United States : Website ‘Our Lady of Weight loss’ denigrates Hindu Deities

Bhadrapad Krushnapaksha 9, Kaliyug Varsha 5116

  • Website features images of Hindu Deities for commercial gain.

  • The Deities have also been misrepresented by showing them in different disrespectful ways.

On May 17th, 2014, alert Hindus notified Forum for Hindu Awakening (FHA) (a devout Hindu organization registered in US) regarding a weight loss website called “Our Lady of Weight Loss“. The website features images of Hindu Deities for commercial gain, and the Deities have also been misrepresented by showing Them in different disrespectful ways such as placing a cake on Their heads or showing Them wearing colored glasses. A few examples of denigration on the weight loss website are :

Forum for Hindu Awakening promptly contacted Janice Taylor who owns the website, and explained to her how it is incorrect to use sacred Hindu Deities for commercial gain and how it is insulting to misrepresent Hindu Deities as she has. As of June 24, 2014, Janice Taylor has not responded.

Devout Hindus are registering their lawful protests on the following contacts :

Email ID of Ms. Taylor :  [email protected]

Contact : (+1)  917.312.0005 

Please see below the letter sent from FHA to Ms. Taylor :

Letter from Forum for Hindu Awakening

To whom it may concern,

We, at Forum for Hindu Awakening, are writing to you in reference to the use of Hindu Deities on your website. Forum for Hindu Awakening is a non-profit 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 emailing you today because we have received some complaints from Hindus about images of Hindu Deities on your website. There are specific images of Hindu Deities on your website that we have found on your website as given below: 

1. Goddess Durga is shown in the following links :

2. Lord Ganesh is displayed in the following links :

3. Several Hindu Deities (three Goddesses and Lord Krishna) are displayed in the following links and one of the Goddesses is wearing green glasses :

4. On your home page, 

There are three images that the viewer can toggle by clicking on the numbers 1, 2 and 3 under the image. The third image contains images of three Hindu Goddesses and an image of Lord Krishna. One of the Goddesses has a cake on Her head.

5. In addition, Hindu Deities are shown as breaking apart in a jigsaw puzzle at the following links :

Displaying Deities for commercial reasons as above is a misuse of the images of Deities.  To Hindus, their Deities are sacred and carry out specific functions in the Universe. 

In addition, Hindu Deities have been misrepresented on your website. As mentioned above, They are shown breaking into pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, wearing colored glasses, or with a cake on Their head. As Hindus consider their Deities sacred and beyond human limitations, representing Deities in this way hurts Hindu sentiments. It is denigration of Hindu Gods when They are characterized in any other way than Their Hindu scriptural description.

We urge you to consider the above and remove the images of Hindu Deities from your website. We stress that our aim in bringing this up 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 making changes to your website as requested above.

Sincerely,

Forum for Hindu Awakening

 

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