In what mood should we take darshan of Deities?

Transcript

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the question is when we go in front of the deities what should be our mood when we take darshan the first and foremost is we are going there to serve Krishna now yes certainly we would like to behold the deities with our eyes and see how they are beautifully dressed but along with that our primary mood is the mood of service just as we can serve Krishna by say dressing the deities we can serve Krishna by say distributing books similarly one form of service which we can do with our eyes is to behold the deities and when we go to Krishna our primary mood is Krishna I am your servant and I am coming in your presence as an expression of my service to you of my service and my service attitude and as we move forward in our devotional life Prabhupada would often say that what is the sign of a serious devotee Prabhupada in one lecture he says how can you know whether you are Krishna conscious Prabhupada would say that when we go in front of the deities we should feel that Krishna is asking us what are you doing for me just like when we go to a friend there is a reciprocation a friend does something for us we do something for Krishna so normally people go to temple and ask Krishna please do this for me do this for me do that for me yes that is one level of religion but a devotee actually doesn’t think of Krishna as an order supplier Krishna thinks of a devotee as an order giver and we are his order carrier order executors so when we feel when we go in front of Krishna Krishna what am I Krishna is asking us what are you doing for me when we have that disposition then our devotional attitude becomes much deeper and we make much more spiritual advancement so firstly when we go in front of the deities we go in the mood of serving Krishna with our eyes and secondly we try to think that I have a relationship with Krishna and I am doing something for Krishna so in the traditional times when many kings they would often have the reports of their state administration read out to the king read out to the lord the kings would consider that we are the servants of the lord and they would have their reports read out to the lord either daily weekly monthly annually depending on whatever was the tradition at that time in different places were different but the essential point is that we we have that sense of a relationship with Krishna and of course if there are certain things which will be uncool to our bhakti we can pray to Krishna for those things also but essentially the mood is to acknowledge when we go in front of the deities that Krishna I am your servant and please engage me in your service this is what I have been doing in your service and this is what so basically we can tell Krishna what we have been doing in our service so then we can express our service attitude through some prayers and when we behold the form of Krishna and then if we are doing something in future then we can also pray to Krishna for help and guidance for that also the whole mood is when people go to a temple its primarily to ask things from god but for a devotee its more to reinforce the relationship of loving service with Krishna and deity worship can be a very personally uplifting experience when we approach it in this mood of reaffirming our service attitude when we go in front of the deity Thank you