Phalgun Krushna paksha 10/11, Kaliyug Varsh 5116
Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth is a children’s book written by Mr. Sanjay Patel. It is kept for online promotion and sale at the below website. In the book the author trivializes and makes fun of Deity Shri Ganesh leading to denigration.
(Reference: http://www.gheehappy.com/book/ganeshas-sweet-tooth/).
Alert Hindus notified Forum for Hindu Awakening (FHA), about this denigration of Shri Ganesh. Accordingly, Forum for Hindu Awakening wrote to Mr. Sanjay Patel, but there has been no response from him. (The letter explaining the denigration is published in the latter part of this page.)
Please see below the email sent by FHA to Mr. Sanjay Patel
From : Hindu Awakening <[email protected]>
Date : Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 7:45 PM
Subject : Incorrect depiction of Hindu Deities as cartoons in the children’s book – “Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth”
To : [email protected]
Namaskar dear Mr. Sanjay Patel,
We at Forum for Hindu Awakening have received some complaints from Hindus about your book called “Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth”.
Forum for Hindu Awakening is a nonprofit organization that strives to awaken society to the unique spiritual science behind Hindu Dharma concepts and practices, to motivate people to live and preserve them, and to facilitate the spiritual progress of humanity. One of the ways we do this is by addressing misrepresentations of Hinduism.
We are sending this letter to you to inform you of the factual errors in the book that represent Hinduism poorly. These were brought to our attention by concerned Hindus. We do commend you for your effort to spread awareness of Hinduism through this book, but the factual errors mentioned below need to be addressed in order for the book to represent Hinduism accurately.
According to your book promotion on the website –
http://www.gheehappy.com/book/ganeshas-sweet-tooth/
“Ganesha is just like any other kid, except that he has the head of an elephant and rides around on a magical mouse. And he loves sweets, especially the traditional dessert laddoo. But when Ganesha insists on biting into a super jumbo jawbreaker laddoo, his tusk breaks off! Ganesha is terribly upset, but with the help of the wise poet Vyasa, he learns that what seems broken can actually be quite useful after all. With vibrant, graphic illustrations, expressive characters, and offbeat humor, this is a wonderfully inventive twist on a classic tale.”
We are sending this letter to you to inform you about the blatant denigration and misrepresentation of Lord Ganesh through your book. Lord Ganesh is highly revered Deity Who is worshipped by millions of Hindus. He is the remover of obstacles and is worshiped first in all pujas. This depiction of Lord Ganesh in cartoon form and giving the reason that He broke one tusk due to biting on a ‘jumbo jawbreaker laddoo’ is equivalent of making fun of a Deity and amounts to sin. Lord Ganesh has been referred to as ‘any other kid, except that he has the head of an elephant’. Lord Ganesh is a Deity, not a child. As per Hinduism, Deities are eternal principles of God that carry out different functions in the universe. As children are human, depicting Lord Ganesh as a child is inaccurate since Hindus consider Lord Ganesh to be beyond human boundaries and limitations.
To know more factual information about Lord Ganesh you may visit our website –
http://www.forumforhinduawakening.org/understanding/glory-of-hindu-dharma/what-is-the-implied-meaning-of-the-many-names-of-lord-ganapati
Your other books – ‘The Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities’ and ‘Ramayana – Divine Loopholes’ similarly depict caricatures of revered Hindu Deities.
Would you have depicted prophets of other faiths or religions in cartoon form?
Deities are eternal principles of God that carry out different functions in the universe. Every principle is associated with its specific sound, word, touch, form, taste, smell and energy. As per Holy Hindu scriptures, specific rules should be followed in order to depict a Deity in a form through a picture or idol. Not conforming to these rules, leads to denigration and loss of Divine Consciousness from the picture, leading to a grave sin.
We stress that our aim in bringing up these points is to educate and ensure that Hinduism gets accurately represented in society. Hinduism has been misrepresented at many levels from the level of school textbooks to popular media. Though it is an ancient tradition, Hinduism has a lot to offer the modern world and we want children and adults alike to be able to understand and study it without it being misrepresented. You can take one step towards ensuring that Hinduism gets represented properly by stopping the sale of this book and also removing the promotion of the same from your website.
Sincerely,
Forum for Hindu Awakening
Source : FHA
