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Fee for Narasimha temple irks South African Hindus

Fakir Hassen in Durban

A devotee's attempts to build a temple in Durban dedicated to an incarnation of Lord Vishnu have created a stir in the local Hindu community.

The temple dedicated to Lord Narasimha Deva, (a half-man, half-lion incarnation of Vishnu) at the coastal town of Umhlanga Rocks north of Durban is getting very little community support, and the South African Hindu Mahasabha has dissociated itself from the venture.

The Hindu community took objection to the fee that was charged at the Maha Chakra Yagna -- a sacrificial ritual held in the Indian township of Phoenix, north of Durban, ahead of construction of the temple.

The deity was crafted locally and will be installed in the permanent temple when it is ready.

The two-day event attracted less than 1,000 people, most of whom said they had come only out of curiosity to see the first Narasimha deity to be installed in a South African temple.

The temple is the brainchild of Radhakanta Krisna Das who runs the local chapter of the International Society for Shree Radha Gopal, with its headquarters in India.

Das and his organisation came under fire from local members of the Hindu community when participants had to fork out Rand 108 each and were also compelled to purchase the ingredients required for the prayers from a special stall on the site.

"The sabha was approached to sanction this event, but we dissociated ourselves from it as we saw it purely as a commercial venture by the applicant," said Ashwin Trikamjee, president of the organisation that represents all Hindus in South Africa. "We cannot allow religion to be commercialised by anyone."

"In the 40 years that I have been attending prayers at various temples, I have never been required to pay for the service, although most of us always leave a small donation for maintenance and to cover the costs of hiring priests. But this is never through a prescribed fee or through compulsion," said devotee Aarthi Mahabeer.

Das, however, said: "The poor attendance at the yagna was because we were forced to charge a fee for participants to cover the costs of the yagna." Das said the cost of bringing a priest from India, Hira Ballabh Shastri, had to be recovered too.

"In the end, we suffered a huge loss in terms of costs, which we had to absorb. But we are glad that we had the opportunity to give Lord Narasimha's blessings to those who did come," he said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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