Has ISKCON replaced the scriptural worship of Ganesh in Hindu temples with the unscriptural worship of Prabhupada in its temples?

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Hare Krishna Question Has ISKCON replaced the scriptural worship of Ganesh in temples with the non-scriptural worship of Prabhupada in its temples in all temples even Krishna temples in Maharashtra say or in other parts of India there is the Ganesh worship at the entrance Ganesh is worshipped at the entrance but ISKCON temples don’t have that instead they have the deity of Prabhupada isn’t it? non-scriptural, un-bonafide Answer No, the two are not that one is a replacement for the other the two are two entirely different things the first is that Lord Ganesh is Vinayak, Vijnanashak he is a person who destroys obstacles and that’s why invoking him at the start of any auspicious activity is a standard practice in the Vedic literature and a standard Hindu practice today also so so that’s why the idea of having Ganesh is that he is a particular devta in charge of a particular department that is removing obstacles at the start of things and that’s why he is invoked so that’s one particular aspect the worship of this Guru is an entirely different thing now the Bhagavatam itself says that that Acharya know him to be as good as me and do not disrespect him that all the devtas are present in the Guru so if the Guru is as good as Krishna if the Guru is the personification of all the devtas then when Krishna is worshipped when devtas are worshipped then should the Guru not be worshipped so the tradition of worshipping the Guru is something which is not at all unprecedented or something new it is a very time-honoured tradition now specifically if we see even in the Mahabharata Ramayana when the great sages appear then they are worshipped so when Krishna comes as the Shanti Doodh to meet the Pandavas to meet the Kauravas and then he is offered a royal seat but he says that Narada, Parashurama, Kanwa other great rishis are there so when he says how can we sit without offering them seats and worship first how can I accept worship before that so he asks that they be worshipped and then after that he accepts worship and then he sits so now the fact that the great sages who are like spiritual teachers now here we see for the Kauravas neither Narada nor Parashurama nor Kanwa were directly their spiritual master and yet they were worshipped so what to speak of not worshipping one’s spiritual master now we may say that that is just when they are coming as guests we are worshipping we are not installing a deity of them and worshipping that’s true but we see there are precedents for that also within the history of the Sanatan Dharma in India we see that there have been certain spiritual teachers who have been extremely powerful and they have started disciplic lines they have systematized ancient traditions and their contribution is so remarkable that they hold a distinct place not just in at large in the broad religious history of India and definitely in the history of that tradition so for example Ramacharya in the Shri Sampradaya or Madhucharya in the Madhusampradaya and for these Acharyas deities are made and they are worshipped so now so that again the worship of a great saint when he is not present in the form of a deity of that saint is also not unprecedented it is done it is of course done with Mayavadi with impersonalist understandings in many impersonalist traditions but even in Vaishnavist traditions the worship of the Guru is done and we see that it was not just Shri Prabhupada who did this in the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur also he did it now before that Gaudiya Vaishnavism was not exactly so structured and there was not one Acharya who was preaching extremely widely and doing a lot of and having a lot of disciples and followers so that sort of institution was not there and so institutionalized systems of worship were also not required so Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur reinforced the scriptural principle that we approach Krishna through the Guru and that means we worship the Guru and then we worship Krishna so that’s how it is in the in the Gaudiya tradition and there are precedents in the Vedic tradition also in the tradition of Sanatana Dharma at large so Prabhupada has a unique position in the sense that he is the person who spread Krishna consciousness far and wide and even from objective perspective even if one doesn’t accept except the specific principles and practices of Krishna consciousness still the achievement which Prabhupada did in sharing Krishna consciousness all over the world is stupendous so he is worshipped as the founder Acharya of ISKCON and that’s why there is his worship also so the two are not related that it is not that Prabhupada is in any way usurping the position of of Ganesh but Prabhupada is worshipped because he is the Acharya the founder Acharya of this particular organization and worship of the founder Acharya has precedence in the broad tradition of Sanatana Dharma now regarding why Ganesh is not worshipped in ISKCON temples no, that is based on Bhagavad Gita Bhagavad Gita Krishna does indicate that those who worship the Devatas are they are less intelligent and he also says that this is 7.1 to 7.20 and then it is 7.23 those who worship the Devatas are less intelligent and then Krishna also says in 9.23-24 that those who worship the Devatas are also worshipping me but because they don’t know me they are worshipping me but they are doing it in a non-bonafide way and that’s why that’s not recommended so Krishna does say that if you look at overall the Bhagavad Gita stenor that there is no need to worship the Devatas that means yes there is a tradition which comes in the scripture only of worshipping the Devatas but there are multiple levels in the scriptures so for people who have many material desires they are recommended to worship the Devatas but for those who are aspiring for pure devotion for them it is recommended no need to worship the Devatas they can focus on the worship of Krishna itself so I have given this example repeatedly that say a student is at 40% a father has two sons one gets 40% marks in barely passes the other gets 80% marks now today both get 60% then the person who has got 40% and come to 60% who regularly gets 40% and has come to 60% for him the father will say shabash very well done and for the person who has come down from 80% to 60% the same father will say badmash what have you done why the difference because their levels are different so for those who are materialistic and godless for them the worship of demigods is recommended and for those who are capable of practicing pure devotion for them worship of demigods is discouraged so yes there are many parts of the Vedic literature in which the worship of Ganesh is recommended but then that it is Krishna who is the source of the Vedas and that Krishna is telling us worship me alone so therefore we follow scripture when we don’t worship Ganesh but it’s not that absolute principle that Ganesh cannot be worshipped if there is some social convention which is widely followed and if Ganesh is being worshipped and devotees in their individual houses if because of social convention they want to have Ganesh they can in special situations in consultation with their local spiritual guides have a small Ganesh deity and worship him with the verses like yathpada pankaj yathpada pallav yugam vinidha yakumbha by the brahma samhita which describes Ganesh relationship with the supreme lord and then worship him as a devotee of the supreme lord so that in special conventions special situations in deference to social conventions can be done thank you were you born a devotee