Re: Accepting Murties as gifts
Pranams,
I don't know of any specific regulations against accepting archa-murthis, aside from the general principle that such murtis should be treated with great respect by people who are clean, which one would think would apply to both the giver and the receiver. I've seen statements in the puraanas praising the giving of cows, of scriptures, and of icons of cows. I've not seen anything specifically praising the giving of archa-murthis or restricting it.
A dear friend once presented me with a small Bala-Gopala deity on my wedding whom I still worship to this day, and my mother-in-law also presented me with a Radha-Krishna vigraha. My only hangup about getting these archa-vigrahas in this way is the means by which they have to be transported, especially when flying, as you would NOT want these TSA goons to touch or handle them.
There is one other hangup I have in regards to accepting archa-murtis, and that is that the devotion of the giver may not always reflect the devotion of the receiver. I sometimes get the feeling that some givers give murthis as a way of making you worship in the way they want you to worship. I can gracefully accept murthis of Shiva or Ganesha, since at least these are Vedic deities, but I simply cannot accept a deity of a Sai Baba or someone else's guru, and I think that sort of gift-giving is particularly obnoxious.
Philosoraptor
"Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something." - Plato
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