There are many hindus who nowadays while defending deity worship says that only for the purpose of concentration for the neophyte followers of god ,deity worship is recommended .Thus as one advances more ,he don’t need to worship deity any more.
So it seems that many modern hindus themselves are confused about the position of deity worship, so some may think this to be religious hypocrisy ,and think that all these temples are just the places for amassing the wealth in exchange of the faith of the people ,thus they consider it to be mere business .these people i have mentioned often seems to like the idea of formless god ,and assume that all the different devatas being worshipped are just a imagination of the sages for allowing neophytes to easily meditate on formless god with some imaginative forms. This class of people don’t support deity worship at all.
There are other class of hindus who like to stick to traditional orthodox practices that they have learnt from their family generations,and would like to continue deity worship ,but they don’t have enough knowledge about the proper science behind deity worship. So when such people try to defend their position ,they easily tend to misinterpret the concept of deity worship, and say that deity worship is only for the sake of concentration on the formless god for which sake ,different deity forms are assumed.
On the other hand, srila prabhupada had given a very different explanation stating that one should consider deity to be non-different from krishna, similarly holy names to be non-different from krishna. This explanation from srila prabhupada gives life to the proper understanding about the deity worship,and respects the omnipotency of god to manifest in any variety he desires,in order to reciprocate with the devotion of the devotees. whereas other understanding seems to be defective in their reasoning since they don’t appreciate the omnipotent aspect of god ,and his ability to manifest in any form he desires.
hare krishna
There are many hindus who nowadays while defending deity worship says that only for the purpose of concentration for the neophyte followers of god ,deity worship is recommended .Thus as one advances more ,he don’t need to worship deity any more.
So it seems that many modern hindus themselves are confused about the position of deity worship, so some may think this to be religious hypocrisy ,and think that all these temples are just the places for amassing the wealth in exchange of the faith of the people ,thus they consider it to be mere business .these people i have mentioned often seems to like the idea of formless god ,and assume that all the different devatas being worshipped are just a imagination of the sages for allowing neophytes to easily meditate on formless god with some imaginative forms. This class of people don’t support deity worship at all.
There are other class of hindus who like to stick to traditional orthodox practices that they have learnt from their family generations,and would like to continue deity worship ,but they don’t have enough knowledge about the proper science behind deity worship. So when such people try to defend their position ,they easily tend to misinterpret the concept of deity worship, and say that deity worship is only for the sake of concentration on the formless god for which sake ,different deity forms are assumed.
On the other hand, srila prabhupada had given a very different explanation stating that one should consider deity to be non-different from krishna, similarly holy names to be non-different from krishna. This explanation from srila prabhupada gives life to the proper understanding about the deity worship,and respects the omnipotency of god to manifest in any variety he desires,in order to reciprocate with the devotion of the devotees. whereas other understanding seems to be defective in their reasoning since they don’t appreciate the omnipotent aspect of god ,and his ability to manifest in any form he desires.