Burger King Denigrates Goddess Lakshmi
American Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said, “It was highly disturbing to see goddess Lakshmi modeling for a meat sandwich. Lakshmi was meant to be worshiped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing meat sandwiches in the streets for mercantile greed of a global corporation.”
The poster is titled “La Merienda Es Sagrada”, which roughly translates as “Snack is sacred” and shows a meat-cheese sandwich with few other products for 1.75 Euros. What was so ‘sacred’ about a meat sandwich, Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, asked.
Rajan Zed pointed out that Hinduism promoted strict vegetarianism insisting on ahimsa (not harming living creatures) and non-killing, and renouncing animal slaughter and meat eating. It suggested taking of sattvik (vegetables, fruits, etc.) and avoiding rajasik (eggs, etc.) and tamasik (meat, intoxicants, etc.) foods.
Zed argued that there was extensive protection of life in Hinduism and ahimsa was a command. It was a clear denigration showing a Hindu goddess patronizing a meat sandwich.
Burger King should clear all such publicity material before it went to the public. If Burger King wanted its executives to learn about world religions, he was willing to help, Rajan Zed added.
UPDATE: Following the Hindu American Foundation appeal a Burger King spokesperson confirmed: "Out of respect for the Hindu community, the limited-time advertisement has been removed from the restaurants."
Comments
I do hope that Burger King removes this ad immediately. In this case ignorance is not bliss. Would point out, however, that by displaying the advertisement you are giving them more covereage than they would have otherwise had. Suggest you provide only a description. Vickie
These meat-eater western and muslim b*****ds are Disease on this planet. Burger king s*b shouid immidietly remove the ad and apologies for this.
i appeal all hindu comunity that avoid burger king forever as well as they should remove advertisement and apologize as soon as possible.
Good to see he responded to what Hindus said about the ad. There are ecological reasons not to eat red meat. The use of land used in cattle raising is very bad. Green house gases emitted from the animals in cattle raising. You can also feed more people with grain than red meat. The health issue is important, too. Those who eat red meat do not as a group live as long as those who are vegetarians or non-red meat eaters. Ahimsa is a good concept. Ahimsa is consistently applied to animals, not always equally with human beings. War seems to be the exception when speaking about ahimsa.
i appeal all hindu comunity that avoid burger king forever as well as they should remove advertisement and apologize as soon as possible.
I appeal to all members of Hindu community to avoid burger king all over the world.
Thank you for the alert about BurgerKing. No company or group or individual should have the right to profit from the exploitation of the beliefs or religions of another. And I think it’s the duty of all of us to make sure we do not support the companies who do this.
I do think Hindus and others who follow the practice of ahimsa would already be avoiding establishments like BurgerKing. Even if you only buy a salad and no meat, still your purchase is contributing to the torture, slaughter and sale of animals because the money you pay for your salad adds to the company’s profits and helps it to expand its market.
I agree with the comment made by Vickie, you should not even show this advert. As for Burger King and other such establishments they are not very clear about the ingredient list and we never know if the vegetarian option is cooked in a separate area. As a result I rarely eat out. It is a shame that the research team at BK did not understand what they were doing by using a goddess,why is it always Hinduism that is used for such uses but never any other religion ?
It is not acceptable…They can’t use Hindu culuture for their business purposes…We need to take legal action on this..
They cannot help themselves if they have to use our Hindu Goddess to promote their sales!!May Lakshmi Ma continue to educate them with the knowledge of life and not wealth and make them better humans in this life!! Kiran they use Hinduism because of our intelligence and knowledge of far and beyond !!! JAI LAKSHMI MA!!!
As a Hindu vegetarian I agree not to visit these places. Perhaps if Hindus would be more visible and less pliable, they would not have to use the term ahimsa along with curses against western or non – hindu believers (counter effective). Who is to blame for ignorance if people who do know don’t tell unknowing properly. link attached to this website article is to jobs at burger king !!http://jobsearch.about.com/od/companyprofiles/p/burgerking.htm,
lagta hai,paise to paise hota hai.
just try to live by example and try to educate people who do not know the significance of Laxmi mata.
Such an act of barbarianism exploited through sentiments of the followers of the GREATEST culture/religion, is highly objectionable. When these barbarians could not fiddle with other religions they target Hindu religion. What but a worst case of commercialism
It’s a big shame that Burger King would stoop this low to make money from Goddess Lakshmi…God help u poor people…