Bona fide and bogus Deity worship explained by SP
Nov 3 1973 Delhi BG lectures
…The example, as I gave you the other day, that a soldier is fighting and killing many enemies or killing many persons, but he is not responsible for killing. The same man, when he is not fighting for the country or for the government, if he kills one man, he is hanged. He is to be hanged. Try to understand. So because he is fighting or killing on the order of higher authority, the government, he is not responsible for all those killings. Rather sometimes he is recognized by giving some medal: “Oh, you have killed so many enemies. Very good.” And similarly, if he kills outside the warfield, at home… That is also enemy. Nobody kills nobody unless the other is his enemy. But he will be hanged. If he argues in the court that “In the battlefield I killed so many enemies. I was given recognition. But at home I have killed only one enemy and for which I am going to be hanged. What is this law?” This argument will not stay. So for higher authority’s order, if you do something, you are not responsible.
Note–In the above example Srila Prabhupada is explaining the principle of acting under higher authority by which one may even kill others without reactions.
On the other hand when some person acts on his own without obedience to the higher authority of Guru and God, then he is responsible for his actions and his so called spiritual activity has no good consequence-in other words it is not only useless but sinful.
Dec 23 1970 Surat conversations
Devotee (3): In regard to worshiping arcā-vigraha form, you have explained that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master who is not bona fide, that mantra has no effect. So I would like to ask if one is worshiping a Deity and his spiritual master is not bona fide, so that Deity cannot be considered the Supreme Lord?
Prabhupāda: Well, first of all, thing is if the spiritual master is not bona fide, how his mantra can be bona fide? Your statement is contradictory. If you say the spiritual master is not bona fide, then how his mantra becomes bona fide? If he is bona fide, then his mantra is bona fide.
Devotee (3): Then why is he giving instruction to worship the Deity? If the spiritual master is not bona fide, then is the Deity also not bona fide?
Prabhupāda: I do not follow. What does he say?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His idea is that if one receives a mantra from a spiritual master, if the spiritual master is not bona fide…
Prabhupāda: Then there is no question of mantra. There is no question of worshiping Deity. These are all bogus things. If you are not… Just like here is a young medical man. If he has not received instruction from a bona fide medical college, so what is the value of his medical, being… That is… What is called? What is the technical name?
Devotee (4): Quack.
Prabhupāda: Quack! (laughter) (pronounces like “quark”)
Devotees: Quack.
Prabhupāda: A quack is not a medical man, however he may show all red bottles, white bottles.
Jan 4 1973 letter to Dhruvananda
… I have given you everything already, there is no need for you to add anything or change anything. Why you are asking these things? Who has given you such freedom? Pujari should operate entirely under the supervision of temple president and GBC, not independently. The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. So don’t ask any more new questions, whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that’s all. :
Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur from Jaiva Dharma….
Once a person begins to worship the Deity of the Lord with a trace of bhakti it is to be understood that he has sown the seed of his own food fortune and that he is free from corrupt ideologies.
(Note-So if this same person begins the worship of the Deity of the Lord but is infected with corrupt ideologies, then the seed of bhakti, according to the Thakur, has not even begun-or as Srila Prabhupada says-there is no deity worship, because there is no proper guru or mantra, and this situation which we now see in iskcon is causing the greatest danger to the Hare Krsna Movement )
Some will accept this, some will never be able to understand nor accept it. But here is what Srila Prabhupada says about those who remain faithful to him- and those on the mental platform…..
July 13 1971 lecture
Prabhupāda: Unless one is prepared that “I am accepting somebody as my spiritual master. I must accept whatever he says,” if there is any doubt, that “I cannot accept his words verbatim,” then one should not accept him as spiritual master. That is hypocrisy. One must be first of all convinced.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das