Bhakti Bliss

(Synopsis of a lecture by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj given in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, on January 9, 2010)

If a one doesn’t feel that God is present in a deity, he will only receive the consequence of worshipping a stone sculpture. If we merely think, “What a great deity! What great features! It’s wearing a lovely diamond necklace. It looks wonderfully alive.” These are only external qualities. They are all material or mayic. If your mind is attached to these, the consequence of this attachment will be material. On the other hand, if you lovingly feel God’s presence in the deity, then you will receive a divine consequence. Very, very few people have these kinds of devotional feelings. The majority just make some brief show of respect to a piece of stone.

If one were to form these devotional feelings, then how much bliss he could experience! But we don’t experience as much happiness from seeing the deity as we do from seeing our husband, wife, or child. If your loved one comes from England after ten years, and you go to the airport to see him, how excited you are! We don’t become this excited when we see God’s deity. So then how have we formed any devotional feelings for the deity? How then could we receive a divine consequence for that worship?

For this very reason we have gone from temple to temple in uncountable lifetimes to worship one deity after another. If you think you have devotional feelings, then ask yourself when you last went to the temple, how many tears did you shed, thinking, “Oh Krishna! When will I meet You?”

In all the temples around the world, food is served to the deities every day. The priest places the food before the deity, closes a curtain between himself and the deity, closes his eyes and rings a bell. If asked, “What are you doing?” He will say, “I am serving food to the Lord. He is blessing it. Be quiet!” Does he really believe what he is saying? Does he really believe that the Lord is eating? “Of course, everyone offers food like this.” Now he opens the curtain. Has anyone ever looked closely at the tray and wondered, “What did the Lord eat? Oh! He hasn’t eaten anything! It’s because of me. What a sinner I am!” Has any temple priest had these kinds of feelings? No, no one has. Our faith is the opposite. Our firm faith is that God will NOT come and eat what He is served. Then how is this ‘blessed food’? ‘Prasad’ or blessed food means the food that was left over from what was actually eaten.

Thus, you will benefit from deity worship when you feel God’s presence in the deity. You won’t benefit from mere deity worship. The Bhagwatam (11/27/12) states that there are ten different kinds of deities, made of different materials such as iron, gold, wood, stone and so on. If someone were to imbue such a deity with the feeling of God’s presence, he could become a great Saint.

If such feelings are not imbued in the deity, if instead a person says, “This deity performs miracles.” A deity doesn’t perform any miracles. It is made of stone. This is your own confusion. “But there’s a huge crowd over there! In one year they collect millions in offerings to the Lord!” This is just blind faith.

That same miraculous Lord is present everywhere, even in hearts of those demons who insulted Shri Krishna and Shri Ram hundreds of times. God is not more present in some places and less present in others. He is not greater in Vrindaban, Rameshwaram, or Badarikashram and lesser elsewhere. Such pilgrimage places should be visited with the feeling that they are God’s leela shthal – a place where God enacted His divine pastimes.

For example, so many people are in Rameshwaram just now. Are they lovingly visualising in their meditation that Lord Ram’s lotus feet actually touched that place, and it was there that with His own lotus hands He established the deity of Lord Shiva? Not at all. They are just making a show of respect by proclaiming, “Glory to Lord Shiva!” and moving on. With this kind of attitude how could anyone benefit from visiting a pilgrimage place? You are just deceiving yourself by proudly thinking, “I went to Rameshwaram!” Please note this – every place is equal, whether one is standing in Golok or hell. How is this so?

Prabhu vyapak sarvatra samana.

God is equally present everywhere. He is also present in a deity.

Prem te prakat hohin bhagavana.

But it is only our devotional love that makes God manifest through a deity in His true divine form so that we could see Him, speak with Him and He could then eat what we have prepared for Him.

(Continued in Part 3)

© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009