Throughout history, certain saints have taught to worship Krishna by worshiping a deity of Krishna, washing, bathing that deity, dressing and decorating, and offering food and putting Them to bed and waking Him up. But Shree Maharaj Ji says
“He recommends doing all of this in your mind.”
You want to do murti puja (murti means the deity of Krishna and puja means worshipping Him and serving Him in this way). You want to do that form of worship, do it, but not with a physical stone or metal deity. Close your eyes and imagine Krishna’s in front of you, and not just a static deity - real Krishna.
That’s also a form of a murti. In Bhagwatam, there’s a description of nine different kinds of murtis, depending on what it’s made out of, certain kinds of metal, stone, etc., but one of those nine is called ‘mano-mayi murti’. It means the murti you make out of your own imagination. That is also a form of Krishna’s deity.
So you imagine Krishna in your mind, and then you bathe Him, decorate Him, serve Him food, do all of that. Shree Maharaj Ji says there are several advantages to this over doing the actual physical puja to the deity. Although doing the physical puja to the deity is fine, there’s nothing wrong with it, but there are some drawbacks compared to just doing it in your mind.
Number one, the amount of variation that you can have when you’re doing it mentally is unlimited. Compared to how much variation can you have when you’re dressing Krishna, an actual physical murti of Krishna? Well, even if you’re a millionaire, there’s still a limitation to how many different malas, how many different pitambars, how many different dhotis you’re going to have in stock. Then there’s the question of going out and getting those things.
So this induces a kind of, on one hand, possibly a boredom in the mind, which wouldn’t be there if you were doing the whole thing mentally. You can imagine all the different variations you want.
And number two, a stress that, “Oh, I wanted to dress Krishna with this! I wanted to offer that, but I ran out, or I couldn’t afford that thing! I wanted to offer Him the best thing, but I couldn’t afford it.”
So do it in your mind and offer Him something better than even Indra would have in swarg (heaven). So there’s no such problems or stress or restrictions when you’re doing it in your mind.
