Upset Hindus are urging Cleveland (USA) headquartered online retailer RageOn for immediate removal of shoes, underwear, yoga mats, onesies, duvet covers, bed sheet, blankets; carrying images of Hindu gods Ganesha and Shiva and goddess Kali; calling it highly inappropriate.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that Hindu deities—Ganesha, Shiva and Kali—printed on RageOn shoes, underwear, yoga mats, onesies, duvet covers, bed sheet, blankets; were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be worn around or touched by one’s feet, groin, buttocks, legs or slept upon. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged RageOn CEO & Founder Michael Krilivsky to offer a formal apology.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
Zed further said that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
RageOn, whose tagline is “dream it, share it, wear it” and which claims to be “World’s Largest All Over Print Online Store” and “100% green”, also has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Source : From Our Correspondent
