Message was deleted in previous post. Answer from Sri R. Maharaj here.

[Guest guest]

Below is his reply. sorry for the error in previous post.

 

Dear Sumeet Prabhu

Hare Krsna. Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to

Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thank you very much for your important question, Prabhu. His Holiness

Romapada Swami has taken the time from his very busy schedule of

services to respond in detail to your question. Thank you for asking

this question for all of our benefit. If you have follow-up or

additional questions, please do send them to His Holiness Romapada

Swami at iskcon_dc

 

Your aspiring servant

Vikas

 

Q: Kindly inform me on what basis we identify Krishna/Bhagavan

Vigraha, which is sat chit ananda, with deity/archa which is made up

of matter. I want to know the Gaudiya logic and appropriate

scriptural backing.

 

Answer: The Personality of Godhead is the source of all energies,

both material and spiritual. Because He is full of inconceivable

potencies, God can convert His different potencies according to His

own will, much as an expert electrician can employ the same electric

energy for both heating as well as cooling purposes. For the Lord

there is no difference between material and spiritual energies; that

He can transform His energies as He wills is Srila Vyasadeva's

sublime teaching of shakti-parinamavada. He is the controller of both

energies, and He cannot come under their influence at any time, as we

do. A fundamental and axiomatic principle in spiritual science is

that unless one accepts this inconceivable nature of God's potencies,

there is no way of understanding Him. The conclusion is that Krishna,

being omnipotent, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into

matter as He desires, and He can accept our service through any sort

of medium.

The Supreme Lord is called 'adhoksaja', which means One Who is beyond

the reach of our mundane, imperfect senses. It is also stated that we

can approach the Lord only by engaging our senses in His service. How

are we to serve and learn to appreciate Him who cannot be perceived?

Therefore, out of causeless compassion for the conditioned souls,

Krishna appears in a so-called material form, just to become visible

to and accept His devotees' service.

Just as the Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts various

incarnations, similarly He takes on forms made out of clay, wood,

metal and jewels, which according to shastra is known as archa-

vigraha. By doing so this does not mean that His sac-cid-ananda form

has been touched by material influence. The archa-vigraha is not

fashioned from an artist's whimsical imagination but is the eternal

form of the Lord, confirming in exacting detail to scriptural

injunctions. The Lord Himself personally descends in the archa-murti

at the request of the acharyas, and invests all His spiritual

potencies within the Deity. Thus the devotees get an opportunity to

easily approach Him and serve Him even with their present material

senses, thereby purifying and spiritualizing their senses.

As Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, He is not visible to all (BG

7.25), but reciprocates according to a devotee's degree of surrender

to Him (BG 4.11). Thus, to the degree of one's faith and devotion,

one is able to perceive the presence of the Supreme Lord in His Deity

form. There are many historical instances wherein the Deities have

personal exchanges with the worshiper, talk to them and accept their

offerings. But for one who considers Him to be merely stone or wood,

He continues to remains so.

Therefore scriptures warn us to carefully avoid such mundane

perception of the archa-vigraha. (Isopanishad Mantras 5,8 purports,

Padma purana, quoted in Cc Madhya 5.95-97, etc)