Clarification about the Deity Form of the Lord

Greetings from Goa,

Sunset on the west coast of India

Wow, is it good to be able to take deeeeeeeeep breaths again...
aaaaaaaahhh I never realized how much I took that for granted before living in Mumbai for a week! The smog and Co2 is insane and everyone seems to have a persistent cough - myself included! I don't want to complain, I just know how much more grateful I am for everything - including a roof over my head - I went to dinner at a friend's house last night in Juhu and took a cab back around 10:30 -11pm & it was an hour away - from 'part' of Mumbai to the other and oh my, that's how big this city is! (It's making me reconsider wanting to visit Mexico City with my cousin to see Teotihuacan - Being it's the fifth largest city on Earth) but my point is this......as I was driving home I saw many, many people & dogs & some cows sleeping on the sidewalks of the road and coming from the west and from city living, where I see homelessness, the poverty in this city was striking and widespread and in a country which was once such a place of grandeur and where everything and anything was produced and manufactured  from textiles to ceramics, to metal work and gem cutting to the hilt, where everyone lived like a prince, that now it's been reduced to this? The age of Kali-yuga is surely advancing and one day all of the predictions of the Puranas and the Srimad-Bhagavatm will come to pass. It really hit home..... 


 Eeeeerggggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!! 
STOP 
so here is a little update for mi Familia - those that don't know too much about Krishna Consciousness and who may need clarification  as to what the heck this "deity worship" is all about - cause I just rewatched that last video I posted from Tirupati and it does look a little bit cultish =D But only because of my poor editing job - I realize now that the music is a little too off cue to the actual footage and the swaying in love of the devotees and hands raising up in praise might look more than a little strange to some of you out there - So for all my friends out there reading this who are KC - just skip over the rest of this post cause you know all this!


So, my beloved family: as you can probably see by now as I have expressed in this blog and have been committed to for the past few years of my life  -  Krishna and His eternal pleasure potency Radharani are my life and soul and deepening my understanding of Them and my relationship with Them is my main objective this lifetime. God is both the divine feminine and masculine (there can't be one without the other) and they are known as Sri Radha and Sri Krishna, aka Govinda (The Protector of the Cows), Gopal (the Sustainer of the cows), Shyam (He who is blackish blue, like a monsoon cloud) et. al., ad infinium because God has trillions of names and is often named by His various traits or pastimes that He creates for His enjoyment and this is what I love most about the Vedic scriptures - they are ancient.  They are thousands upon thousands of years old, even I'd dare say - millions upon millions *gasp*! And the texts which have been written - only in the past few thousand years - are in Sanskrit - the oldest known language on the planet. Before this they were passed down aurally & orally and our memories were so good back then we were able to repeat these shastras word for word immediately after hearing them - say what?!@!
Also, most of the verses are perfectly metered hymns with all the same timings so that they are usually sung! That is what Bhagavad- Gita means the "Song of God. Impressive, yes? So, lots of authority and unlike other holy texts on this planet they have not been in any way edited or revised - people knew the consequences of that action.


The Bhagavad-Gita or Song of God was spoken on a battlefield 5000 years ago when Krishna descended (the only real Avatar) to this planet to restore dharma (righteousness) and kill the demons run amuck. He sang these words to His dear friend and greatest devotee Arjuna and the fact that they are still relevant today, is what blew me away and that they answered so many of life's questions that I had that year, 2007, when I read it & today! So, in this Vedic tradition, the highest form of love of God, is to know God as a person and to know about a few of His many pastimes not as some bright light or void or energetic force! Which, trust me, in my 34 years on this planet, I have believed all 3 and none of them have left me feeling the ecstatic bliss and joy I have felt by singing and dancing in front of the authorized form of the Lord with His devotees. This deity, which is non-different from God, is meant to allow us to engage all of our senses in the love and devotion (Bhakti Yoga) we are meant to express, to and for our Creator, who is the Creator of all. We can dance and sing and hear and see (everyday they are bathed and dressed in different clothes) and offer all the food we cook for the pleasure of the Lord and then take the remnants and be sanctified and all together purified for as we sing the holy names of God - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare - the scriptures say they are like a cloth that removes the dust of ignorance and false ego from our hearts! This is why the form of the Lord is there in the temples, to engage us in the worship of Jagannath (The Lord of the Universe). He also resides in everyones heart as Param-atma and in every species of life both moving and non-moving (even in every atom) but in this age of Kali Yuga (the iron age of quarrel, hypocrisy and warfare) the practice of meditation on the Paramatma is very difficult, so it is so nice to have temples all over the world to go to and worship God in this way. All this is thanks to Krishna empowering A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who at the ripe age of 69 came to America, on a cargo ship from India, at the request of his spiritual master, to spread this message of Krishna to the west. So, this is in no way a polytheistic or idol worshipping religion, or one that worships Swami Prabhupada as God, this is an ancient Vedic ceremony where air (incense), fire, water and earth (flowers) are offered to the Lord and then offered to everyone else to help us remember that God is the Source, of all these things and we are His servants - not the other way around! 
Thanks for reading ya'll...now you know a little more about me and  these videos cause the next one I upload is truly spectacular...... 
love you mucho mas!

A Banyon Tree