ISKCON DeITY WORSHIP MINISTRY - ISVARA FORUM - …€¦ · Actually, neophyte devotees worship the...

Some may consider that in this age the pancaratra is not so relevant and that it is sufficient to simply focus on the chanting of the Lord's holy name. Some misunderstand the appropriate mood of temple worship in ISKCON temples. This is manifest in different ways. How the dei-ties are dressed, the mood of worship, or our interpretation of our relationship with the Lord, the way we interact with the deities, how strictly we follow the worship process and the rules and regulations of deity worship, etc. Yet Srila Prabhupada clearly explains in his purports that for this age of Kali, "Without the help of such codes [of the pancaratra], one cannot ap-proach the Lord..." and "[the pancaratra is the] prescribed purificatory process suitable to the age and time."

The world around us is changing at an ever-increasing rate. The notion of keeping up with the changing world may have relevance in devotional service. But is this perspective relevant in all areas of our practices of bhakti? Are there some elements of devotional service that must always be constant? Srila Prabhupada wrote:

The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. ... Whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that's all.

Srila Prabhupada often speaks about pancaratrika and bhagavata vidhis, the theme for this, our first issue of Arcana News for 2016, stressing their interde-pendence and importance for practition-ers of bhakti yoga. ISKCON’s temple wor-ship is clearly an element of pancaratrika vidhi. The rules of the pancaratra are specifically meant to regulate our activi-ties, mind and senses, and thus help us to understand we are not the body and we are ultimately a servant of Krishna. Personal purification is one of the main results of deity worship. Srila Prabhupada writes:

The temple worship will keep us sancti-fied, and when we shall preach in sanctified, pure heart, the preaching will be immedi-ately effective. So we have to follow the two parallel lines simultaneously for successful execution of devotional service.

Or as Jiva Gosvami explains, "Although sankirtana is sufficient for the perfection of life, the arcana, or worship of the deity in the temple, must continue in order that the devotees may stay clean and pure."

Opening-letter of the Deity-Worship-Minister

Todays topic:Pancaratrika-vidhi versus Bhagavad-vidhi

Content:Srila Prabhupada on pancaratirk-vidhi vs. bhagavad-vidhi page 3

Pujari-Portrait – Today: Dhira Krsna dasa, Belgum page 4

DW in practice - Today: How pancaratrika- and bhgavad-vidhi fit together page 5-6

How the Deity recipro-cates with His devotee – Today: Raghunandan Thakur and Gopinath page 7

News/Announcements/MA-updates page 8

Web-sites:Deity-Worship-Ministry: www.deityworship.com

Mayapur Academy: www.mayapuracademy.org

Blog:www.mayapuracademy.wordpress.com

Facebook:www.fb.com/MayapurAcademy

ISKCON DeITY WORSHIP MINISTRY

Issue 1 | 16

News

page 1International Society for Krishna Consciousness . Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Actually, neophyte devotees worship the Lord according to the pancaratrika-vidhi, or the regulative principles enjoined in the Narada-pancaratra. Radha-Krsna cannot be approached by the neophyte devotees; therefore temple worship ac-cording to regulative principles is offered to Laksmi-Narayana. Although there may be a Radha-Krsna vigraha, or form, the worship of the neophyte devotees is acceptable as Laksmi-Narayana worship. Worship according to the pancaratrika-vidhi is called vidhi-marga, and worship according to the bhagavata-vidhi princi-ples is called raga-marga. The principles of raga-marga are especially meant for devotees who are elevated to the Vrnda-vana platform.

Srila Prabhupada also explains, if we accept one without the other it will become troublesome later.

So both things should continue: bhagavata-marga and pancaratriki-marga. ... Both of them should be accepted, paral-lel line. Otherwise, one without the other will be later on troublesome.

even though we are followers of ad-vanced souls known as raganuga bhaktas, and we may be inspired by the Lord's Vrndavana pastimes and our ultimate destination is His supreme abode of Goloka Vrndavana, it is still necessary for us to approach the Lord through the rules and regulations of the pancaratra in order for us to become purified enough to gain access to the Lord's abode in the spiritual world.

Your servant,Nrsimha Kavaca dasa

Bhagavata vidhi, also known as bhaga-vata marga or raga marga, broadly refers to activities such as hearing and chanting, studying Srimad-Bhagavatam, etc. In the Bhagavad-gita it is explained that even though we are followers of the bhaga-vata marga, still we engage in devotional service according to the rules of the pan-caratrika vidhi.

While the pancaratrika vidhi is what helps to situate a devotee in the pu-rity required to approach the Lord, the bhagavata marga gives us the inspiration or taste that enlivens us in our practice of devotional service. While all of us experi-ence some glimpses of bhagavata marga in our day-to-day practices, the bhagavata-marga is particularly suited or available to those who are elevated to the conscious-ness of the residents of Vrndavana.

In our practice of deity worship in ISK-CON, though predominately pancaratrika vidhi, it is actually a blend of pancaratrika and bhagavata vidhis, as explained by Srila Prabhupada in the following extract from Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.45-46, purport:

Generally the worship of the Lord begins with the worship of Narayana, or Visnu, whereas the worship of Lord Krsna and Radha is most confidential. Lord Narayana is worshipable by the pancaratrika-vidhi, or regulative princi-ples, whereas Lord Krsna is worshipable by the bhagavata-vidhi. No one can worship the Lord in the bhagavata-vidhi

without going through the regula-tions of the pancaratrika-vidhi.


GauraPurnima 2016 up to End of June:

23rd March Gaurapurnima

24th March Festival of Jagannatha Mishra

31st March Appearance of Srivas Pandit

3rd April ekadasi

11th April Appearance of Ramanujacarya

14th April Tulasi-jal dan begins

15th April Ram-Navami

17th April ekadasi

21st April Sri Balaram rasyatra

29th April Abhiram Thakur disappearance

2nd May Vrndavan Das Th. appearance

3rd May ekadasi

6th May Gadadhar Pandit appearance

9th May Candan-yatra starts

13th May Tulasi-jal dan ends

15th May Sita Devi appearance

17th May ekadasi

19th May Jayananda Prabhu disappearance

20th May Nrisimha caturdasi

21st May Radha-Raman, Madhavendra Puri, Srinivas Acarya, appearance

26th May Ramananda Ray disappearance

1st June ekadasi

14th June Baladeva Vidyabh. Disappearance

15th June ekadasi

20th June Snana Yatra, Mukunda Datta, Sridhar Pandit, disappear.

21st June Syamananda Prabhu disappear.

29th June Srivas Pandit disappear.

30th June ekadasi

Vaishnava-Calendar

relief from all these contaminations, it is required that one engage in the worship of the Lord in the temple. The worship of the Deity in the temple is essential to reduce one’s restlessness due to the contamina-tions of conditioned life. Thus Närada, in his päïcarätriké-vidhi, and other great sages have sometimes stressed that since every conditioned soul has a bodily con-cept of life aimed at sense enjoyment, to restrict this sense enjoyment the rules and regulations for worshiping the Deity in the temple are essential. Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé has described that the holy name of the Lord can be chanted by liberated souls, but almost all the souls we have to initiate are conditioned. It is advised that one chant the holy name of the Lord without offenses and according to the regulative principles, yet due to their past bad habits they violate these rules and regulations. Thus the regu-lative principles for worship of the Deity are also simultaneously essential.

of nescience.” Similarly, the Kali-santaraëa Upaniñad states, “Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare—these sixteen names composed of thirty-two syl-lables are the only means to counteract the evil effects of Kali-yuga. In all the Vedas it is seen that to cross the ocean of nescience there is no alternative to the chanting of the holy name.” Similarly, Çré Madhväcärya, while commenting upon the Muëòaka Upaniñad, has quoted the following verse from the Näräyaëa-saàhitä:

dväparéyair janair viñëuù païcarätrais tu kevalaiù kalau tu näma-mätreëa püjyate bhagavän hariù

“In Dväpara-yuga one could satisfy Kåñëa or Viñëu only by worshiping Him gorgeously according to the päïcarätriké system, but in the Age of Kali one can satisfy and worship the Supreme Personal-ity of Godhead Hari simply by chanting the holy name.”

In his Bhakti-sandarbha (text 284), Çréla Jéva Gosvämé strongly emphasizes the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. He states that the substance of all the Vedic mantras is the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. every mantra begins with the pre-fix nama oà and eventually addresses by name the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By the supreme will of the Lord there is a specific potency in each and every mantra chanted by great sages like Närada Muni and other åñis. Chanting the holy name of the Lord immediately renovates the tran-scendental relationship of the living being with the Supreme Lord.

To chant the holy name of the Lord, one need not depend upon other parapher-nalia, for one can immediately get all the desired results of linking with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It may therefore be questioned why there is a necessity for initiation or further spiritual activities in devotional service for one who engages in the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. The answer is that although it is correct that one who fully engages in chanting the holy name need not depend upon the process of initiation, generally a devotee is addicted to many abominable material habits due to material contamination from his previous life. In order to get quick

CC Adi 7.76harer näma harer näma - harer nämaiva kevalamkalau nästy eva nästy eva - nästy eva gatir anyathä

TRANSLATION“‘For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali, there is no alternative, there is no alterna-tive, there is no alternative to the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’

PURPORTFor progress in spiritual life, the çästras recommend meditation in Satya-yuga, sacrifice for the satisfaction of Lord Viñëu in Tretä-yuga and gorgeous worship of the Lord in the temple in Dväpara-yuga, but in the Age of Kali one can achieve spiritual progress only by chanting the holy name of the Lord. This is confirmed in various scriptures. In Çrémad-Bhägavatam there are many references to this fact. In the Twelfth Canto (3.51) it is said:

kaler doña-nidhe räjann asti hy eko mahän guëaùkértanäd eva kåñëasya mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet[SB 12.3.51]

In the Age of Kali there are many faults, for people are subjected to many miser-able conditions, yet in this age there is one great benediction—simply by chanting the Hare Kåñëa mantra one can be freed from all material contamination and thus be elevated to the spiritual world. The Närada Païcarätra also praises the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra as follows:

trayo vedäù ñaò-aìgäni chandäàsi vividhäù suräùsarvam añöäkñaräntaù-sthaà yac cänyad api väì-mayam sarva-vedänta-särärthaù saàsärärëava-täraëaù

“The essence of all Vedic knowledge—comprehending the three kinds of Vedic activity [karma-käëòa, jïäna-käëòa and upäsanä-käëòa], the chandas, or Vedic hymns, and the processes for satisfying the demigods—is included in the eight syllables Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa. This is the reality of all Vedänta. The chant-

ing of the holy name is the only means to cross the ocean

Srila Prabhupada on

Pancaratrika-vidhi versus Bhagavat-vidhi


Name: Dhira Krsna dasa

Disciple from: H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami

In which place are you serving? Since when? Radhadesh, Belgium. I joined the temple full time in April 1992.

Since when are you serving the Deities and how did you get attracted to that seva? I received second initiation in October 1994 and since then started doing Deity Worship in Radhadesh. I started dressing the Gaura Nitai Deities which are now in Amsterdam and at that time They were hosted in Radhadesh because there were no devotees in Amsterdam who could take care of Them. That was in the years 1995-1996. Soon I also learned to cook

and the altar looked like a big stage as in a theater, with the curtains and all. Another dream I saw Lord Jagannatha sitting in a row of sannyasis (yes, he is Jagannatha Swami!) and He had a knife and fork in His hands and He was looking at me with a mood like: "When is My Prasadam coming?". I also have been so lucky to take Lord Jagannatha on His Ratha Yatra almost every time we had a Ratha Yatra in the Benelux since 1999 when His pujari at that time went to do other things. I think of all the Deities, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra are my favorite Ones.

What kind of advice would you give to a young devotee to get attracted to Deity Worship? It's a natural process. I would say, come and do some service for the Deities, even if you are not second intitiated yet, or still a Bhakta or Bhaktin, you can do some service as a pujari helper washing para-phernalia or doing some maha-prasadam transfers. If it is a service that matches to you, you can't avoid becoming attracted. In fact, one of my first services during the bhakta program was doing the last transfer in the evening. Obviously hard to avoid the temptation of taking some maha prasadam afterwards, but it is hard to wake up the next morning then for mangala arati! Nevertheless new bhaktas should eat a lot of maha prasadam, it's a good way to survive the attacks of Maya.

for the Deities and found this to be a very sattvic service, which matches perfectly with my personality. What inspires you the most in your seva to the Deities? What inspires me is that through this ser-vice we are able to directly serve the Lord, as if we were serving Him in the spiritual world. Deity Worship is the Lord's Mercy upon his devotee. The contact with the Deity is like seeing Krsna in front of you and attending to His desires. Krsna likes to eat opulent, so we cook delicious dishes for Him, He likes to be dressed in beautiful clothes and wear ornaments, and we can dress Him personally, like His servants in Gokula Vrndavan. As pujaris we often get those dreams where we are in anxiety, we may be late in dressing and the curtains have to open right now! Or everything is a mess on the altar and we have to clean up quickly before the darshan time. Those dreams generally happen in reality as well, only the dreams exaggerate the situation. Pujaris relish every minute they are on the altar serving Krsna. Did you have personal experiences with the Deities which you would like to share? I have had some very nice dreams where I saw Lord Jagannatha. One dream Lord Jagannatha had His altar very high up in a skyscraper, with a huge kitchen next to it

Pujari-Portrait:


for His protection. Nonetheless, Vaiñëa-vas following the path of Çré Närada and his successors endeavor to establish a personal relationship with the Lord by receiving the grace of a bona fide spiritual master through initiation, and in this tradition the devotees are obliged at the time of initiation to begin engaging in De-ity worship….“ Although Deity worship is not essential, the material conditioning of most candidates for devotional service requires that they engage in this activity. When we consider their bodily and men-tal conditions, we find that the character of such candidates is impure and their minds are agitated. Therefore, to rectify this material conditioning the great sage Närada and others have at different times recommended various kinds of regula-tions for Deity worship.” (Bhakti-sandarb-ha (283–84), by Çréla Jéva Gosvämé, cited in CC Ma 15.108p)

Srila Prabhupada writes the following comment on Srila Jiva Gosvamis quote: “…In other words, the chanting of the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra is so powerful that it does not depend on official initia-tion, but if one is initiated and engages in païcarätra-vidhi (Deity worship), his Kåñëa consciousness will awaken very

age and time. Such a purificatory process is allowed only for spiritual upliftment and not for any other purpose. Spiritual upliftment is never conditioned by higher or lower parentage….” (SB 1.12.13p)

“…The arcana-märga, or the devo-tional path prescribed in the Païcarätra system of devotional service for worship-ing the Deity in the temple, makes the devotee think constantly of the Lord; that is samädhi, or trance. One who prac-tices in this way cannot deviate from the service of the Lord, and that makes him perfect in the mission of human life.” (SB 4.8.52p)

In his Bhakti-sandarbha Srila Jiva Gosvami gives the following explana-tion of how the two paths go together: “It is Çrémad-Bhägavatam’s opinion that the process of Deity worship is not actually necessary, just as the specific prescriptions of the Païcarätra and other scriptures do not have to be followed. The Bhägavatam enjoins that even without practicing Deity worship one can achieve the complete success of human life by any of the other devotional processes, such as simply offering oneself at the Lord’s feet

(based on an article from BTG 35-04-01, quotes by Srila Prabhupada and a seminar given by BVP Swami)

There are two tracks (vidhis) required to walk safely on the spiritual path, as Srila Prabhupada often mentioned: In the same way as the physical train needs two parallel tracks, also the train of bhakti needs two tracks: one is the bhagavat-vidhi or the path of sravanam and kirtana, also known as rag-marg and the päï-carätrika-vidhi or the path of arcana, also known as vidhi-marg.

When Srila Prabhupada came to the West to teach Krishna-consciousness, he first introduced the religion of this age: chanting Hare Krishna, in order to create a taste in the young devotees for hear-ing and chanting. Only after some time he started to introduce the process of arcanam or Deity-worship. He explained to his students that arcanam is a necessary part of devotional service.

“…The Päïcarätrika system acts on the çüdra class of men, supposedly the

population of the Kali-yuga, and it is the prescribed purificatory

process suitable to the

Deity-Worship in Practice – Today:

How Pancaratrika-vidhi and Bhagavat-vidhi fit together:


Païca means 5 and rätra means nights. It is said that once two demons, Madhu and Kaitava, stole all the Vedic knowledge from Lord Brahma so that Lord Narayana had to teach it to Brahma again. He did so within 5 nights only. There are 108 paï-carätras of which the Narada-païcarätra is one. It is divided into 5 parts also known as pancanga-puja, or the worship accord-ing to 5 steps. They are as follows:

1. Abhigamana or preliminary activities such as waking early morning, paying obeisances to one’s spiritual master, cleansing one´s body, putting on fresh cloths, performing acaman, putting on tilak, reciting Gayatri- mantras, etc.

2. Upadhanam or collecting the required items for worship

3. Yoga or linking one’s mind with the Supreme Lord by reciting bhuta- shuddhi-prayers, which help one to understand ones true identity as an eternal servant of the servant of the Supreme Lord.

4. Ijya or the actual worship of the Lord with 16 upacaras

5. Svadhyaya or the personal meditation or cultivation of devotional service such as sravanam and kirtanam

As we can see the bhagavat-vidhi is the 5th step of the païcarätra-system or the pancanga-puja. Bhakti-vidhya Purna Swami explains, that the païcarätra-sys-tem is a perfect spiritual life-style, meant to assist people in Kali-yuga to calm down their agitated minds and to purify their consciousness. In this way they are up-lifted on the platform of sattva-guna from where a concentrated and substantial nam-japa can be practiced.

Hare Krishna

processes, such as arcana, vandana, däsya and sakhya, should be executed, but they must be preceded and followed by kértana, the chanting of the holy name. We have therefore introduced this system in all of our centers. Arcana, ärati, bhoga offer-ing, Deity dressing and decoration are all preceded and followed by the chanting of the holy name of the Lord—Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.” (CC Ma 15.107p)

Now let us have a short look on the meaning of the word “païcarätra” and its 5 steps constituting it:

soon, and his identification with the material world will be vanquished. The more one is freed from material identifi-cation, the more one can realize that the spirit soul is qualitatively as good as the Supreme Soul. At such a time, when one is situated on the absolute platform, one can understand that the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself are identi-cal…” (CC Ma 15.108p)

One important point is to be consid-ered while following these paths: “…Out of the nine processes of devotional ser-vice, kértana is very important. Çréla Jéva Gosvämé therefore instructs that the other

If you have any questions on Deity-worship please send them to the following address ([email protected]), they will be then forwarded to H.G. Pankhajanghri and Jananivasa Prabhus. The answers on your questions will be published in the next issue of Arcana-News.


[All the mahantas] felt fascinated to see the Gopinath Deity whom Raghunandan had fed laddus. (Bhakti-ratnakara 9.525)

When Mukunda Das returned, he asked the boy to bring him the Prasad from the offering he had made. The child an-swered, “Father, He ate everything and left no remnants.” Mukunda was astonished at his child’s wonderful words that he asked him again on another occasion to make an offer-ing. This time after he left the house, he returned and hid to watch what his son would do.

Raghunandan joyfully placed a laddu in Krishna’s hand and said in a command-ing voice, “Eat! Eat!”. When Krishna had eaten half of the laddu, Raghunandan saw Mukunda Das in the doorway. Mukunda saw that Krishna did not take another bite and that the half-eaten laddu remained in His hand. This caused him to be filled with love. He embraced his child and, as tears of joy rained from his eyes, spoke to him in a broken voice. To this day, fortunate people come to Shrikhanda to see the half-eaten laddu in Gopinath’s hand. Raghunandan is not dif-ferent from Cupid himself, says Uddhava Das with great feeling.

Raghunandan’s work is to serve Krishna. He has no interest in anything other than serving Krishna. (Chaitanya Charitamrita 2.15.131) From his early childhood, Raghunandan Thakur would feed the family’s Gopinath Deity laddus. Uddhava Das has written a song in which this lila is described: Mukunda Das lived in the village of Shrikhanda, where his household Deity was named Gopinath. One day he had to go somewhere for work and he called Raghunandan to do the service. He said, “In this house we worship Krishna, so I want you to be sure to give Him some-thing to eat.” and then he left.

Raghunandan did as his father had or-dered and made the offering to the Deity. Raghunandan was just a child and in his simplicity, he said to Gopinath, “Eat! Eat!”

Krishna is controlled by love, and so He did as the child told Him and ate everything on the plate without leaving a

grain of rice.

How The Deity Reciprocates With His Devotee – Today:

Mahaprabhu Gave Raghunandan the Service of Deity Worship


ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry is dedi-cated to guiding and inspiring devotees in the worship of the Lord. By identifying and propagating the mood and methods of worship promoted by our spiritual preceptors,and through our various initia-tives, ISKCON temples and devotees en-gaged in deity worship around the world benefit significantly from the initiatives of ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry. The Ministry needs additional funds to con-tinue to provide and expand these much needed services to the ISKCON commu-nity, such as maintaining and developing the Mayapur Academy, ISKCON´s first Deity-worship-school. Please help us to continue serving and expand Srila Prabhupada's mission of es-tablishing gorgeous deity worship in every corner of the world.

Without your generous support ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry will be unable to continue to grow and offer services to the ISKCON community. You can donate over the below mentioned link:www.gofundme.com/deityworship

Any center wishing to commence worship of new deities must get approval for this worship. You will find relevant information for applying for a “Certificate of Readiness” on our website: www.deityworship.com

The following information is under the Resources tab “Installing deities in ISKCON centers:”

• TherelevantGBCResolution

• Adocumentoutliningexpectedworshipstandardsandadditionalpoints to consider prior to applying

• Applicationrequestformhttp://deityworship.com/deity-worship-ministry- resources/deity-installations

Ministry and Mayapur Academy Updates:

Installation / Commencement of Worship Procedure:

Announcements:


Seminar on Festivals (adivas-ceremony and abhishekams) given by H.G. Mukunda Datta Prabhu in Goloka Dhama, Germany, June 8-9, 2016.

For more information please contact Damodara-priya dasi: [email protected]

First European Head Pujari Sanga in Prabhupada-desh (Italy) on June 29-30, 2016. Dates and venue are tentative, but they will probably be confirmed. H.G. Nrsimha Kavaca Prabhu is scheduled to be present. Updates will soon be communicated.

For any information please contact Manohar das: [email protected]

Coming soon!Dots - The art of deity face-painting 14 euros, without shipping-costswww.lifeartista.com

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