standard of comfort?

I have a question, and I feel somewhat uncomfortable asking it. I see the deities on the altar at the temple, and they are so beautiful, and so beautifully dressed, with beautiful jewelry and decorations. One outfit more exquisite than the next... I don't even know how to ask this...why is anything other than natural stones and natural fabrics used? When making or choosing clothing for our deities at home, are we to consider what would be the comfort of the fabric, in our estimation? For example, synthetic trims are scratchy and rough to the touch. Are deities disturbed by this aspect, or weighty, heavy garments?

Hybride's picture

A dress given to them from

A dress given to them from what you felt is most loving from yourself - that is, it could be as simple as one cloth wrapped around the image - is more loved and adored than something you spent your life savings and had custom manufactured to prove a point.

Don't think that dressing a deity more extravagantly gets you loved more by the deity. As long as YOU dress them, and love how YOU dress them, by giving all the love from your heart to them as you dress, then they will love it as well. They search for honesty and love, not how shimmering or expensive their clothes are. It's not an insult to them in being simply dressed.

Stop thinking of the deities as deities, and learn to love them as family - as brother, sister, friend, father/mother, whatever is most comfortable to you.

NityānandaChandra's picture

Hare Krishna, actually the

Hare Krishna, actually the process of deity worship is start with mood and worship of Lakshmi Narayana. Which means that we dress and worship them with great reverence like serving a king. When a devotion become more mature then our relationship can be more informal.

Srila Prabhupada writes Madhusudana in January 24th 1969 Los Angeles

Regarding your question about why we dress the Deities in very opulent fashion and not as simple cowherds boy and girl, this is an intelligent question and the answer is that according to the regulative principles we cannot worship Radha-Krishna now. Radha-Krishna worship is meant for persons who have already developed spontaneous love of God. In the training period we are only worshiping Laksmi-Narayana. We worship Radha-Krishna because Laksmi-Narayana is there also, but actually we do not worship Radha-Krishna with our present Deity ceremonies; we are worshiping Laksmi-Narayana. Narayana is there when Krishna is there, but actually we do not worship Radha-Krishna in Their Original Form. This is why we should worship Radha-Krishna in Their Laksmi-Narayana feature with all respect and reverence. If we deviate from this standard then we shall be prakrta sahajiya, or a person who takes things very cheap. We worship Laksmi-Narayana, and because Radha-Krishna includes Laksmi-Narayana, there is no necessity of installing a Laksmi-Narayana Deity. It is just like a king who is engaged in administering justice. Actually that business belongs to the justice department. But what is that justice department? It is all part of the kings energy, and the king also has the power to execute this function.

syamsang's picture

I'm too concerned.......

Radhe Radhe !
I'm too concerned of such feeling,we should always b cautious of it.Deities dresses should b prepared with enormous "Shraddha".Proper & Deep thought should be given for selecting the fabric viz:pure materials like cotton,silks,satins,chiffons considering the weather of the area.Work on the dresses should be mild enough & light weight.It should be hand stiched with "Seva-Bhav".While making Robes & woollens,we should be genourous enough;woollens always tend to be heavy,we should select lightweight woollens with least blend of other synthetic materials.
All in all, we should consider deities " more than ourselves"
Please don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong anywhere.I'll be highly obliged !