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On the altar you will find three sets of Deities of Krishna. For an audience (darshan)
please click the links below
Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva &
Subhadra
Sri Sri Nitai Gaura
Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohana
Why do we worship the
Deities?
below is an excerpt of an interview with Srila
Prabhupada, July 1975 in Philadelphia
Ms. Nixon: One of the most difficult aspects of
Krishna consciousness for an outsider to accept is the Deity in
the temple-how it represents Krishna Could you talk a little bit
about that?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. At the present moment, because you
have not been trained to see Krishna He kindly appears before you
so you can see Him. You can see wood and stone, but you cannot
see what is spiritual. Suppose your father is in the hospital,
and he dies. You are crying by his bedside, "Now my father
is gone!" But why do you say he is gone? What is that thing
which is gone?
Ms. Nixon:
Well, his spirit is gone.
Srila Prabhupada: And have you seen that spirit?
Ms. Nixon:
No.
Srila Prabhupada: So you cannot see spirit, and God is the
Supreme Spirit. Actually, He is everything--spirit and matter-but
you cannot see Him in His spiritual identity. Therefore, to show
kindness toward you, He appears out of His unbounded mercy in the
form of a wooden or stone Deity so that you can see Him.
Ms. Nixon:
Thank you very much.
Srila Prabhupada: Hare Krishna
An excerpt from Sri Isopanisad translated by H.D.G. A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:
The Lord's worshipable form (arca-vigraha), (which is installed in temples by authorized acaryas who have realized the Lord in terms of is purely spiritual nature), is nondifferent from the original form of the Lord. The Lord's original form is that, of Sri Krsna, and Sri Krsna expands Himself into an unlimited number of forms, such as Baladeva, Rama, Nrsimha and Varaha. All of these forms are one and the same Personality of Godhead. Similarly, the arca vigraha worshiped in temples is also an expanded form of the Lord. By worshiping the arca-vigraha, one can at once approach the Lord, who accepts the service of a devotee by His omnipotent energy. The arca-vigraha of the Lord descends at the request of the acaryas, the holy teachers, and works exactly in the original way of the Lord by virtue of the Lord's omnipotence. Foolish people who have no knowledge of Sri Isopanisad or of any of the other kuri-mantras consider the arca-vigraha, which is worshiped by pure devotees, to be made of material elements. This form may be seen as material by the imperfect eyes of foolish people or kanistha-adhikaris, but such people do not know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into matter, as He desires.