Hindus across the world have reportedly welcomed the dismissal, by a court in Tomsk, Siberia, of a proposed ban on the translation, publication and spread of the contents of an ancient religious scripture, the Bhagavad Gita.
Rajan Zed, the President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said in a statement released on Friday, at Nevada, U.S.A, he "thanked the honorable Court welcoming its ruling and pointed out that it did the right and sensible thing befitting a democratic, open-minded and pluralistic society."
Zed pointed out that the Gita was one of the holiest scriptures in the Hindu faith and banning it would have hurt devotees across Russia. He also recognized the efforts of people from across the world and their support.
Arguing that an attempt to ban the Gita was an attack on religious freedom, Zed added that Hinduism was the oldest and third-largest religion in the world... and that no faith should be maltreated.
He also argued for the consideration of the Gita as more than a religious text, calling it a masterpiece of Sanskritic poetry that has been translated into all of the major languages of the world.
"It was a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, just before the beginning of the great Mahabharata war, in which Lord Krishna gave spiritual enlightenment to the warrior Arjuna, who realized that the true battle was for his own soul," Zed explained.
