Malibu Radha

In the comments to the previous post kalki das brought up the topic of archana, deity worship, and how it is taught by Prabhupada. He mentioned this verse from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita: http://vedabase.net/cc/madhya/19/152/

Kalki pointed out how that verse is about the importance of sravanam kirtanam — hearing and chanting — as the process of “watering the seed of bhakti,” but how in the purport Prabhupada emphasizes deity worship as all-important. I want to point out that he also goes into a long harangue about the absolute necessity of “pleasing a spiritual master and following regulative principles otherwise all of your bhakti-yoga will be without effect.” Which is a bunch of nonsense, but it shows one of the reasons that Prabhupada’s books are so problematic — they are geared into making you think that without joining ISKCON and following all that Prabhupada demands from the inmates of that institution — that you cannot advance in bhakti-yoga.

In a comment I replied to kalki das:

Mahaprabhu’s teachings were focused on raganuga bhakti, whereas Prabhupada’s teachings were focused on vaidhi-bhakti. So it is very common for Prabhupada to write about vaidhi-bhakti while commenting in Caitanya Caritamrta even though the verses he is commenting on have nothing to do with vaidhi-bhakti.

Deity worship or archana is one of the limbs of vaidhi-bhakti. In ISKCON because of the over emphasis on vaidhi-bhakti it is common for devotees to become overly attached to deity worship. Because they were not taught properly the tattva and purpose of deity worship, they tend to think that deity forms are like real people, except people who demand punctual service free from all so-called “contamination” or you are greatly offending them and will be punished. It’s all quite mad.

Deity worship serves two purposes for neophyte bhaktas: It helps to focus your emotional feeling towards the conception that God is a person, not just a cosmic energy field; and it is supposed to aid in elevating bhaktas from the conception that God wants worship of the majestic “supreme lord” in fear and trepidation, towards a more intimate love based relationship, e.g. dressing and feeding like you would a child.

But because they weren’t taught properly, it is not uncommon amongst ISKCON devotees to become overly attached to deities and deity worship, as if deities are real people instead of substitutes to aid in developing intimacy and bhakti. And instead of developing intimacy and moving away from deity worship, and all worship, they tend to become even more reverential and worshipful over time. They also tend to neglect trying to develop their internal relationship with God in intimacy, and instead focus their devotion on reverential worship of deity forms.

In kalki’s response one of the things he wrote was:

[idolatry] is the danger of deity worship as you say if is not taught properly, but I know that Bhaktisddhanta Sarasvati (maybe the whole parampara), Advaita Acarya and even Lord Caitanya used to worship idols, for example when Lord Caitanya went to Ratha Yatra and worshipped Lord Jagannath, and Prabhupada used to say that there is no difference between the Lord and His Murti, so according to them the deity must be treated like a real person.

so? if they are not kanistha bhaktas why they worship deities??

Just because someone worships a deity that doesn’t mean they are necessarily kanistha or neophyte bhaktas. Deity worship is part of the vaidhi marga, it is highly recommended for those who are not on the level of raganuga bhakti. But, as Jiva Goswami writes in his Bhakti sandarbha:

In the Gautamiya Tantra it is said:

“For they who are always fallen in love with the lotus feet of Lord Krsna there is no japa, no Deity worship, no meditation, and no rules.”

When attraction (ruci) is not yet manifested even the best raganuga bhakti is considered to be mixed with vaidhi bhakti. Even a devotee who has attraction (ruci) for the Lord may, in order to benefit the people of the world, engage in raganuga bhakti mixed with vaidhi bhakti. Therefore, in some situations it is appropriate to practice raganuga bhakti mixed with vaidhi bhakti.

In order to set an example for vaidhi bhaktas a raganuga bhakta may engage in vaidhi bhakti, e.g. deity worship.

Deity worship is not supposed to be about treating deity forms as if they are literally a real person, it’s for a specific purpose. Bhaktas are supposed to transcend deity worship, not become more into it. While it is taught that a deity is non-different from who it represents, that isn’t meant to be taken literally. It is meant to inspire realization that God is in everything, and to inspire the practice of archana which will help raise the vaidhi bhakta to a level of more intimacy — if the whole process is taught properly.

But, as we can see with those who have solely or primarily gained their education in bhakti-yoga from Prabhupada, they never seem to rise above the vaidhi level. One of the symptoms of that is their over-attachment to deities and deity worship. Amongst the leading members of ISKCON it is quite common to see them have a large collection of shalagrama-shilas, or other similar worshipable objects. It reminds me of little girls being proud of their Barbie doll collections. They have different Barbie dolls with different accessories for any occasion which they like to show off to and play with their friends. Also they are very attached to bringing them wherever they go.

Bhaktas are actually meant to rise to the level of raganuga, where worship of any kind is given up for a more intimate rasa. But we don’t see that taught in ISKCON, and we don’t see that mentality from Prabhupada fanatics. We see the exact opposite — the longer you are in ISKCON the bigger your personal collection of deities becomes, along with more of your time spent doing archana. That seems to be the standard.