Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

Often I hear different devotees to say that the Deities are smiling or are veryserious, or for example that Lord Nityananda did not allowed to be dressed in acertain way. However, I personally have never seen such things. My question iswhat is this level of advancement or realization on which one can actuallyperceive this?Answer by Suhotra SwamiJanuary 12, 1995The Deity reveals His feelings to the devotees. That is a fact. And He mayeven reveal Himself differently to different devotees at the same time. WhenSanatana Gosvami expressed his doubt to a Vrndavana brahmana about his allowinghis children to play with the Madana-Mohan Deity in the sand, that night LordMadana-Mohan appeared to Sanatana saying, "He is my intimate devotee who lovesme as a father, so you should not have said this to him. Go tomorrow andapologize." At the same time, He appeared to the brahmana and said, "Let me gowith Sanatana tomorrow so that I can be worshiped according to the rules andregulations."If you are not receiving intimations from the Deity, that's all right. He isbeing grave with you, so that you will try harder to serve Him seriously withoutoffense.There is another side of the answer to this question. And that is, neophytedevotees should be cautious about advertising their "speciál perceptions" of theDeity in a sentimental or prideful way ("Oh, Krsna smiled at me!" "Krsna showedme that He does not like your service, Prabhu!").Krsna can and does reveal insight of Himself even to persons who have hardlytaken the first step in spiritual life. Even if the insight is a "conjuration"of the mind (instead of a vision of spiritual eyes), still we know that theDeity can appear through the mind-energy, just as He appears through wood, stoneor brass. So even if the devotee only "thinks" he saw the Deity smile, it neednot be rejected as insubstantial. Still, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati warnedabout the worship of a perverted, imaginary Visnu by cheap pseudo-devotees.Is there a way to distinguish between a real insight and a false one?The simple answer is that the insight should be verified by the spiritualmaster.Once at a preaching program in India, a man told Srila Prabhupada about a visionhe had of Krsna. Prabhupada said, "So, if you have seen Him, serve Him."Here, Srila Prabhupada did not question the veracity of the vision, though hedid not confirm it, either. He just that "if" the man had seen Krsna, he wouldserve Him. In other words, if the man took up servány Krsna, that would beconfirmation enough that he had seen Him. Whether he had seen Him by directspiritual revelation or in a mental way need not be debated IF the man's lifechanged from sense gratification to devotional service.I recall when I was still a rather new devotee, two boys visited the temple onemorning as they were coming down from LSD intoxication. Both were in a state ofcomplete awe. They told us they had both seen Krsna simultaneously in their LSDhallucination. I remember that we (myself and the other devotees preaching tothese two) did not challenge the vision. We wanted to see what these boys woulddo. It turned out that one of them joined ISKCON and accepted initiation fromSrila Prabhupada. "If you have seen Him, serve Him."