Worship

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami  Maharaj

All Glories  to HDG Srila BhaktiSiddhanta  Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada

The fifth limb of devotion is worship. The worship of the deity involves the following of the systematic  set of rules and regulations in the proper manner  with the use of mantra. The worshipper should definitely take the shelter of the guru and Vaishnavas and be prepared to be initiated by genuine guru  before he commences in  such worship. Though there is apparent secondary importance attributed to worship of the Lord  in comparison with hearing and chanting as part of the nine limbs of devotion, still those implicitly follow the sage Narada  on the process of initiation with worship as the  sublime way for establishing the link between the living being and God . In that context, the worship of God helps to  the reinforce this actual  bond. This worship of the deity helps to refine and reinforce  our desired inclination to serve the Lord. One who is cultivating devotional service, worship is generally of importance and together with that the process of  taking initiation. It is not that hearing and chanting with remembrance  necessitates unavoidably the process  of initiation . Initiation is even independent of the method of purascharya or purification of the received mantra by different set of works. However in order to chant and hear properly in a pure manner ,one has to have an increased sense of dedicated service .In that respect, worship of the deity and the related initiation process is of utmost importance .A pure devotee with unflinching devotion is able to get perfection just by cultivating a single limb of devotional service. Just as Parikshit by remembering Vishnu attained the lotus feet of the Lord. Sukadeva by the process of chanting attained the Lord. Similarly ,Prahlada by remembrance, Lakshmi by serving the lotus feet of the Lord. King Prthu attained perfection by worship .Akura by eulogizing the Lord, Hanuman  attained perfection by his service attitude ,Arjuna by his relation to Lord Krishna as a friend while Bali attained perfection by his complete surrender to  the Lotus feet of the Lord. The fact that all this great souls attained perfection is the testimony of their actual great devotion to the Supreme Lord. Nevertheless in devotional service in practice ,worship of the Supreme Lord definitely has to be undertaken. For an opulent householder, the path of worship is of paramount importance. In not heeding this limb of devotion but instead pretending  extreme renunciation and  cultivating remembrance  in the topmost rung of devotion will simply  mean that the pretentious householder is selfish in not wanting to spend his money for Lords' service. Then there is the situation when the owner pays a professional priest to conduct the worship of his established  deities and here is the perfect example of an individual who has no steadiness or faith on the meritorious divine worship of the Lord. Hence such actions are to be discarded due to their lack of proper faith .Sometimes people say that worship of the demigods with conducting sacrifices is beneficial but the the truth is that it is an untimely return back to original lowly position .This is like the growing of main creeper  with other branch creepers which keeps  stunting the original. It adds up when watering a plant if the plant is growing nicely, then it is not required to water the leaf, flower or branch  in an independent way. In the same way by the worship of Vishnu further  effort by independent sacrifices to the demigods ,forefathers and lower entities are not necessary. Therefore ,it is in order to free  oneself from the five types of debts that one incurs on birth that worship of the Supreme Lord is only stressed in this regard otherwise there will be great fault if such worship is not conducted. It is heard that if a person who after being initiated does not perform worship of the Lord may be liable to go to the hellish planets. Still to those who are in incapable or in difficulty of some sort, then there is some arrangement as given in the Agni Purana:

pujitam pujyamanam va ya pasyed bhakti to harim

sraddhaya somayed yastu sopi yogaphalam labhet

Srila JivaGoswami writes in this connection:  yogaatra pancharatyaduktah kriyayogah   about archana  or worship. One who witnesses the worship of the Lord with the greatest faith and devotion is said to have accumulated the fruits of performing such a worship himself. The mantra is used to represent the nominative name of the Lord and the mantra is usually adorned with the word namah. This mantra  though coined by the rsis does give a representation of the Lord .Otherwise these mantras when chanted other  are able to give the highest devotion to the Supreme Lord besides the holy name. Then the question arises that if these mantras are of equal effect as the holy name ,where is the question of not undergoing initiation by these mantras.? Even if it is not actual necessary yet because of the living being's   attachment to the body from time immemorial  and due to the restless nature of the mind, in many places by the fear of such bondage , it is recommended for the aspirant to  perform worship of the Supreme Lord. Failure to do so would mean one has to perform atonement.  The worship is  two fold ,absolute and mixed worship with  action. The former type is restricted to faithful devotees who are completely unalloyed in their mood while that mixed with action relates to whatever devotional ceremony with regulations one is performing at least as the birth of Lord Krishna, Kartika Vrata ,and Ekadashi vow. In worship of the Lord ,one has to give up the thirty two types of offenses. This will all be described in more detail later on. There are many ways to give up all such offences. The main method being to perform the unflinching worship of Krishna and of the pure devotees like Tulasi with great faith .

In worship of the Supreme Lord worship solely through the mind has been described in many places .As in Padma Purana sadharanam hi sarvesam manas ijye nrnam priya.  sanyasinam mumukshinam manaso upharti param while the Gautama Tantriya explains that of the eight types of deities ,mind is also one that is  accepted . The eight types are  of stone ,wood ,sand iron ,one made with the eight metals ,picture , jewel and lastly  that conjured by the mind. If this mental worship is conducted with great faith, then it can give remarkable results. In this type of mental worship ,there is the proper mood of service to please the deity by one's devotional attitude. Although all the ingredients are by conjured by the  mind ,still there is necessity of great fixation and concentration  when carrying out  such worship. In this context ,there is a actual incident mentioned in the Brahma Vavaita Purana describing the glories of such concentration of mind worship by a stalwart devotee. In the southern regions in  the place named Pratisthanpura , lived a brahmin .Although he was being born in poverty, attributing all that to his previous works remain unconcerned and  steady with a jovial mood. In spite of his incredible  poverty, he was not at all affected, being of a simple nature  was able to maintain his peaceful stance. Once he  happened to hear about the Vaishnava religion in an assembly of  elevated brahmanas. Understanding that the ultimate goal can be attained simply by mind worship, he managed to get an opportunity to elevate  himself in this manner  in spite of his being burdened by poverty. He fathomed in this way that if devotion can be attained by simply mental worship, then what is my worry as my being very poor is not a hinderance at all in this venture. In this way, he began to perform mental worship. Accordingly after bathing in the  holy Godaveri River with a peaceful mood and concentrated mind established the deity in his mind  and after donning the proper  attire began to  meditate as to collect all the holy waters from various places  of pilgrimage in silver and golden pots. Then with gathering  too  all the best necessary ingredients of worship, he commenced to begin the bathing of the deities up to the final grand offering of lights at the end using all these best ingredients feeling extreme happiness  by that endeavor. In this way , he performed  worship in this way for many years .One time, after making some sweet rice mixed with ghee ,he was about to pour this into  a cup to offer the Lord and at that time accidentally two of his fingers became immersed in the pot of hot sweet rice and to his chagrin, he felt acute pain as his fingers became scalded. Immediately his concentration was shattered and to his surprise , noticed outwardly the two fingers had  actually become  scalded. This was the result of his mental worship done with an fixed concentration. Being aware of this incident ,the  omnipresent ,Lord of Vaikuntha started smiling in his realm in Vaikuntha. Laksmi Devi at that time questioned the Lord about the reason for his laughing countenance .Later ,the Lord arranged for a heavenly shuttle to bring this brahmin to Vaikuntah to being in His close association .All the denizens of Vaikuntah began to glorify the fortunate Brahmana in profuse eulogies. O readers! if any of you are burdened by extreme poverty, do not be indifferent or forgetful of this method of worshipping the Lord by the mind. The process is to place the aspired form of the Lord in your heart and worship with all the best ingredients one can think of and this will make one  fortunate enough to receive the mercy of the Lord. In whatever situation one is in, still he should always be engaged in the service of the Lord. He will not have any lack of materials or the problem of  uncleanliness of surroundings, lack of a temple or  lack of  varieties of foodstuffs to be offered to the Lord by this worship   .On  having obtained the favorable mind and body to cultivate devotional service to the Lord  and with the concentrated mind free from impediments, he will able to increase is devotion to the Supreme Lord By which all his  present sufferings    will come to naught.  Nevertheless it is important to take association of the saintly in shelter of the pure spiritual master and the Vaishnavas  and in that favorable climate he will be able to enhance his devotion while without this situation will simply turn out to be  be chaotic .