Discourse distortion: another Hindu dogma in AM book

From: Surabhi Mukherji <Mukherji.s99@vida. ..net...>
To: Ananda Marga Discourses
Subject: Discourse distortion: another Hindu dogma in AM book
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2015 19:21:44 +0530

Baba

Discourse distortion: another Hindu dogma in AM book

Namaskar,

Please pay attention to the following quote - and in particular the yellow highlighted section. Here Sadguru Baba guides that Lord Shiva was of a white complexion.

“In those days the Aryans were fair-complexioned, the non-Aryans dark-complexioned, and the Mongolians yellow-complexioned. But Shiva was white-complexioned. His immense purity of mind was in perfect harmony with His white complexion. Regarding His complexion it has been stated kundendu-hima-shaunkha shubhra – that is, Shiva is as white as a kunda flower… as the lovely moon… as the glittering snow… as a conch shell. Hence the epithet shubhra kalevara [“one with a white-complexioned body”]. (1)

By the above guideline - see highlighted yellow section -  it is evident that according to Ananda Marga philosophy, Lord Shiva was of white complexion.

See how they wrongly depicted Lord Shiva

Yet see here below what the publishers have done. They have printed the book - Namah Shiváya Shántáya ‘95 Edn (E) - and on the cover presented an image of  Lord Shiva. Check your own edition - and look at the scan of the cover of the NSS book below: Lord Shiva is depicted with blue skin. But that is wrong according to Baba’s above teaching - highlighted in yellow.

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So see the above scan - i.e. Lord Shiva’s picture. The publishers printed the book - Namah Shiváya Shántáya ‘95 Edn (E) - and on the cover presented an image of Lord Shiva. Look at the above scan of the cover of the NSS book: Lord Shiva is depicted according to the Hindu dogma of having blue skin. But that is wrong - see Baba’s above teaching - highlighted in yellow.

Giving way to the ritualism of Hindu dogma

Just as a reminder, the Ananda Marga "Namah Shiváya Shántáya" (NSS) book is one of the foundational texts of our philosophy. So this book has tremendous importance.

In view of this, it is shocking and unfortunate that the cover of the printed book NSS has for many years been an ideological blunder. They have given way to the ritualism of Hindu dogma and presented Lord Shiva’s skin in Hindu colour - contrary to Guru’s guideline in His NSS book (please refer to above yellow highlighted sections).

Dogmatic Hindu Depiction of Lord Shiva Is Used

Remember, the cover of a book is a representation of what it contains: A cookbook will present food on the cover; a book on ecology will have nature scenes on the cover. In this way, our book on Lord Shiva should offer a proper picture of Lord Shiva. But it is so unfortunate that a dogmatic Hindu coloured image of Lord Shiva was used on our AM book, which is directly opposite of Sadguru Baba’s teaching.

So we must not publish a book which portrays Lord Shiva’s skin in a dogmatic Hindu colour. Readers anticipate that the book cover is a representation of what the book contains: If the cover is dogmatic, then readers expect that the contents will also be dogmatic. So it goes completely against Ananda Marga ideology to print such a dogmatic photo which is 100% opposite of the teachings of Ananda Marga philosophy. See Baba’s above teaching - highlighted in yellow.

Recurring blunder: Due to Dogmatic Hindu mind-set

The NSS English version (1995) was the first to be printed with this dogmatic photo. When it came out, márgiis protested and opposed the dogmatic depiction of Lord Shiva. But the Tiljala Publishers ignored márgiis' concerns, and went on to print the NSS Hindi (1996) and NSS Bengali (2000) books with the same dogmatic depiction of Lord Shiva on the cover, showing Him with blue skin, i.e. Hindu colour.

So this is a very serious matter. An adhármic distortion of Lord Shiva's image has been printed on our Ananda Marga Publications NSS book cover, and it is brought to the attention of our Tiljala Publishers. But even then they have not cared enough to rectify the matter. Even if they could not reprint the English edition, but the matter was brought up prior to the Hindi and Bengali editions. So the book cover could easily have been corrected for those editions. Our Tiljala Publications' failure to make these above corrections is indicative of an apathetic and brazen attitude which is wholly inappropriate for publishers of our dharma shastra.

Two worst things ruin Author’s philosophical teachings

#1: Spoil that chapter or book by making it self-contradictory or aligning it with dogma;

#2: When due to sloppiness such a problem exists, readers will think the author does not know the subject matter.

These fatal flaws in our Ananda Marga literature are the direct result of the sloppiness and carelessness of Tiljala publications Dept. They are inexcusable. By these blunders, non-margii readers will not have great respect for the author - Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiji.

Namaskar,
at His lotus feet,
Surabhi Mukherji


Note 1: Where to find dogmatic Hindu Lord Shiva images 

Here is how to find a dogmatic Hindu depiction of Lord Shiva. Open your web browser and type in “Lord Shiva” in quotes in the search box. Then click on the tab for images. Then you will see all kinds of Hindu dogmatic websites projecting the image of Lord Shiva in this Hindu way. And our Tiljala publishers used that style of  dogmatic Hindu photo for the book cover. Those publishers did not abide by the teachings given by Baba in Ananda Marga philosophy. See Baba’s above teaching - highlighted in yellow.


References
1. NSS, Shiva in the Song of Shiva (Discourse 19)