Iskcon Deity worship course

Procedure & standards of worshipping Deities in

ISKCON according to the Gaudiya-siddhanta 1
 PROGRAMMA
➢ Invocation
➢ Afspraken

➢ Kennismaking

➢ Doelen

➢ Cursus overview

➢ Introductie

➢ Sessie 1

➢ Wrap up

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INVOCATION
paśyanti te me rucirāṇy amba santaḥ
prasanna-vaktrāruṇa-locanāni
rūpāṇi divyāni vara-pradāni
sākaṁ vācaṁ spṛhaṇīyāṁ vadanti
“O My mother, My devotees always see the smiling face of My
form, with eyes like the rising morning sun. They like to see
My various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent,
and they also talk favorably with Me.” (S.B. 3.25.35) 3
 oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

mukam karoti vachalam pangum langhayate girim

yat-kripa tam aham vande shri-gurum dina-taranam
paramananda madhavam sri chaitanyam isvaram

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
12/1/2023 4
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare 12/1/2023 5
 AFSPRAKEN
➢ We steken handen op om bij te dragen
➢ We waarderen de bijdrage van een ieder; ook al zijn wij het niet

mee eens
➢ We zullen onderonsjes nalaten

➢ We ontlenen geen macht aan onze status of positie

➢ We nemen elk de verantwoordelijkheid voor het behalen van

success in het nastreven van de gestelde doelen

➢ We bespreken (benoemen) de issues en/of het gedrag, niet de

personen 6

➢ We zullen elkaar respecteren

 KENNISMAKING
➢ Zich voorstellen
➢ Noem 1 eigenschap van jezelf op die je wilt aanscherpen

➢ Trek een naam uit de box

➢ Noem tenminste 1 goede/positieve eigenschap van deze persoon

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 DOELEN
➢ Basics of worshipping Deities in ISKCON
➢ Outline, procedure & standards according to the Gaudiya-

siddhanta
➢ The basic knowledge, skills and values required for the daily

worship of deities in your home and in the temple

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CURSUS OVERVIEW
➢ Dag 1: ➢ Dag 3:
✓ Course introduction ✓ Finding the balance/standards
✓ Why deity worship? ✓ The form of the Lord
✓ Inviting the Lord into your home
✓ Ritual and culture
✓ Tulasī Worship
✓ Mood of worship ✓ Bathing and dressing the Deities
✓ Worship at home VS in the
temple ➢ Dag 4:
➢ Dag 2: ✓ Children and deity worship
✓ Purity & Getting ready for ✓ Travel and deity worship
worship ✓ Offenses
✓ Waking the deities
✓ Ācamana
✓ Putting the deities to bed
✓ Offering food ✓ ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry
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✓ Ārati ✓ Conclusion
INTRODUCTIE: WAAROM DEITY WORSHIP?
➢ This is very important business, Deity worship. The more the Deity is decorated, the
more your heart will be decorated with Krishna consciousness.” (Srila Prabhupada
Letter, October 7, 1974)
➢ “The Lord is transcendental to our mundane senses. He cannot be seen with our present
eyes, nor can He be heard with our present ears. To the degree that we have entered into
the service of the Lord or to the proportion to which our lives are freed from sins, we
can perceive the Lord. But even though we are not free from sins, the Lord is kind
enough to allow us the facility of seeing Him in His arca-murtis in the temple. The Lord
is all-powerful, and therefore He is able to accept our service by presentation of His arca
form. No one, therefore, should foolishly think the arca in the temple to be an idol. Such
an arca-murti is not an idol but the Lord Himself, and to the proportion to which one is
freed from sins, he is able to know the significance of the arca-murti. The guidance
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of a
pure devotee is therefore always required.”(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.1.17, Purport)
INTRODUCTIE: WAAROM DEITY WORSHIP?
➢ Srila Rupa Gosvami has enumerated sixty-four activities by which a devotee in the
beginning stage of devotional service (vaidhi sadhana-bhakti) can engage all his senses
in the service of the Lord. Among these he has selected five as principal:
1. Hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam.
2. Association with advanced devotees.
3. Living in a sacred place, such as Mathura.
4. Chanting the holy name of the Lord.
5. Serving the Deity form of the Lord with great faith.
➢ Practicing these items assures rapid advancement in devotional service, culminating in
pure love for Krsna.
➢ 'The power of these five principles is very wonderful and difficult to reconcile. Even
without faith in them, a person who is offenseless can experience dormant love of Krsna
simply by being a little connected with them.' (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila
11 22.133)
INTRODUCTIE: WAAROM DEITY WORSHIP?
➢ At least thirty-five of the remaining fifty-nine items are directly related to the worship of
the Lord in His Deity form (arca-vigraha), Therefore the last of the five items (Deity
worship) is especially significant, since it includes a wide range of activities devotees
perform daily. In fact, this single item, arcana, is itself expanded into sixty-four
activities, many of which, in turn, find their counterparts among the sixty-four angas
(limbs) of devotional service.
➢ The Lord is Present in His Deity Form

➢ Srila Rupa Gosvami specifically enjoins devotees to worship the Deity with "full faith:

"sraddha vicesatah pritih Sri-murter agghri-sevane "One should have full faith and
love in worshiping the lotus feet of the Deity.'" (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 22.130)
➢ This faith and love depend on a proper understanding of the Deity's identity:

pratima naha tumi, saksat vrajendra-nandana "My dear Lord, You are not a statue; You
are directly the son of Maharaja Nanda." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 5.96) 12
INTRODUCTIE: WAAROM DEITY WORSHIP?
➢ Out of His causeless mercy, the Lord appears in His arca-vigraha form so the
conditioned souls can see Him and worship Him. By worshiping the arca-vigraha, the
conditioned souls can engage all of their senses in devotional service. By
enthusiastically performing sadhana-bhakti and observing all the regulations of arcana,
devotees cultivate the understanding that Krsna is directly present in His Deity form.
➢ As Srila Prabhupada says in the Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.12.17:

"Worship of the arca-vigraha is not idol worship. The arca-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 arca-vigraha, a form made of sthula (material) objects such as
stone, metal, wood, jewels or paint. All of these are called sthula, 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. Thus the devotee gets the benefit of achieving the ultimate goal of13 life, that
is to say, becoming always absorbed in thought of the Lord."
 RITUAL & CULTURE
➢ Nitya seva & Naimittik seva
➢ CC Madhya 24.334

➢ Pancaratrika-vidhi and Bhagavat-vidhi

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 MOOD OF WORSHIP
➢ “The Lord in the temple in the worshipable form is never to be considered
to be made of stone or wood, for the Lord in His arca incarnation as the
Deity in the temple shows immense favor to the fallen souls by His
auspicious presence.” (SB 2.3.21, Purport)
➢ Maintaining Proper Consciousness

➢ Deity seva is a rewarding opportunity where we serve the Lord in a blissful

and intimate way. Knowing the procedures helps one avoid offenses and
make the most of the time.
➢ Pujaris should be freshly showered, with fresh cloth (not worn in stores,

while eating, using the bathroom, etc.).

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MOOD OF WORSHIP
➢ Bhuta-suddhi: Purifying the Bodily Elements by Identifying Oneself as the
Eternal Servant of the Servant of Lord Krsna
Recite the following prayers, meditating on their meaning:
"I am by nature the eternal servant of Krsna. But because of my bad fortune, I
have been inimical toward Him from time immemorial, and thus I have identified
myself with my body and continuously wandered in the cycle of birth and death
in the material world, suffering the burning threefold miseries. Now, as a result of
some unimaginable good fortune, my spiritual master's mercy has enabled me to
know that I am Krsna's eternal servant, an infinitesimal spiritual being completely
apart from the gross and subtle body. And so by the order of my spiritual master I
have obtained the good fortune of serving his lotus feet and, following in his
footsteps, the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri16 Radha-
Shyamasundara [or the names of the Deities one is worshiping]."
 MOOD OF WORSHIP
➢ Bhuta-suddhi:
naham vipro na ca nara-patir napi vaicyo na cudro
naham varni na ca grha-patir no vana-stho yatir va
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramananda-purnamrtabdher
gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah
"I am not a brahmana, I am not a ksatriya, I am not a vaicya or a cudra. Nor
am I a brahmacari, a householder, a vanaprastha, or a sannyasi. I identify
myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of
Lord Sri Krsna, the maintainer of the gopis. He is like an ocean of nectar,
and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing
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with brilliance" (Padyavali 74, quoted in C.C., Madhya 13.80).
 BREAK
➢ 10 min

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 WORSHIP AT HOME VS IN THE TEMPLE
➢ Several factors may vary in the arcana procedure and the standards of worship the
standards of one who worships a form of the Lord at home will be different from those
of a person who worships a temple Deity
➢ The Sriptures desribe daily worship by the householder, but this worship, though
generally similar to temple worship, is simpler in regard to the number of articles
offered, the quality of the articles, the number of services per day, the number of
assistants, and the allotment of time. The householder worships according to his
means, alone or assisted by his family members, with whatever articles he can
procure, in whatever time he can afford. Temple worship is more strict regarding time
and quality of articles, with a high standard of opulence to please the Lord and to
attract the minds of the public.
➢ Standards may also vary from temple to temple, depending on manpower and 19money.
WORSHIP AT HOME VS IN THE TEMPLE
➢ A general standard, however, is set as a guideline:
"From four in the morning until ten at night (from maggala-aratrika to cayana-aratrika)
there must be at least five or six brahmanas to take care of the Deity. Six aratrikas are
performed in the temple and food is frequently offered to the Deity and the prasada
distributed. This is the method of worshiping the Deity according to the rules and
regulations set by predecessors." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 4.87, Purport)
➢ Regarding the complexity of worship procedures, Srila Prabhupada several times

directed his disciples to keep the worship simple: The essential process of self-
realization and approaching the Supreme Personality of Godhead is to chant the holy
name of the Lord, not to become absorbed in elaborate rituals of Deity worship and
become distracted from the mission of spreading Krsna consciousness. However, on
occasion he also instructed devotees to take direction on Deity worship from certain
temples, especially the Radha-ramana temple in Vrndavana, where elaborate20worship
is performed.
 WORSHIP AT HOME VS IN THE TEMPLE
➢ When the time comes in our Society that more devotees take up Deity worship as a full-
time service for which they receive systematic training, some temples may find it
appropriate to establish more elaborate procedures of worship. It should be noted,
however, that increasing the complexity of worship procedures does not necessarily
increase the standard of worship; it can even be a decrease if not performed in the
proper devotional mood.
➢ Once standards of cleanliness, regularity, opulence and elaborateness of worship for a
given temple Deity have been set, they should never be whimsically changed or
decreased. For example, it would be a very serious offense to reduce the number of
daily bhoga offerings after a given standard is established. Therefore temple authorities
should very carefully set standards of worship, following the guidelines of this manual,
preferably before installing the Deity. These standards should be set in consultation
with devotees expert in the process of arcana. They should be kept in writing as21 well, so
that changes of temple management and pujaris will not affect them.
EVALUATIE
➢ Rollenspel/poster/referaat/………….
➢ 5 groepen vormen

➢ Voorbereiden per groep 10 min

➢ Pleanaire presentatie 3-5 min per groep

➢ Opdrachten:

1. Waarom vereren we murti’s?

2. De procedure van murti vereren in ISKCON
3. Onze gemoedstoestand mbt murti verering
4. Deity Worship at home
5. Deity Worship in the temple

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 VOORBEREIDING DAG 2
➢ Meenemen:
✓ Acamana cup (ieder 1)
✓ Alle benodigdheden om een altaar te zetten
✓ Deities en/of foto’s
✓ Arati tray en alle paraphernalia per groep
✓ Offering tray
✓ Fruit & Bloemen (om te offeren)

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WRAP UP

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