If the Indian Newspapers feel and decide to bring about some reformations in the
existing mode of publication in a view to protect the Hindu deities, usually placed on their
pages, from being dishonoured, it will be a great event in the history of journalism. The
reformed newspapers of India can take a leading role in creating awareness among the people
about the humiliation and dishonour faced by the Hindu deities in India and outside India. The
newspapers can publish editorials, reports, articles, discussions and public opinion on this
issue which can reach people living at the remotest areas of India. The electronic media can
highlight the issue by visual coverage of incidents of dishonouring treatments to the deities,
taking place in different areas and can arrange live discussions on this topic by involving
eminent social workers, religious leaders, people's representatives and intellectuals. The
volunteers of religious organizations can have direct contact with people in urban and rural
areas and make them aware of the undesirable and unfortunate incidents of negligence and
dishonouring of Hindu deities, which are happening in our day to day life out of ignorance and
thoughtlessness, by arranging meetings, exhibitions of discarded materials, bearing pictures of
the deities and video shows on such incidents.
The people's representatives can raise the issue in the parliament and try to bring
amendments in the existing laws in order to protect the dignity and honour of the Hindu
deities. There should be provisions in the law not only to check the misuse of pictures &
symbols of the Hindu deities on discardable items like packing & advertising materials,
tickets, cash memos, receipts and vouchers etc, but also to check distorted representations of
Hindu deities in idols, pictures, posters, advertisements, paintings, dramas, dances and
cinemas etc, which hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus and never the less, there
should be provisions to check placing of idols and pictures of the deities at improper places
with mala fide intentions. (The newspaper is not included in the above list of discardable
items with the hope that it will bring reformation in its publication to protect the honour of
the Hindu deities, placed on its pages, before the issue is being raised in the parliament.)
The honour of the Hindu deities is affected by many insensible activities of the
people. The younger generation emphasizes on the use of loud music during celebrations of
religious festivals. Recorded devotional songs, film songs and the so called devotional songs
in the tune of romantic film songs are played at such a high volume in the mikes, fitted at the
temples and puja pandals, that people staying in the locality are very much disturbed and at
the same time the deities worshipped in those places are disturbed to such an extent that most
probably they might have left the areas in disgust. In fact, one cannot imprison the deities
inside the temples or other places and force them to listen to such noisy music in the name of
devotion.
At some places during celebration of religious occasions, vulgar dance
programmes are arranged, hiring dancers of the same category as the bar girls, to entertain
the public, overlooking the presence of children and ladies at the spot. The girls expose their
limbs and dance to the tune of cheap film songs amidst loud cheers and whistles of the
unruly crowd. Some young men behave strangely under the influence of alcohol while some
shower currency notes on the dancing girls. The sensible persons, present on the spot, feel
embarrassed for the indecent activities in public. The deities worshipped on the occasions are
certainly offended.
28
Nowadays the festivals like Durga Puja, Ganesh Puja and Laxmi Puja etc are
celebrated in an extravagant way in some states. Huge gates are erected and the puja
pandals are lavishly decorated in order to attract the people and the media. The expenditure
in gorgeous decoration of the gates and the pandals alone will be about 10- 20 times more
than what is spent on idols and on puja, the very essence of the festivals. Even to raise a
huge fund for these celebrations, people are almost compelled by the organizers to pay the
demanded donations. In India millions of rupees are spent every year on lavish decoration
and entertainment of the people during such festivals, which is an insult to millions of poor
people, who do not possess a house of their own and cannot feed themselves twice a day. It
will be a humanitarian act if some amount is spent for the poor, reducing the expenditure on
decoration. But this will not happen. The proverb of 'Service to Humanity is service to God'
is perhaps forgotten.
Another very important matter is that a very unpleasant situation is created at many
tirthas or holy places of the Hindus, where the devotees are harassed, misbehaved and their
money extracted by the pandas or priests in the name of religion. The pandas certainly do not
fear the God and practice these activities from generation to generation as family business. Not
only Hinduism earns a bad name for such attitude of the priests towards innocent devotees,
but also the very presence of God is often questioned by the harassed devotees.
Hinduism is identified for its deities. But the deities are being neglected and
dishonoured for the last few decades in India, without much resistance from any quarter of
the majority Hindus. They are almost indifferent to these undesirable incidents. However,
the few Hindus, staying abroad, appear to be prepared to protect the dignity and honour of
their deities whenever required and they are in fact reacting sharply to any attempt to insult
the Hindu deities on foreign soil, in the West, which is praiseworthy. The Hindus should be
alert at this critical juncture, when Hinduism is already burdened with unsolved problems like
blind-beliefs, evil-practices, anti-culture and exploitations. This is a period when the modern
Hindus have little time to practice the religious activities as defined by the Hindu Panchang
and the present generation is poorly informed about Hinduism and its texts. Not only this,
being influenced by materialism, the people nowadays are distancing themselves from
religious values and taking refuge in pretention, selfishness, greed and corruption etc. While
observing religious occasions and festivals people emphasize on pomp & show and
entertainments rather than simplicity, sanctity and devotion. It seems, the future generation
will be a confused lot, if things are allowed to continue as they do.
So, it is high time our religion and our deities are protected. It is no use waiting
indefinitely for a miracle to happen. We should be sincere and dutiful to our deities. At the
same time we should be strict in our dealings with the incidents of dishonouring our deities,
so that nobody will ever dare to insult our deities. It is true that all the problems faced by our
religion cannot be solved within a few days. So the best thing is to try solving just one
problem at a time. Then why not we start with protecting the dignity and honour of our
deities?
"Jay Maa Kali"
"Jay Hanuman"
29
SAMPLES FROM COLLECTION OF DISCARDED MATERIALS BEARING PICTURES
OF HINDU GODS & GODDESSES PRESERVED
(Labels, Wrappers, Card board packets, Plastic pouches, Plastic carry bags, Pamphlets,
Receipts, Cash memos, Vouchers, Lottery tickets, Bus/Ferry tickets, Envelopes, Marriage
Invitation Cards, New Year Greeting Cards, Visiting Cards and Gunny Bags etc.)
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
DISCARDED PIECES OF NEWSPAPERS BEARING PICTURES OF HINDU DEITIES
44
45
46
47
48
DISCARDED MATERIALS BEARING PICTURES OF HINDU DEITIES IN BULK
49
50
51
52
53
####
54
Thank you for reading my book. If you liked it, won’t you please take a moment to leave me
a review at your favorite retailer?
You can also drop your review or suggestions at “santosh.behera1709@gmail.com”
Thanks!