Deity Worship Is Not Idol Worship

By Author: Srila Prabhupada
Total Articles: 3
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The transcendental form of the Lord installed in a temple is not different from the Lord personally. Such a form of the Lord is called arca-vigraha, or arca incarnation, and is expanded by the Lord by His internal potency just to facilitate the devotional service of His innumerable devotees who are in the material world. The material senses cannot perceive the spiritual nature of the Lord, and therefore the Lord accepts the arca-vigraha, which is apparently made of material elements like earth, wood and stone but actually there is no material contamination. The Lord being kaivalya (one alone), there is no matter in Him. He is one without a second, and therefore the Almighty Lord can appear in any form without being contaminated by the material conception. [SB 1.11.24 Purport]

The authorized acaryas, who know the science perfectly, install such temples of the Lord under regulative principles just to offer facilities to the common man, but persons who are less intelligent, without being conversant with the science, mistake this great attempt to be idol worship and poke their nose into that to which they have no access. ...
... Therefore, the ladies or men who observe festivals in the temples of the Lord just to have a look at the transcendental form are a thousand times more glorious than those who are nonbelievers in the transcendental form of the Lord. [SB 1.11.24 Purport]

Mayavadis 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 arca incarnation. [SB 3.25.35 Purport]

The 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 sagua or nirgua - of the supreme possessing or not possessing attributes. Worship of the Deity in the temple is sagua worship, for the Lord is represented by material qualities. [BG 12.5 Purport]

In Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.27.12) eight types of deity forms are mentioned:

The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties - stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels.

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. [BG 12.5 Purport]

One who thinks the Deity in the temple to be made of wood or stone, who thinks of the spiritual master in the disciplic succession as an ordinary man, who thinks the Vai??ava in the Acyuta-gotra to belong to a certain caste or creed or who thinks of carma ta or Ganges water as ordinary water, or considers the holy name of the Supreme Lord, which are capable of destroying all sins, to be ordinary sound, or thinks of the Supreme Lord Vishnuu to be on the same level as demigods, is taken to be a resident of hell.

There are many sastric injunctions which give instructions for carving forms of the Lord. These forms are not material. If God is all-pervading, then He is also in the material elements. There is no doubt about it. But the atheists think otherwise. Although they preach that everything is God, when they go to the temple and see the form of the Lord, they deny that He is God. According to their own theory, everything is God. Then why is the Deity not God? Actually, they have no conception of God. The devotees' vision, however, is different; their vision is smeared with love of God. As soon as they see the Lord in His different forms, the devotees become saturated with love, for they do not find any difference between the Lord and His form in the temple, as do the atheists. [SB 3.25.35 Purport]

The transcendental form of the Lord installed in a temple is not different from the Lord personally. Such a form of the Lord is called arca-vigraha, or arcA.

Srila Prabhupada is the founder-acharya of ISKCON - the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON Bangalore, a Religious Organization is involved in spreading his teachings, with the objective of propagating Krishna Consciousness all over the world. His teachings are based on Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. The society was registered in the year 1978 under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. Donations are accepted in order to uphold this mission of Srila Prabhupada.