Don’t believe in Deity?
It’s very difficult to believe in a deity form of God. It feels like we are making our own representation of God and limiting God to that form. It feels like the deity form is perhaps an image of the actual God, but it’s not God. Doesn’t it?
What did Krushna say about deity worship in Bhagavad Githa…?
ye: yattha: ma:m prapadyanthe:
tha:ms thatthaiva bhaja:my aham |
mama varthma:nu varthanthe:
manushya:h pa:rttha! sarvasaha || 4.11
“I will accept the form that one wants to see Me in. The form could be made of metal, mud, or a drawing too…”
Thus, if you make a form and want to see God as that, God accepts it. This gives us all a direct opportunity to witness Him, to serve Him.
Everything is real and ever changing…
Vedas, Puranas showed evidences of Deity worship. However, a large number of people also believed maaya vaada, that the world is illusionary. This was reaching a level that it was disposing of the existence of Veda post a specific point. They use dreams as analogy saying that the world is like a dream which does not exist after you wake up.
Ramanujacharya enlightened and re-established the reality.
Veda says…
ya eyshu sukthe:shu ja:garthi: ka:mam ka:mam purusho: nirmima:naha
God Himself is the creator of dreams too like He created the rest! As an indweller, He creates our dreams too. External objects are created for the experiences of everyone collectively. Dreams are created specially only for your experience. The punya you accrued reduces as you experience something favorable. The papa you accrued cuts down as you experience something unfavorable.
Everything you experience including the experience you feel during the dreams are for the same purpose.
Everything is satyam, that which realizes a purpose. It’s not mittya, illusion.
Are they all nityam, permanent in the same manner? No, they undergo changes.
– Excerpts from HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji discourses
– 27th Feb 2024, Samatha Kumbh 2024
– Statue of Equality, Hyderabad, TN, India
We were walking through the 108 Divyadesams at the Statue of Equality. Someone came running behind us and handed us a book that gives knowledge of each of the Divyadesam.. This is the greatness of this place. The team wants us to have the best experience and take the best from here…
The Statue of Equality, Bhagavad Ramanujacharya and the 108 Divya Desams is a special place for every devotee at ISKON.
Someone approached Srila Prabhupada and said, “The explanation you gave for Bhagavad Githa is very similar to what Ramanujacharya’s Githa Bhashyam says.”
Srila Prabhupada said, “That’s a great compliment. I am happy that my work is on the path set by Acharya.”
Greatest wealth in life is the presence and guidance of an acharya. HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji is my inspiration.
-Pranavananda Prabhu, ISKON
bhavath vidha bhagavathe
theertha bhutha swayam vibho:
theerthi kurvanthi theerthaani
swanthasthena gada vruthah
A pure devotee of Lord has the power to make any place a divine place because his/her heart is divinely compassionate as his/her heart is filled with Lord Srimannarayana…
HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji is the complete personification of the above verse from Srimad Bhagavatham.
This divine place, the Statue of Equality and the 108 Divyadesams gives so much hope for everyone about the future of the world because everything is practiced so perfectly here that tradition and relevance have a perfect blend.
-Vraj Bihari Prabhu, ISKON
Witness the Moon among the stars…
As SwamiNararayana Sampradaya acharyas and disciples sought blessings of Swamiji, devout audience amongst themselves were saying… “Swamiji looks like moon among the stars”
- Sita Nruthyakalpam by Smt. Kranti Narayanan dance troupe.
- Surabhi Padyanataka, a divine poetic play.
Highlights
