Hare Krsna
Please accept my humblest obeisances unto your feet.
All glories to Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada.
I come to all of you with a question asked in a humble mood.
I have been in Krishna Consciousness for the past 1 year prior to which I have owned and worshipped idols and deity forms of many other devis and devatas (Demi Gods).
After reading Srila Prabhupadas writings, I have full faith that surrendering completely to Krishna alone by following Srila Prabhupada and Gurudevas instructions and teachings, we are able to become free of sin and karma and attain our ultimate goal.
I have since removed all the idols and deity forms and yantras of other devis and devatas from my altar. I only have Laddu Gopal, Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra and Radha Krsna deities now.
I don't live in India and therefore it is impossible to respectfully place the idols and deity forms of other devis and devatas in Holy Waters or temples where it is allowed. At the moment, I have them sitting in a box in a clean and safe cupboard.
I am feeling very bad that I may have offended them by doing so and asking your for advice as to what I can do to make sure they are not being disrespected?
Please shower your mercy on this insignificant servant of yours.
Replies
Hare Krsna Sireesha Mataji,
PAMHO.
Views expressed by Vinay prabhu in his post are not in accordance with the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. Just thought I will warn you. This is the view expressed by maximum Indians. The problem is we dont read our scriptures ourselves.
He is quoting from Brahma Samhita in one breadth and saying God is a light, takes any shape as per your shraddha in the other breadth. Completely self contradictory. Please be advised that this view neednt be followed.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Hare Krishna to all of the respected senior and most exalted prabhus and Rashmi Mataji.
Please accept my most humble obeisances unto your feet.
Many thanks for kindly advising and guiding me.
To answer some questions asked, I have deity forms of Sri Durga Devi, Mahalakshmi and Lord Shiva.
Rashmi Mataji, you have always been the guide and a blessing to me on my path and I am totally convinced that your advice is in line with Srila Prabhupadas teachings . I am a 100% assured now that I have not done anything wrong.
I do have Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Gaur Nitai picture form. They are very merciful to me and reciprocate with me very kindly.
I will try and find out if the temple close by (There are 3 temples in Canberra other than ISKCON) if they will accept.
Or I will take them to India on my next visit.
Thank you very much for your gift of peace of mind that will allow me to get fixed in my sadhana.
I pray to the Lotus feet of Sri Guru and Gauranga to always keep you all in their shelter.
Hare Krsna.
hare krishna.....
our elders say that... what ever we do.. or to whom ever we worship on whole it reaches krishna.... if u r in krishna conciousness it doesnt mean u should not worship other deiteis or demigods. to make understand, i would like to give an example, look we are in kingdom of devotion wer our empire is full of pious people, we are born in land of traditions.so, and for we vaishnavas our king is lord krishna himself and queen is godess radharani to meet them we being normal people cant rush at once inside there palace. with all devotion and discipline we stand before the maindoor there securities are there named JAYA and VIJAYA.first we ask and request them den they allow inside and den there is lord shiva who is kshetrapalaka we request and pray to him let us to go in there comes the leader of the group the gandai pathi VISVAKSHENA we den first pray to him to bless and allow us to see lord krishna with his consort.(for shivas its ganapathi who lead the team and for vaishnavas its visvaskhena).and den we see navagrahas who are serving for the lord we ask them bless us to have krishna's affection and love andden we see all poets,mahakavis,alwars,who chant and write the holy hyms on krishna by seeing him(to explain what is krishna dey make millions of eyes on der body and write about him)we do der darshan and get to know what is krishna den there are gurus starting from narada, nirada, tumbura,shounaka,shuka,all the saptarishis,vyasa, vashishta,parashara..and we ask dem to bless in such way that we can gain an oppurtunity to see and serve the supreme i.e., krishna, den we see all the ashtadikpalakas,serving the lord and we see all the vahanas(vehicles)of the lord working for him in devotion starting from garuda,hanuman,adishesha,hamsa,gajendra,ashwa and so on(i.e., eagle,hanuman,the holy serpent,elephant,horse..)this is nothing the supreme has infinte type of vehicles,den all these vehicles bless us and teach and inspire us that how to be a devotee dey preach the realationship between the master and devotee.den we enter into the gardens of the empire we can see gomata(cow)with her calf and we can kalpavriksha,tulasi,amlaki,neem,pepal,baniyan and many such holy trees and we first go to gomata and pray her for the darshan of the divine and we perform pujas to tulasi to bless us such that we can serve krishna,after all the holy planta and trees we find the kalpavriksha (the tree which gives all the boons and virtues and fortune and desired thing to us)and as we are only for krishna ask the kalpavriksha to give a boon of fortune to see krishna. and den we enter the palace wer we see all the avatars of krishna and all the form of krishna and we pray dem to give a peacefull life by being in krishna consciousness . we see lord vishnu in kshira samudra(milk ocean) after crossing seven doors ,leaving six arishat vargas(i.e., kama ,krodha,lodha,madha,matsarya) chanting all the 1000 names of vishnu and 24 names of keshava and 108 names of krishna and we see the sleeping in yoga nidra ,holding the conch,disc,club and lotus and godess laxmi serving him by pressing feet sitting on the adisheha(serpant) chanting his holy names he washes all our sins and he shows us to way to golaka which is the ananda loka and once we enter der we see krishna playing flute and all gopis enjoying his beauty and that second we start reciting all the mantras,vedas and upanishads and we gain the power to see the beauty of krishna and we hold his feet and say "krishna".......andthe supreme personility see in our eyes and says .."my devotee how are u ,i hope der was no problem in your journey till here".and wen u say "swami ,jagantha,
VENUM KVANANTAM ARIVANDA DAYLATAKSHAM
BRAHVATMASAM ASITAMBHUSUNDARANGAM
KANDARPA KOTI KAMANIYA VISHESHA SHOBAM
GOVINDAM ADI PURSHAM TAM AHAM BHAJAMI
wen u pray to him with devotion he gets still more affection and love towards u and he says U R MINE,tat's all ur all sins of ur all janamas washes away and ur papa and punya list will balanced and mukti is attained...
know ,hopefully u have understood wat i said and all these process takes place wen u sit in ur altar and light the lamp and chant his name......
prabhu everything is krishna it self....we should worship every one because ur all dandavats reaches to a single one that is paramatma ... that parmatma has no gender,no ordur,no shape,no size,its a bright light and it takes the shape and form according to our view...we call it is krishna... sum call shiva,sum call surya,sum call shakti,sum call ganesha,sum call gurudeva........
my suggestion worship all but see one in all and as our elder everything thing is krishna and every one is krishna... now don give any one to anywere or leave anyone who knows for what reason dey r with u its all krishna's decision and he is the writer,director of this drama what we are playing from our birth to death.only birth and death are the truth and in between it is all drama what he makes u to play.MAN PROPOSES GOD DISPOSES......chant the mahamantra and see u can find krishna everywere...u can see no difference in this world...
hopefully ive answered u...
this is my opinion,this wat the knowledge what i gained by being at service of krishna...
if any doubts u can ask me....
hare krishna
:SARVAM SRI KRISHNAARPANAMASTU:
SWASTI
Hare Krishna!
God has form, prabhuji.
Question: How to Defeat the Argument that God is Formless?
Please accept my humble obeisances. How to defeat the argument when some one says that God is formless and quotes the Vedic mantra:
na tasya pratima asti
(Yajur Veda 32-3)
Your humble student.
Supreet
Answer: Forms Do Not Arise from Formlessness
" We have no experience of forms arising from formlessness. Rather everywhere around us we see that forms arise from forms. Just like you have form and your father also has a form. Forms arising from formlessness is a dogmatic concept which does not tally with reason and logic.
The Vedas do not state that God is formless. What they do state is that God does not have a material form. This verse does not say that God is formless. Rather it describes that God's form has no duplicate or likeness (pratima) in this world. In other words, there is no form in this world which is equal to the transcendental form of Lord Sri Krishna.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
( http://www.iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/forms-do-not-arise-f... )
Hare Krsna dear Mataji,
PAMHO.
Please dont feel bad. What you have done is correct. You have removed them from the altar and are still respectful towards them. In your next trip to India or if you find any temple of that demigod in Australia (maybe you could google) which is accessible for you, you could carry them and donate them to the temple.
There is no offence committed by you, dont worry about it.
I hope you have guru parampara and Gaur Nitai photos also on your altar. That would be a good idea.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Which demigods do you have?
Hare Krsna
When it is possible it be given to temples of any demigod.