Does the seekers’ consciousness make the deities divine or are they actually divine?
Thank you So is it the seekers, is it the devotees consciousness and intention that is the deity divine or is the deity actually divine see here we have to understand what we mean by the word divinity. Divinity means that whenever there is a manifestation of the lord in the material world that manifestation is going to be it usually doesn't transcend the material world.
We say Vrindavan is a spiritual world but in terms of worldly geography it is in India and we may say no Vrindavan is not in India it is transcendental. Fine, we may say it is transcendental but we cannot say it is in Pakistan if I have to put it somewhere in this world's geography I have to put it in India so like that there are, when the transcendent manifests in the material world it is going to, it is usually doesn't transcend the material laws always most of the time it doesn't transcend the material laws so when you talk about deity worship the it is Krishna who is manifesting through the deity that is true when pranapatishta is done, when Krishna is evoked through bhakti, Krishna manifests as the deity. So there is the thing through which it is manifested that is material this is even more graphic in Jagannath when they actually change the wood they change the Navakalivara, there is a festival of it so that means it is clear that as long as that particular Buddha in that particular form is there they worship that form but there is an understanding that that can be changed also so Jagannath remains the same so the wood is wood is also you can say disposed in a proper way respectful way but it is not that wood is preserved for all time to come and worship again it is understood that Krishna manifested over there Jagannath manifested over there and now he is manifesting through some other wood so we have to understand that we can't expect the stone of the deity to behave in some miraculous way and then we will have faith the stone will basically be like stone if water falls on it it may get deteriorated, all that things can happen so the divine is manifesting through the deity that is a fact now what is dependent on our intention is how much we will perceive that fact I think Bhaktivinoda Thakur talks about three levels he says for a materialistic person the deity is a stone for the sadhaka it is Krishna manifesting through the deity for the siddha it is Krishna himself so Krishna himself that doesn't mean the deity will not see whether it is stone or not but that will not be at the very background of vision we primarily see Krishna over there so it is not wrong for us to have some doubts whether this is really Krishna or not, it is natural we are serving the deity and some questions may naturally come up, we don't have to feel guilty about that but rather we have to clarify the philosophical understanding that actually what is manifesting it is Krishna who is manifesting as the deity so now when Krishna manifests as the deity the manifestation itself is not necessarily going to do something miraculous so that's why we serve the deity we bathe the deity, we feed the deity we decorate the deity and it is our consciousness that will depend how much we perceive Krishna's presence it is not that Krishna's presence there depends on our consciousness, Krishna's presence is anyway there but how much we are able to perceive that presence that will depend on our consciousness so the two are different things Krishna's presence happens the moment it is invoked through worship, through pranapratishta but our perceiving Krishna's presence depends on our consciousness and that's why we will see that our own consciousness varies, some days we feel Krishna's presence when we are in devotees and some days we just don't feel a presence so it is not that Krishna is coming and going, Krishna is always there but it is our consciousness that is fluctuating based on the mood, that's why we are not able to perceive.