Smiledrive.in, an online shopping portal is manufacturing pen drives shaped as Hindu Deities Shri Ganesh and Shri Hanuman and selling them on Smiledrive.in as well as on Amazon.com, causing the denigration of Hindu Deities and Hinduism.
Below are the links from their websites which denigrate Deity Ganesh and Deity Hanuman
1. Lord Ganesh shaped pen drive
2. Bal Hanuman pen drive
Alert Hindus notified Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), a noted Hindu organization in India, about this denigration of Hindu Deities and Hinduism. Accordingly, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti wrote to Smiledrive.in, asking them to remove the denigrating pendrives from websites but there has been no response from them. (The letter explaining the denigration is published below on this page.)
We now appeal to you to protest lawfully and peacefully against this denigration. We also suggest you write to Smiledrive requesting them to stop this denigration. Below is the email id of Smiledrive.in:
[email protected]
Please see below the email sent by HJS to the team of Smiledrive.in:
From: Hindu Jagruti<[email protected]>
Date: Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 10:49 AM
Subject: Complaints regarding Hindu deity shaped pen drives
To: [email protected]
To,
Smiledrive
213, Agarwal B2B Centre, D’monte Lane, Malad West, Mumbai 400064
Namaste,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is a registered NGO in India working for Hindu Dharma and also for society and national welfare. The Samiti is active throughout the world, educating people about Dharma in scientific way, campaigning against malpractices that masquerade as religious practices while also solving issues of national, social and religious importance.
Please refer to our website https://www.hindujagruti.org/hjs-activities/stop-adharma-practices to see our ongoing and successful awareness campaigns against the denigration of Hindu Dharma.
We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have received several complaints about the products on your website, shaped as the Hindu Deities Shri Ganesh and Shri Hanuman. This may seem like a harmless thing to do but the use of Hindu Deities on products for daily use amounts to the denigration of Deities.
As per Dharmashastra and spiritual science, the word, touch, form, taste, fragrance and the energy associated with them, all coexist. Thus, whenever any image of a Deity is produced, the corresponding Divine energy of that form of Divinity is present in that object and so such an object needs to be honored.
Hindus worship the Divine by placing images of Deities in a puja room and ritualistically worshipping them daily. Such is the respect and devotion that is accorded to the Divine.
A pen drive that is shaped as a Deity may be handled roughly, like casually tossing it on a table. In addition it could be put in various places where it catches dust. There is also a likelihood of it being touched with dirty hands and so it collects grime. We never treat a photo of a Deity in a puja room in such a manner.
Once the pen drive is old or has stopped functioning, it will eventually end up in a waste bin to be then transported and tossed into a filthy dumping ground where it may be trodden upon. Such utter disrespect hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus and hurting religious feelings leads to an offense as per the Indian Penal Code section 295A. Further please note that using religious symbols including pictures of Deities on products for sale is also an offense as per the Indian Trade Practice Act 1999.
A supreme paradox is that a pen drive that may have been bought with a fondness for the Divine, ends up being the cause of denigration of highly revered Deities.
It is also unfortunate that manufactures who use Deities pictures to drum up their sales to bring in more money, are actually accruing demerits as disrespecting the Divine is a grave sin and one will have to undergo its consequences. With every pen drive sold, their sin only multiplies.
In addition, when denigration occurs in a particular place, then the vibrations of that premises changes and gets replaced with distressing vibrations that attract a host of problems for the inhabitants.
Thus Deities pictures are only to be used at appropriate places for worship and in other religious activities. Using it in any other way amounts to denigration and is unlawful, besides being a sinful act.
Below are the links from your website which denigrate Deity Ganesh and Deity Hanuman:
-
Lord Ganesh shaped pen drive
2. Bal Hanuman pen drive
Please note that this is not a comprehensive list of the products that result in the denigration of Deities, so we request you to remove any other item that we may have missed from this list, if it is likely to hurt the feelings of Hindus.
In view of the above, we request you to stop the advertisement, sale and manufacture of such pen drives depicting Hindu Deities. Please acknowledge this letter and inform us in writing about the action taken by you.
Awaiting your prompt action and reply.
Sincerely,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
