.The deities are simply for help. It is not the deity that needs to be worshipped; it is the Lord that needs to be worshipped. It is our supreme Divine Beloved Godhead Personality who needs to be worshipped.
The photos and the deities are there to help us focus our minds to do roopdhyan (meditation on Divine form). But if we simply chant, parroting the words, looking at the picture or the photo of the deity or the idol, without bringing any conscious feeling into it, any life into it, God, who is eternally conscious, and not only that, who is vibhuchit (all-pervading consciousness), universal, infinite universal consciousness - He is the one supreme chetan shakti (conscious Divine power) who gives shakti (power) to all the shaktis (energies) and powers, to everything, then with our material minds, we have again failed to have faith that,
“Yes, it is 100% possible for the supreme almighty God to present Himself in His deities or in Her deity.”
We fail to have this faith, and that’s why, no matter how many millions of words are spoken by Gopeshwari Devi here, or by Guru, by the supreme Acharya (spiritual authority) of this age and time, our Maharaj Ji, Jagadguruttam, whether it is his updesh (spiritual instruction) or it is Bhagwan, God Himself, stating in the scriptures, in the Bhagavad Gita (‘Song of God’) and the Vedas, it will make no sense to us. We won’t hear anything, and we won’t listen to anything, because we don’t have the faith that God and God’s name, His forms, His attributes, His pastimes, His abodes are all one and the same, and this deity is simply for me to help meditate and do roopdhyan on the form of God.
So, He surely is 101% present. He is not going to present Himself; He is present in the idol, in the deity, in the photo that is worshipped by devotees. He is already present, but you and I can’t feel it, we can’t see it, we can’t experience it due to the lack of our faith. Forget about faith; faith is a very ardent thing. It never gets twisted, turned, or broken. Even if God comes to take the test, it will not be broken - our faith in Him - because it is so ardent.
However, begin with believing: We don’t even believe in the words of wisdom. So we are here in this retreat doing sādhana (spiritual practice). This is the correction we need to bring within ourselves. The wrongs that we are dwelling with may not be known to us. We may be so unaware of this fact that we are completely blank when it comes to roopdhyan or even communication.
When we are communicating, talking to God, yearning for Him by singing His glories or names, trying to reach out to Him or to Her, our Divine Beloved Shree Kishori Radharani, and waiting to get the response from our Beloved, we may not realize that we lack this kind of devotional practice, actual sādhana.
