Realizations in Gaur-Nitai Worship -

A while back, I received a set of Gaur-Nitai neem Deities, reportedly carved by the head pujari at Sri Nityananda's house in Ekachakra.

Now, its important to note that I am not initiated, and do not worship these Deities. They are stored in a very nice place, waiting until I take initiation.

However, this has not stopped me from thinking about Their worship. I've had the 'realization'/desire to worship Them dressed very simply, actually dressed only in white dhotis, even shirtless. This seems to fly counter to most of the Gaur-Nitai worship I see in temples.

While I would think this would ultimately be a topic between a disciple and guru, I'm curious if others could comment on their realizations in serving Gaur-Nitai Deities.

When you visit mandirs in both Vraja and Nabadwip Dham you will often see the Thakurs dressed in exactly that manner, in simple and lovingly placed dress. Only at special festivals they might be dressed in a more decorative manner. To my eyes the simplicity often enhances the beauty of the Lord, while the over-ornamented style tends to distract. I feel it is encouraging that you came to your conclusion on your own, meditating on your future kind of worship. Do as it comes to you in your heart, do not follow external considerations only. I'd also like to encourage you to consider talking to your Thakur, to see him as a beloved friend or one in need of your protection. Accordingly you will also dress him as it pleases you, because your Thakur does as you tell him, and as you do is told by him to you by way of his inspiration. Be courageous and cross over formality for the sake of intimacy. That then is also expressed in the types of dress. If you live in a less warm climate with a white winter, also consider dressing him in appropriate clothing as you wear yourself. My Thakur has pants as well, in case he wants to leave at night to party out, (a dhoti would not serve that purpose). Dancing in a Dhoti is rather troublesome. Coming winter I have to consider getting him a pair of skis and the necessary outift, but I may not allow him to do that as he might break a leg if not well prepaired for the Sport.

An example of that simplicity you see in the first pic of this thread.

This is Sri Dhamesvara Gauranga at the major temple of Sri Nabadwip Dham.

http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.ph...topic=1797&st=0

This is Sri Nitai of Nitai-Mandir at Nabadwip Dham

Not only that they are distracting, sometimes when you see the load of ornaments balanced on top of the heads of the Thakurs, you have to wonder how inconvenient it is for them. Sometimes it looks as if the only reason they are still standing still is to keep all the decorations balanced on their heads. I wouldn't want that for myself, and I wouldn't load anyone else with an extensive load of ornaments. Of course if Nitai wants to be silly, then that's another issue, but generally I don't think of it as a very good idea.

I also like to dress our Nitai and Gaura simply, although not completely white, because I like colours so much. On mondays and on full moon days they are dressed in white. On festival days they usually have something more fancy. But they don't have any crowns or turbans in their head, they seem too heavy.



We have hats, wintercoats and woolen socks for everyone.

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That's very sweet! I have also thought sometimes to get skis for Nitai and Gaura.

I have never thought that all the outfits must be Indian style. I like to design something new sometimes, something different. At the moment I am designing some clothes with a style that has influence from traditional Chinese clothing.

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I guess you would get them the Nordic type skis (Langlauf). Less dangerous, more for practical use. We are living on a mountain, here down-hill skiing is in demand.

I went for a quick visit to the Iskcon temple yesterday. And though I have always admired the way the Iskcon temples manage to dress their deities and decorate them so nicely, I truly did yearn to see Gaura Nitai dressed in simple white dress and not in hot-pink silks with gold embroidery.

I would also love to see Gaur Nitai dressed in white or saffron dhotis only. I think I'm going to suggest that to our ISKCON temple. I'm not sure whether they will agree.

This is a good realisation, Dharmachakraji!

Saffron?

I can only picture Mahaprabhu in gairik (geruya) dhoti, pIta-vasana.

Wow.. thanks to everyone for the great replies. I've relished each one.

I've wondered & been meaning to ask if anybody worships Sri Gauranga in sanyassi dress. Anyone know of any temples that do such?

I shocked everyone with my response, it seems. I don't think any of the temples would do that.

Somehow, in my vision I see Him only in sannyasi clothes and that is His colour and His mood.

In Nitya-lila, we worship Gaura as a kishor. Therefore the archan we engage in is focused on that particular form.

It is interesting though that Cc focuses on Mahaprabhu's other pastimes so much, especially considering that Das Goswami was apparently narrating those pastimes to Krsnadas Kaviraj. KK notes that the earlier pastimes are recorded elsewhere but I still find it intriguing.

Any idea when the practice of kishor-lila smaranam first arose? From my admittedly limited and hazy recollection, it seems that the prayers composed by the Goswamis in praise of Mahaprabhu generally center on the nature of his appearance, his chanting and dancing, merciful nature, etc., rather than any specifics of kishor-lila (such as you find in their corresponding prayers regarding Radha Krsna lila).

I'm glad that this subject has come up. This is very interesting. I never heard of this explanation before. Please give some quotations or payars so that I can remember Him on this very particular form, Shri Gaura-kishor.

No wonder I've become such an unmAdinI since I visualize Him only in that stage after He took sannyasa! Why am I drawn so much by this form since my childhood?

The reason for the focus is that the text deals with Gaura's prakaTa-lIlA, in which the events do not exactly coincide with the aprakaTa-lIlA. In the prakaTa-lIlA, Gaura travels to Gaya to perform the zrAddha-ceremony of his later father, and only after meeting Ishvara Puri there does his bhakta-bhAva truly manifest. However, in the aprakaTa-lIlA Jagannath Mishra is there, as are both of Gaura's darling wives, and Gaura-raya is tasting the mellows of Vraja day and night, throughout the eight periods of the day.

Since we are mainly concerned with Gaura's features in relation to the quintessence of his existential reasons, Kaviraja Goswami has provided us with the narrations most relevant during his prakaTa-lIlA, namely the final pastimes in Nilacala, giving less attention to the early years in Navadvipa, particularly since they had already been discussed by Vrindavan Das in his work.



True enough, they weren't all that elaborate on this. In fact, they were not elaborate at all, whether in relation to Chaitanya's pastimes or his ontological position.

There is a fairly evident reason for why the Chaitanyastakams of Rupa and Raghunatha Das, as well as Das Goswami's Stava-kalpataru, focus on Gaura as a sannyAsin, as their paths only crossed with his after he had already renounced the world.

The subject of gaura-kizora-lIlA-smaraNa as an aspect of aSTakAliya-smaraNa first came up in the paddhatis of Gopala Guru and Dhyanacandra of Orissa, albeit in a rather concise form. There was a preceding [semblance of a] tradition of gaura-candrika-kIrtana, in which the sports of Radha-Shyama were introduced through parallel narrations of Gaurachandra; however, I am not all that familiar with this.

This method of dual smaraNa was later popularized by Siddha Krishnadas Babaji of Govardhan, presented in his famous Gutika. The manuals of Gopala Guru and Dhyanacandra seem to have been a considerable influence on Siddha Baba and other contemporaries, such as Siddha Jayakrishna Das Baba of Kamyavana. The history preceding these two is somewhat hazy, as unfortunately is much of the history of our tradition.

There is a popular story narrating how Radha appeared to Siddha Krishnadas, ordering him to compile a manual on the basis of which the sAdhaka-samAja could easily approach the nigUDha-lIlA of Vraja.

You may read an outline of the intertwined eight-fold daily pastimes here. You may also find this topic to be of interest.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention to smaraNa-maGgala-stotram of Sri Visvanatha. Though some (who dispute the matter of kizora-lIlA-smaraNa) question its authenticity, Haridas Dasji doesn't hesitate calling it a work of Visvanatha's in Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan.

Thanks for retrieving these threads for me, Madhava! These are going to be very helpful.