Upset Hindus are urging Newport (Oregon) based Rogue Ales & Spirits brewery to apologize and rename its “Shavasana” (Imperial, Granola Blonde Ale) beer; calling it highly inappropriate.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that inappropriate usage of Hindu concepts or symbols or icons or scriptures or deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, stated that Shavasana, a highly important posture in yoga, was the ultimate act of conscious surrender and was also used in Yoganidra meditation. Yogis slipped into blissful neutrality in Shavasana. It found mention in Hathayoga-pradipika, a text reportedly composed in the 15th century CE.
Yoga, an integral part of Hinduism, was considered Union with God and was a mean for transforming consciousness and attaining liberation. It found mention in ancient Hindu scriptures Upanishads and took many forms in sacred Bhagavad-Gita. Using yoga to push beer was highly insensitive and trivializing of the immensely revered body of sacred and serious knowledge, Rajan Zed pointed out.
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 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, Zed noted.
Rajan Zed further said that Hindus were for free speech and expression as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the devotees.
“Shavasana” (ABV 8%, IBU 13, SRM 7.5), releasing in March and described as “a cool-down beer”; is brewed with granola, coconut and sweet oats.
Awards-winning Rogue Ales & Spirits, founded in 1988 “as one of America’s first microbreweries”, claims to be “the only farmer-brewer-distiller-cooper in the United States”. It is said to be “available in all 50 states as well as 54 countries”. Dharma Tamm is President.
Source: World Hindu Network