why He cannot represent Himself in everything? If everything is God, everything is emanation of God, then God has got the power to manifest Himself in everything. That is His omnipotency. So these are consideration."
hari bol