An Easy Way to See God

Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy

I was born and raised Jewish. Throughout my childhood I heard again and again that a Jew never bows to a statue or worships one.  Never. Nor does a Jew bow to any man.

I opened the Bible and read about the Hebrew prophet Daniel in Babylon. Instead of worshiping the king, he worshiped God, so the king’s soldiers threw him into a lions’ den.

Certain death. But God sent an angel to protect him, and he emerged unscathed.

Daniel’s friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—refused to bow to a golden statue, so the king’s soldiers threw them into a fiery furnace.

No one could survive. The heat was so great it even killed the soldiers. But when the king looked in, he saw not just three men but four. And the king understood: An angel had come to protect the friends. He ordered them released, and they came out unharmed.

And every Jewish child hears a certain legend about Abraham, the father of the Jews and Muslims, though you won’t find this in the Bible.

Abraham’s father, so it goes, made and sold idols for a living. But young Abraham knew better. He went to his father’s shop one day and smashed all the idols to pieces.

“What have you done!” shouted his father.

“But Father,” said Abraham, “if these idols are gods, why couldn’t they stop me?”

Anyway, I had nothing to worry about. Who would ever ask me to bow before a man or a statue? Only Catholics did that.

In 1966, at the age of twenty-nine, I took up Krishna Consciousness under the guidance of my future spiritual master Srila Prabhupada.

Life had changed me. I no longer cared  about the prophets or the Bible. But after some weeks, the other followers started bowing whenever Prabhupada came into the room.

But not me. Nothing to do with Judaism though. More like New-Yorkism. Orientals bowed. New Yorkers didn’t… except Catholics. And even Catholics didn’t really bow, you know. They just got down one one knee for a second.

My reluctance changed on the night of my initiation. As I kneeled before Prabhupada, he motioned for me to bow. And I had to. So I touched my forehead to the floor.

Worse yet,  I found out that devotees of Krishna bowed before statues. Now that indeed brought back visions of fiery furnaces and lions’ dens.

Prabhupada refused to call them statues, though. He called them deities. A statue, he said, had no life, just a dead piece of stone.

By calling them  deities, Prabhupada stretched the dictionary meaning a bit, but no one ever brought that up because English doesn’t have the right word.

Statue? Deity? Why the difference?

Because the deity lives and feels.

The Catholics may call them statues, but their church has many stories of  the “statues”  of Mary shedding tears and Jesus bleeding from where the soldiers wounded him on the cross. And I have seen photos.

The Hare Krishna tradition also has its stories. The deity named Saksi Gopal walked across India when a young brahmana asked him to.

“But how do you expect me to walk?” asked the deity on the altar. “I am a statue.”

“If you can talk, you can walk,” said the brahmana. “And I know you are not a statue. You are directly [Krishna] the son of King Nanda.”

So the deity agreed and walked across India with the brahmana. His mere presence would  bear witness to an agreement. And  everyone knew that the deity—too heavy to carry— had walked.

And if you ever go to Orissa in India’s east, you can visit this deity. His name is Saksi Gopal (‘Krishna the Witness’).

Photos also offer proof.  On occasion, devotees have shown me photos taken a year apart of one deity or another. And the photos always showed the same thing: the deity had grown more robust, the skin tone had deepened, the expression had changed.

But something that looks like a statue and feels cold to the touch like a statue, something that, like a statue, never moves—how can it have life?

All right. To begin with, we often call Krishna absolute. But what does that mean?

It means that every part of Krishna’s body has all of Krishna’s power. Krishna can see with his hand, right? If not, how could we call him  God?

Krishna impregnates the goddess Maya just by looking at her. And when the devotee asks Krishna to accept a plate of food, Krishna eats it just by hearing the devotee’s words of devotion.  And who can say God cannot?

And like the parts of Krishna’s body, his name also has all the power of the whole Krishna.   Thus the devotee constantly sings Krishna’s name or repeats it on a string of beads as a mantra. And feels ever-increasing pleasure.

The same goes for Krishna’s form though it may look like an ordinary picture or statue. But the devotee can see the difference. Why? Because he knows the secret.

A secret? Yes. Devotion makes the difference.

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Krishna Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love. (Sri Brahma Samhita 5.38)

When Krishna walked the face of the earth, many people saw him, but only the devotees saw his glory.

Why?  Yes. Devotion.

Anyone with eyes can see God. Just have to look at a picture of Krishna. The seeing is easy. But Knowing what you see? That comes from Krishna. Krishna reciprocates. Throw him the ball, and he will throw it back to you.

So offer him some fruit, some incense, some clothes. And he will let you see. Could you ask for anything easier?

—Umapati Swami, July 1, 2023

Eternally touching my head to the floor at the lotus feet of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, for showing me all this.

(Note: The opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any organization or any other person.)

Photo top: Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy (Jishnu Das)

Write to me: hoswami@yahoo.com

© Umapati Swami 2023
Scriptural passages © Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the teacher who brought Krishna Consciousness from India to the West and then to the rest of the world. He is the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement as well as the author and compiler of many works of Vedic knowledge. He left this world in 1977.

Umapati Swami

One of the first American devotees of the Hare Krishna Movement, he became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in 1966. Since then, he has preached Krishna Consciousness in many countries and is the author of “My Days with Prabhupada,” available from Amazon. Now 86 years old, he has started this blog to share what he has learned.