Idol Worship - an essential subject

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Idol Worship is the worship of a specific object which is recognized as a physical representation of someone other than a God as if it were a God. However Idol worship is different from Deity worship. Srila Prabhupada explains that Deity worship is authorized by God while idol worship is not. He uses the analogy of the mailbox. If you put mail in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox it will go to the destination. If you make your own box, and paint it red and blue and write 'U.S. Mail" on it, the letter won't go anywhere, because the box is not authorized by the postal service.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Idol Worship category. An introduction from his teachings is given below in the following 9 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's Teachings


vanipedia.org 		Māyāvādīs and atheists accept the forms of the Deities in the temple of the Lord as idols, but devotees do not worship idols. They directly worship the Personality of Godhead in His arcā incarnation. Arcā refers to the form which we can worship in our present condition. Actually, in our present state it is not possible to see God in His spiritual form because our material eyes and senses cannot conceive of a spiritual form. We cannot even see the spiritual form of the individual soul. When a man dies we cannot see how the spiritual form leaves the body. That is the defect of our material senses. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.35)



vanipedia.org 		The devotee offers eatables in the form of vegetables, fruits, leaves and water to the arcā-vigraha. The Lord, being bhakta-vatsala, compassionate upon His devotees, accepts these offerings. Atheists may think that the devotees are engaged in idol worship, but the fact is different. Janārdana, the Supreme Lord, accepts bhāva, the attitude of service. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.30.28)



vanipedia.org 		Deity is not hedonism or idol worship. No. Deity is as good as the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. He's absolute. His form and He is not different. (Bhagavad-gītā Lecture, 2 September 1973, London)



vanipedia.org 		Our Deity worship is not heathenism. If we keep Forms of the Lord without worshiping the Deity under regulative principles, it will gradually turn into idol worship, which is an offense. The Deity of the Lord and the Lord Himself are identical. Krishna can act through the Deity perfectly. As I have given several times the example, the mailbox can act perfectly as the post office because it is authorized. Similarly, when the Deity is installed under authorized regulative principles, the Deity is as good as Krishna Himself. (Letter, 15 July 1969, Los Angeles)



vanipedia.org 		One should not think that such devotees, who are in the lowest stage of devotional service, are worshiping an idol. They are factually worshiping the Lord, who has agreed to appear before them in an approachable way. Nor is the arcā form fashioned according to the whims of the worshiper. This form is eternally existent with all paraphernalia. This can be actually felt by a sincere devotee, but not by an atheist. (Sri Isopaniṣad, Mantra 5)



vanipedia.org 		Worship of the arcā-vigraha is not idol worship. The arcā-vigraha is an incarnation of the Lord in a form appreciable by a devotee. Therefore devotees engage in the temple in the service of the Lord as arcā-vigraha, a form made of sthūla (material) objects such as stone, metal, wood, jewels or paint. All of these are called sthūla, or physical representations. Since the devotees follow the regulative principles of worship, even though the Lord is there in His physical form, He is nondifferent from His original, spiritual form. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.12.17)



vanipedia.org 		Worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form within the temple is not idol worship. There is evidence in the Vedic literature that worship may be saguṇa or nirguṇa—of the Supreme possessing or not possessing attributes. Worship of the Deity in the temple is saguṇa worship, for the Lord is represented by material qualities. But the form of the Lord, though represented by material qualities such as stone, wood or oil paint, is not actually material. That is the absolute nature of the Supreme Lord. (Bhagavad-gītā 12.5)



vanipedia.org 		The Lord is merciful even to the women, śūdras and dvija-bandhus, provided they agree to visit the temple of worship in different forms made for them. Such temple visitors are not idolaters, as alleged by some men with a poor fund of knowledge. All the great ācāryas established such temples of worship in all places just to favor the less intelligent, and one should not pose himself as transcending the stage of temple worship while one is actually in the category of the śūdras and the women or less. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.22)



vanipedia.org 		Although the atheist class of men may think that they are engaged in idol worship, it is not idol. Those who are atheist, they may see idol, stone. But those who are devotees, they see sākṣād brajendranandana hari. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He entered the Jagannātha temple, as soon as He saw Jagannātha, immediately fainted, "Oh, my Lord, here You are." So it is a question of vision. Somebody is going to Jagannātha temple, he is seeing a wooden carved statue, that's all. And he is surprised, "Why for this wooden carved statue so many people are coming?" Because they are not devotee, they cannot understand. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Lecture, 5 March 1972, Calcutta)


Idol Worship - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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