​What happens to Krishna when his deity is desecrated?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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What happens in the deity that is secreted? Actually, Krishna manifests for a particular purpose. And that purpose is not to exhibit his omnipotence. It is to give an opportunity to serve.
So Krishna manifests as a deity and Krishna can become unmanifest also. So when somebody says there is a deity, Krishna just becomes unmanifest from there. It is not that Krishna is affected by that.
So Krishna doesn’t exhibit his omnipotence over there. Sometimes in some situations he may do that. But that is not the normal pattern.
Krishna does not manifest. What to speak of omnipotence? As Krishna is a deity, we can say Krishna manifests no potency. You and I can dress myself.
The deity cannot dress themselves. We have to dress even the deity. We have to even dress the deity.
So where is the potency manifesting? Somebody may argue like that. So if somebody is going to have a sceptical attitude, why have that sceptical attitude only in the extreme situation of somebody desecrating the deity? Even the routine conduct of the deity is not manifesting God’s omnipotence over there. So God’s presence is more perceived through the devotion of the heart and through the transformation of the heart, through the purification of the heart.
So when somebody is not able to approach in that intention, then Krishna simply unmanifests himself over there. So Krishna manifests as the deity and Krishna can unmanifest himself. So it all depends on the Lord himself.
Yeah, Lord himself. So basically even rather than saying that Krishna unmanifests himself, we can say more specifically that Krishna is not affected because he is transcendent. So like it’s that when that deity of Madhavendra Puri, Gopal, when he is discovered, he says, I have been lying in the forest for many years.
He is not saying I was unmanifest and now I am going to become manifest. But the point is that he is transcendent, so he is not affected. So in that sense, there is the Achintya Bheda Bhed.
Krishna is the deity and Krishna is also his own transcendental person beyond the deity. So sometimes we may focus on the Abhed part too much. I mean not too much, we may focus on the Abhed part so that we get inspired with the feeling of devotion and we serve the deity reverentially.
But at the same time, there is the Bhed part also. Krishna is not limited to the deity. Krishna has his self-existence in the spiritual world and Krishna is transcendent.
So even when the deity is say, the puja brahmana took the deity away and hid it in some place and then forgot about it and he is saying that I was exposed to the weather for so long that’s why I am feeling hot now. So all this is what actually Krishna is there as the deity and then again he is installed. But he is not affected.
But affected is in the sense that he says that I am affected so that he gives Madhavendra Puri an opportunity to serve. So I think the whole deity worship has to be seen through the attitude of service. Once we start seeing this skeptical attitude, then we will not be able to understand anything about deity worship.