Hare Krishna
All Glories To Sri Guru And Sri Gauranga!
Many people often ask devotees, why do you worship and decorate these idols? or sometimes the hatemongers directly assume that we worship stones and assert statements like "idolatry is a sin", "you'll end up in hell", "you are sinful", "you are wasting time and misguiding people" etc....., but, is that all true, is deity worship really sinful and the one's who worship the deity attain hell? If it is not a sin and if it is indeed bonafide, whom should we worship? and whom should we not? Let's find out........
To begin with, let us analyse what an idol actually is.....
Idol is nothing but a carved or cast figure of a personality, in simpler terms a non living object, The American Heritage Dictionary describes an idol as:
1. An image used as an object of worship.
2. A false god.
3. One that is adored, often blindly or excessively.
4. Something visible but without substance.
So is worshipping idols authentic? Absolutely not!
But what exactly is a deity?
A deity is actually the manifestation of the lord himself in the form which is visible to our material eyes, since we are not capable of seeing the lord in his form which is of true bliss and knowledge, god is so merciful to us that he makes himself visible to us in the form of his deity. Srimad Bhagavatam says.....
SB 11.27.28
The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties — stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels.
The lord, because he is all potent and as nothing is impossible with god, and since he is merciful towards his devotees he can descend in the form of a deity and accept service.
Objection: But god is spirit, and his deity is matter, so if you worship matter does it not mean you are not worshipping spirit but worshipping mundane matter?
Answer: Srila Prabhupada says in his Sri Isopanishad commentary, that, as god is all powerful and omnipresent he can convert the spirit to matter and matter to spirit, the matter is primordial and god is also the source of matter, so it would not be wrong to say that god can personally be present in the form of deity which could be made of matter, since he is omnipresent, it wouldn't be something wrong if we say that god personally enters the deity as the same lord is already present in that particular matter as he is all pervading and as his form is spiritual and not material, the word 'COULD'[which "could" be made of...] is used here as the above verse from srimad bhagavatam also says the deity form of lord can also be present in the mind of his pure devotee which is not matter.... Srila Prabhupada says,
"The Lord is transcendental to our mundane senses. He cannot be seen with our present eyes, nor can He be heard with our present ears. To the degree that we have entered into the service of the Lord or to the proportion to which our lives are freed from sins, we can perceive the Lord. But even though we are not free from sins, the Lord is kind enough to allow us the facility of seeing Him in His arca-murtis in the temple. The Lord is all-powerful, and therefore He is able to accept our service by presentation of His arca form. No one, therefore, should foolishly think the arca in the temple to be an idol. Such an arca-murti is not an idol but the Lord Himself, and to the proportion to which one is freed from sins, he is able to know the significance of the arca-murti. The guidance of a pure devotee is therefore always required."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.1.17, Purport)
"In our present state of imperfect material existence, we cannot see the Supreme Lord, due to imperfect vision. Yet those devotees who want to see him by means of material vision are favored by the Lord, who appears in a so-called material form to accept His devotee's service."
(Sri Isopanisad Mantra 5, Purport)
"So you cannot see spirit, and God is the Supreme Spirit. Actually, He is everything—spirit and matter—but you cannot see Him in His spiritual identity. Therefore, to show kindness toward you, He appears out of His unbounded mercy in the form of a wooden or stone Deity so that you can see Him."
(Science of Self-Realization, Chapter 1)
Objection:Is deity worship sanctioned by the scriptures? What if all these are mental concoctions? SB 11.27.48
Whenever one develops faith in Me — in My form as the Deity or in other bona fide manifestations — one should worship Me in that form. I certainly exist both within all created beings and also separately in My original form, since I am the Supreme Soul of all.
SB 11.27.6
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava,
there is no end to the innumerable Vedic prescriptions for executing deity worship"
Whom are we supposed to worship?
Krishna says in the bhagavad gita 7.23
Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.
There are innumerable evidences from the scriptures to establish the fact that only lord Vishnu is to be worshipped, but a verse from the bhagavad gita, which is the essence of upanishads and the vedas.
From the puranas:
The Kurma Purana 2.43.49+ Skanda Purana 7.1.2.87-88 + Matsya Purana (53.68-69) together states as follows:
sättvikesu purānesu mähätmyamadhikam hareh
rājasesu ca māhātmyam adhikam brahmano viduh
tadvadagnesca mahatmyam tämasesu sivasya ca
"In the Puranas in the mode of goodness, the focus is the glories of Lord Hari. Those in the mode of passion, the focus is on the glories of Lord Brahma, Similarly, those in the mode of ignorance, the focus is on the glories of Lord Siva and Agni,"
Nectar of deity worship-
Have you ever wondered about how much sweet is deity worship? The lord who is incalculable, fathomless, incomprehensible, be visible to us in our hands and allow us to perform personal service such as to bathe him, dress him, feed him, put him to sleep, wake him up......., anyone who've anointed their hearts and eyes with love can actually get to know that it is actually a very close relationship that they get to establish with the supreme lord himself and offer him all kinds of loving service, what is this if not for god's mercy that makes him accessible to all his devotee, Acharya Nampillai, from the Sri Sampradaya compares this accessibility to a vast lake which quenches the thirst of his devotees but those who mistake his accessibility to be "real inferiority" , they are drowned in samsara.
WHO IS HELLISH?
One who considers the arca murti or worshipable Deity of Lord Visnu to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, and a Vaisnava to belong to a particular caste or creed, is possessed of hellish intelligence.'"
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, September 12, 1974)
Hare krishna!
https://www.salagram.net/sstp-Kinds-of-Deities.html
http://www.prabhupadaconnect.com/The-Importance-of-Deity-Worship.html
https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/11/27/48/?query=sb+11.27.48#bb82996
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