Letter Jayatirtha…Nov 10 1975
I have invited Krsna and He may not be insulted by disrespectful behavior. I have introduced this system of Deity worship amongst the non-believers, the atheists, the mlecchas, the yavanas and I pray to Krsna that I am inviting You to come, so please, because You are seated in their hearts, please give them the intelligence how to serve you so that You may not be inconvenienced.
I have introduced this system to the mlecchas, the yavanas and the lowest and the fallen, but still it is successful. I think that you are doing nicely.
Deity worship best benediction and essential for incapable devotees
SB 1.12.9 purport–There is no difference between the thumblike Viṣṇu in the womb of Uttarā and the full-fledged Nārāyaṇa in the Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma, the kingdom of Godhead. He accepts the form of arca-vigraha (worshipable Deity) just to accept service from His different incapable devotees. By the mercy of the arca-vigraha, the form of the Lord in material elements, the devotees who are in the material world can easily approach the Lord, although He is not conceivable by the material senses. The arca-vigraha is therefore an all-spiritual form of the Lord to be perceived by the material devotees; such an arca-vigraha of the Lord is never to be considered material. There is no difference between matter and spirit for the Lord, although there is a gulf of difference between the two in the case of the conditioned living being. For the Lord there is nothing but spiritual existence, and similarly there is nothing except spiritual existence for the pure devotee of the Lord in his intimate relation with the Lord.
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 175614/530501
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...”
‘One who considers the arca murti or worshipable Deity of Lord Visnu to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, and a Vaisnava to belong to a particular caste or creed, is possessed of hellish intelligence.'”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, September 12, 1974)
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.
“The neophyte Vaisnava devotees’ ringing the bell even once during worship of the Deity of the Supreme Lord is a MILLION TIMES MORE VALUABLE spiritually and otherwise, than the charitable fruitive workers building many hospitals, feeding thousands of the poor, or building homes, or even the empirical philosophers’ Vedic studies, meditation, austerities, and penances.”
Conclusion–trying to perceive Spirit with contaminated, materially absorbed senses is like trying to feel electricity in a hot live wire with rubber gloves on our hands. We wont feel anything. We have to take the gloves off in order to feel the current of electricity (God). So from our side with gloved hands, the wire just seems like some dead wire, but from the Lords side, there is electricity flowing thru everything as there is no difference between matter and spirit for the Lord. Therefore the conclusion is if we want to see and perceive the Supreme Personality of Godhead in everything, we have to take off the gloves of material consciousness which means purifying all our senses in His service,
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das