When Supreme Lord coming in this material world in the form of a Deity to give us the opportunity of seva by the prayer of a pure devotee in that case it is very very special because the Deity of Supreme Lord is no other then He himself, moreover we new devotees can get the scope to practice our seva for Him, in our own way. Anyway Deity not going to speak anything to us. Sri Vigraha going to manifest in front of us to give the special scope of seva. From Sri Chaitanya Caritamrita and from other authentic scriptural evidence we know it for sure that—
‘nāma’, ‘vigraha’, ‘svarūpa’—tina eka-rūpa
tine ‘bheda’ nāhi,—tina ‘cid-ānanda-rūpa’ (Cc. Madhya 17.131)
“The Lord’s holy name, His form and His personality are all one and the same. There is no difference between them. Since all of them are absolute, they are transcendentally blissful.”
From Gaura Lila we know it very well that Srila Gauri das Pandit is one Gopal of Braja Dham out of twelve Gopals—those who always used to play with Krsna-Balaram. So naturally he had strong love and affection for Gaura-Nittyananda (because they are respectively nondifferent from Krsna-Balaram). Gauri das Pandit– his Sri pat is at Ambika Kalna (Burdwan district). When Gaura-Nittyananda went there in his pat with full loving mood then Srila Gauri das Pandit was extremely happy to get their darshan and seva—almost gone mad. But at the time of their departure from his Sri pat he was extremely sorry. He never wanted to allow them to go away from his Sri pat, it was just unbearable for him, so he was very strict not to allow them to go away. What to do! That was the main issue in front of Gaura-Nitai. They started speaking that –“ Oh ! Gauri das– we are always with you, why you can not feel this point. Anyway we will have to go. Please allow us to go, don’t stop our going.” Srila Gauridas Pandit started crying to hear this appeal. He started speaking that—“ I can not allow you to go away, because without you I can surely die, so both of you must stay with me in my temple.” Then Gaura-Nittyananda was bound to request him to make vigraha of them. According to that advice Gaura-Nittyananda Vigraha was installed inside the deity room of the temple of Gauridas Pandit Sripat. Now Gaura-Nittyananda wanted to take permission from Gauri das Pandit to go away. But still Gauri das Pandit was not at all ready to allow them to go away from his Sri pat. Then both the Deities of Gaura-Nittyananda started walking out of the deity room, then Gaura das Pandit wanted to stop them their going. Ultimately Srila Gaura das Pandit was bound to believe that Sri Vigraha already have been installed inside deity room who were no other than Gaura-Nittyanada themselves.
Strong faith in Vigraha is helping us in our Bhajan and we can get some special advantage in our Bhajan from serving Vigraha. How we can get real faith for Vigraha? That is a pressing question. We cannot see the Lord with these material eyes and we also cannot feel Him with our mind. So how we can love him? How can we feel Him? We can do so only through vani seva, by aprakrita vani, through which we can gradually grow our faith. If we only worship Vigraha, but do not take the help of shabdha brahman (transcendental soundvibration), then such worship is a failure as it is incomplete. How can we understand Vigraha? In Caitanya Carinamrita it is written—
“pratima naha tumi– saksat vrajendra-nandana…..”
My dear Lord, You are not a statue; You are directly the son of Maharaja Nanda…. (C.C. Madhya 5.96)
In this form of Vigraha, the Supreme Lord is testing us, testing our faith, and testing our love. All shastras tell us that if we have no faith in Vigraha, then we can lose all of our Bhajan. Sanatan Goswami gives an example. There was a king who was growing old. Because of this he wanted to hand over all of his kingdom to one of his sons. He had five sons. But out of his five sons he wanted to know which of them could successfully take responsibility to rule the kingdom. Of this the king needed to feel certain. The king made a decision to pretend to be very sick. He didn’t walk around or even stand. He wanted only to see the mood of his sons. Out of his five sons he saw that four of them only wanted to enjoy. These four sons also tried to get control over the whole kingdom. Only one son took care of the father. The four other sons tried to get rid of the one loyal son in order to get control over their father’s kingdom. Soon after realizing this, the king stopped pretending to be ill and seemed to return to normal health. He handed over his whole kingdom to the one loyal son who was taking care of him.
In the same way, when Vigraha is manifesting in front of us, the Vigraha is not speaking or, protesting. He is only watching to see our mood, to ascertain how much love we have. Vigraha will also see what mood we are serving in. In this way we get Kripa from Vigraha.
Also we can know from Sri Chaitanya Caritamrita the topic of ‘Sakshi Gopal Jew Maharaja’. Long time ago two Brahmins from Vidyanangar took decision to go to different pilgrimages together. One of them was very senior whereas the other was very junior, so naturally junior Vipra wanted to serve the senior Vipra all the way of their traveling. Ultimately when they reached Sri Vrindavan Dham to take darshan of all important places of Lila Sthali of Sri Sri Radha Govinda Jew including Radha Kunda- Shyama Kunda, Giri Goverdhan, Manasi Ganga, etc. Finally they came in front of Gopal Mandir (which is just beside the main Govinda Mandir). There the senior Vipra started expressing his strong gratitude in front of junior Vipra for the exclusive service given by him. He started speaking that –“ Oh! I can never pay you for the seva received from you. So I promise you that I can give my daughter in your hand.” Choto Vipra started speaking that –“ You are speaking such a thing which is never possible to happen, because I am from low cast and you are from very high cast, so this can never happen.“ Then the senior Vipra started confirming his promise.
He told that – ‘who is going to stop me, I am surely going to give my daughter in your hand, no doubt in it.’ Chotta Vipra started speaking that –“ If so be the case then why not you promise in front of Gopal ! I can call Gopal to get justice if some problem going to happen.“ When both of them came back to Vidyanagar they went back to their respective house. Long time was over but chotta Vipra not being invited by bado Vipra came in their village to seek justice from those village men. Ultimately chotta Vipra was bound to go to Vrindavan again to call Gopal Ji Maharaja as a witness because, in fear of family members bado Vipra was bound to deny his previous promise. He was bound to speak that –“ If at all Gopal going to come here in my village to give a remind to me about my promise then surely I can fulfill that. Then merciful Gopal was invited by chotta Vipra as a witness. When Gopal reached the village with chotta Vipra from Vrindavan then everybody was astound to see the Vigraha coming from Vrindavan by walking. It was really surprising that Gopal started speaking in front of public about the fact. Boda Vipra was very honest he never wanted to ignore his promise but due to the fear of family problem he was acting that way. So now in front of Gopal bado Vipra was ready to give his daughter in the hand of chotta Vipra. Still today that Vigraha is there at Sakshi Gopal Kshetra, just near Nilachal Kshetra.
This way countless evidence are there to belive that –
‘nāma’, ‘vigraha’, ‘svarūpa’—tina eka-rūpa
tine ‘bheda’ nāhi,—tina ‘cid-ānanda-rūpa’ (Cc. Madhya 17.131)
“The Lord’s holy name, His form and His personality are all one and the same. There is no difference between them. Since all of them are absolute, they are transcendentally blissful.”
Gaura Hari Haribol