Lord Balarama becomes Shani (Saturn) at
ISKCON Chennai
BY: JAYAPRAKASH
Feb 21, 2015 — CHENNAI, INDIA (SUN) — ISKCON Chennai, well known for following an apasampradayic tradition in deity dressing, has tried something really different to appease the daily visitors. It is a fresh attempt by the management to encourage karma kanda in the garb of bhakti.
ISKCON Chennai has 3 altars:
1. Gaura Nitai - Left
2. Sri Radha Krishna, Lalita Vishaka - Center
3. Jagannath Baladeva Subhadra - Right
The order of Navagrahas in Hindu culture is as follows:
1. Surya (Sun)
2. Chandra (Moon)
3. Mangala (Mars)
4. Budha (Mercury)
5. Sukra (Venus)
6. Brihaspati (Jupiter)
7. Shani (Saturn)
8. Rahu (Ascending Lunar node)
9. Ketu (Descending Lunar node)
Going from left to right, one would find the Deities in the following order:
In Hindu culture the number 9 is very famous. So the ever innovative management of ISKCON Chennai struck a brilliant idea: why not dress the Deities representing the nava graha - nine planetary systems - in such a way that each personality (Deity in the temple) represents a particular planet (graha).
This is how each Deity has been dressed to represent a planet:
1. Nitai - Surya (Sun)
2. Gaura - Chandra (Moon)
3. Lalita - Mangala (Mars)
4. Krishna - Budha (Mercury)
5. Radha - Sukra (Venus)
6. Vishaka - Brihaspati (Jupiter)
7. Baladeva - Shani (Saturn)
8. Subhadra - Rahu (Ascending Lunar node)
9. Jagannath - Ketu (Descending Lunar node)
Or maybe in an offensive tone, some in this temple are referring to the Deities with the name of the graha. How abusive and offensive is it to refer to Jagannath as Ketu and Baladeva as Shani? The Deities have become a sporting ground for representing the navagraha.
In astrology, each of the navagrahas are representing with a particular combination of numbers in a 9 cell square also known as yantra. So the Deity dress also has this yantra of the particular graha, i.e., Surya Yantra on Nitai, Chandra Yantra on Gaura...etc.
Check out the pictures of the Temple President on Facebook. A few months ago, the Deities were dressed in the same navagraha dress. The link for that is available here. And here: 'Navagraha' Deity photos.
Some relevant links to ISKCON Chennai and their activities (and also deviations):
In case these pictures happen to get deleted, I have also included a few example in this article.
In the past also, ISKCON Chennai has been known for dressing the Deities in unauthorized ways. For instance, on Indian Independence day, the Deities were dressed representing the Indian flag. The Deities in left altar (Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai) were dressed in saffron representing the top colour of the Indian flag. The Deities in the middle altar (Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, Lalita, Vishaka) were dressed in white representing the middle colour of the Indian flag, except for Krishna who was dressed in blue. representing the blue chakra on the flag. The Deities in the right altar (Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra) were dressed in green, representing the third colour of the Indian flag.
This is called patronizing the Deities.
Also, on Valentines Day 2013, 2014 and 2015, the deities were dressed in red garments with huge hearts embroidered on them, representing the eternal love on lover's day.
