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Question: What should be the mood to serve deities and how to achieve that mood?

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Jayapatākā Swami:  You see Kṛṣṇa is Absolute, He is the Absolute Truth. We don’t have the qualification, the adhikāra to see Kṛṣṇa personally. He comes as the arcā-avatāra, incarnation of the worship-able Deity. Actually, the service we offer to the deity is being accepted directly by Kṛṣṇa. So if we understand that Kṛṣṇa is actually there, He is accepting our service, that is the proper consciousness. There is the story by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura – śālagrāma diye badām bāṅga. Breaking peanuts with śālagrāmaśilā So there was a professional pūjārī who actually had no faith in the Deity. He liked peanuts. Someone brought peanuts with the shell, and he thought, “Oh! I love peanuts!” He closed the door, took the śālagrāma-śilā off the altar as rocks are good to break peanut shells, He took the śālagrāma-śilā and broke the peanuts. And the landlord who came to see the Deities he saw the door closed. Someone inside was making a noise like “Chuk! Chuk!” He looked through the window. He saw the pūjārī had taken the sacred śālagrāma-śilā and was breaking the peanuts. He said, “You atheist! You pāṣaṇḍī! And he grabbed the pūjārī and threw him out. So, we should not use Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s things for our material sense gratification. Today I was very happy to hear that my disciples have offered a set of clothes to the Deities in Māyāpur. I don’t know if they have done in other parts of the world. So like this we want to serve Kṛṣṇa not to use Kṛṣṇa for our material purpose that is the consciousness they should have to serve the deities. Not breaking the peanuts with śālagrāma-śilā.
23-April-2021 Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India