Pitfalls of Deity Worship

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Mahadvadasi
Noon class, 25 March 2021, part 7
Translated from Bengali

When Srila Madhavendra Puri was staying in Vrindavan, one day Lord Krishna Himself, disguised as a small cowherd boy, came and said to him, "Puri, you are sitting here without eating anything. I have brought you some milk, drink it." Although Srila Madhavendra Puri was a very great devotee, but when Krishna Himself brought him milk, even he could not recognise that the Lord had come in front of him. Srila Madhavendra Puri asked Him, "Where are You from? Where is Your house? What do You do?" Krishna said, "You have many questions. I will answer them one by one. I am from this village. My home is here. I graze cows. Please drink this milk, I cannot talk now. I will come later to take the pot and I will answer all your questions." Srila Madhavendra Puri sat there waiting for the boy to return and chanting the Holy Name. In the end, Srila Madhavendra Puri fell asleep and the Lord came to him in a dream.

It is said that the Deity can speak, the Deity can give witness, the Deity can steal. The Lord Himself ordered all the wives of the brahmans—we sing in the kirtan,

jaya dvija-patni, jaya naga-kanya-gana
bhaktite yanhara paila govinda-charana

All glory to the brahman's wives and Kaliya's wives! Through their devotion, they attained Govinda's feet.

When the wives of the brahmans fed and pleased Krishna, Krishna told them, "You do not have to stay near Me to serve Me. Make My Deity in your home and serve the Deity.

So, when the Lord came to Srila Madhavendra Puri in a dream, He took him by the hand to the place where He was and said, "Look what an austere place I live in. I am scorched by the sun, and rain falls right on Me. Vajranabha, Krishna's great-grandson, established My Deity in a temple, but when the Muslims broke the temple, My pujari took Me to the jungle and hid Me here." You know that if the pujari is a real pujari, they will always worry about the Deity, so when somebody comes to break the temple, they will always want to save the Deity.

We had some fake pujari in the temple once. When there was a big flood in 2000, I saw him taking rice and dal and thought he was taking it for the bhog of the Deities. When the flood subsided, I went to the temple and saw that the Deities had been standing under water all these days and the pujari would climb on the roof and cook dal and rice for himself. When I saw this, I told him, "Go away! We do not need such service from you. The Deities are probably made of wood and you could not take them up to the roof?! How could you keep them under water all this time?" He made Gaura Nitai suffer so much...

However, seeing that the Muslims would destroy the Deity, Gopal's pujari took the Deity on his shoulder and carried Him to the jungle—he left the Deity there and went away. Having told all this to Madhavendra Puri, Gopal said, "Since then I have been here, in the rain and in the scorching sun..." Then Madhavendra Puri suddenly woke up. He thought, "O God! My Lord has come to me, but I could not recognise Him! I am so unfortunate!" He beat his head against the floor! Composing himself, he started thinking, "Where will I find the Lord? Wait, but He has shown me the way through the jungle! I must find Him!" Next morning, he woke up, gathered some villagers, and told them, "Your Deity is here! Come with me!" They all together went to the jungle, and, cutting their way through the thick forest with axes, they found the place where Gopal was hidden. Then, Madhavendra Puri had Gopal placed on a big stone and told all the ladies to bring water in pots to give Gopal a nice bath. After bathing the Lord, Madhavendra Puri arranged for very nice bhoga and puja, and at night he again saw the Lord in a dream—the Lord said, "My body is still burning with heat, you must bring some camphor and sandalwood from Odisha."

So, Madhavendra Puri went to Odisha and got a piece of sandal wood that weight almost 40 kg(!), but when he was going to carry it back to Govardhan, the Lord again appeared to him in a dream saying, "You do not need to carry this wood all the way to Govardhan. You can apply this sandalwood onto the body of Gopinath—His body is non-different from Mine." Many worry that if they have Gopal at home, how can they come here and leave Gopal? That is why Gurudev said that you should keep a photo of the Deities at home (not Deities), then even if you come here for five-ten days for a festival, the Deities' worship is done here, so if you do not offer any worship at home during this time, it is not a problem. There are many Deities installed at our temples, you can take a photo of any of these Deities and worship the photograph. Gurudev often said, "Do not keep a Deity and make Them a burden. Neither must you keep Deities and harass Them [by not serving Them properly.] Vigraha rekhe galagraha korben na, vigraha rekhe nigraha-o korben na (বিগ্রহ রেখে গলগ্রহ করবেন না, বিগ্রহ রেখে নিগ্রহও করবেন না)." When you keep Deities, you serve Them nicely at first, but what happens after that? I have seen so many families (if I tell their names, it will give them pain, so I do not want to mention their names) where devotees take Deities, but then their children grow up and do not come to this path, so what happens to their Deities after them? Who will serve their Deities? There is nobody. So, before you make a temple, you must first find servitors. Gurudev said, "Before you make a temple, first make a room for the servitor." Here too, I first make living quarters for servitors, and later, after Gaura Purnima, the Deities were installed on Nrisingha-chaturdasi day...

Anyway, Gopal gave this service responsibility to Madhavendra Puri, and Madhavendra Puri made annakut mahostav of Gopal. In this way Gopal personally interacted with Madhavendra Puri. He told him, "Madhav, I have been waiting for you for so long! I kept thinking when you would come and take Me from this jungle and take the charge of My service and worship." The Lord took his service. So, it is necessary to earn the qualification for doing service. Gurudev said that these days 'devals' do the puja of the Lord—'devals' are professional (hired) brahmans. Like, I heard they worship Shitala in Uluberia. I do not even know who Sitla is. [Devotees explain who she is and that she rides a donkey.] So, when you worship her you end up becoming a donkey? [His Divine Grace laughs.]

সাধুসঙ্গে কৃষ্ণসেবা, না পূজিব দেবী-দেবা,
এই ভক্তি পরম কারণ ॥

sadhu-sange krsna-seva, na pujiba devi-deva
ei bhakti parama karana

"One should serve Lord Krsna in the association of devotees without worshipping any demigods because this is the ultimate devotion."

(Sri Sri Prema-bhakti-chandrika, 13, Srila Narottam Das Thakur)

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