ISKCON DeITY WOrSHIP MINISTrY - Mayapur Academymayapuracademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Arcana-3-16-2.pdf · question of decrease, only how to increase in the quality and opulence

question of decrease, only how to increase in the quality and opulence of our arcana offerings."

Is this a principle of bhakti and therefore non-negotiable, or is it a detail? Sometimes Srila Prabhupada did adjust his position on details when he saw the circumstance. Given the current situation in ISKCON and the world in general can we explore adjusting standards of worship? Would Srila Prabhupada agree with this?

Let us know what you think. Send us your thoughts to [email protected]

Your servant,Nrsimha Kavaca dasa

Any devotee that has been around the Hare Krishna movement for some time will tell you that Krishna wants our love.

How do we show our love for Krishna? Is it in quantity of our offerings or the quality of our offerings?

Today, ISKCON centers around the world struggle with a shortage of devotees to care for the deities, on the altar, in the kitchen and doing backup services. Many temples also lack the funds and resources, to maintain the worship, yet devotees generally are very inspired to maintain established standards of worship for a given temple and deity.

As ISKCON evolves from an asrama based to congregationally based society, what does that mean in terms for the worship and care of the deity in the temple? With conflicting priorities of the congregation’s needs like work, school, family etc, is it okay to adjust the standard of worship of the deity to accommodate the busy life that devotees lead? A solution has yet to appear that can effectively correct these situations when in reality there are a lack of brahmanas willing or able to serve the deities.

Is it an option to modify standards of worship? This wouldn’t mean that temples adjust worship to suit their own needs, but that a reasonable standard of worship is worked out with appropriate guidance. This would of course include certain non-negotiable items, such as brahmanas only worshiping and cooking.

Looking at Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, however, we get a different view. For example a letter to Badrinarayana in 1971, "regarding deity worship, the standard of deity worship must be kept very high in all our ISKCON

Centers. There should be no

Opening letter What does Krishna really want from us?

Todays topic:Quality instead of Quantity

Content:Srila Prabhupada on quality in devotional service page 2

Pujari-Portrait – Today: Satrupa Devi Dasi, Hungary page 3

How the Deity recipro-cates with His devotee – Today: Sudama Vipra page 4-5

DW in practice - Today: “tad ahaà bhakty-upahåtam” page 6-7

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 3 | 16

News

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


Sept. up to Dec. 16:

23 Sep - Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in the USA

26 Sep - ekadasi

08 Oct - Durga Puja

11 Oct - ramacandra Vijayotsava and Appearance of Sri Madhvacharya

12 Oct - ekadashi

13 Oct – Disapp.of Srila raghunatha Dasa Goswami - Srila raghunatha Bhatta Goswami and of Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami

16 Oct - Sri Krsna Saradiya rasayatra, Laksmi Puja and Disapp.of Murari Gupta

17 Oct - Fourth Month of Caturmasya Begins

20 Oct – Disapp.of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura

23 Oct – App.of radha Kunda (Bahulastami), Snana Dana

26 Oct - ekadashi

30 Oct - Dipa Dana, Dipavali, (Kali Puja)

31 Oct – App.of rasikananda, Govardhana Puja and Go Puja

03 Nov – Disapp.of Srila Prabhupada

08 Nov - Gopastami, Gosthastami, Disapp. of Sri Gadadhara Dasa

08 Nov – Disapp.of Srinivasa Acharya

11 Nov - ekadashi, Disapp.of Srila Gaura Kisora Dasa Babaji Maharaja and start of Bhisma Pancaka

14 Nov - Last Day of Caturmasya, Krsna rasayatra and Tulasi-Saligram Vivaha

15 Nov - Katyayani Vrata Begins

25 Nov - ekadashi

05 Dec - Odana Sasthi

10 Dec - ekadashi

10 Dec - Gita-Jayanti

13 Dec - Katyayani Vrata ends

17 Dec – Disapp.of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

24 Dec - ekadashi

30 Dec – App.of Sri Locana Dasa Thakura

Vaishnava-Calendar

Srila Prabhupada on

quality in devotional servicedevotional service (ye yathä mäà prapadyante [Bg. 4.11])…” (SB 2.6.38, p)

71-11 “regarding Deity worship, the standard of Deity worship must be kept very high in all our ISKCON centers. There should be no question of decrease, only how to increase in the quality and opulence of our arcana offering. (Siksamrita, Deity-Worship)

“…Try to help us by your life, money, words, and intelligence. These four things are possessed by everyone, the degrees may be various, but Krsna is not concerned with the degrees. He wants to see the quality. If you love Krsna and offer something in devotion, never mind it is a little water, a small fruit, a small flower, Krsna accepts that. If anything is accepted by Krsna that goes to our credit malting our path of liberation open. So please try to help our movement to your best capacity, and it will be very good for you and the persons who hear you.” (SPL to Srimati Connie, 3rd June, 1970)

“…Prabhupäda: Well, when there is question of knowledge, only you will find a few people to get the knowledge. When you put this question, "Find out some learned scholar," generally they will be very... Their number will be very little. But one thing is that if there is one man in real knowledge, he can give the..., distribute the knowledge to many. The example is just like ekaç candras tamo hanti na ca tärä sahasraçaù: If you get one moon at night, that is sufficient to dissipate the darkness. And there are millions of stars—it is useless. So it is necessarily not required that everyone should be in perfect knowledge. But if one man is in perfect knowledge, hundreds and thousands can hear from him and they can perfect[?]. So it does not depend on the quantity; it depends on the quality…” (Room Conversation, Caracas, February 19, 1975)

“…The new growth of Tulasi is testi-mony to your sincere devotion because she will only grow and flourish in an at-mosphere of Krsna Consciousness. Please see that the regular rules and practices are strictly followed by all the inmates and keep improving the quality of your Deity worship—this will keep you firmly fixed in the Absolute Truth…” Letter to Vamanadeva, Bombay, Nov. 12th, 1970

“…It is said in the çästras that by once uttering the holy name of the Lord, the sinner gets rid of a quantity of sins that he is unable to commit. Such is the power of uttering the holy name of the Lord. There is not the least exaggeration in this statement. Actually the Lord's holy name has such powerful potency. But there is a quality to such utterances also. It depends on the quality of feeling. A helpless man can feelingly utter the holy name of the Lord, whereas a man who utters the same holy name in great material satisfaction cannot be so sincere. A materially puffed up person may utter the holy name of the Lord occasionally, but he is incapable of uttering the name in quality…” SB 1.8.26 p

“…The stage of a devotee, which attracts the transcendental affection of the Lord, does not develop unless one has developed the qualities of a brähmaëa as above mentioned. The Lord is inclined to a brähmaëa of quality and not of false prestige…”, SB 1.14.34, p

“…But when the senses are purified by the process of hearing, chanting, remembering, and worshiping the lotus feet of the holy Deity, etc., the Lord

reveals Himself proportionately to the advancement of

the quality of

Name:

Satrupa devi dasi

Disciple from:

Srila Sivarama Swami Maharaja

In which place are you serving? Since when?

I joined in 2005 in Hungary and served in the ISKCON Budapest Temple and in New Vraja Dhama until the beginning of 2015. Since than I am travelling in europe with my husband and we did service in Italy, in France, in Belgium and in Germany.

Since when are you serving the Deities and how did you get attracted to that seva?

I started to do pujari services around 2006. I moved to the temple on the week-ends and made garlands for Dayal Nitai

decorated with those turban ornaments. I felt than that by His causeless mercy He accepted my insignificant service. Jaya Krishna-Balarama ki jaya!

What kind of advice would you give to a young devotee to get attracted to Deity Worship?

They have to try to understand the im-portance of Deity worship and appreciate this opportunity. Srila Prabhupada in His commentaries, rupa Gosvami (in the Bhakti rasamrta sindhu), and also Krishna Himself (in the 11th Canto of the SB) speaks a lot about Deity worship. They can study these descriptions and get some inspiration from them.

They have to try to be clean inside and outside as much as they can and focus on their services. They can meditate on the service much before they are supposed to do it. They can plan what will they cook or what kind of garland they will make, etc.

- Vijaya Gauranga, I did the morning and evening transfers and also started to take care of Tulasi-devi. After I finished my secondary school studies I became a full time pujari helper and pujari of Srimati Tulasi devi. What inspires you the most in your seva to the Deities?

The most inspiring for me is the closeli-ness of the Deities and to take care of Them like a mother takes care of her child. Did you have personal experiences with the Deities which you would like to share?

I like to make turban-ornaments for Dei-ties from pearls and ribbons. Once I made a box of ornaments for Krishna-Balarama (the Deities in New Mayapur) which a friend delivered to Them. After some time Krishna and Balarama arranged for us to visit and serve Them in New Mayapur. A couple of days before our travel to France I had a dream, that I am in the temple room in New Mayapur and I saw only Krishna-Balarama. When I went closer to the altar (in my dream) I saw that Balarama's turban is fully decorated with the ornaments I made and He was look-ing at me with a very sweet smile on His Lotus Face. When I woke up it was a nice feeling but I was a bit sad, that this was only a dream. Next day, when I checked the daily darsana pictures on the internet I saw that Balarama's turban is really fully

Pujari-Portrait:


was there and the people of the palace, they couldn’t believe it. Here is Krishna, embracing with such affection, with tears in His eyes, this poor skinny little dirty Brahman. Who is he? Why is it? And Krishna took Sudama and put him on His own throne and began to wash his lotus feet with His own hands. And then Krish-na drank the water of the foot wash of Sudama Vipra. And meanwhile, rukmini with a chamara fan was offering seva to Sudama Vipra. And then Krishna offered arati with incense, with ghee lamp, with flowers, offered him beautiful garlands, then offered him wonderful, wonderful food stuffs. And after all this, they began to talk. They began to remember how they lived together at their guru’s ashram. How they served their guru with such love and such devotion.

They talked so many wonderful recol-lections of their childhood together and ultimately, it was time to go and Krishna asked Sudama, did you bring Me some gift? Krishna knew (vedäham samatétäni vartamänäni cärjuna bhaviñyäëi ca bhütä-ni mäm tu veda na kaçcana) [BG 7.26] Krishna says in Gita, I know everything, past, present and future, I am in the heart of every living being and I know every one’s desires, everyone’s thoughts. This verse makes us very sober, the fact is that Krishna knows every thought, every word and every act in our life. So, He said, Su-dama, give me your gift. And Sudama was looking around. My God, such a beautiful

master except the service. How could I ask for material things from Krishna? It broke his heart, the thought of it. But his wife is so much concerned for him that again and again she requested. So because he has soft heart, he said, alright, I will go. But I have to bring Him something. He said, you know, whenever we go to the temple to visit God and it is a Vedic system, when-ever we go to meet even a saintly person, we should always bring some sort of gift of love. So I have to bring something to Krishna. And she looked in the house and there was absolutely nothing in the house to give. So, she went out and begged and got some chipped rice, two palm full and put it in an old piece of cloth and tied it and said, this is all we have.

So, when he went to Dvaraka as he was approaching the beautiful palace of Lord Sri Krishna, Krishna saw him coming. He was sitting on the bed of rukmini, the supreme goddess of fortune and Krishna got up from His bed and ran to the door to greet Sudama and began to embrace him with such love. Sudama was seeing this beautiful palace and all these beautiful maid servants and servants and rukmini

Sudama Vipra, such a wonderful ex-ample we learn from him. He was a poor Brahman. He was so poor that he didn’t even have food to eat. He and his wife were so thin that their bones were coming out of their body. They only had one set of clothes each, which were dirty and torn. They lived in a thatched hut which is not even liveable by human standards. So one day, his wife, she herself was satisfied under these conditions. But she couldn’t tolerate seeing her husband having to live, such an uncomfortable life. So she told Sudama, why don’t you go, Krishna is your old friend. You went to school with Him at the gurukul of Sandipani Muni. We know that Krishna is always very favorable towards His friends. Why don’t you go, He is the husband of goddess of fortune. Just ask Him for some basic ne-cessities so that we could live a little com-fortable. So at least we can have some food and have some clothes, and have a house. Sudama never wanted to go. Because he was thinking how could I ask Krishna for

anything. He is my master. I am His servant. The servant doesn’t ask

something from the

How The Deity Reciprocates With His Devotee – Today:

Sudama Vipra



me this, but Krishna you have given me so much I can serve You with. And they lived their whole life, living in this beautiful palace. But they were not the slightest bit attached to anything except using it for Krishna’s service. In this way, they had the same disposition they did when they were very poor people. Krishna says, akiñcana-gocaram, that you can only approach Him if you are in an impoverished condition. This does not mean materially impover-ished, it means poverty of the heart. It means nothing is mine. Poverty means, you don’t have anything. right? Krishna says, sarva-loka-maheçvaram, bhoktäram yajña-tapasäm sarva-loka-maheçvaram, everything is Krishna’s. So, even Sudama Vipra, he felt the same poverty, impover-ished condition, living in the palace as he did when he had nothing. Why, because he knew, nothing is mine, everything belongs to God, everything is meant to be used for His service. He is giving me these things to use them for His service. I’ll accept them and use them for His service, for His glorification. In this way, he was never entangled. He lived a peaceful, joy-ful, blissful, spiritual life throughout his years and at the end of his life, he went back home back to Godhead. That is real renunciation. He was greedy for Krishna, he was greedy for service for Krishna and therefore Sudama Vipra´s house became Vrindavan dham.

human energy? He is self-sufficient and complete. The greatness is that He has accepted it. The greatness is not what we have done but what He has done, by ac-cepting it. And if it is offered with sincer-ity, humility and devotion, only then will He truly accept it.

So, rukmini said, because You have accepted Sudama’s offering, his life is per-fect. He will have all prosperity, material-ly, spiritually, everything. So Sudama said good bye to Krishna. Krishna said good bye to Sudama. And as he was walking home, he was thinking, such a wonderful darshan I had, how loving and merciful Krishna is, that He embraced. And out from his palace came his wife and she was decorated with all nice silken garments, beautiful jewelry, beautiful perfumed hair, and she came out and she offered her obeisances. She bowed down before her husband and they looked at each other and they looked all around and they both knew that it was Krishna’s mercy, it was Krishna’s love. They were so speechless that they couldn’t even say a word to each other. They just silently walked into the house, a wonderful castle and she brought him to his room, which was so beautiful and so wonderful and he simply thanked Krishna, not Krishna that You have given

palace with such a beautiful queen, with such a luxurious food, how can I give Him this old stale chipped rice, which isn´t even fit for a beggar. He said, no Krishna, I didn’t bring anything, honestly. Krishna says, I know you brought, give Me. No, no, I did not. So Krishna saw this old piece of cloth hanging and He personally just took it. And He opened it and He took one morsel and ate it. And He was about to take more, but rukmini said, that’s enough my Lord. By taking one morsel, you have already made this devotee’s life perfect. All good fortune will be upon him because You have accepted his service. This is a fact. The perfection of our life is simply when Krishna is willing to accept our service. This is the humility that the devotee should have. Whatever we offer, we should not think I am so great for what I am offering but we should think Krishna is so great that He has accepted it. Because, false pride ruins everything. Whatever we do for Krishna, we should not think, oh, just see the world, what I have done. I have arranged for this, I have built this, I have done this. We should think, whatever I have done, what is it to Krishna. What does He need? Whatever we are doing, we are doing for Krishna and does He need our money? Does He need our intelligence? Does He need our

The great chance Deity-worship offers to us is its possibility to learn approaching the Supreme Lord, Krishna, feelingly and to serve and please Him as a person. In so many quotes by Srila Prabhupada we read how our attitude in which we perform seva matters most. It does not matter so much what we do, much more important and attractive for Krishna is how we serve Him, in which attitude we approach Him or His devotees. This is what He is ulti-mately looking for and what attracts Him the most in a devotee. Srila Bhaktisid-dhanta Sarasvati Thakura expressed it in that way:“Don´t try to see God but act in such a way that He wants to see you!”

Although Deity-worship bears that chance of learning to approach the Lord feelingly, very often, due to an overly passionate nature, we tend to concentrate more on the quantity-aspect, means, to increase the amounts of ceremonies, to in-crease the duration of ceremonies by com-plicating the procedures more and more, etc. Is that really, what Srila Prabhupada wanted us to do? He actually considered cooking as well as Deity-worship a busi-ness of one hour each!

tion in a pure loving exchange is not de-pendent on the external quality of what is offered. Kåñëa says, "Something may or may not be impressive and pleasing in its own right, but when My devotee offers it to Me in devotion, with the expectation that I will enjoy it, it gives Me great pleas-ure; in this regard I make no discrimina-tion." The verb açnämi, "I eat," implies that Lord Kåñëa eats even a flower, which is supposed to be smelled, bewildered as He is by the ecstatic love He feels for His devotee…” (SB 10.81.4, p)

The Lord accepts the offerings of devo-tees because of their transcendental love. (SB 7.2.7-8, p)

Fruits and flowers are very much pleasing to the Lord. If one wants to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he can simply offer fruits and flowers, and the Lord will be pleased to accept them. Our only duty is to please the Supreme Godhead (saàsiddhir hari-toñaëam [SB 1.2.13]). Whatever we do and whatever our occupation, our main purpose should be to please the Su-preme Lord. All the paraphernalia men-tioned in this verse is especially meant for the satisfaction of the Lord, not the satisfaction of one's senses. (SB 7.2.14, p)

“The Supreme Lord said: O brähmaëa, what gift have you brought Me from home? I regard as great even the small-est gift offered by My devotees in pure love, but even great offerings presented by non-devotees do not please Me.” SB 10.81.3

patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà - yo me bhaktyä prayacchatitad ahaà bhakty-upahåtam - açnämi pray-atätmanaù

“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.”

“…In the context of the current epi-sode of Sudämä's visit to Dvärakä, Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravarté has kindly contin-ued his explanation of Lord Kåñëa's state-ments: This verse is a reply to Sudämä's anxiety that his bringing such an unfit offering was ill-considered. The use of the words bhaktyä prayacchati and bhakty-upahåtam may seem redundant, since they both mean "offered with devotion," but bhaktyä can indicate how the Lord reciprocates the devotional mood of who-

ever offers Him something with love. In other words, Lord Kåñëa

here declares that His reciproca-

Deity-Worship in Practice – Today:

“tad aham bhakty-upahrtam”


“Thus seeing how the unconquerable Supreme Lord is nonetheless conquered by His own servants, the Lord's dear brähmaëa friend felt the remaining knots of material attachment within his heart being cut by the force of his constant meditation on the Lord. In a short time he attained Lord Kåñëa's supreme abode, the destination of great saints.” (SB 10.81.29)

“…In the following prayer from the Stava-mälä, Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé aptly expresses the devotional attitude one should adopt in making an offering to the Lord:

O enemy of the Mura demon, as You happily accepted the eatables from the wives of the brähmaëas of Mathurä, the banana peels of Vidura, the butter, yogurt, and milk of the cows of the Vraja area, the handful of chipped rice from your friend Sudämä, the milk from the nipples of Mother Yaçodä, and the sweets offered with love by the gopés of the Vraja area, please accept my gift with the same pleasure.” (Pancaratra Pradipa, Preparing for Worship)

Let us not forget these main points of Deity-worship, otherwise we may fail in the attempt of reaching its actual potential of awakening our dormant love for the Lord.

Hare Krishna

“…Especially in public temple wor-ship, the Deity will not necessarily be pleased simply by the püjäris' devotion alone; rather, the devotees must show their devotion by strenuously trying to offer nice presentations, as mentioned in this verse. Çréla Prabhupäda has stipulated five main items one can offer the Deity to please Him: first-class scents, flowers, food, clothes, and ornaments. However simple or elaborate the Deity worship is in a particular temple, special care should be taken that these five kinds of paraphernalia are of a very high standard. Generally, the Deity worship in a home will be less opulent than that in a temple, but in both cases everything should be offered with devotion…”

“…even the poorest person, possessing only a few vessels, flowers, and pure water, can worship the Lord in full opulence by means of mantra, meditation, and devo-tion and receive the greatest mercy from the Lord. A further note: Even if an article is not missing, you may meditate that you are offering more and better quality of that particular article. For example, a scarcity of flowers may force you to offer only one-perhaps not particularly good quality-flower in an äraté, but while offering it you can meditate that you are offering a full plate of fragrant roses to the Lord. Such meditation will not go in vain!...” (Pancaratra Pradipa, Preparing for Worship)

It is not the amount of seva what attracts Krishna, rather it is the quality of seva. As He says Himself: “…I regard as great even the smallest gift offered by My devotees in pure love, but even great offerings presented by non-devotees do not please Me.” (SB 10.81.3) –To increase seva in quantity is external and therefore easier to accomplish. But what really pleases the Lord is, what comes from inside, simple processes performed with love and devotion. To serve with quality is more difficult since it requires a change of heart, a certain amount of purity or mode of goodness.

Many temples today are facing a severe lacking of pujaris and have to therefore lower their standard of worship. Srila Prabhupada never wanted the standard to be lowered but only increased, increased in quality. He especially stressed five points in regard to Deity-worship: a) cleanliness, b) punctuality, c) opulent food offerings, d) opulent dressing and e) opulent flower-decorations. Furthermore he stressed the importance of having only brahmanas worshiping and cooking for the Deities, also for Gaura-Nitai-Deities. Never Srila Prabhupada spoke of elabo-rate pujas and procedures, that is not the process for this time and age.


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

Ministry and Mayapur Academy Updates:

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

Installation / Commencement of Worship Procedure:


Documents

ISKCON DeITY WOrSHIP MINISTrY - Mayapur Academymayapuracademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Arcana-3-16-2.pdf · question of decrease, only how to increase in the quality and opulence