Why is Krishna worshiped in North India in intimate mood and Vishnu worshiped in South India in reverential mood?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna question from Damodaran Prabhu why is it that in South India the worship of the lord is in the form of Vishnu and more with ava and reverence whereas in North India it is largely in the form of Krishna and it is in the mood of Rajya more intimate answer it is not necessary that there is a geographical segregation like that there are many devotees of Vishnu even in North India and some devotees of Krishna even in South India for example in the Madhya Sampradaya the main deity of Madhavacharya in Udupi is Udupi Krishna that is a Krishna deity so now Krishna is advaitam achyutam anadhim anantarupam that is one supreme absolute truth who manifests in many forms anantarupam so Krishna, Vishnu, Ram all these are forms of the lord and they eternally exist in the spiritual world and they descend at particular times in this world and at different times in history there are different devotees who by the power of their devotion, their purity, their potency they become prominent and being inspired by their example by the example of these devotee acharyas people become influenced and attracted so if you look at history Ramanacharya and before him the Alvas they had a phenomenal influence in spreading bhakti in South India and they focused on Vishnu and by their inspiration there are many Vishnu temples over there and of course you will see that it’s not just Vishnu and Krishna there is also in the Sri Sampradaya there is a huge amount of Rama bhakti also, Sri Vishnu Acharya has written a lot about Rama and similarly in North India you will see there is because of Tulsidas, Ramacharitmanas there is a huge amount of Rama bhakti also over there but there have been many saints in the North who focused primarily, who were Krishna bhaktas and their example, their inspiration has led to people taking up Krishna bhakti so there is a transcendental reality and that transcendental reality is not influenced by geographic concentration like North India South India, so it is not that Krishna is a North Indian deity and Vishnu is a South Indian deity no, both of them are transcendental forms of the lord who are lord not just of North India, South India, not even India, not just the world, they are the lords of all the universe, they are the same one lord manifesting in different forms but depending on which particular Acharya appears where or which particular great Vaishnava teaches by his example and words where and who the worshipable lord of that particular deity is, accordingly certain forms become prominent and that’s how there it has happened that in North India there is more of Krishna bhakti and South India there is more of Vishnu bhakti now regarding the more that is concerned that is largely because these particular deities themselves have some moons Vishnu is to a large extent God in office and Krishna is God at home of course Vishnu is God in office in the sense that he is the administrator of the world, whenever devatas have trouble they go to Vishnu and he is the maintainer so of course there is Vishnu in Vaikuntha also who can we can say is God at home but still that mood is carried over so therefore it is that just like if we have the head of the state the head of the state will be more in a different mood at home and a different mood in office so like that we will have different there in the Krishna we have the Vatsalya Ras, Madhurya Ras and his Akhyams with Vishnu we don’t have these Rasas Vishnu doesn’t have a mother or father Madhurya Ras of course is there with Lakshmi but then it is more again in the mood of awe and reverence Aishwarya Bhav not so much Madhurya Bhav so because those deities themselves have particular moods accordingly their worship in this world is performed according to those moods yad yad dhyaturdhaya vibhavayanti tattva-pottraniya se sadhanam grahaya in the Shri Bhagavad Gita it is described that the devotee the Lord is reciprocal to the desires of the devotee so if the devotee desires to worship the Lord in a particular way the Lord manifests that form that means the Lord has eternal forms but the devotee’s desires get aligned with the particular form which reciprocates with that mood so therefore because Vishnu has more of aura of awe and reverence around him and because Krishna has an aura of intimacy around him and because there are more intimate Rasas also in Krishna that’s why the worship of Krishna is more in the mood of intimacy and the worship of Vishnu is more in the mood of awe and reverence this is not necessarily a vertical classification that one is higher than another is lower both can have very loving intense relationship with the Lord and both forms of worship can take one to the ultimate perfection of life worshipping Vishnu can also take one back to Godhead to liberation and eternal life in the spiritual world Thank you Next question