The basics of deity worship!
Our gross body is made of the five elements
earth,water,fire,air,ether.Our five senses are interacting with these
elements.Each of our senses correspond to one of the five
elements.Eyes-fire,nose-smell from earth,ears-hear sound through
ether,tongue-taste(water),touch-air.
The emotions of the soul are now through the mind.Mind is the chief of
all the senses&is also callled the sixth sense.Accepting&Rejecting are
the activities of mind. Since we are not in a position to Chant the
holy names constantly with pure heart all the time,deity worship
engages all our senses to keep our consciousness pure.During the
arati,
Nose-to smell the incense,garlands offered to the Lord,eyes-to see the
beautiful form and decoration of the Vigraha(arca
murti-avatara-incarnation of the Lord), ears to hear the auspicious
sound of bell, conch shell,sankirtan.(Srila Prabhupada recommended to
produce most of the sound of conch shell,bell,sankirtan in the old
buildings bought for ISKCON temples to drive away evil spirits
residing)
Limbs to dance for the pleasure of the Lord, camara to produce air for
the deities, sprinkling the sacred waters offered to the deities. The
ghee lamp offered to the deity represents our consciousness. When the
consciousness of fire burns high,the false ego of wick and our vasanas
of ghee are burnt out to ashes.
And the namaskaras before the Lord are of two types.
1.Sashtaanga(falling before the Lordships with the whole body touching
the ground)
2.Pancha-anga(falling with 5 parts of the body-2 elbows,2 joints of
legs,fore-head-for women)
Falling infront of the Lord signifies that we are dropping our false
ego with the idea that we are servants completely dependent on the
Lord-Master for everything.
Deity worship helps us to purify our consciousness and which in turn
helps to focus better on chanting the names of the Lord. Therefore
it's very important that we do everything with proper
knowledge.Otherwise it becomes ritualistic.And when it becomes
ritual,it's mere sentimental and it will not go for long.
We are not doing deity worship as a show but to reciprocate our Love
for the Lord. A woman when she really loves the husband will serve the
husband practically by cooking nice foodstuff and satisfying him.
Merely saying that she has so much Love for the husband will not help.
Many fools say that Love should be in the heart and that need not be
shown outside. Also some rascals invented something like "helping
hands are better than praying lips" To them, we have "Prayers can move
mountains". They cant save their own self with their hands what to
speak of other living entities?
There's no limit to the sky and foolishness of the people accepting
all these childish words.

--
Yours
Dinesh

Know what you do&why you do?