Is it better to chant in the morning and do very simple Deity worship or to do nice Deity worship and chant later in the day?

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Transcript

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so if we have limited time should we do deity worship in the morning and do our chanting both or should we chant and have very basic level of deity worship and then do some deity worship in the evening whenever we get time which is the priority for householders see bhakti bhakti has a significant element of individuality there are standard practices which we all are meant to have but within those standard practices it depends on our inspiration what we practice so once Radhanath Maharaj has asked this question that some devotees have felt that Bhagavatam is like a deity of Krishna so we should not mark anything on the Bhagavatam don’t underline anything how can you mark on it this was the view of one group of devotees another group of devotees they said that actually if you underline if you mark make some comments then we can read it back easier then we can remember it we can speak better on the Bhagavatam we can study it better so what is right so Maharaj said yes it is true that Bhagavatam is a deity of Krishna and it is also right that so those who feel that Bhagavatam is a deity and we should not touch it they are having a sacred consciousness and then those who feel that we want to underline mark they can see that Bhagavatam is a deity and they are decorating the deity so the principle is that we have to serve the Bhagavatam the practice will vary how I practically serve the Bhagavatam that may vary for different devotees so usually when I said there is individuality there are principles which are universal but within those principles every devotee will have their own preferences and those preferences cannot be mandated so if I have extra time should I chant extra rounds or should I distribute books should I worship the deity should I there are so many things I can do in bhakti also what should I do that cannot be mandated that is based on inspiration there is a basic process of sadhana bhakti like chanting 16 rounds following the regulative principles at least having some association with devotees in the temple all these are basic principles but within that how much we do which apart from the basic principles that is a matter of preference that is a matter of preference so some devotees may feel very inspired by the presence of the deity in their home Krishna is actually there I must serve him and then if I don’t serve him what is the point of Krishna being there in my house so I have already got the deity therefore I must serve Krishna and then they may want to invest some quality time what is half an hour 25 minutes whatever it takes that is very good devotional consciousness where we see the deity as the lord of the house and we try to serve them that is one way of looking at it another way of looking at it is also that the primary manifestation of Krishna in this age is the holy name so if I am serving Krishna as the holy name then that is what should be my priority and if I try to do deity worship in the morning then I don’t have enough time to do my japa then I have to do japa in the evening or later in the day and the quality becomes poor so therefore let me complete my japa that is also fine so here we cannot mandate anything and different devotees will do different things based on their inspiration and we should also find out what inspires there is no need to make one thing as a standard in this now if we are having deity at least some we should be offering something at least something should be offered but how much we do how much time we spend, just a small offering also we can make that is also fine so the important thing is the deity worship should not itself become such a big service that it interrupts with our other services so for example somebody says today is janmashtami and therefore I am going to celebrate janmashtami for my home deities on janmashtami day I will not come to the temple because I am celebrating janmashtami at home well that may not be very advisable unless one is also inviting guests over there and one is staying very far away from the temple one is staying very far away from the temple and people are not able to come to the temple then they can come there but usually the deity worship at our home should not become a competitor to serving Krishna as a deity in the temple so like same way deity worship should not be seen as a competitor to our basic chanting of the holy names but beyond that how much time we spend and which time we spend that is I think a matter of individual preference so different devotees can tell us different things and we can take the principle from there but we don’t have to make anything as a absolute mandated standard we can decide based on our inspiration Thank you