RAJAN ZED, acclaimed Hindu leader, supported by some other organisations and leaders, has given Britain-wide boycott call for Hollywood movie The Love Guru. He has been supported by Hindus and other religious British people, because it lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu term frivolously.

Zed, who is president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, and who launched the campaign against this movie starting in March, urging other people of faith (besides Hindus) also to boycott the movie, said, Today it is Hinduism, tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religion or denomination.

He has also criticised British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for giving it '12A' (suitable for 12 years and over) classification, when it deserved the highest '18' (suitable only for adults) classification. Although BBFC claimed, We help to protect vulnerable viewers and society from the effects of viewing potentially harmful or unsuitable content, but by giving The Love Guru a '12A' rating, it is leading the highly impressionable British children between 12 to 18 years to grow-up with a distorted view of Hinduism, Zed added.

A prominent Jewish Rabbi, Elizabeth W Beyer of Nevada (America), has also called for boycott of The Love Guru because it clampoons Hinduism, mocks ashram life and Hindu philosophyc

The antics of Guru Pitka of The Love Guru are a mockery of the esteemed institution of guru, who is a highly revered spiritual teacher/master/preceptor in Hinduism and who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker, and who leads one from darkness to light. The guru-sishya (teacher-disciple) relationship lies at the heart of traditional Hinduism. Guru is often allied with the divine. Guru bestows spiritual knowledge totally free from selfish objectives, Zed stressed.

On the other hand, guru in The Love Guru instigates a bar fight, repeatedly narrates penis jokes, mocks yoga (one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy), wears female jewelry, mocks the concept of third eye, makes disciples drink tea passed through his nose, orders alligator soup, induces elephant copulation in front of the crowd, introduces himself as His Holiness, lives in a lavish ashram staffed with scantily clad maids, and whose goal in life seems to appear on Oprah Winfrey show, Zed said.

When did Hindu gurus become available for hire? When and who started rating them? When did shishyas (disciples) begun joining ashram for the sole purpose of make girls like them? Which Hindu ashram organises fights of disciples with mops soaked in gurus urine? Which guru urinates in the midst of disciples? Rajan Zed asked while expressing concern about depictions in the movie.

Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion followers and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at, Zed said.

Meanwhile, signature campaign launched by Hindu groups against The Love Guru has crossed the 6,700 mark.

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912. The Love Guru (88 minutes), a comedy starring Mike Myers (of Austin Powers fame), opened June 20 in America and Canada and will be released in Britain on August one.