Is dressing the Deities in sandesh authorized?

This was done in an ISKCON temple in Europe.

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Question Is it authentic to dress the deities in an outfit of milk sandesh as was done in the Niskanth temple in Europe in the presence of many senior sanyasis Answer We shouldn’t take up the role of self appointed watch dogs trying to supervise the standards of deity worship in Iskcon There are Iskcon authorities who are doing such things and we have to understand the principle that is fixed but abhidheya varies according to time and place Shri Prabhupada when he was doing deity worship when he had Jagannath Baldev Subhadra made by Shamsundar Prabhu at that time he had them made with wood from a local tree normally getting the wood requires an elaborate process and sometimes months are spent to find the right wood in Jagannath but that is not necessary all the time the essence is that there is devotion and through the devotion the lord is worshipped so if the material from which the deities is made can itself be changed by an acharya according to time and place circumstance then the way the deities are dressed doesn’t have to be a matter of such big concern the important point is milk is in and of itself a very central part of deity worship of Krishna is not only offered milk to drink but so many other milk products are used to bathe the deities during abhishek we use milk and curd and other milk products to bathe the deities and so on a special day if a dress is made using sandesh then that simply shows the devotional creativity of the devotees in serving the lord so the important point is that we shouldn’t think of authentic and inauthentic as a frozen line where something is forever forbidden just because it is not allowed certainly something involves breaking the four agreed principles something involves some directly anti-vedic in terms of its implications then that can definitely be avoided but dressing the lord in various ways is something which is done throughout history you know we have devotees being given flower dresses and various varieties of dresses so abhidevya will change according to time, place, circumstance so the point that abhidevya can change is something which Srila Prabhupada demonstrated throughout his life Srila Prabhupada had where Mataji is doing distribution here Mataji is doing deity worship so in Pancharatra deity worship is a very important and sacred activity but even in that Srila Prabhupada according to time, place, circumstance made changes so what we should focus on primarily is the principle of devotion and if you have some specific questions it is best to ask the authorities over there you know by asking other devotees we simply create perpetuate our doubts and give reasons for our own justification so lets focus on the principle that abhidevya is changeable the way we connect with Krishna is not changeable in the sense that we will start worshipping some other form apart from Krishna or we will start chanting some mantra other than Krishna but there are so many different tunes in which the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra can be chanted which may not have been used in traditional Vedic culture there may be so many different kinds of dresses that the deity can be worn Krishna can be worn and adorned with Chinese dresses or Italian dresses or different kinds of dresses there is nothing wrong with that, that is done in the local temples everywhere so similarly Krishna can be dressed in a particular way now it is actually to be appreciated, the devotees far away from Vedic culture where milk and cow products are not appreciated so much, they are coming with devotional creativity to do something like this, there may be some hygienic considerations, there are some days when flies may come and obviously the devotees will be vigilant enough to take care of that so what we should focus on is the essence, the essence is the offering of the heart’s devotion and when that is there then we shouldn’t bother too much about it and if there are any questions now what causes problems in devotee association is devotees talk about each other instead of talk with each other so if there is some inappropriate practice it is best to in a respectful way contact the authorities over there and get the answer if we talk about each other, that person did this why did that person do that, why did that person do that then we simply perpetuate gossip, misconceptions and even offenses Thank you, Hare Krishna