Here is one of the most recent examples of Bangalore's demigod worship: the May 2014 program of worship for Hanuman Jayanti. The above picture appears on Bangalore's Facebook, with this invitation:
"20140523A Hanuman Jayanti Benne Alankara Today is Hanuman Jayanti Butter Alankara Darshan on the occasion of Sri Hanuman Jayanti 2014 Alankara will be there till 8 pm today"
Elsewhere on the FB page, this promo message appears:
Needless to say, the 'festival seva list' is a webpage on which the Bangalore Ritviks solicit donations. In this case, they are soliciting money on the back of Sri Hanuman. They quote a statement from Srila Prabhupada about donating for festivals, and the link from the Hanuman Jayanti, of course, implies that Srila Prabhupada established this as one of the festivals devotees should give money for. But where do we ever find His Divine Grace saying this? Instead, here is what Srila Prabhupada and sastra say about demigod worship:
"You know that we have refused even the Hindu people to hold demigod worship in our temple […] As a matter of fact, we should not allow anyone to hold any function in our temple, otherwise than Vaisnava principle…" (Srila Prabhupada Letter, October 10, 1968)
"Other demigods, like Brahma, Siva, Surya, Ganesa and many similar deities, are worshiped by men in the mode of passion, urged on by the desire for material enjoyment. But those who are actually situated in the mode of goodness (sattva-guna) of material nature worship only visnu-tattvas […] It is for this reason only that candidates for liberation deliberately reject the worship of the demigods, although they have no disrespect for any one of them." (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.26 Purport)
"…There is no need to worship demigods of whatsoever category if one is serious about going back to Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.20,23) it is clearly said that those who are mad after material enjoyment approach the different demigods for temporary benefits, which are meant for men with a poor fund of knowledge. We should never desire to increase the depth of material enjoyment. Material enjoyment should be accepted only up to the point of the bare necessities of life and not more or less than that. To accept more material enjoyment means to bind oneself more and more to the miseries of material existence." (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.27 Purport)
"…Worship of demigods is discouraged herein because even the greatest demigods like Brahmā and Śiva only represent part of the opulence of the Supreme Lord." (Bhagavad-gita 10.42)
"Only the less intelligent worship the demigods for their various purposes. The most intelligent worship only the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa." (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.11-12 Purport)
"Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures." Here it is plainly said that those who are directed by lust worship the demigods and not the Supreme Lord Krsna." (Bhagavad-gita Introduction)
Later in the Facebook thread on Bangalore vs. Jaipur, Shubham Darvaikar mentions a contest the Bangalore temple ran:
"…it was Deity competition. People were carrying their deities to temple to win prizes- whose deity is best! Again, isn't this an aparadh?"
Another poster in this thread, Artur Ansokov, complains about a video he saw of two men break-dancing right in front of Srila Prabhupada on his vyasasana at Bangalore. A devotee named Subhodipo dada reportedly complained about this:
"[He] raised voice against it, He was offended.... acc. to
them they know more philosophy and we are NOT QUALIFIED enough to ask them questions."
Hmm… where have we heard that before?
