Sacrilege by American companies

Two days ago, I came across a piece of news item. It said that an American company had introduced shoes bearing picture of Shri Ram. Few days back, there was some beer company portraying Lord Ganesh on the bottles, wielding a bear-bottle in his trunk as well as each of his hands. In the past, there have been news of American companies using Hindu deities to promote lingerie and commodes also.

Hold on people! what is this?

As an Hindu, this definitely hurts me. Lord Ram on shoes insults my religious feelings because I have been taught since my childhood that even entering a temple wearing your footwear is an act of disrespect to God. What troubles me the most is that this was not an inadvertent mistake. It was a deliberate thing. Using a deity to promote a religious cassette or incense sticks or such other items is understandable. But what business purpose does a picture of Lord Ganesh on a commode cover serve, apart from cheap short term publicity? I refuse to accept that the brains behind the designs of such products failed to foresee the repurcussions of their decisions. It simply doesn't sound logical that they didn't expect a particular group of people to be angry on seeing their worshipped Gods on footwear. Hindus will obviously not purchase such merchandise. And non-hindus in a hindu society would also not dare to do. Moreover, a non-hindu living in a non-hindu society, but with even one Hindu friend will not purchase such a merchandise because he would respect the feelings of his friend. Why then such cheap stunts on part of the companies?

In a movie, which if I am not mistaken, was "Eyes wide shut", verses from Gita were played in the backdrop of a love making scene. Though Gita or other Hindu scriptures do not denounce love-making, I consider the above act derogatory because I believe that portrayal of love-making in Hollywood movies has never been symbolic of male-female love. It is more a portrayal of lechery and is at best, avoidable. So what did the film-makers want to convey by playing verses from Gita? - That what was being done on screen was very religious? Even if those verses were preaching something useful, how many people in the west would have understood Sanskrit shlokas? And why were the verses used only during that particular scene? Blasphemy. Sheer Blasphemy.

Orientalism is an in thing in the west these days. And so western companies want to encash on this frenzy. But they need to respect the feelings of people of other ethnicities irrespective of their percentage of population in western countries. In todays world boundaries are only geographical. The above-cited merchandise may be marketed only in non-Hindu societies but the media will ensure that the news reach every corner of the world. Why create unrest when it could have been easily avoided in the very first place?

It is said that "common sense is the most uncommong thing." Seeing such acts of irreverence by business leaders the veracity of this saying becomes apparent to me.