Devaki Nandana Dasa: I’m looking for someone who can enlighten me in this matter. I want to know if I can get a deity of just Lord Nityananda and worship him. Is that authorized. I’m book distributor and travel a lot and not attracted to deity worship much but would like to have a small deity of Lord Nityananda to worship to help me become Krishna Conscious. I know Lord Nityananda is the most merciful so I’m attracted to him and his pastimes. If you have any advice or can let me know who can advise me i’d greatly appreciate it and so would Lord Nityananda.
Y.S. Devaki Nandana Dasa
ke kaha nitā-ira guṇa jība dekhi sa-karuṇa
hari-nāme jagata tārila
madana-madete andha biṣaye harala bandha
hena nitā-i bhajite nā pā-ila
“Who can describe the glories of Lord NitAi? When He sees the conditioned souls, He becomes filled with compassion. Giving them the holy names of Lord Hari, He has delivered all the worlds. Only persons bound by the ropes of material sense pleasures and blinded by lusty desires have no power to worship Lord NitAi.”
However we (sadhakas) do not worship Nitai separately from Gaura in his deity form. Baladeva hoilo nitai. Nitay is no other then BalarAma himself. Vaisnavas worship Krsna and BalarAma, not just BalarAma;
Garga samhita supports the fact that atheists sometimes worship BalarAma alone:
duryodhana uvāca
rāmasya paddhatiṁ brūhi
yayā siddhiṁ vrajāmy aham
“Duryodhana said: Please describe the paddhati of Lord BalarAma, reciting which I may attain perfection.”
Normally Gaudiya Vaisnavas do not worship Balarama alone. Thus it seems, unless you are specifically instructed by your guru, I would not worship Balarama or Nityananda alone, you can offer prayers to them, but worship them together with Krsna.
Another example of the order of worship from Caitanya Bhagavata:
“One day at the house of Srivasa Pandita, Murari Gupta saw Gaura and NityAnanda seated together. Murari first offered obeisances to Gaura and then to NityAnanda. The Lord, however, was displeased and said to Murari, “You have transgressed etiquette while offering obeisances.” That very night in a dream the Lord taught Murari the glories of NityAnanda. The next morning Murari first offered obeisances to NityAnanda and then to Gaura. Seeing this, the Lord was pleased and He gave Murari the remnants of His chewed betel. ”
Murari Gupta is one of the earliest to worship Gaura Nitay and his GN deities are located in Vrindavana. Prabhupada established this form of worship all over the world, why would you deviate from worshiping Them together? dui bhai eka-tanu-samana-prakasa
We must admit that we are speculating somewhat in all that we say here, because we have no experience of worshipping Sri Nityananda Prabhu without His most worshipable Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. After all, Nityananda Prabhu, like Sri Baladeva, is always serving the lila of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, or Sri Krishna respectively. Some understand that Sri Nityananda Prabhu is the original spiritual master, and we know some who worship Sri Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupad. But, the beloved Sri Gurudeva, like the beloved Nityananda Prabhu, is always directing us toward His Master.
Now, we must bring up one other aspect of ontological truth. Sri Nityananda Prabhu is none other than Sri Sankarsana, the first expansion of Sri Krishna. Sri Sankarsana is the origin of all creation. Creation is expanded to serve the pleasure of Sri Krishna. Just as some souls have their destination in the Vaikuntha planets, and not Goloka Vrindaban, so too there must be some bhaktas whose destination is to serve Sri Sankarsana. When Murari Gupta worshipped Sri Ramachandra, he was encouraged to do so by Lord Chaitanya, because of the mood of Murari Gupta. However, we are not directly being encouraged to do this by Sri Chaitanyadeva, and so we must depend upon our Sri Gurudeva to guide us appropriately. Hence, we must not deviate from the system that Sri Gurudeva gives us. Still, nitai pada kamala…the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Prabhu can deliver us to Sri Sri Radha Krishna and Their abode in Vrindaban. Certainly, therefore, if one is blessed by Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the bhakta must receive the highest benefit. But, since Nityananda Prabhu’s manifestation is the spiritual master, Srila Prabhupad, then Sri Nityananda Prabhu has answered your question through the consistent advice of Srila Prabhupad.
Pusta Krishna das