{"id":36,"date":"2009-12-04T15:11:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T15:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omsweetom\/2009\/12\/krupa-or-kripa.html"},"modified":"2009-12-04T15:11:33","modified_gmt":"2009-12-04T15:11:33","slug":"krupa-or-kripa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/12\/krupa-or-kripa.html","title":{"rendered":"Less Krupa, More Kripa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joanna<\/a><\/span>Well, those wacky folks at PETA<\/a> have done it again. In their new ad campaign, model Joanna Krupa bares it all (well, almost all) to raise awareness about adopting abandoned pets<\/strike> companion animals. The big deal? The object used to strategically cover Krupa’s, um, you know, stuff<\/i>, is… wait for it… a cross.  <\/p>\n

Go on, if you must,  go look at the ad here<\/a> if you want to. Just hurry back, okay? <\/p>\n

Beliefnet’s own Ellen Leventry<\/b> posted about the controversy on the Idol Chatter blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Wearing nothing but wings and a halo, Krupa’s not-so-angelic bits
\nare strategically covered by a large cross she holds in her hands
\nThe text of the ad
\nurges pet owners to be angels and adopt animals from shelters rather
\nthan purchasing them at pet stores, which are often supplied by puppy
\nand kitten mills….<\/p>\n

…I must admit that even I,
\na liberal, mainline Protestant, take issue with it. This isn’t the
\nscene from Austin Powers<\/em> where sausages, teacups, and other items cleverly conceal the shagadelic spy’s naughty bits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I tend to cut PETA a lot of slack. Sure they raise eyebrows and act provocatively, but in our culture you’ve got to raise some eyebrows to be heard. I get that.
  <\/p>\n

But the naked-Krupa-cross-adopt-a-pet thing is just too much. And not just because of the cross.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(For the record, the use of the cross does seem to me  — a
\nnon-Christian —  to be an inappropriate and unnecessary use of a
\nrevered religious symbol. In fact, I think the cross is being abused on
\ntwo levels, here — one in being turned into a quasi-sexualized object
\nby Krupa, and again in being reduced to a cheap publicity stunt, to
\nshock people into talking and blogging about the ad. Would I be
\ncomfortable with PETA using Hindu images in the same way? Definitely
\nnot. Not cool, PETA.)<\/p>\n

But even notwithstanding the cross
\ncontroversy, the problem I have with the campaign is that, well, it
\nmakes no sense. At least PETA’s “I’d rather go naked than wear fur”<\/a>
\ncampaign had a discernible (and arguably valid) use for the nudity. And
\nwith PETA’s controversial “Jesus Was a Vegetarian”<\/a> campaign, agree or
\ndisagree, it did provoke thought. Here? No such luck. What do Joanna
\nKrupa taking off her clothes, a cross, angels, and puppy adoption have
\nin common? It sounds like the set-up to a dirty joke, but there’s no
\npunchline. Are people discussing the ad? Absolutely! Are they
\ndiscussing the merits of adopting animal shelter puppies and kittens?
\nNot so much.<\/p>\n

It seems PETA would rather provoke lust than thought.  <\/p>\n

I
\ndon’t know how many people have gone vegan (or given up fur, or adopted
\nanimal shelter animals) on the basis of lusting after an almost-naked
\nspokesperson. In Hinduism, the passion that is evoked from ads like
\nthis one is called kama<\/i>, or unbridled lust. In the second
\nchapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna calls it the “all-devouring
\nenemy”. Why? Because at its core, kama<\/i> is all about
\nobjectifying and exploiting — using another living being as a vehicle
\nto gratify my own senses at any cost. Whether that kama<\/i> is
\ndirected towards turning a cow into a Big Mac or turning women into a
\ncheap one-dimensional fantasy (or, as in the case of Hooters, both), it doesn’t uplift my mind or inspire me
\ntowards positive action. <\/p>\n

\"Krishna<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, the reason that countless people (myself included) choose to support animal rights is because of kripa<\/i> — Sanskrit for “mercy” or “compassion”. Kripa<\/i>
\nis Hinduism’s ideal lens through which to view the world. It demands
\nthat we see other living beings — whether four legged or two legged
\nones — as brothers and sisters, with inherent value, dignity, and
\nrights. <\/p>\n

This way of looking at all living beings, I always
\nthought, was what PETA was really all about, beneath all the hype and
\ncelebrity endorsements and edgy billboards. But in choosing to showcase
\nKrupa, I can’t help but feel that PETA may be losing sight of the
\nmessage of kripa <\/i>that is supposed to be at its core.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, those wacky folks at PETA have done it again. In their new ad campaign, model Joanna Krupa bares it all (well, almost all) to raise awareness about adopting abandoned pets companion animals. The big deal? The object used to strategically cover Krupa’s, um, you know, stuff, is… wait for it… a cross.  Go on,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1,3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glossary","category-hinduism-101","category-in-the-news","category-photos"],"yoast_head":"\nLess Krupa, More Kripa - Om Sweet Om<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/2009\/12\/krupa-or-kripa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Less Krupa, More Kripa - Om Sweet Om\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, those wacky folks at PETA have done it again. In their new ad campaign, model Joanna Krupa bares it all (well, almost all) to raise awareness about adopting abandoned pets companion animals. The big deal? 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He is a Hindu Chaplain and the Coordinator for Hindu Life at Princeton University, and serves as the North American Director of Communications for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a worldwide organization representing the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. In previous incarnations, Vineet has been a New York City prosecutor, a cable TV show host, and a hospital chaplain. In his free time, he enjoys relaxing with his wife and his new baby, attending classes at The Bhakti Center, and teaching himself photography. As a second-generation, Indian-American, Vaishnava-Hindu, Vineet ponders new ways of further hyphenating his identity.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/author\/vchander"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omsweetom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}