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| APPENDIX 4
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Mr. Bajoria will be a very good example. If the leading men of every city takes this
example of installing Radha-Krishna Deities in the home exactly as in the
temple, then our preaching will be very successful. but they must learn
the art of worshipping and following the regulative principles from us.
As soon as they employ hired priests the whole thing will be spoiled.....We
want every house to be a temple, not that our place should be the only
place for people to come. No, this should be the process: that they learn
at our place, and establish the same thing at home. |
As for Grihasthas worshipping Gaura-Nitai deities,
that is only for those who live far away from the temple and cannot attend.
Otherwise such worship is redundant. There is already Deity worship going
on in the temple and they should attend the aratis, not install their own
Deities. The householding community in Los Angeles, or any of our temples,
is not meant to be independent from the temple programme. |
So far as keeping the Deity in your
separate house, I think there is no need for this. Because if you keep
Him there, you have to take proper care with aratis and attention, and
thus divert attention from the Deity in the temple, and from chanting and
so many other forms of service, like your writing and sewing etc. So I
think it best if everyone centres his attention on the Deity in the temple,
and in that way the temple worship will pull on nicely. Of course, if the
temple is unapproachable, or too far, or something like that, that is a
different thing, but if the temple is easily accessible then this is the
best programme - for all to go there and attend arati and kirtan etc. |
Regarding your keeping private
Deities, if you have the time it is all right, but the same energy can
be utilized in the temple for decorating, dressing, cleaning, cooking.
Actually every day the dress should be changed with new ornaments, clothes,
flower garlands. So we can increase even in one place the activities of
Deity worship. If you are having free time, I can give you a very grand
list of activities for Deity worship which will keep you occupies for twenty-four
hours each day. |
Srila Prabhupada expected his disciples living close to his temples to serve him by taking the devotional activities within his temples as their first and foremost obligation, going so far as to call installing Deities in their homes redundant if they could not then attend his temples. Otherwise he was emphatic that every home should become a temple.
The Deities in ISKCON Temples have been given an installation ceremony whereafter worship must be carried out according to the directions of the Narada Pancharatrika without stopping:
"Regarding
your question whether you may go to Ratha-yatra festival, yes, you may
go because in your present temple the Deities are not regularly installed.
So you can close the temple for a few days keeping in front of the Deities
some dried fruits and a tumbler of water. When the Deity is installed it
is called niyama-seva. That means the routine seva prescribed after installation
you cannot stop." |
The Gaura-Nitai Deities you have at home are uninstalled, and their seva, or service, is not subject to the strictures of temple worship. Because the Deity's form is as transcendental as His name etc., He is present as the Deity even when uninstalled and can accept worship by His kindness.