Deity Worship Concoctions
BY: SUN STAFF
Jan 12, 2013 — CANADA (SUN) —
A discussion recently unfolded in one of the Ritvik "Prabhupadanuga" forums on the subject of unbonafide Deity outfits mimicking karmi holidays like Christmas. Strangely enough, one posting came from Yasoda Nandana dasa, who called to the attention of his friend Damaghosa an article on a Ritvik website that presented a collection of pictures of Radha and Krsna dressed as Santa and Mrs. Clause, apparently from various ISKCON temples. Yasodananda wrote to Damaghosa, saying "I thought you would get a kick out of this".
Baby Jesus Christmas with the Ritviks
Yasodananda apparently missed the photo collection Damaghosa himself recently posted, of the Christmas celebration at his own Ritvik temple in Sedro Wooley, Washington. Just outside the temple room was the big Christmas tree, with Baby Jesus and his manger associates on the side altar.
Damaghosa das and wife at Sedro Wooley Ritvik Center
The picture at top of page shows one ISKCON temple's altar on which Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and Lord Jagannath Deities are surrounded by Christmas trees, snowflakes, stuffed bears and penguins, and other festive accoutrement.
As we have recently been pointing out, the Ritvik community is demonstrating that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Many of the concoctions and deviations we find in GBC/ISKCON temples, we are now also finding in the Ritvik temples. The most recent example we gave was the Hindu and New Age programs going on at the Sunnyvale Ritvik temple.
Srila Prabhupada Murti at Sunnyvale, California Ritvik Temple
The Sunnyvale Ritvik conclave has taken concocted Deity Worship one step further, installing a murti of His Divine Grace with iconography that they have apparently invented. Srila Prabhupada is seen with his right hand in mudra -- a posture Srila Prabhupada was never seen adopting, to our knowledge. In Buddhist iconography, this particular hand mudra is known as kartari, or the 'Gesture of Discord'. Specifically, kartari mudra features the hand at shoulder level, just as His Divine Grace is depicted, with thumb and ring finger making a circle and the other fingers pointed upwards.
While the Bangalore-supported Sunnyvale Ritviks may have been making an esoteric statement on discord with this murti mudra, even some of the Ritviks find it most unsettling. One prabhu offered these comments, comparing how he feels about Deities dressed up like Santa to the Sunnyvale Prabhupada murti:
"You know, I had a similar bad feeling when I saw a photo and a video of the murti of Srila Prabhupada now on display at the Bangalore satellite temple in Sunnyvale Ca.
PHOTO: http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/563831_378074878948752_619917123_n.jpg
VIDEO: http://www.prabhupadanugas.eu/?p=23973
In all the Murti's of Srila Prabhupada which I have seen, I have never seen him showing this mudra. In all the thousands of photographs I have seen of Srila Prabhupada I have never seen him offer this
mudra.
Likewise, for anyone who has paid the slightest amount of attention to popular Culture in America and Western media, this Hand Sign is flashed by a very degraded set of people to indicate their solidarity
to rebellion and libertinism. An even more degraded set of sub-humans
consider it a sign of allegiance to "the devil" or "Satan".
In Texas, the students at Texas A&M flash this hand sign because it represents their School mascot, the Texas LONGHORN Bull, who they like to torture and kill and eat when it is no longer useful to them.
I know that it is likely a legitimate Vedic mudra, and I know for certain that it is the formation Lord Krsna's hand is in when he holds
his flute.
So, why on earth did these devotees think it OK to portray Srila Prabhupada extending his hand in a way he likely never ever did, and in a way that is either imitating Lord Krsna, or worse, an imitation
of the most degraded idiots on the planet?
I don't expect a satisfying answer to these questions, and see this as Maha Maya deluding these devotees into making foolish mistakes, for her own good reasons."
Srila Prabhupada had to deal directly with devotees who wanted to concoct their own Deity Worship standards, as we see in his letter to Dhruvananda, January 4, 1973:
My Dear Dhruvananda,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 17, 1972, and I have noted the contents with care. You have asked me several questions about the deity worship in Los Angeles, so I shall answer them one after another.….
You may dress Lord Caitanya in the standard way, main things is do it nicely, don't make it funny. In your Western countries Lord Caitanya should be entirely covered, He should not appear bare-chested.
….Now you are asking if Lord Jagannatha carries flute? Why this nonsense question? You are asking me so many concoctions and manufactured nonsense. Don't bother my head in this way any more. From now on unless I order you do something change or in addition, go on with the usual standard way. You manufacture ideas and then I have to waste my time. I have given you everything already, there is no need for you to add anything or change anything. Why you are asking these things? Who has given you such freedom? Pujari should operate entirely under the supervision of temple president and GBC, not independently. The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. So don't ask any more new questions, whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that's all.
As for emulating Christians who celebrate the birth of baby Jesus or Santa sliding down the chimney on Christmas morn, as Prajapati prabhu said:
"...Christmas, Srila Prabhupada. They'd be better off celebrating the fact that you're here." (Morning Walk, Dec 09, 1973, Los Angeles)
ISKCON Botswana
