Bid to ban Hindu Gita by russian church

According to David Frawley, a highly recognised American scholar who has written many books on Hinduism, “The form of Hinduism that Western people are exposed to today is no longer the image projected by colonial India or India merely as a far country in Asia, but the Hindu diaspora which is generally affluent and sophisticated. Hindus in both the UK and the USA are among the most affluent and well educated of all ethnic groups.” He continues: “They belong more to the elite than the backward classes in the West. Their portrayal of their religion reflects their new status. The beautiful London Swami Narayan Temple shows the image of this resurgent Hinduism with an ornate marble and teak architecture while the churches of England are often rundown and closed or sold.”

One of the most popular Hindu texts is the Gita which is described as the song of Lord Krishna. The important theme of the Gita is its confirmation of the principle of the Avatar or of the advent of the Supreme Being which occurs from age to age in response to a particular need or crisis. The Hare Krishna movement in the USA has attracted tens of thousands of young Americans who joyfully dance the streets of New York and other major US cities singing of the stories of Lord Krishna. But in Russia, that has only recently found its own freedom to join the civilised world, its Christian Orthodox Church has filed a case in the city of Tomsk to ban the Gita, describing it as extremist.

The prosecutors on behalf of the Christian Orthodox Church argue that the Bhagavad Gita, a widely distributed book translated by Swami Prabhupada, should be included in the list of banned books in Russia as extremist literature. Hindus in T&T and worldwide are shocked that the Christian Orthodox church of Russia, which itself was virtually banned by Stalin and other anti-church, anti-God politicians, should seek to ban a religious book that has been recognised throughout the world for more than 3,000 years. Hindus from across the world are responding to this attempt to deny the average Russian a new perspective of Hinduism and its literature that is only now being revealed to the rest of the civilised world.

To this end the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation based in the USA, through the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, has written the President of Russia, Dmitry A Medvedev: Global Hindu Heritage Foundation wants to express its shock, disappointment, displeasure, indignation and outrage at the prospect of banning the Bhagavad Gita, the most sacred scripture of Hindus, the most peaceful, highly spiritual, everlasting serene, overwhelmingly anti-terrorist, abundantly accommodative, amply tolerant of diverse beliefs and profusely non-sectarian book that has ever graced this mother Earth. All over the world, people have commended the Bhagavad Gita, adored it, appreciated it, lauded it, applauded it and admired it. Many scholars, poets, writers, Nobel laureates dived deep into the ocean of the Bhagavad Gita to gather the pearls of wisdom, enriched their lives by its message, and drank the elixir of the mighty powerful knowledge hidden in it.

We are happy to know that the court has postponed the judgment. We request the Russian government to examine the Bhagavad Gita and appoint global scholars of Nobel laureates’ status and testify at the court. Let the world know the real interest of the people who are behind this case. Teachings and philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita received admirations from prominent people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Schopenhauer, Aldous Huxley, Einstein, J Robert Oppenheimer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, Heinrich Himmler, Herman Hesse and others. Neither the Bhagavad Gita nor any Hindu scripture such as Ve-das, Upanishads, Itihasas etc advocated the denial of freedom of speech, propagated terrorism, declared jihad, promoted crusades, engaged in mass killings of non-believers. Hindu scriptures encourage self-development, self- evaluation, spiritual progress and enlightenment.

One of the most reputable sons of Russia, Leo Tolstoy, was greatly influenced by the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tamil Tiruk-kural and the Indian spiritual literature of his time. Milan Marko- vitch, author of Tolstoi et Gandhi, wrote: that “which is not inspired, in part, by Hindu thought... His was a Christianity underpinned by the great Hindu doctrines.” Mr Alexander Shifman, research scholar of Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, wrote in his article entitled “A Leo Tolstoy and the Indian Epics,” published in several papers during Tolstoy centenary celebrations in 1963: “Leo Tolstoy was deeply interested in ancient Indian literature and its epics. The themes of the Vedas were the first to attract his attention. Appreciating the profundity of the Vedas, Tolstoy gave a particular attention to those cantos which deal with the problem of ethics, a subject which interested him deeply.”

On behalf of the Hindu community across the globe, GHHF requests the Russian Government to take appropriate action to squash the prospects of banning the Bhagavad Gita, restore the prospect of peaceful co-existence, allow the freedom of speech and encourage people to practise their respective religions with no intention of destroying the other faiths.
 

• Satnarayan Maharaj is the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha