How To Do Deity Service When You Have A Baby/Toddler.
Having a crawling baby or a toddler is like having a hurricane at home. Nothing will be in place ever, no matter how hard you try. This is because they are new humans on this earth with no memory of ever being here before and are constantly exploring things around them and how they interact with each other. Want to experience how the water looks like when falling out of a glass, how it sounds when something hits the ground or other object, how it deforms or breaks into pieces when crushed or smashed. They are just curious about every "How" and will continue to find an answer to it.
Now if you are lucky and blessed, with home deities but find it challenging to do service after having one or more little kids, especially babies and toddlers around, here is what you can do to make it easy:-
- First of all, keep your deities and belongings at a place not reachable to your toddlers/babies.
- Decide a duration after which you will clean the altar and bathe and dress up deities. Don't be too harsh on yourself if sometimes you are not able to follow that weekly or monthly routine. Just do it whenever you can.
- Either do the service when a tiny one is asleep or playing happily under the guidance of another parent, an elder sibling, or any other trustworthy person.
- If you have no one to help, do it at night with the child goes to deep sleep.
- Do the entire process in two or three steps.
- STEP-1:-Take out everything from the altar and deep clean the alter. Then bath the deities and place them back on the altar on a clean cloth. Do not place back other things like singhasans and other items. Just place the deities. Keep the curtain closed.
- STEP-2:-The next day you can wash or dust all the items and accessories that you took out of the altar a day before and place them somewhere away from the child, like a balcony or above a high almirah or above the altar itself.
- STEP-3:-Then on the next day dress up deities and decorate the altar and deities with ornaments and flowers. Now you can keep the curtains open for darshans.
- Allow your elder kids to participate in the service if they wish to. They may not do it perfectly at the start but will learn the process and understand how much it means to a devotee and soon you will have an efficient helping hand for all of this, which will also create a loving service attitude towards it Krishna in their heart.
- Do not criticize kids for doing imperfect services. Encourage them for the good they do.
- Encourage other family members to do daily services like light dusting, dhoop aarti, deep arati, flower decoration, waking up, and putting to sleep. Delegate fixed services to interested family members. Do not force kids, spouses, and other family members to do services, and do not curse them for not doing so.
Note:- Not everyone needs to do this three-step rigorous process. But when you have rodents/roaches at home or if you do not get time every day for dusting the alter due to other services then your alter will need deep cleaning. Those who can manage to dust the alter and deities a little every now and then will only need to change the dress, ornament, and sitting mat only. Still, it takes little time.
Taking care of your future devotee children is also a service to the lord. Krishna doesn't want you to ignore your duties to serve him. Remember, Krsna told the Gopis, “It is very dark now. Also, there are dangerous animals in the forest. You have left your crying children, husbands, parents, and in-laws behind. This is not right.”
He always stressed performing one's duties while thinking of him. Raising these little Jeeves with love and care while constantly thinking Krishna is a form of devotion that Krishna accepts and appreciates.
Whenever you feel like beating yourself down or facing someone tearing you down for your decreased services, just remember that babies don't remain, and nor do kids or your poor health.
Try to meditate on the holy name whenever possible and wait for your children to grow up and then you can resume your desired services to the lord.
Please share in the comments below what else you think can be helpful in such a situation.
Hare Krishna.
Asht Sakhi Vrind Devi Dasi
Credits:- Special thanks to the wonderful devotees of Lord Krishna, HG Radhika Piyari Devi Dasi, and her family for allowing me to use their family pics for this blog. HG Radhika Piyari Devi Dasi is a mother of a lovely toddler and is very sincerely practicing Krishna Consciousness while maintaining her worldly duties towards her child and husband.
She is a devotee who inspires others also by motivating them to become Krishna Conscious by teaching them Krishna Conscious Saatvik Cusine through her youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxpB9p3x6oSG1fIIpkGEylw. She runs another youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL7Ll7bkh05wDkjQkPVULWA/videos where she shares Krishna Bhajans, Kirtans and Stories, etc. She is the owner of a sattvic food blog and an online store with Krishna Conscious name that you can visit here https://krsnatarian.com/.Her Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/krsnatarian/.
Disclaimer: This blog post doesn't intend to force or guilt trip new moms into doing services while ignoring their kids and torturing themselves. I wish to clarify that If someone is totally determined to do the Diety service of the lord while having a baby, then the tips shared in this blog can make it easier for them. However, just following the regulative principles of your Parampara and chanting your mantras is sufficient at this stage as I already mentioned in the blog.
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