Ganesh Leela courts ‘divine’ controversy

Sahara One’s Ganesh Leela finds itself in a controversy of divine proportions. Swamy (Dr.) Raj Baldev, a 83-year-old veteran Cosmo theorist and Hindu scholar, has sent an e-mail to the channel alleging that the show has distorted facts by projecting Lord Ganesha as the Supreme God (bigger than Vishnu too) thereby hurting sentiments of the Hindus. Baldev’s allegations are based on the events shown in the two episodes on 14 and 15 September. Dr.Baldev is the lead man of God Believers (Divine, Social, Human Rights & World Peace Mission) and President of Academy of Krishna Philosophy. “The producer of the serial of Ganesh Leela is also creating illogical and fictitious stories to give the most exalted status of All Gods to Ganesh Ji, who is a demi God No. 1, blessed by Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology, and was privileged to be respecting first before starting any worship just to purify the devotee,” said Baldev in his e-mail. Adding further he said, “Ganesh Leela”, which is being telecast on your channel, has grave errors right from its beginning and the episodes mainly show that ultimately Lord Ganesha superseded even the Supreme God Head Lord Vishnu, His Cabinet Gods, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva in the serial telecast on 14 and 15 September, 2009 and they were forced to worship Lord Ganesha to get their problem solved.” In the Hindu literature, the Supreme God is Lord Vishnu, He is the real God Head, the Primeval Particle, the God Particle, the beginning of everything and even He has been let down with His other two main personal cabinet Gods i.e. Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva and all of them were forced to get blessings from Lord Ganesha to kill their enemy”, Baldev opined. The cosmo theorist has threatened to file a PIL in Delhi High Court and woudn’t hesitate in taking the matter to Supreme Court too. Sahara One creative director Musthaq Shiekh has refuted these allegations. “Let me very clearly and humbly state that there is no distortion of facts in our show Ganesh Leela. Dheeraj Kumar is a respected name and has to his credit, mythological shows which have never tampered with the authentic books they are derived from. And the very same can be said about Ganesh Leela with great deal of confidence.” Backing his claim, Sheikh adds, “Ganesh Leela has been derived from ancient scriptures namely Shree ganesh puran, Shree ganesh ank, Shree mudgal puran, brahma vaivart puran, shiv puran, shree ganpatyopanishad, Shree ganesh geeta, Skand puran and many more respected books and care as been taken to stick to the original text and not tamper with it whatsoever. As regard to showing any one particular God be it Ganesh, Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma we have done so with great dignity and respect. The question about showing one God more important than the other does not arise as- in Ganesh Leela will look at the sequence of events from the Ganeshji's point of view. It’s his life story told as authentically with great detail of research but yes he is the protagonist and we are seeing the “saga” from his point of view.”