Why are Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda Prabhu on the altar twice – as Deities and in the Pancha Tattva picture?

From: Amol Patki

We have Gaura Nitai twice on the Alter. Once on the main alter along with Radha Krishna and then as part of the Pancha Tattva. Is this a duplication?

Transcript

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Question by Amul Patki We have Govarnath twice on the altar, once on the main altar along with Radha Krishna and then as part of the Pancha Tattva Is this a duplication? Answer Firstly there is nothing wrong with duplication ultimately Krishna, Jyotish and Mahaprityan they are manifesting the same personality so they are manifesting themselves in different forms and why duplication, triplication quantuplication whatever is there, that is only going to help us remember Krishna more and more so in principle there is nothing wrong with duplication per se but more importantly we need to understand the difference between the Deity and the photo of the Deity, the lamination of the Deity generally speaking at an absolute level the Deity and the photo can be said to be same but at the same time because Krishna’s different manifestations are served by us at different levels of commitment and dedication so we also recognize that Krishna will reciprocate and manifest himself in different ways so as the Deities we try to have strict standards for service the lamination, we also try to maintain some standards of service but not so strict Krishna is merciful so he manifests himself in both ways as a Deity and as the lamination but he will manifest depending on our consciousness and our desire for his manifestation so Govardhan Mathare when they are present on the altar that is prominently the mercy of Shri Prabhupada for us Shri Prabhupada especially when he started his preaching in the West he felt that just as Jagai Madhai were delivered by the mercy of Lord Nityanand Prabhu and without his mercy their deliverance was practically impossible so he also felt that the deliverance of the fallen souls of Kali Yuga would be practically impossible without Nityanand Prabhu’s mercy and to elicit that mercy he encouraged all of us to serve them and one way of serving them is to have them prominent especially Nityanand Prabhu prominently on the altar along with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and to serve him and thereby beg his mercy so in the Panchatattva are the five principal protagonists in the Chaitanya Nila and we worship them because all five of them signify something very specific we have the verse Panchatattva Atmakam Krishnam so in that verse we describe that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna himself Bhaktarupa Swarupakam Bhaktavataram Bhaktakhyam Namami Bhaktashaktikam so Nityanand Prabhu is Bhaktarupa Swarupakam Advaita Acharya is Bhaktavataram Advaita Pandita is Bhaktakhyam and Srivasa Thakura is Bhaktashaktikam so all of them have their own individual distinctive roles and so Nityanand Prabhu is a lord in the mode of a servant if we see the Panchatattva as they are manifested in Mayapur Dham Lord Nityananda is having one hand Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is having both his hands upraised that indicates that he has come to inspire all the whole world to raise their hands and chant the holy names Nityanand Prabhu has his one feet towards the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Vidyadhar Kondit also has his one hand both of them have one hand pointing to one feet of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that indicates that both of them they are inspiring us to take shelter of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to surrender to his lotus feet Advaita Acharya has his hands raised in a particular way so he is forming a bridge, his hands are forming a bridge it was he who called the lord to this world and because he called the lord to this world his desire formed a bridge by which the lord descended to the world and enabled us to get his mercy and Srivasa Thakura is having his hands folded which indicates that he is enraptured seeing the magnificent and unparalleled display of mercy that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has brought to this world along with his various manifestations so this particular posture may not be there in all the Panchataka photos but the point is all of them have their role and they are called the five saviors of the soul they are together orchestrating a plan by which all of us can be delivered and because it is Kali Yuga there is no problem with replication but the five together establish a plan by which they save us and we would like to have the deities of all five of them if possible we would be that much more fortunate and much more blessed if we could but because it is not practically possible for us to have the deities of all five of these great personalities wherever we have deities, we may have them in a few temples, one or two temples in America in Mayapur, in some other places but because it is not practically possible so we have prominently at least the two personalities Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityanand Prabhu as the deities because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the most merciful avatar and Nityanand Prabhu is the most merciful manifestation who brings people to the lotus feet of this most merciful avatar so then we give prominence but because all five of them play a significant role in our spiritual advancement and our ultimate deliverance we also have all five of them on the altar in terms of the photo so to summarize firstly, replication is no problem and secondly, because it is not practically possible to have all five at the same time, we have the principal two as deities and we have all five as a photo