SB 7.5.30–Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Kṛṣṇa are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both.
April 16 1974 Bombay lecture—the senses are our problem-if impure they cannot understand Krsna
Everyone becomes a servant of the senses just beginning from the tongue. They eat anything and everything. Therefore they cannot control others senses also. This is the experience of big, big yogis. Therefore in the yoga practice, yama-niyama… In the yoga practice also, it is forbidden, not to allow the tongue to eat anything and everything, no. That is not possible. Similarly, we also ask our devotees not to allow your tongue to touch anything except kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Tongue’s two business: eating, tasting something, and vibrating sound. So if we can control the tongue not to touch anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, and if we do not allow the tongue to talk anything except Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then you become the greatest yogi. The greatest yogi. Simply two things. Of course, we have to eat. That’s a fact. Without eating, we cannot exist. So eat. We have got so many nice things, offered to Kṛṣṇa. We offer to Kṛṣṇa all nice things.
As Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, kṛṣṇa baṛo doyāmoy, koribāre jihwā jay, swa-prasād-anna dilo bhāi. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he was a gṛhastha, practical. He experienced. He said, śarīra abidyā-jāl: \”This body, material body, is a network of ignorance.\” Śarīra abidyā-jāl. Just like a network. If you are put into a net and bound up and thrown into the ocean, then what is your condition of life, just imagine. Similarly, we, pure souls, we have been put into this network of material body, and we are thrown into the ocean of nescience. This is our position, struggle for existence. How to get out of the network? How to get out of the ocean? This is… Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg. 15.7]. This is our position.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says this body is the network of ignorance, simply sense gratification. \”I shall eat this. I shall eat that. I shall hear this. I shall…\” The ear is engaged in hearing nice cinema songs, and the tongue is engaged, going to the restaurant, so many so-called palatable dishes. Similarly, other senses, they are engaged. So the… According to bhakti-yoga system, the first control is recommended to the tongue. That is said, that ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.136].
Now, we receive knowledge through the indriyas, but if the indriyas are impure—senses, they are impure—they cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi, na… Beginning. Because beginning is śravaṇam. Bhakti-mārga begins by hearing.
Now, what is śravaṇam? Chanting. If there is chanting or there is some speaking, then we can hear. That is recommended by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that simply hear. There are many places, recommended, that \”Hear.\” So but it is said, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.136]. These present blunt senses, material senses, cannot receive even this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. They say, \”This is nuisance.\” …
Therefore it is said, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ. The blunt senses, material senses, they cannot receive. Nāmādi. Not only name, they cannot see Lord Kṛṣṇa’s form. Because hearing and seeing and smelling and tasting and touching… We have got so many senses. So These senses being materially contaminated, it cannot hear what is Kṛṣṇa’s holy name. Ataḥ (śrī) kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.136]. Then how to understand Kṛṣṇa? That is recommended. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. You have to engage your tongue first of all in the service of the Lord. The Kṛṣṇa realization begins from the tongue.
How? Now you simply make it a vow that \”I shall not talk anything except glorifying the Lord.\” Then you become perfect. Very simple method. Simply you have to make this determination, that \”I shall not talk anything which is not about Kṛṣṇa, and I shall not eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa.\” So our this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching these two things specifically. We are distributing little prasādam. If we get opportunity, we can give sumptuous prasādam. We are doing that in all other centers throughout the whole world. By eating, simply by eating, one can be beloved. It doesn’t require if he simply eats Kṛṣṇa prasādam. It is so nice method. So jihvādau. And hearing. This is recommended here, that ātma-saṁyama-yogāgnau. Ātmā, you have to make a determination, ātma-saṁyama, that \”I shall not allow this tongue to take anything in the restaurant. But I can simply allow the tongue… \”If you do this, then you become gosvāmī. That is called gosvāmī. Because we are all godāsa. Go means senses.
So actually we are all servants of our senses. The whole activities of the material world means everyone is acting as the servant of his senses, that’s all. This is the material world. Everyone is working. Everyone is working so hard. So when one becomes intelligent, then he understands that \”What I am doing? I am thinking that I am master, I am proprietor, I am the head of the family, but what I am doing actually? I am acting as servant of my senses, my son’s senses, my wife’s senses, my daughter’s senses, my servant’s senses. That’s all.\” If you speak something wrong even to your servant, the servant will resign, and you will be in trouble. Therefore you have to serve his senses so that he may not be angry. This is our position. So we are simply serving senses, but we are thinking, \”I am master.\” This is called illusion.
So jñāna-dīpite, when you actually come to the sense of your knowledge, then you come to this conclusion that \”What I am? What is my mastership? I am simply serving the senses, different senses.\” Even in the outward… [break] …what is the taste of that knowledge. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. What is that? Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante: [Bg. 7.19] \”After many, many births, spoiling the life and spoiling the time by satisfying the senses…\” Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante. So long you will go on satisfying these senses, either your senses—that is centralized senses—or expanded senses, the senses of your family, senses of your society, senses of your country, nationality, these are all sense gratification process, simply extending. It begins centralized, my senses, then my son’s senses, then my grandson’s senses, then my country’s senses, then… It is sense gratification, that’s all. There is no other business.
So when one becomes enlightened, he offers himself to Kṛṣṇa. There is a verse like this. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśāḥ: \”My Lord, I have spoiled my time in this way, becoming the godāsa or the servant of the senses.\” Kāmādīnām, kāma krodha lobha moha mātsarya. Therefore it is called, kāmādīnāṁ kati na. \”I have tried to satisfy them to my utmost.\” Kati na katidhā. \”What I have not done for them? Still, they are not satisfied. Neither they are merciful.\” Teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā. Na tṛpta. \”They are neither satisfied; neither they are merciful, never.\”
You go on serving your family. Nobody will give you relief. If you say that \”Now I have done so much for you. Give me relief.\” First of all I do not want to be relieve also. That is also another disease. You see? You will be surprised. It is my practical experience. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, before starting, I wrote one letter to Mahatma Gandhi: \”Mahatma Gandhi, you have got position. People accept you as a very pious man. Now you have got your sva-rājya, and you are very fond of Bhagavad-gītā. Let us preach Bhagavad-gītā.\” I wrote this letter. Unfortunately, a few days after, he was killed. So this is the position. All big, big leaders, they do not want to take relief from this sense gratification business. No. This is the…
Therefore jñāna-dīpite ātma-saṁyama-yogāgnau. Because there is no knowledge, they think the sense gratification extended, expanded sense gratification, will make the world happy. No. That is not possible. Therefore jñāna-dīpite means that by this kind of sense gratification we will not solve the problems. Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā. Karuṇā. \”There is no mercy. Therefore I have given up them. Now I have come to You, my dear Lord. I was serving the senses so long. Now I want to serve You.\” This is knowledge, jñāna-dīpite. \”Because my business is to satisfy the senses, either my senses or my relative’s senses, but it has not made me happy, therefore I have come to You to satisfy Your senses. Kindly engage me in Your business.\”
This is called jñāna. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg. 7.19]. When jñānavān… What kind of jñānavān? After serving the senses of so many people life after life, when one comes to his real knowledge that \”This kind of sense gratification will not make me happy. Let me gratify the senses of Kṛṣṇa,\” that is real knowledge. Jñāna-dīpite. And in another place it is said, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate. Jñānavān. That is real knowledge.
Actually, my business is to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa, but I am thinking that I shall be happy by satisfying my senses, my family’s senses, my country’s senses, my nation’s senses, and so on, so on, so on. This will make me happy. This is the secret. So therefore Kṛṣṇa says that \”You have manufactured so many business of sense gratification. That’s all right. Give up this all rascal business. Simply surrender unto Me.\” Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja [Bg. 18.66]. Then you will be satisfied. Otherwise there is no question of satisfaction. You go on increasing the area of sense gratification. That will not make you happy.
So that can be begun with sevonmukhe hi jihvādau [Brs. 1.2.234]. Because we meet together and talk so many nonsense in political conference, social conference, scientific conference, tongue going on. Day and night, conference is going on. And another business, eating process, sense gratification. If people are asked, \”Please come here. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa,\” they are not at all interested. And invite him in some political meeting and talk all nonsense. He is very much interested. Yes. This is called māyā. So we have to convert this. Instead of engaging senses for talking nonsense, we have got so many books, so many talks about Kṛṣṇa. Why not take this? You can go on on, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, about Kṛṣṇa. Bhagavad-gītā. Go on talking, and go on eating kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. Then self-realization is guaranteed.
There is no difficulty, not at all. And that is also described, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ….
So the beginning is that the first number, one, number one sense, the tongue, you try to control by eating kṛṣṇa-prasādam and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma. Thank you very much. (end)
(Some sastric statements on Deity worship to purify our senses)
\”Worship Krishna with love. That is the qualification for Deity worship. If you love Krishna, you will worship Him very nicely.\” (Srila Prabhupada Letter, October 7, 1974)
\”This is very important business, Deity worship. The more the Deity is decorated, the more your heart will be decorated with Krishna consciousness.\” (Srila Prabhupada Letter, November 10, 1975)
\”So you cannot see spirit, and God is the Supreme Spirit. Actually, He is everything — spirit and matter — but you cannot see Him in His spiritual identity. Therefore, to show kindness toward you, He appears out of His unbounded mercy in the form of a wooden or stone Deity so that you can see Him.\” (Science of Self-Realization, Chapter 1)
\”Just as by clapping the hands one can cause many birds to fly away, similarly the birds of all sinful activities which are sitting on the body can be made to fly away simply by dancing and clapping before the Deity of Krishna.\” (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 9)
\”Worship Krishna with love. That is the qualification for Deity worship. If you love Krishna, you will worship Him very nicely.\” (Srila Prabhupada Letter, October 7, 1974)
\”In the Naradiya Purana there is a statement about bowing down and offering respect to the Deity. It is said there: ‘A person who has performed a great ritualistic sacrifice and a person who has simply offered his respectful obeisances by bowing down before the Lord cannot be held as equals.’ The person who has executed many great sacrifices will attain the result of his pious activities, but when such results are finished, he has to take birth again on the earthly planet; whereas the person who has once offered respects, bowing down before the Deity, will not again come back to this world, because he will go directly to the abode of Krishna.\” (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 9)
\”In the Nrsimha Purana it is stated: ‘Any person who comes before the Deity of the Lord and begins to chant different prayers is immediately relieved from all the reactions of sinful activities and he becomes eligible, without any doubt, to enter into the Vaikuntha-loka.’\” (Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 9)
\”Sri-vigraha is the arca, or suitable worshipable form of the Lord, and the disciple should be engaged in worshiping the Deity regularly by srngara, by proper decoration and dressing, as also by mandira-marjana, the matter of cleansing the temple. The spiritual master teaches the neophyte devotee all these kindly and personally to help him gradually in the realization of the transcendental name, quality, form, etc., of the Lord.\” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.22, Purport)
\”If one is unable to maintain a temple at home, he should go to another’s temple where all of the above performances are regularly executed. Visiting the temple of a devotee and looking at the profusely decorated forms of the Lord well dressed in a well-decorated, sanctified temple naturally infuse the mundane mind with spiritual inspiration.\”
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.22, Purport)
\”Never think of the Deity as made of stone or wood. Every worshipper must remember that Krishna is personally present. He is simply kindly presenting Himself before us in a way that we can handle Him. That is His mercy, otherwise He is unapproachable.\”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, November 10, 1975)
\”Rupa Gosvami has stated that the five kinds of devotional activities — namely, residing in Mathura, worshiping the Deity of the Lord, reciting Srimad-Bhagavatam, serving a devotee, and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra — are so potent that a small attachment for any of these five items can arouse devotional ecstacy even in a neophyte. NOD ch 13
DEITY WORSHIP-THE MOST VALUABLE BENEDICTION GIVEN BY THE LORD TO NEOPHYTES
Lecture NY sept 18 1966
So in my childhood, when I was five or six years old, I requested my father that \”Father, give me this Deity. I shall worship.\” So father purchased for me little Krishna, Radha, and he gave me, and I was imitating. Whatever foodstuff I was getting, I was offering to Krishna and eating. In this way I got my life developed. And there was a temple in our neighbourhood.So I was seeing the Krishna deity. Oh, I was thinking…..I still remember. I was standing for hours together.
SB 4.30.27 purport–Deity worship in the form of temple worship is the most valuable benediction given by the Lord to beginners. All neophytes must therefore engage in the worship of the Lord by keeping the arcā-vigraha (arcāvatāra) at home or in the temple.
SB 7.14.39-TRANSLATION–My dear King, when great sages and saintly persons saw mutually disrespectful dealings at the beginning of Tretā-yuga, Deity worship in the temple was introduced with all paraphernalia.
NoD 35 Neutral Love of God 175614/530501
Without worshiping the arca-vigraha, the form or Deity of the Lord,
one cannot understand such literature as Bhagavad-gita and
Srimad-Bhagavatam.
751030SB.NAI Lectures 223477/530501
So the temple worship is essential. So those who are against temple
worship, Deity worship, they are not very intelligent class of men,
foolish, mudha. NoD 35 Neutral Love of God
Madhya 25.278 : PURPORT :-All the devotees connected with this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must read all the books that have been translated (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and others); otherwise, after some time, they will simply eat, sleep and fall down from their position. Thus they will miss the opportunity to attain an eternal, blissful life of transcendental pleasure.
When we have lost that loving feeling
760924SB.VRN–
If we think that \”Here is a stone statue,\” then it will not prolong many days. It will not… Galagraha. No more vigraha, but galagraha. Suppose I have established this temple. Now under my direction, my disciples are worshiping vigraha. Vigraha means the form of the Lord, rūpa. But if there is no following of the regulative principles, then after my death it will be galagraha, a burden, that \”Our rascal Guru Mahārāja established this temple, and we have to worship, early rise in the morning, all botheration.\”This will be… That is called galagraha, a burden, \”He has left with us a burden.\” This is the risk. Then this, such a big temple will be mismanaged, and you’ll find that \”This is breaking\” and \”This is unclean,\” and there is no attention. This will be our… That is called galagraha. \”The rascal has given us a burden.\” So it is very difficult. If we lost, if we have lost that feeling that \”Here is Kṛṣṇa. Here is a chance to serve Him...\”
Conv june 23 1976 NVRN
Devotee (4): The difficulty is that we cannot understand, we cannot feel what pleases Kṛṣṇa now, yet we can feel what pleases us, and that is the difficulty?
Prabhupāda: You have no feeling, that everyone knows. Therefore you have to carry out the order of spiritual master, that’s all.
Devotee (1) : If we try to please Kṛṣṇa with all of our service and activities, that automatically brings pleasure to the self?
Prabhupāda: You cannot please Kṛṣṇa directly. You please your spiritual master, Kṛṣṇa will be pleased. If you want to please directly Kṛṣṇa, that is not possible. That is concoction You cannot please. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **.You have to please your spiritual master, then Kṛṣṇa will be pleased.
———————
Bombay Dec 4 1974 lecture
Somebody was talking that \”Your Deity is just like trying to talk with me.\” Prasanna-vaktra Yes. He is here to talk with you, but He is waiting whether you’re interested to talk with Him. That’s all. Kṛṣṇa says that teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prti-pūrvakam, bddhi-yogaṁ adāmi tam [Bg. 10.10]. He talks, but with whom? Teṣāṁsatata-yuktānām. One who is twenty-four hours engaged with love and faith in the service of the Lord. To whom? Just like if you want to talk with some big man, then you must have qualification. Is it possible that if you want to talkwith the big man here, immediately you like? No. You cannot talk. Youmust be fit to talkwith him. Similarly,Kṛṣṇa is ready to talk with you. He has come. He has descended in arcā-mūrti to talk with you, to be visible by you. Now you make yourself ready and fit to talk with Kṛṣṇa. Then He will exchange conversation. Santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti. This is possible.
SB 4.28.34 . Unless one is an advanced devotee, he cannot fix his eyes on the Deity in the temple.
Some Conclusions-This series of statements by Srila Prabhupada was put together because from my personal experience I know many, devotees, especially the older ones do not do daily, regulated worship to some form of the Lord. Time wears us all down but this point about daily deity worship should be like granite in our lives-immovable and fixed.
Who would not want the best benediction for incapable neophyte devotees such as ourselves? Who among us reads Bhagavad gita but does not do daily Deity worship? Prabhupada tells us (above) that we wont understand a word we are reading of Bhagavad gita if we do not worship the Lord daily in His deity form, so important is this aspect of Krsna Consciousness. These are his instructions for all of us inmates of Kali yuga. Don’t think we can just sit and meditate upon some service for the Lord like the brahmana who got his finger burnt from the hot sweet rice episode with Lord Narayana. Prabhupada told us that hearing is more important than thinking in this age because the mind is so so disturbed by all the garbage of this age. So what are we supposed to hear? The instructions of the Lords pure devotee-Srila Prabhupada. And in those instructions one very important aspect of becoming a bona fide Vaisnava is to daily worhsip the form of the Lord
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das