Sri Vigraha Tattva

[Patita Pavana das]

5 August 2002, 8 p.m.

Radha-Govinda Mandira, Vienna


We have come here to this very beautiful temple where Sri Sri Radha-Govinda are giving Their darsana to everyone. In this age of Kali, the yuga dharma, the process of self-realizaton, is chanting Krsna-nama, the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. And the process of worshiping the Deity, arcana, was the yuga dharma for the last age, Dvarapa Yuga. Five thousand years ago, that yuga dharma was completed. Now Kali Yuga has come and the process is harinama sankirtanam. A question may arise: to worship the Deity is not dharma in this age, so why are we making temples and keeping Deities there? One reason is that Kali Yuga, which is 432,000 in duration, began only 5,000 years ago. Thus, some remnants, an atmosphere and practice from the previous age are still going on now, and it will continue for some time. But a time will come in Kali Yuga when persecution of devotees will become so bad that it will not be possible to have this opportunity to serve the Deity. But now we are very lucky that in His Sri Vigraha, Sri Krsna is amongst us.


What is the meaning of Sri Vigraha? Vi means visesa rupena, especially. Graha means grahan karna, to accept. Krsna is so kind, especially to accept our services and give us a chance to develop our seva vrtti, our service mood. Therefore, He has come in this form. This is Sri Vigraha.


We see that in Jaiva Dharma, one Muslim, a mulah, a Muslim religious leader, came and approached the Vaisnavas of Godruma-dvipa. He wanted to speak with them because he was quite confused. He said, “You are very intelligent and learned. Why are you involved in idolatry, worshiping idols?” He spoke with one devotee called Gauracand, who explained to him, “We Gaudiya Vaisnavas have nothing to do with idolatry, but I think that yourself and others who worship a formless aspect of God are really doing idolatry.” “Oh, amazing!” He continued, “We see that many religions in the world do not worship Sri Vigraha, and they say, ‘If you do, this is idolatry.’ And our Gaudiya conclusion is that our worhip of Sri Vigraha has nothing to do with idolatry. We say that you-who think that God is impersonal, having no form or shape, who never keep any picture, and who never have any Deity-are doing idolatry. How is it possible? If one will know deeply the conclusion of Gaudiya philosophy, then we can understand.”


He explained to that person: “In this world on the gross plane, there are five elements-earth, water, fire, air and space-and three subtle elements-mind, intelligence and ego (ahankara). These are all material. Of these five gross elements, three of them have form-earth, water and fire. And two of them-air and space-have no form. So you are thinking that if something has form, it is material, and if something has no form, then it is spiritual. This is your idea, but actually, to have form or not to have form-both of these ideas are material. So you cannot say, ‘God has no form because no form means spiritual,’ because some material things also have no form. This is the first mistake in your philosophy. You say that idolatry means to imagine a form of God and make that form out of material elements and worship that. Therefore, you think that we are doing idolatry. But actually, you are imagining a form of God, and you have a concept of God. What is that? You think that God is just like air; God is everywhere like air or like space. And you have made a Deity of God which is like air and space out of the element of your material mind-because the mind is also not transcendental. So you have made a Deity of God which resembles air or space. And you have made it out of a material element called your mind, and you are worshiping that. So you are doing idolatry.


“Some primitive people in the jungle make a Deity of a cat or a dog out of stone. They accept it as God and worship that. So you think that you are very sophisticated because you think that they are very primitive-they made a form of some creature and worship it, and you think that you are superior to them because you have a formless God. But actually, who is superior? You are worshiping a material form by a material element-that means ethereal existence out of material mind, and they have made something out of earth or clay. But the difference between you and them is that what they are worshiping has more qualities than what you are worshiping. What you are worshiping has less qualities. Air and space are included in earth-it has shape, form and color. So why do you think that you are so superior?”


Gauracand continued, “I want to tell you something about our Gaudiya practice-how we are worhiping the Deity. This is not idolatry; it is not like your worship of air in your mind, and it is not like the primitive activities of the natives in the jungle. It is completely different. Idolatry means when someone will imagine a form of God and then worship that. But we are not imagining a form of God.”


According to our sastra:


premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena

santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti

yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam

govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami


Because I have come here to have darsana of Govinda-deva, Govinda is inspiring me with His own glories-govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. When I saw Him, He gave me the idea to give class only about Govinda-deva, about your Deity. Why? Because worshiping the Deity is good, but unless we hear about the glory of the Deity, then our worship will be riddled with offense.


So, what is our Gaudiya idea? Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena. Those who have developed love for God have pure hearts. The conditioned soul’s heart is affected by sattva, raja and tama (goodness, passion and ignorance). But the atmosphere in the hearts of those who are liberated is called visuddha-sattva, pure mood, pure existence. In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated: sattvam visuddham vasudeva-sabditam. In the atmosphere of visuddha-sattva, the form of the Lord is exposed and can be seen. Only when the heart is completely pure (visuddha-sattva), can one see the Lord in his heart at any moment. So Goracand explained to that Muslim that when the heart of a Vaisnava is pure, he sees the form of his Lord. Then, in accordance with what he sees, he manifests Sri Vigraha within this world from the material elements. The Deity may be of eight different types of elements-paint, jewels, wood, stone, metals, clay, earth and even mind. In some types of puja, the Deity is made of earth-like when the gopis worshiped Katyayani-devi. They made on the bank of Yamuna a Deity of sand. They worshiped Her for some time and then sent Her away.


A Deity can be made of different elements. First, the transcendental sat-cit-ananda vigraha, the spiritual form of God, comes in the heart of the pure devotee. Then, what he sees within his heart, he manifests in the external world in the form of the Deity. This is not imagination; this is his realization, and from his realization, he is giving a chance for those who are not pure to have an idea about the actual form of God. Someone may say that this form that he has manifested is material, but we should know about acintya bhedabheda-tattva-Krsna and His energies are inconceivably one and different from each other. And every spirit soul will perceive those energies in accordance with the level of his consciousness.


Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explained about the vision of the kanistha adhikari, the neophyte devotee. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango ’tha bhajana-kriya tato ’nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha-Those devotees who are gradually going from sraddha towards nistha are kanistha. Kanistha means ‘no nistha’, those who have no nistha (firmness) are called ka-nistha. Their vision and their senses are material. Wherever they look, they see matter. When they will see the Deity, they are bound to see the Deity as stone, because their senses are not pure. But they have had initiation from their Guru, who has given them a relationship with Krsna through mantra, especially through Gopala-mantra (where we find the name Govinda-govindaya). Therefore, by aropa (to impose), the neophyte disciple imposes upon his mind the true conception of Sri Vigraha. He sees the Deity as a statue, but he thinks, “My Gurudeva told me, ‘This is God, Krsna Himself, the Supreme Lord, and I am related to Him. I am His eternal servant.’” By superimposition, he keeps out his mind the thought that this Deity is only a statue.


Gradually, as he is serving the Deity, his heart becomes purified, and he advances from the stage of kanistha to madhyama. Where is the madhyama adhikari? When his nistha is strong, he enters ruci and asakti. Now in this stage, the madhyama adhikari serves the Deity; otherwise, he observes the arati of the Deity, and remembers the form of the Deity in his mind. He is not yet completely pure, but he has a realization that this form of Krsna standing there is extremely beautiful, playing upon His flute in the company of Brsabhanu-nandini, the daughter of Brsabhanu Maharaja. “He does not speak with me. He is not blinking or moving around, and I cannot hear the sound of His flute.” So physically, there is no relation, but when he is in madhyama adhikara, he has the realization that this Deity is manu-maya, the Deity is alive. “This Deity is conscious! He has feelings. The Deity knows what I am feeling, and knows all my desires, so I am coming and bowing down, and I am offering so many prayers.” This is the position of madhyama adhikari.


As he becomes more advanced and visuddha mood comes, because the form of Sri Vigraha is sat-cid-ananda, visuddha, the Deity comes alive for him. But until that visuddha bhava comes in our heart, we cannot realize that directly. Then, when he comes in the stage of bhava, the next stage:


suddha-sattva-visesatma

prema-suryamsu-samya-bhak

rucibhis citta-masrnya-

krd asau bhava ucyate


Suddha-sattva-visesa: this word visesa indicates visuddha-sattva. When that completely pure mood is inundating the heart of the devotee, when he sees the Deity, what does he say? Pratima naha tumi-saksat vrajendra-nandana. “You are not a Deity. You are directly the son of Nanda Maharaja, and You have appeared here to give me Your darsana.” At that time, very easily, the devotee speaks with the Deity, and the Deity speaks back with him.


So we should never think that our Deity worship is any kind of idolatry, no. Pratima naha tumi-saksat vrajendra-nandana. You are directly the son of Nanda Maharaja and the daughter of Brsabhanu Maharaja. You have appeared here on the bank of Yamuna, playing on Your flute, only to give me Your darsana to purify my heart and sprinkle your mercy upon me. But I am seeing You like stone. Why? Because my heart is like stone. Because my heart has no pure loving feelings, I am seeing stone. There is a nice story about Hanuman that illustrates this point. Once Hanuman was moving here and there, and he came upon a sadhu who was lecturing on the pastimes of Lord Rama. When Hanuman came there, he sat down and said, “Good! I can hear about Lord Rama.” That sadhu was telling, “Ravana stole away Sita and was keeping Her in a garden called Asoka Vatika. This Asoka Vatika was very very beautiful, with many colors of flowers.” Hanuman was thinking, “No, that is not true.” So he complained, “You said that this garden where Sita was staying was very beautiful with many colors, but I know. I was there. I saw that garden. It was not beautiful and not colorful. In that garden everything was red, only one color.” The sadhu answered him, “O Hanuman, with all respect, though I was not there, I want to express that that garden was very colorful. You were only seeing that the whole garden was red because you were so angry that Ravana had stolen away Sita, so you were seeing red everywhere.” Hanuman conceded, “Oh, you are right.”


Whatever mood is in our heart, we will see reflected everywhere. Just like if a person is lusty, he will see lust everywhere. A man was walking down the street in India and noticed an old man getting onto a ricksaw. There was a young, beautiful girl with him. He took that girl by the hand, pulled her on the ricksaw with him and put his arm around her. That man passing by called out, “Hey, he’s a very lusty old man. Why is he embracing this young girl?” But he did not know that this was the old man’s daughter, and he was only making sure she would not fall off the ricksaw. So this is the example. Whatever mood is in your heart, you will see everything like that. If your heart is like stone, with no pure loving feelings, then you will see the Deity like stone. And if your heart is suddha-sattva-visesatma prema suryamsu samya bhak, if just a ray of prema in the form of bhava comes in your heart, then rucibhis citta-masrnya-krd asau bhava ucyate-your heart melts and becomes very soft. When your heart is soft, then when you will see Krsna, you will see how He is very soft. How soft? Even if a leaf will fall from a tree and land on His skin, when you remove the leaf, the shape of the leaf is there on His skin. Govindaji is like that. This is called vigraha-tattva, the philosophy of Sri Vigraha.


In this world there are many incarnations, arca-vigraha, arca-avatara, but here in this holy place, who is here? Radha-Govindaji. All the forms of Krsna are not the same. Krsna has so many forms. He has His forms of Narayana in Vaikuntha. There He is accompanied by Laksmi-devi. These forms are very opulent with four arms. And the devotees who worship them stand at a distance and offer prayers-all the Purusa Sukta and various prayers to Lord Narayana. In their service, there is not so much rasa, mellow-only santa rasa and dasya rasa.


Superior to Laksmi-Narayana are Sita-Rama. In the pastimes of Sita-Rama there is more rasa. Why? Ramacandra has some friends, like Vibhisana and Sugriva, but though they are his friends, they cannot come so close to him. They cannot sit together on the same bed, they cannot eat from the same plate-impossible. They cannot sleep together, like Krsna and His friends who play together and sleep in the same place. Krsna’s friends can give Him their own remnants, and Krsna takes that with great gusto. If they are eating something very delicious, they will say, “This is really good!” and pop it in Krsna’s mouth. Ramacandra has friends so there is some sakhya rasa in Rama-lila, but only a little. And in the pastimes of Lord Rama, there is also vatsalya mood. He has parents-Kausalya and Dasaratha Maharaja. But when Lord Rama came into this world, Kausalya offered prayers. He displayed His four-handed form and they prayed to Him, so though they have parental mood sometimes, the mood that He is God is prominent sometimes, and they have some reverence and fear towards Him. Therefore, it is said that in Vaikuntha, including Ayodhya, two and a half rasas are there-santa, dasya, a little bit of sakhya and vatsalya makes half only.


Beyond Ayodhya is Dvaraka Dhama. There Krsna has 16,108 queens. In India you can go to the temples of Dvarakadhisa and worship Dvarakadhisa Krsna. He has so much opulence. Sometimes He has two hands and sometimes four hands-it depends on the situation. When Krsna went to rescue His queen Laksmana, He took Her on His chariot and began to drive away. Her relatives began to attack and tried to stop Krsna from taking away the very beautiful princess. So what did Krsna do? He manifested four arms-with two arms He embraced Laksmana because the chariot was moving very fast, and with the other two arms He took His bow and arrow and was shooting all the soldiers. There is so much opulence there, and because of this, His servants cannot come very close to Him. So, though there is more mellow in Dvaraka, more than in Vaikuntha, it is not like Vrndavana.


Superior to Dvaraka is Mathura Dhama. There opulence and sweetness are side by side. We see that after Krsna had killed Kamsa, Vasudeva and Devaki were released. Krsna and Baladeva approached Their parents and bowed down to them. When Krsna bowed down to Vasudeva and Devaki, what did they do? They became very nervous, and said, “Oh, Krsna and Balarama are the Supreme Lords. They are God Himself, and They are bowing down to us!” They did not know what to do. They did not know whether to pray or stop Them, and being in anxiety, they just froze. Krsna got up and was looking at them as if they were mother and father. At that time, Yogamaya could understand that Krsna was feeling the mood of being a young boy, but Vasudeva and Devaki had the mood, “He is the Supreme Lord.” So it was an incompatible situation. Therefore, Yogamaya came and covered Vasudeva and Devaki, and the mood of opulence went away. They began to cry and took Krsna and Balarama in their laps and were embracing Them, saying, “O my son! O my son!” So we see that in Mathura the opulence and sweetness are side by side, sometimes this way, sometimes that way.


But in Vrndavana, actually there is more opulence in one grain of dust of Vrndavana than in the whole material world and Vaikuntha, Mathura and Dvaraka all put together. But in Vrndavana there is so much sweetness that it completely covers over the opulence. For example, if you have a cup of water and you put in five tablespoons of salt, you cannot drink that water-it is disgusting. But if you take twenty-five kilos of salt and throw it in Gangotri, the source of the Ganges, then when you go and drink water from the Ganges, you cannot taste any salt at all. So, in the same way, if we compare the sweetness to be like water and the opulence to be like salt, in Dvaraka there is some sweetness and some opulence, but it is mainly salty, mainly opulence. But in Vrndavana, it is like the Ganges. There is so much water that even though there is more salt, more opulence in Vrndavana, you cannot taste anything-only sweetness and sweetness.


Narayana, Ramacandra, Dvarakadhisa, Mathuresa and Govinda in Vrndavana are the same person, but They are displaying different degrees of opulence and sweetness only. Take the example of the moon. There is only one moon, but on one day we call this amavasya (the new moon), on one day we call this astami (half-moon) and on another day we call this purnima (full moon). Actually, there is only one moon, but we see differently according to how much light, how much effulgence is coming from that moon. In the same way, God is one according to tattva-vicara, siddhanta, but according to rasa, how much mellow He is expressing, then we see Him differently. So what is purnima, the full moon? Purnima means Radha-Govinda. In Vrndavana They are full and complete.


Bhakti-rasa is like a palace called rasa mahal. But before you build a palace, you have to cpnstruct a very deep foundation. This foundation is tattva-siddhanta, philosophy. Thus, I have been telling some philosophy-just to come to the glories of Radha-Govinda! Radha-Govinda was manifested in this world by Rupa Gosvami, but not originally. He was first manifested by Vajranabha, the great-grandson of Krsna. After Krsna’s disappearance, many of His associates went to Vrndavana-Uddhava, the Pandavas, the Queens of Dvaraka, and Uttara, the mother of Pariksit Maharaja. She went to Vraja with Vajranabha and also Bhaguri Rsi. Bhaguri Rsi is Krsna’s diksa-guru. Srila Rupa Gosvamipada, in Ujjvala Nilamani, wrote that Bhaguri Rsi initiated Krsna into Radha-mantra. Bhaguri Rsi personally knew Krsna; he saw Him, and Uttara also saw Krsna, because her son was Pariksit Maharaja. When Pariksit Maharaja was a small baby, he would play in Krsna’s lap.


When they went to Vraja, Vajranabha was asking Uttara and Bhaguri Rsi, “I want to manifest the Deities. Can you advise me?” First he made one Deity-Madana Mohana-and asked them how the Deity looked to them. Uttara said, “This Deity is beautiful. The feet are just like Krsna.” Again he made another Deity. This was Govinda-deva. They said, “The chest is just like Krsna.” Then he made a third Deity, Gopinatha. They said, “His face is just like Krsna.” It does not mean that only the feet of Madana Mohana are OK and the rest of the Deity is not good. It means that Madana Mohana is the presiding Deity of sambandha-jnana, relationship. In other words, first of all, if you want to make progress in bhakti, you must have sambandha-jnana. You must know your relation with Krsna. Jivera svarupa haya-nityera krsna-dasa. You are not God; you are servant of God. It means to approach His lotus feet like a servant. When you will approach with a mood of service, gradually your anarthas, your unwanted desires, will go away. All lust and all anger will go away. Therefore, He is called Madana Mohana. Now you are bewildered by Madana, Kamadeva, because lust is coming. But if you will surrender your life at the lotus feet of Madana Mohana, He will bewilder Kamadeva. Kamadeva will faint and will no longer disturb you because Madana Mohana is more beautiful than Kamadeva. So first, try to be Krsnadasa, servant of Krsna.


The next tattva is called abhideya-tattva, the process. First comes relationship, then the process, and finally the goal, prayojana. Govinda-deva is called the abhideya-tattva adi-devata, the presiding Deity of abhideya-tattva. What is the process of bhakti? In Sri Caitanya Caritamrta (Adi 1.16) we find the pranama mantra to Sri Sri Radha-Govinda:


divyad-vrndaranya-kalpa-drumadhah-

srimad-ratnagara-simhasana-sthau

srimad-radha-srila-govinda-devau

presthalibhih sevyamanau smarami