How should we respond when Deities break?

From Keshav

In case IDOL breaks how should we respond to it ,, also we see people who makes posters of images of god , dont care if those poster lie in thier feets . how to understand this from Transcedental point ..:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Keshav Prabhu In case idol breaks, how should we respond to it? Also we see people who make posters of images of God, they don’t care if those posters lie at their feet.
How do we understand this from the transcendental perspective? Answer? Firstly, those who break idols, they do get some severe karmic reactions for that. By idols, I assume that you are referring to deities the difference between idols and deities is that idols are made according to one’s own imagination the form is shaped not according to scriptural description and there is no prana pratishtha a sacred religious ceremony performed to invoke the presence of God so if idols break they are breakable objects and they will break. So if they are non-sacred then there is nothing philosophical to perceive about that they are just like other material objects but if some deities break then they may break because of carelessness they may break because of malevolence hatefulness of some people against deity worship and they may break because of age so if they break because of carelessness of those who are supposed to worship them and take care of them then that is that is very unfortunate that indicates that the pujaris are not taking care of the deities clearly and they require more training and more awareness that they are actually serving God himself so that can be an offence and one needs to pray to the lord for forgiveness and possibly do some more intense devotional service as a form of devotional atonement if that has happened because of one’s own carelessness now if some iconoclasts, people who hate idol worship they they come and destroy the deities because they mistake the deities to be idol then we should try to protect them protect the deities as best as possible now Krishna doesn’t need our protection but we have invited Krishna as the deity to accept our service and as a part of our service we have a duty to protect him, Krishna is all powerful but when he comes as a deity he doesn’t come to demonstrate his omnipotence he comes to give us the opportunity to serve so even when somebody is intentionally damaging the deity we understand that is also Krishna’s arrangement to give us a opportunity for serving him by protecting him and if the deity gets damaged by age then what do we do so in general we understand that the deity is non-different from Krishna at the same time it is Krishna who is manifesting through the deity the deity is made of the deity from the material perspective is made of matter and Krishna is transcendental so because of the prayer of the devotees Krishna manifests the deity so if the deity break if the deity has a small small breakage that is repairable then in the devotional traditions, in the Vaishno traditions the deity can be repaired from material perspective and then can be worshipped because Krishna is Bhavagrahi he is not concerned with the technicalities, he is concerned with the devotion so actually Prabhupada started the Radha-Londonishwar temple at that time the deity that they had got was slightly having a slightly damaged finger so when the deity was brought from India to London the finger had got damaged slightly during transit and so those who had brought that they felt that this deity is not suitable for worship because that was their notion according to the Smartha rituals and understanding but Sri Prabhupada said that actually this is the past time of Radha-Londonishwar because he wanted to be worshipped by the devotees and not by those who have more faith in the technicality of the Smartha rituals than in the essence of devotion so Sri Prabhupada did say that even if some small part is damaged, the deity worship can go on and Krishna will still manifest but if the damage is major or the damage is irreparable then normally speaking then we pray to Krishna there is like Aavirbhav and Tiruvabhav Aarohan and there is Visarjan just like we do Ganesh Visarjan, so we normally equate the word Visarjan with putting in water but generally speaking before the form is put in water actually the lord is seen off that means when the deity worship starts at that time there is Pranapatishtha, at that time there is Aavahan so Aavahan means calling the lord to manifest there and then when there is the requirement that now where there is a circumstantial necessity that the lord cannot be worshipped in that particular form anymore then there is Visarjan, so first the lord is told to leave to take leave from there and he is thanked for having given us the opportunity to serve him and when he leaves then the form is put in the water that is called as Visarjan that is popularly done for Ganesh and Durga also during the Ganesh Puja or Durga Puja also, normally the Vaishnavas do not have this sort of system although it is from the Pancharatra scriptures point of view it is a valid system but generally the worship of Ganesh and Durga is performed from a Karmakanda perspective for a certain material purpose a certain kind of worship is performed and once that purpose is served the idea is that there is no need to do any more worship as devotees who are aspiring for pure devotional service we want our devotional service to be unmotivated and uninterrupted so we are not worshipping Krishna for any particular material purpose, we are worshipping for developing loving relationship with him and that is why we don’t want the devotional service to be interrupted and so devotees when they normally in the Vaishnava circles normally the deities are permanently installed so once they are invited they are there for years and years and decades and sometimes the deity gets somehow broken then the lord is requested to depart that is called as Visarjan and then another deity is named and the lord is invited to appear in that deity and then the previous form that is there the Visarjan is done of that in a very respectful and grave way so the for all practical functional purposes when the deity is being worshipped the deity is considered to be non-different from Krishna and then only at the time of Arohan and Visarjan then the devotee understands that okay the lord has manifested now the lord is going to unmanifest so that is because the deity is not just arrangement of matter when Krishna is there, the deity is actually Krishna when the lord is invoked through the presence through the prayers and through the proper ceremonies so that is how normally we respond to the breaking of the deities by doing repair if it is possible and if it is not, the damage is repairable then having another deity made and doing Visarjan of this particular form after seeing the lord off then people who make posters of the images of god they often do it just as a business so for them sometimes in the road side they sell posters and there are posters of Hanumanji or Ram or Krishna and along with that there are posters of film stars and Bollywood actresses which are in often quite obscene so it is it is culturally very jarring you see but in a culture that thrives on stimulation and entertainment many people don’t feel that difference so it is the unfortunate state of Kali Yuga that people may touch ordinary paper or some other things by their foot, they may touch the posters of the supreme lord also by foot so normally speaking there is certainly some level of offence involved in this but Krishna is compassionate and normally the offence is to the extent we know the glory of something specifically that means if a materialistic person who doesn’t know much about how Krishna manifests through the photo then actually speaking for him the offence is not as great as if a devotee who knows about the glory of Krishna, a devotee say throws a picture down or touches the feet to the picture so normally devotees would not do that will never do that but the point here is that with respect to offensiveness it is often a matter of how much one is aware of the glory at the same time that Krishna becomes ready to manifest through pictures like this certainly the manifestation of Krishna through posters is not at the same level as its manifestation through the reading but if a devotee seeks to remember Krishna then Krishna by the principle 4.11 in the Bhagavad Gita of chooses to manifest as is required according to the how of the devotee of course the picture has to be according to scriptural description we cannot have a picture of Krishna that is concocted in terms of the pose or in terms of the action or in terms of the emotion that Krishna is displaying there has to be some scriptural basis to what is being depicted then Krishna can manifest through these pictures also so and even if for argument sake somebody says Krishna is not manifesting still the picture helps us to remember Krishna so the deity is where Krishna manifests directly and through the picture also when there is devotion Krishna manifests but if for argument say somebody says that Krishna does not manifest through a picture because there is no there is no pranapatistha or anything like that but because there is the depiction according to scriptural description and there is the devotee’s desire to remember Krishna so the picture is unopponent for bhakti so devotee should be very careful if non devotees do it then there is some offence but because they don’t know so much the offence is lesser and in general over a period of time as the devotee community develops the devotional paraphernalia will be made by devotees rather than by non devotees and when that happens then we won’t have to see such unfortunate and distressing things like pictures being touched by the feet of people at the same time even when we see such things we can appreciate Krishna’s magnanimity in appearing in such ways even when we put the Hare Krishna Mahamantra on a poster and give the poster to people now people will throw that down and that may be trampled underfoot by some people, is that an offence? Just like say Krishna’s picture can also be thrown down and be an offence, it can be an offence but Krishna is more concerned about reaching out to people than he is about taking offence so if by writing, if having Mahamantra written or having the picture depicted if by that some people’s spiritual life can start which would otherwise not have started then Krishna because he is so eager the souls who are suffering in material existence return back to him and thereby become happy forever that he is ready to take their offence so that he can benefit all the souls, so even when such events happen we can rather than focusing on the distress and this unfortunate nature of that event we can focus on Krishna’s extraordinary magnanimity that he is making himself available to us through these lithographs and other visual forms by which we can remember him and by which those who would not otherwise get connected with him can also become connected with him