Protest against the denigration involving nudity in a video regarding Saint Meerabai

Forum for Hindu Awakening appeals devout Hindus to protest against the denigration involving nudity in a video regarding Saint Meerabai on vimeo.com

Recently, some Hindus noticed a video regarding Saint Meerabai on vimeo.com. The video had nudity in it.

An alert supporter of Hinduism promptly wrote to the writer, director and editor of the video, Usman Shaukat explaining how this video is insulting and hurtful to Hindus around the world. (Please see below the email communication between them) Usman Shaukat replied and said that the video is not about Saint Meerabai and gave some other justification. He further advised not to follow his work or watch his videos if we are offended by them.

FHA now appeals you to protest against this denigration peacefully and lawfully by:

• Flagging the video on vimeo.com as shown in the picture below. (You have to be a registered user on vimeo.com)
• Secondly, you can send an email, a message or post a comment on the video by going to this link http://vimeo.com/78104712

The communication between a Supporter of Hinduism and the writer, director, editor, Usman Shaukat

Protest against the nude video of Saint Meerabai

Hello Mr. Shaukat,

I am shocked to see the nude video of Saint Meerabai on vimeo.com : vimeo.com/78104712 The video is inappropriately showing a nude lady dancing in front of Lord Krushna. A devotee would not dance in nude in front of God. Nowhere in the life story of Meerabai is there a mention of Her dancing nude. For Hindus, Meerabai is the embodiment of vairagya (detachment). Your video denigrates Hindu Saint Meerabai and Hindu Deity, Lord Krushna, Who are highly revered by Hindus.

Meerabai’s songs infuse faith, courage, devotion and the love of God in the minds of the readers. They inspire the aspirants to take to the path of devotion and they produce in them a marvelous thrill and the melting of the heart. Depicting Meerabai in this distorted manner (nude) in front of God is very insulting to Hindus. Your video has hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. I request you to immediately remove this video from the website.

Sincerely,
Chaitanya Dev,
A concerned Hindu

Hi, Chaitanya!

Usman just sent you a message on Vimeo:

Dear Mr. Dev, Thanks for taking your time and writing me about your concern. The said video you commented on is an experimental video that explores the complexities of religious devotion and is part of a three-part series in which I plan to explore two other religions and their expressions of devotion, i.e. Buddhism and Islam. Dear Dev, there is no shame between god and his devotee. God, Ishwar, Allah, Bhagwan whatever you name that entity, is closer to us then our breath. He knows our inner most secrets and our each mole on our bodies. If god has made us in perfection, then the human body is perfect in its nudity. Please think, why does a society label a woman’s naked body as a cause of shame? It shouldn’t, in my opinion, because all of us emerge from a woman’s body and all of us are nourished by it. There is nothing gratuitous or vulgar about the actor’s nudity, and the human body is not a site of shame. Further, please notice that in no shot of the video the actor is never depicted naked with Krishna, and nowhere in the video it is implied that the actor is Meerabai, because she is not, she is a dancer dancing on music. Moreover, if you even do a preliminary search on depiction of Hindu deities, you would observe that over the centuries many of them have been depicted naked in hindu statuary and other forms of art. If you are offended by my video, the best solution is not to follow my work, and not to watch my videos. Sincerely

Usman’s profile on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user13681700

Source : FHA