Krishna and Arjuna Have a Coke And a Smile
How would the Baghavad Gita have been different if Arjuna and Krishna, instead of blowing on their conch shells, took a long drink of Coca-Cola? That’s the scenario that this mythological mashup imagines.
Is it appropriate, or not? Why do you think so?
UPDATE: A clarification and explanation of the use of this image is now available… along with a similar image of Jesus.
122 responses to “Krishna and Arjuna Have a Coke And a Smile”
Trackbacks / Pingbacks
- - March 17, 2013
Ithaca Myth 
how dare you raskulla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!mind it.
who do such things joking hindu gods must b punished
activities of demons in kali yuga
you can be booked for this image. Pay some respect for religious values and emotions
This is very inappropriate and derogatory to Hindus. Vaishnavs do not consume caffeine or any mind altering agents irresprective of the social acceptability of the same and to depict the lord of the Vaishnavs to do so is a direct insult to us. You will now come back to me with the rich history of mind altering material consumption in Hinduism but you need to look at Vaishnav Philosophy of which Lord Krishna is the deity.
Warning : Delete this photo in 48 hours, this make Shame of Hinduism, otherwise we will take legal action on you.
(Hindu Nayay Petth)
a very pathetic image of the Lord and his disciple having a tamasic drink. How dare such images find places in websites thus denigrating hindu gods? Please remove this picture. It is not a joke having such pictures
Dear Sir, your Krishna and Arjuna depiction has offended millions of Hindus world wide. Your post is very offensive to honest practitioners worldwide, and completely symbolises exactly the opposite of what the Bhagavad Gita preaches. Moreover, you are in direct violation of copyrights of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
Kindly remove this image.
not aprpriate………fully oppose this act of yours…..
This is a denigration of Lord Krishna and Arjun. We request you to please remove this picture from your blog.
October 20, 2014
Protest against the picture of Shrikrishna and Arjun drinking coke
Namaste,
We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have received complaints from Hindus regarding a picture on your blog –
where you have shown Lord Krishna and Arjun drinking coke instead of blowing a conch.
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is a registered NGO in India doing social, Hindu Dharma related and national welfare work. The Samiti is also active throughout the world, educating people about Hindu Dharma in a scientific way, campaigning against malpractices done as Hindu Dharma related practices and solving problems related to misrepresentation of Hindu Dharma. For further details please refer to our website http://www.HinduJagruti.org.
We are sending this letter to you to inform you about the blatant denigration of Lord Krishna through the picture on your blog. Lord Krishna is highly revered Deity Who is worshipped by millions of Hindus. This depiction of Lord Krishna drinking coke is a denigration of Hinduism and it hurts the sentiments of Hindus. As per Hinduism, Deities are eternal principles of God that carry out different functions in the universe. Every principle is associated with its specific sound, word, touch, form, taste, smell and energy. To depict a Deity in a form through a picture or idol, there are very specific rules to be followed as per Holy Hindu scriptures. Not conforming to which leads to denigration and loss of Divine Consciousness from the picture, leading to a grave sin. Similarly, showing Arjun, a revered figure from the Hindu Holy epic of Mahabharata, drinking coke trivializes him and the Holy epic. So we request you to remove this image from your website immediately.
We protest the denigration caused by this image and hope that you will remove it immediately from your website to prevent further hurting the sentiments of Hindus throughout the world.
Sincerely,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
kindly remove this page.
we respect Lord Krishna. it hurts our feeling, u are authority to make fun of our God. Please give respect to Religion and God.
thank HJS.
YOU PEOPLE ARE DOING WONDERFUL JOB.
SHAME ON THIS ANTI – HINDU COMPANY.
How can you say like this? Aren’t you a human?
Plz Remove the Photo where Lord Krishna and Arjun holding Coke ,U are Hurting Sentiments of Hindus ,Iam a Devotee of Lord Krishna it hurts me seeing this photo u are making Fun of Our God ,Please dont make fun of any Religion God ,Give Respect and Take Respect ,
This a humble request to pls remove the content as it hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus all over the world. The content is totally illogical and baseless. Imagine soldiers drinking coke before a war. Isn’t that illogical?
I request you to remove the contents as soon as possible. Thank you.
How would it be different if somebody rapes your mother in a open street.
I don’t know that you did this sin by knowing or unknowingly , the denigration of lord Krishna and worrior arjun. Denigrating of hindu gods has been a trend now a days. You dare to insult my Krishna because we don’t react unlike others? If we react I don’t think there may be any residue of you. If you want to gain popularity please denigrate any Muslim saint or lord Jesus. You can’t imagine how much popularity you will get. Try it you will enjoy the popularity. If you you have any self respect please try to dare above mentioned idea.
How dare you to use Krishna and Arjun for these kind of promotions???? How would it be if all Krishna devotees beat you like a dog…. Be in your limits… Otherwise will have to take legal actions.
Why did u not give coke bottle to Mohammad Paigambar and Jesus Christ ? Are you dare enough to do such Blunder… So keep yourself away from Hindu religious sentiments
how dare u to make dis picture? i felt so bad. are u making joke about our god? say sorry & remove dis scene immediately otherwise we will ban koke
Just take off this picture and do not harm our faith.
I strongly condeMN on this, if u dont remove. It will be issue on front soon
i am very unhappy about this type of picture making a fun of our god and religion ,plz remove this immidietly .
I PROTEST
Hey bladypolls take down this post immdiatly
please do NOT post such photos. you are insulting a HINDU god ,, please remove . and do not repeat it.
dhikkaara
A gandu coco cola company nema promoting e rerethi yak madthira
This is dirty gimmick and cheap work. don’t you think that this hurts sentiments of Hindus?, Do you dare to give a coke bottle to Jesus or Prophet?
If you have guts post the same type of photo of other community
Remove the Arjuna & Sri Krishna Image. Because the images are not good and it hurts our religious sentiments. Mahabharatha is not Myth or mythology, it has occurred in 5000BCE.
If you have the same darness put Mohammedans photo?
Hello every Hindhu, let’s stop drinking coke. Please please please take it as a oath and follow it. Let’s teach them a lesson..
@Shiva : Great Idea! I have no habit of drinking coke and other soft drinks… But the Idea is good. Let us promote for #boycottcoke to teach them a lesson.
These people are deliberately doing this but no guts to do with other religion.
We have to be well connected not only online, social media but in the reality…
Pl. anyone check for the host provider and complaint. We can remove the entire site from public domain. And cancel his account as per international rules.
This is not right.. devarannu poojisabeke horatu avahelana maduvudu sariyalla…
this would hurt the sentiments of hindus. do you dare this on crist or mohammod pigambar?
You are really foolish my friend.
stuppids
remove this picture from your blog.
Denigration of Lord Krishna…you must have lost your mind…remove this and respect the religious feelings of Hindus….else try to understand ‘Vinaash kale vipareet buddhi’…!!!!
Remove this
This is Inappropriate
just because one can imagine & think; it should not be extended like this simply as he wish, which hurts sentiments of others & also the main intention and concept of some such ideals are projected as value-less!
Please delete this photo immediately
he tumhi khup chukiche kele aahe .ya mule aamachya dhramik bhaavana dukhavlya gelya aahet.
Tumhi tvarit ha photo prashepit karanyache thambava. Hi tunhala kal kalichi vinati karato.
All hindu stop drinking cok
You are right!
it shows the low mentality of you people, even though u are hurting a religion and faith, u yourself are exposing ur lowness of ur thinking . shame on u.
stupid… have some manners
We should have BANNED coca cola long before. better late than never. Let us BAN this harmful drink FOR EVER
Remove this
this is insult to our religion, Remove this picture immediately.
This is utter nonsense. You are denigrating Lord Krishna with this act. Remove this adv. from the site immediately and offer a public apology.
This is a denigration of Lord Krishna and Arjun. We request you to please remove this picture from your blog.
This is the worst imagination pls stop this type of thinking.
Who ever it may b posted it , its nt good to play wit d devotional feeling of HINDUS and and its spiritual idols . If d picture is not as soon as possible . The result will not be a good one.
What foolish idea! Whose the stupid imagine this immediately remove it and don’t repeat
Please remove this picture as quick as possiblr and say sorry for this. Try to respect the God’s of other religion. You can be booked for this. Hope u will understand this and do it quuckly.
Remove this, I apologise to my lord krishna & and his deity.
This would hurt the sentiments of hindus. do you dare this on crist or mohammod pigambar? I am very unhappy about this type of picture making a fun of our god and religion ,plz remove this immediately.
We protest your ad where you have insulted our God Krishna and Arjuna. You dont have any right to hurt any religion in your advertisements. we will bann all your products.
You are doing SEX wih your MOTHER. Is it appropriate, or not? Why do you think so?
How dare you ..It’s notfine ok..remove the photo urgently..
No respect to religion. these people should be hanged
This can happen only with the Hindus god, they know that Hindu people will not do anything, we need to do something very massive against this,so that no body will dare think in dream also to do such a bad thing.isn’t it ??
I Strongly protest this..!
Shame on bloody coca company…We all have to boycott on all products of this foolish company..
They don’t have right to promote their product in such a way. this is strongly regrettable.
I strongly condemn this. How dare this foolish coca use such advertisements and insult the feelings of Hindus.This web site and the coca co should be dragged to court for legal action.
hey nim appa tagonx hovi aaa kerosin drink kottidna nam devrge lofer nin India ali iro gandige huttidadre aaa delete dat post
to the admin why dont you add images of lord jesus having coke and giving blessing in the form of coke…why u always go for the Indian God don’t u have some sense, it’s really a foolish act i would like to kick this coke company
whos this bchot machot this add coke unki maa ki aankh
dont u hav commom sense, u are insulting hindus by that photo. First remove it else get ready to Face 80 crore HINDUS
Stop engaging in such absurd and outrageous activities. Dare to do the same with other religion. I am deeply hurt by your insensitive act. Please please please remove the pic instantly.
Please Dont hurt the feelings of hindu’s. Delete the pic Asap.
This is denigration of lord shreekrushna and arjuna. You can’t use such type of photos for your advertisement. You can also promote your products in another way. We protest for this.And requesting you to remove this photo from your blog as soon as possible…..!!
This would hurt the sentiments of
hindus. do you dare this on crist or
mohammod pigambar? I am very
unhappy about this type of picture
making a fun of our god and
religion ,plz remove this immediately.
Please Dont hurt the feelings of
hindu’s. Delete the pic
Pls remove this you 3rd class people’s
please remove this photo / advertising. ..
Dear Sir/Madam,
What happened 5.000 years ago is Arjuna having deepest inner struggle because he felt obliged to fight members of his own family. Imagine you yourself being in the most fundamental anguish: you don’t know what to decide, so you feel torne apart. Because discussion brings you nowhere, and you will desperately need inner peace, you then will need help based on purity only.
You will need a kind heart, a peaceful mind, a loving soul. Someone who knows what life is about.
This is what happens depicted in the original painting… Arjuna calling out and receiving help from ‘the universe’ through Krishna.
Lord Krishna knows everything there is to know and be. This is because he lives in complete unity, where there is no doubt whatsoever.
May be for you it’s not so easy to understand. But you must have had experience in your life of total peace. If you don’t know, then may be it was in your childhood or when you were a baby?
For Hindus unity in every sense is a natural way of living. I myself am so happy Hinduism exists. It indeed is based on the deepest inner beauty possible.
It is far better to contact our inner peace in stead of knowing better already…
What you have done gives so much hurt in the being of a Hindu, and in mine, not in the least because through this ‘west’ and ‘east’ are invited to offend each other.
Besides, nothing would have happened, if Arjuna and Krishna would have taken a coke, nothing that really matters. The thing is, they didn’t and would never do so, just because ther’s no solution in it.
I hope you do appreciate my sincere respond to your interpretation of the painting, which originally depicts the moment the solution to Arjuna’s quest has come through Krishna.
Why not live in love and truth?
Herewith I add my deep regrets to Hindus.
Namaste,
Lydwina
Please remove this photo.
This is not a fair job…remove the picture or u will face lot of problems.
You boldy fukker why r u insulting my god
REMOVE THIS PHOTO QUICKLY OTHER WISE WE REPLY YOU IN OUR SHIVSENA STYLE.:-
Please Dont hurt the feelings of hindu’s. Delete the picture immediately
you, motherfucker! remove this picture from your site. otherwise Hindu will teach you lession.
Please Stop this insulting our Daities u dont know what is hindu dharma.
how you people do this way, insulting our Hindu Dharma? Can you the same with Islam and Christians?
remove tthis picture …we respect our gods and dont like fun with pics like that…change /replace this pictures with your respected one (like your parents ) but dont play with our emoitions…..otherwise legal way is the better for it 🙂
Hi…………immediately removed such pic which hearts our religious sentiment. Otherwise it will definitely impact sales of Coco cola and its products sales in india and through out the world..
Regards,
Diptesh Patil
Remove that krushna Arjuna coke post quickly , dont insults any others religious beliefs and thought , its warnings to you neither will land up in legal problems.
Delete this picture immediately otherwise you will have to suffer very badly and apologize about it to all.
What foolishness is this..you should respect others culture & religion.
FROM TODAY & FROM NOW ONWARDS I WILL NEVER DRINK COCACOLA PRODUCTS.
Why this kind of photos not posted for other religion god………if you think you not hurt there sentiment of Hindus,then please post the same pic with your god……..what ever you belongs to.
you must not do this we workship lord Krishna and you are denigating him.
What the hell the picture is this?? How dare you to play one billion followers faith??
Our humble request to remove it instantly otherwise we have to take legal action against you. We will take you to the court.
Mind it!!
Yes, it’s legal. So what? It doesn’t look like you would have gotten any attention without doing something disrespectful. So basically, it’s clickbait. With regard to your question: your question is meaningless nonsense. You don’t really have a point, so you go for shock value and offensiveness.
A Big Shame !!! The publisher will reap the concequences et get reactions for Blaspheming the Lord.
How one can hurt anyone’s religious feelings?What if some idiot does the same with other religions? Shame on the advertizers.
You stupid dont heart hindu feeling every hindu must boycott cocacola stupid one remove bad photo of hindu god otherwise all hindus will teach u a big lesson
This is not any sort of advertisement. You people are making fun of religious values. How will you feel if this happens with your religion?
I never thought that people would do such an insult to religious values… Shame on you advertisers.
Please delete this picture as soon as possible. Your brand is a good one, but if commit such nonsense, all Hindus will protest against your brand.
This is such a big insult for us Hindus. You people will understand this when this will happen with the picture of your God. This is not any sort of advertisement. This is an insult to Lord Krishna and Arjun.
Never forget that just like your Bible or Quran,
Lord Krishna and Arjun are the recipients of our Holy book, Bagavad Gita.
You won’t understand our feelings until you experience the same with your Gods. Pay some respect to religious values. Shame on you advertisers. I protest against this nonsensical and stupid act.
Remove this picture immediately. Otherwise we Hindus will not purchase this type of cheap product …
नहीँ हटाएगा बे ।
You mother fucker,, you say this is freedom of speech,,, what if,, I say.. I wanna fuck your mother because your mother is a bitch,, so Tell me ? these could be the bast example of freedom of speech… you moron..
What the fuck we have done to you and your religion,,, we have never ever abuse you people and your religion ever then why did you do this? Even still I am not abusing your religion… Because every religion give us the way to live and pursue the ultimate goal to achieve the final destination….
Do one thing! Go home ask your mother? That someone want to fuck you these was expression of someone,,, because that someone also have right to speech……and no one has any authority and censorship to stop anyone neither Pop and any other religious people…
“ Freedom of speech “ and “right to speech”
Oh’’’God forgive me how can I stoop like these all people ,,, how can I be so moron and abusing a women like these,,,,,I don’t know but I can’t resist myself…
Before writing any filthy comments cut your fucking hands Brian, Don’t Comment If you don’t know anything, fuck off you ‘randwe’. Brian you are such a motherfucker. You abuse is that freedom of speech, right to speech? Fuck you Moron.. Idiot go fuck your bitchy mom and piggy dad to get more freedom. What would you do if some people make laugh at your Jesus, do you fuck your mom at that time? Don’t think you’ll abuse and we wont say anything. We Indians know how to treat a moron. You act like you realised you abused that was bad. You say “God forgive me” LOL I laugh at this statement. You should know that abusing our God means you abuse your God because the Almighty God is one… You are involved in religious mockery, you are making your fun. So God cant forgive you.
Don’t cross limit otherwise there will be sever consequences. .
Americans are getting dumber and dumber each day -_- I bet no god is with them, or they don’t need the feel of god in their lives ! Most idiot people on earth is Americans and everyday they show it in one way or another, I bet that don’t even respect their mother and father let alone Gods. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that you can mock any god you like. Shame on you for this kind of cheap work.
Actually, ezi, freedom of speech does mean that I can mock any god that I like… and I do.
Dont try to play with Hindu Fire
They hurt hindus by doing this unbearable activity.
Person or brand who done this must be punished very soon.
I strongly condemn this advertisement. Hinduism is not for fun, Its about high culture and High moral values. Delete this Ad. and surrender to Lord Krishna to learn some culture.
punish thm wh did such job..
Hoe dare u to do this…must be launch an FIR in police station & su u in court
you have no right to insult Hindu religious Lord Krishna… if you’re production is not capable to make businesses don’t get help Lord Krishna spirit… can you make this type of posters like mother marry and yeshu …..so don’t hurting Hindu’s religious sentiment…. and kind your information We are Aryans ( The Worrier’s)
Are you devils?you have no respect for other religen..you are anti god lovers…
You should respect the religious views of every community and remove this photo from your advertisement. Otherwise legal action will be taken against you.
What rubbish it is. R they maid who design it. It will b punishable offense of hurt the Hindu religion.
Plz delete this disgusting pic . Or WE HINDUS WILL HAVE TO RETALIATE.
Firstly: I’m sorry that you’ve had any kind of threatening and violent response. That is not acceptable and against the laws as well as the teachings of practically any legitimate religion, including Hinduism & the Vedic tradition.
Secondly: Yes, you do have the full right of free speech. That is clear.
HOWEVER, you also have the ability to voluntarily be considerate of others who do not share your beliefs and to be sensitive to religious sentiments.
A little background that you may not be aware of: Many followers of the Vedic tradition do not take caffeine in any form. That includes tea, coffee, and yes, Coke. That Krishna and Arjuna are depicted in the picture as not only without their conchshells, but with something forbidden, makes it even more offensive.
That image you used, the original image without the coke bottles, happens to be from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, an ISKCON (Hare Krishna) publishing outlet. The Hare Krishnas, as it so happens, generally do not take caffeine.
Now, the Hare Krishnas are pretty tolerant, good-spirited people, and probably won’t be of the type to make huge campaigns or write nasty comments on your blog. But many Hindus are aware of their voluntary restrictions, and even those who do not follow such principles are happy to defend those who do.
Furthermore, they aren’t the only followers of the Vedic tradition who choose to abstain from caffeine, as other do as well. Plenty of others also do. To them, it’s practically like an image of Jesus smoking pot: absolutely offensive, totally pointless, probably senselessly intended to provoke negative emotion, and not at all representative of Who the Person depicted is or what He is really like.
Thirdly: You are also free to have a discussion about whatever you want. With all due respect, however, of this one I fail to see the point.
It is not the conchshells that started the Mahabharata war; the conchshells were just to announce the start of an already pre-determined battle. Furthermore, Krishna and Arjuna weren’t the only conchshell blowers, as practically every other major fighter in the Mahabharata war also did. An even cursory glance at the first chapter of the Bhagavad-gita (available here http://vedabase.com/en/bg ) would tell you all of this pretty quickly.
So what if Krishna and Arjuna decided to stop and take a cold drink while everyone else was blowing conchshells? Quite frankly, probably nothing would have been different. The battle was already practically ready to start at that point. Arjuna’s sudden shrinking back from the fight right at the start of the battle is what prompted the discussion that became the Bhagavad Gita. Neither that reaction, nor the actual start of the battle itself, likely would have changed, as a result of Krishna and Arjuna momentarily putting down their conchshells for a moment and taking a cold drink.
Forgive me if I am missing the point here that you are trying to make. But to me, this seems to be filed neatly into the ‘pointless discussion’ category.
If it were a discussion that produced something meaningful – that may raise important questions that lead to progressive improvement of society, for instance – then it might make sense. This, however, is not the case.
That’s not to say that you don’t have the right to have it. You do. But why do it, if all it really serves to do is to offend people? It is unnecessary.
Think about the Golden Rule: even outside of the context of religion, you would not want to unnecessarily hurt someone, offend them, or make them feel bad, just for the sake of doing so, or just because you have the ability or legal right to do so. Because you wouldn’t want that treatment by others of you.
So, even if you have the legal right not to do so, why not apply that rule here?
Jennifer, the Golden Rule is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, not to tiptoe around other people because of their particular sensitivities.
I would not mind if people made new images playfully changing, satirizing, or even mocking the meaning of the images and ideas that are important to me. I am secure enough in my own ideas to accept dissent against them.