Lectures : Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures : Canto 1: Lectures : SB 1.8: Lectures : Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.37 — Los Angeles, April 29, 1973 : 730429SB.LA :
Kṛṣṇa is living everywhere—that is, that is the vision of the higher devotees. Actually He’s living, but still, because we are in thelower condition, we should know that here is Kṛṣṇa in the temple. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, but for us, because we have no such vision to see Kṛṣṇa anywhere and everywhere, therefore we should come here in the temple and see Kṛṣṇa, “Here is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has kindly appeared here in a manner in which I can see Him. That is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.” That is temple. We cannot see… Kṛṣṇa has completely spiritual body, but we have no eyes to see what is that spiritual body. Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]. We are accustomed to see this material, jaḍa, gross things. We can see stone, we can see metal, we can see wood. We can see all these material elements. But Kṛṣṇa is everything. Therefore to be visible to our imperfect eyes, Kṛṣṇa has appeared in the stone form, but Kṛṣṇa is not stone. It is not that we are worshiping stone; we are worshiping Kṛṣṇa. But because we cannot see except stone, therefore Kṛṣṇa has kindly appeared in the form carved from the stone. This is the conclusion.
Adi 7.76 Lord Caitanya in Five Features 93075/530501
To chant the holy name of the Lord, one need not depend upon other
paraphernalia, for one can immediately get all the desired results of
connecting or 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 relief from all these contaminations, it is required that one engage in theworship of the Lord in the temple. The worship of the Deity in the
temple is essential to reduce one’s restlessness due to the
contaminations of conditioned life. Thus Narada, in his
pancaratriki-vidhi, and other great sages have sometimes stressed that since every conditioned soul has a bodily concept of life aimed at
sense enjoyment, to restrict this sense enjoyment the rules and
regulations for worshiping the Deity in the temple are essential.
Srila Rupa Gosvami 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 regulative principles for worship of the
Deity are also simultaneously essential.