Re: Are deities that are made of resin bona fide

Dear Damodara Svarupa dasa, Nityananda!! Gauranga!! Hare Krishna!! Thank you for your question. We can understand the desire of the Lord through the scriptures. It is stated in the the Shrimad Bhagavatam

saili daru-mayi lauhi, lepya lekhya ca saikati
mano-mayi mani-mayi, pratimashta-vidha smrita

TRANSLATION

The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties -- stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels.

PURPORT

Srila Jiva Gosvami explains that certain Deity forms, such as those made of sand, are manifested for a brief time to fulfill a personal desire of the worshiper. Those, however, who desire to attain pure love of God should worship the permanent form of the Deity (made, for instance, of marble, gold or brass), and they should maintain continual worship. In Krishna consciousness there is no scope for neglecting the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

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Though the synthetic resins are also ultimately part the external energy of the Lord, they are man-made and originally not a part of His creation in the form of nature whereas wood, stone, gold and jewels are. They are typically manufactured by esterification or soaping of organic compounds. The classic variety is epoxy resin, manufactured through polymerization-polyaddition or polycondensation reactions, used as a thermoset polymer for adhesives and composites. This process is not considered very pure. It is manufactured by our extreme manipulation of the Lord's external energy.

I am not saying it is bad and it may have many practical uses in day to day life also. But for invoking the Lord in the Deity, one needs to follow a high degree of purity and standards and preferably the Deity should be made from a fully natural constituent or one which as close to being fully natural as possible. If there is love and devotion, the devotee will also consider what the Lord wants and what He does not want from the scriptures and try to give Him that. Meat and wine are also part of His creation but He does accept those as a direct offering. So even though He basically accepts our love and devotion, He has some preferences also. Besides the synthetic resin forms are mostly hollow which is not a possibility in making a worshipable Deity of the Lord. A Deity should have a solid body inside out since the Lord enters into that Deity form to accept our service. A hollow synthetic resin statue is more like a diorama or exhibit.

Of course as you said, ultimately it is the Lord's desire and Lord Gaura Krishna can appear anywhere and everywhere He chooses to accept our service. So ultimately is His choice. But we try to make it easy for Him by trying to know and follow His directions on how He would like to appear in Deity form as the Archa Vigraha. I hope this helps.

Daaso'smi, BR Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada.

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