Hindus have asked British singer-dancer-television personality-model-songwriter Cheryl Cole to clarify her reported resemblance to Hindu Goddess Kali in her new video “Parachute”.
According to online edition of Britain’s tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mirror: “Cheryl Cole looks like the Hindu goddess Kali while filming the video for her new single, Parachute”.
Rajan Zed, well known Hindu statesman, and Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening, in a statement today in USA, said that Goddess Kali was highly revered in Hinduism and she was meant to be worshipped in temples and not to be duplicated in music videos for publicity stunts or thrown around loosely for dramatic effects.
Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at; Zed said and added that inappropriate use of Hinduism concepts and symbols was not okay.
Hindus welcomed Hollywood, British and other entertainment industries to immerse in Hinduism but taking it seriously and respectfully and not just for indecorous showing of Hindu symbols and concepts to advance their selfish agenda. Casual flirting sometimes resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols and hurting the devotees, Rajan Zed pointed out.
Cheryl Ann Cole, 26, nominated to four BRIT Awards, won Best Single for “The Promise”. Cole, who had been referred as “the nation’s new sweetheart”, had achieved four number ones on UK top ten singles, reports suggest.
Goddess Kali, who personifies Sakti or divine energy, is widely worshipped in Hinduism. She is considered the goddess of time and change. Some Bengali poets described her as supreme deity.