Temple Worship
As we have already stated, the ritual for worship in the Chaitanya temples of Bengal and Orissa is mainly taken from the Haribhaktivilāsa. This is the acknowledged authority.
It is to be remembered, however, that the Haribhaktivilāsa nowhere explicitly recognises the worship of Chaitanya, although it has an invocation to him at the beginning of each chapter.
In this respect the Chaitanya temples go beyond the ritual authority of the sect, and follow lesser manuals more or less derived from the Haribhaktivilāsa.
Authority for the worship of Chaitanya, while not found in the great work of Sanātana, is legitimately derived from the theology of the sect.
There is a tradition to the effect that Sanātana once asked Chaitanya how he could give directions for the worship of Krishna only, when for him and his fellow ascetics at Vrindāvan Chaitanya was the Iṣṭā devatā (one's own god).
Chaitanya answered by saying that in describing the worship of a deity the worship of those inseparably associated with his divinity must be included also.
Thus the faithful, on the strength of this tradition, find their justification for the worship not only of Chaitanya, but of his associates as well.
Details of worship and ritual vary generally according to the importance of temples and the competency of pujārīs, but in the main the practice is the same.
The pujārīs who serve the images are generally of the Brahman caste and of the householder order, but when the temple is owned by a vairāgī, the pujārīs are likely to be vairāgīs also. These are rarely Brahmans.
The daily programme followed in the service of the image is outwardly very much the same as that which is to be found in the temples of all sects in India:
Anyone who has lived in an Indian town or city must have vivid recollections of the insistent clangour of gong and bell, which marks the daily rising, retiring, and adoration of the god in all temples.
The Ṣoraśopachāra pūjā, a ritual consisting of 16 distinct offerings is the basis of all the worship in Vaishnava temples.
The Pūjā includes various operations, such as the bathing of the image, its decoration and adornment, its various feedings throughout the day, its being put to rest noon and night.
These operations constitute the daily routine of the pujārīs.
Accompanying these functions at certain times of the day, Saṅkīrtanas are held in which the worshippers may join, although generally they do not.
In some of the larger temples of the sect the direction that Saṅkīrtanas be held 3 times daily may be observed, but hardly so in the average small temples.
Even at Navadvīpa, in the Mahāprabhu's bāṛī temple, sankirtan takes place but twice daily.
The singers who lead may be paid or honorary, or both. The liturgy followed by the pujārīs is in Sanskrit, but the Saṅkīrtanas are chiefly in Bengali. The worshippers follow the ministrations of the pujārīs, gazing upon the face of the image with delight.
Between the various operations, especially after the presentation of food, the doors of the shrine are closed and the image is not available for worship.
There is no general act of worship in which all join, either of song or otherwise.
The only requirement of the individual worshipper is the obeisance before the image, and usually the circumambulation of the temple.
One of the most important features of the temple worship, from the worshippers' standpoint, is the sharing of the god's food:
The meals offered to the image, called bhoga, become prasāda (grace) when partaken of by the worshipper. They are truly means of grace to the devout Vaishnava.
These food offerings differ somewhat in frequency in various temples, according to the size, and also according to the number of worshippers:
In the principal temple in Navadvīpa there are five bhogas daily, at 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
In some of the Calcutta shrines of the sect 3 bhogas daily are the custom, increasing to four and five during the month of Kārtik, a most sacred Vaishnava period, when many more vairāgīs are in attendance.
Cooked food is served only twice or thrice a day. The noon meal is a full one, the others less so.
In partaking of the god's bounty the various castes do not eat together, even though it is the prasāda of the caste-defying lord Gaurānga:
The householders sit in groups according to castes, and the vairāgīs eat by themselves in a place apart.
The lowest of the untouchable castes are not admitted to the main sections of Chaitanya temples, but the outskirts of the sacred courtyards are open to them.
The upper grade of the depressed classes have access to the courtyard, and some of them to more important sections. The inner bg-sky enclosure, however, is generally reserved for the Brahmans; especially in Brahman temples.