Friday, June 10, 2011

Analyzing Hindu Philosophy: Hindu Gods, Nudity and MF Hussain

http://analytic-philosophy.blogspot.com/2011/06/hindu-gods-nudity-and-mf-hussain.html


Here is a link to MF Hussain paintings: 

http://budhan.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/m-f-hussains-paintings/

I often encounter people that defend Hussein's nude goddess art saying something along one of these lines:



  1. We have nude sculptures in erotic postures in Khajuraho & elsewhere. 
  2. We have nude gods sculpted in Hoysala temples 
  3. Ours is the land of Kamasutra. Nudity is celebrated 
  4. There are statues of nude Bahubali worshipped.  

I would like to remind everyone that none of these arguments make sense.



  1. Khajuraho, Hoysala temple sculptures do not depict the gods and godesses. They are demi gods (like angels for instance) meant to convey a few spiritual points. They are NOT worshiped. 
  2. Kamasutra has never used Gods to depict sexual postures. 
  3. Bahubali is not a God. Jains dont believe in God. He is also not one among their 24 thirthankaras. His nudity indicates complete renunciation. 

Nudity has always been associated with renunciation in spirituality not just in India, but elsewhere too.



  1. Lord Krishna's story when Gopis clothes were stolen by Krishna to drive home the point that one has to rise above bodily inhibitions to attain God. 
  2. Bible quotes Jesus saying one has to go nude to the God.  
  3. Dattatreya the first Aghora was a Digambara.
  4. Jains and Aghoras, the epitome of worldy renunciation might bear no robes as a symbolic gesture and their own spiritual sadhana. 
  5. In Tantra, a few of the Dasha-MahaVidya godesses Kali, Tara, Bhairavi etc. are depicted nude. Bhairavi depiction is with blood smeared over the breasts.  

In these cases the nudity and the graphic nature symbolizes certain deep spiritual nature (Interested folks should read David Frawley's Tantric Yoga and Wisdome Godesesses http://amzn.to/kBJs7G ).



Can you recall how many of the stotras describe the beauty of Goddesses in very very graphic nature? I have lost count.


I'd quote one example. Adi Shankaracharya - one of the foremost monks and spiritually enlightened saint describes the Goddess Lalita Tripura Sundari as "Latha Phala Kucha Dwayi". That means the one with breasts with the size of the firm and right sized fruit on a creeper.



Nudity and nude descriptions, graphics have a place when done right. Normal nude paintings and sculptures do not use Gods and Goddesses.  When Gods and Godesses are depicted nude, it is strictly in a spiritual context.



Vivekananda said "Unless you are spiritually mature  enough, don't read Raslila, because you are going to mis read it". 

That's exactly happening In MF Hussain's context. He has no maturity, no class and applies nudity to the Hindu Gods in a totally wrong context in a wrong manner with the intention of generating controversy.



We all know bikini has its place in the sunny beaches. But one cannot walk into the corporate board room in bikini in the name of freedom of expression and not alienate folks and not generate controversy. 

While I do believe in freedom of expression, there is a saying in legal circles : "If one shouts 'Bomb' in a packed movie theater, one surely has exercised their freedom of expression but is responsible for the mayhem"

MF Hussain said in an interview 8 years ago that he has depicted Hitler naked to humiliate him and as he deserves it.  But then he depicted all of Hindu goddesses and even India nude and claimed nudity is a symbol of purity. Why this hypocrisy?  Did he paint his mother nude? Why not? He also painted his daughter clothed.


For all his nude art, India has been really tolerant towards him. There had been no attempts on his life. Few protests and attempts to destroy his nude art and a dozen lawsuits were filed against him.


Compare it with the case of



  1. Kerala professor whose hands got chopped off
  2. Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who lives in permanent fear with 3 attempts on his life due to his one cartoon 
  3. Salman Rushdie when our government rushed to ban his books, never allowed back to India and lives in permanent exile in UK 
  4. There was lot of push to ban DaVinci Code (I dont know if it materialized finally).
  5. Denying the stay of Taslima Nasreen in India

You be the judge.




I am no fan of modern art, but going by experts opinion, he was best among Indian modern art and should have just sticked with that. All his artistic talent is belittled by his "taking for granted" attitude and sheer mockery of faith of billions in the name of art. Mutual respect and respect of other's faith is the cornerstone of social human relationships. MF fails badly in that litmus test.
 

Those who express solidarity with him should apply the same rule always and express solidarity with the Danish cartoonist and others. I am sure none of them do for the fear of arm, limb, life or votes.



As they say in Sanskrit


Ashwam naiva, Gajam naiva, Vyagram naiva cha. 
Ajaputram balim dadhatu devo durbala ghatakaha


which translates as


Even the Gods are against the weak.When it come to sacrifice, we do not sacrifice a horse or an elephant or even for that matter a tiger. What ultimately is used for sacrifice is the poor goat

While the above statement is literally not true, it figuratively indicates the state of mind of Hindus today.



For me it is simple: No religion should be violated. Neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Christian nor Jew.



Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavantu (Let all people live happily and prosperously)


But then that is only a mirage as long as we have people like MF and minority appeasing parties drooling for the votebank.

An open letter to our Prime Minister

An open letter to our Prime Minister: "This article is a piece of fearless writing by a fearless Indian Citizen. It is eye opening article for every Indian and hope that this would open eyes of our 'honourable' Prime Minister. The letter is regarding Ramlila agitation crushed by Govt."

Death of a Pervert: May His Soul Burn in Hell

Death of a Pervert: May His Soul Burn in Hell: "

Death totally destroys any sense of perspective in most people. The more famous a death is, the greater the perspective-destruction. Every idiot will become intelligent in death and the vilest degenerate will be sanctified. It’s not their fault, it’s the fault of the everyday idiots who are still living, who want to sound composed and dignified and saintly and even philosophical. The evil that men do lives after them, and the good may or not oft be interred in their bones but what of a lifetime spent in the limelight behind which lies some shrewd deception ? Death doesn’t somehow automatically nullify that.

May his soul burn in hell. Whatever be his technical expertise and skill at painting and the rest, he was primarily a pervert who created a fake aura around himself and routinely hid under the blanket of freedom of expression he selectively applied to himself. It is for this reason barring all other reasons that this man deserves nary a kind word. Even in death.

Let’s think about the whole eruption of the Husain controversy. When can we reasonably date Husain’s run-ins with the deadly Hindu groups? Answer: the mid-90s. But these paintings were first done by the arch-degenerate sometime in 1970. A Hindi magazine ran these pictures in 1996 terming them offensive. So why didn’t anybody take notice of his pictures for 26 long years? The answer: politics, control of information and the Progressive clique. The ‘70s was truly the most oppressive decade since Independence. And look what happened after the Communists and Congress lost ground ever since. A good case is how the “art” films died as quickly as they were born. Subsequent political and social developments broke this control and voices previously unheard began to spread throughout the country. An indicator of these developments is the fact that the Progressives were at their rabid worst in the ‘90s, which was the decade when there was a resurgence of sorts among Hindus.

I’d have said this was a case of bad behaviour but this isn’t merely bad behaviour. Every society grants a wide latitude to its men and women of the arts. Normal societal mores don’t apply to them because they have earned the right to indulge in bad behaviour, immorality, etc—or so goes the general reasoning. Which is perfectly fine. But then they’re citizens first and nobody is above the law of the land. Even the Icon of Artistic Debauchery. But that’s not all: this arch-pervert not only does not disregard the law, he flees the country, takes a Qatari citizenship and whines via remote control about how his right to free expression was constantly threatened in India. But the real reason is the fact that he’s above the law to appear before any court. Ok, I made that up. A non-bailable warrant means spending some time behind bars. The very thought is sufficient to sully his fair name. And when does his remote-control whining happen? After he has received long years of singular support from the secular-liberal brigandry, after he’s accepted both the Padma awards from the government, after he has sat in the Rajya Sabha and after he has savoured the magnanimity of a majority of Hindus throughout his career. Hussain was not only a coward but a deeply ungrateful person who bit the hand that fed him with a golden spoon.

May his soul burn in hell.

"

Haindava Keralam - Home Minister of India appreciates RSS

http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=14009

Home Minister of India appreciates RSS (knowingly or unknowingly)


RSS behind anti corruption movement – says P Chidambaram the Home Minister of India.

Knowingly or unknowingly India’s Home minister is complimenting RSS in its effort to contain corruption in India. In his own words

"Who is behind Baba Ramdev? We go back to March 2011 at a meeting in Putthur in Karnataka, the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the apex body of RSS, decided to organise support of all individuals and institutions that were ranged in the fight against corruption."


"On April 7, the RSS announced the formation of an anti-corruption front which had Baba Ramdev as its patron,"
Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram has the courage to tell the truth. Yes. RSS is against corruption and that is one of the resolution RSS passed in the last ABPS (Akhil Bharatheeya Prathinidhi Sabha Sammelan) attended by more than 1400 delegates of RSS across the country and outside.  It was agreed upon to support any anti-corruption movement in India by RSS. Thanks for appreciating this fact Chidambaram. Now you may read other resolutions also @

http://rssonnet.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155

Understanding RSS to its core values will be the right thing Mr. PC at this time.  Some more facts you may recite some time later as below.

RSS the biggest patriotic social service organization in India and it maintains transparency in every step it takes. RSS runs more than 45000 service projects in the field of charity and educational services.