Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Mar 10: Spiritual head of Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravishankar, has expressed surprise at the ruckus over painter M F Hussain’s decision to leave India and settle in Qatar. He has also criticized the renowned artist for creating nude paintings of Hindu gods.
“There is freedom of expression in India. At the same time, heaping insults by painting nude pictures of gods whom the people of the land worship, is not an acceptable act. The very motive behind this kind of creativity of this person is questionable,” he said in a statement.
Ravishankar recollects that out of the paintings of Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Hitler, which M F Hussain had painted, only Hitler’s painting was in the nude. When questioned, he had clarified that painting of a person’s nude picture is a way of insulting the man.
“No one has so far painted Seeta and Rama, who stand for high values as per Hindu mythology, in the nude. There is no objection painting any woman in the nude, but calling them by names like Seeta, Lakshmi, Saraswati etc., shows that the purpose behind the paintings is to give rise to enmity,” he added.
“Will Hussain show the same kind of enthusiasm and creativity he had shown about the Indian gods, about the heroes of Islam? Will he be able to do this in Qatar and continue to draw respect from the civilized world there? Dual principles, prejudices and hatred can never be able to be associated with sublimity,” he felt.