More people joined me along the way. Besides Hindu leaders and organizations, various Catholic, Presbyterian, Jewish, Native American, Methodist, Buddhist, youth, film, spiritual/religious, music, yoga, civil rights, etc., leaders came out with statements in support of this cause espoused by me. A prominent Jewish rabbi even called for boycott of “The Love Guru” because it “…lampoons Hinduism, mocks Ashram life and Hindu philosophy…” and asking “who laughs at religious practices”.

As the movie approached completion, Paramount started avoiding us and several attempts to reach Paramount executives to finalize details of the promised pre-screening proved futile. Strangely, during all these months, as far as I know, despite being frequently challenged by us in the media and media persons repeatedly contacting them to know their viewpoint, Paramount or its parent Viacom did not issue any statement on this issue.

Dismayed at Paramount backtracking on the promise of pre-screening, Catholic, Presbyterian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist religious leaders came out in support of “Hindu brothers”, and in a joint signed appeal titled “Clergy’s appeal to Paramount Pictures”, said, “Going back on promise is un-Christian, un-Hindu, un-Buddhist, un-Jewish, etc., besides being unethical.”

Despite lot of support and encouragement, we faced some criticism also: Why is religion trying to censor free speech? Is Hinduism so weak that a small movie can damage it? Why are you protesting when you have not even seen the movie? Why can't Hindus take a joke? Who made you the representative of Hindus and speak for them? This movie is not about Hinduism and Hindus and is a mythical and completely made up system of teachings. And so on.

Hindus are for free speech as much as anybody else, if not more. Hindu tradition encourages peaceful debates to be won on their intellectual merit. But faith is something sacred and attempts at belittling it hurt the devotees. Filmmakers should be more sensitive while handling faith related subjects, as cinema is a very powerful medium.

Of course a small movie, which will be forgotten in few months, would not destroy the great tradition of Hinduism, which has been around longer than any other established religion and has faced many onslaughts and come out stronger. But Hinduism is often misunderstood and wrongly portrayed outside India. Movies like this bring more confusion and create stereotypes in the minds of audience, many of whom may not have had any other exposure to its tenets.

Whatever information we had about "The Love Guru" from trailers, website, etc., clearly gave the appearance of lampooning. Repeated attempts to seek more information about the movie from Paramount failed. Instead of participating in a civilized mutual dialogue to arrive at an acceptable solution, Paramount just closed the doors.

Humor is a part and parcel of Hindu society and our folk festivals, plays, stories, etc., are full of parody, satire, mimicry, buffoonery, etc. We are strong enough to take a joke or rather many jokes. But there are certain convictions in every tradition, which are venerable and not meant to be mocked.

The broader aim of worldwide Hindu protests against this movie was to protect the interests of various minorities and ethnicities of the world and save them from future ridicule. Everyone is a minority in some place and in some sense in this world and deserves to be respected. As fellow humans, is it not everybody’s duty to stand for the rights of minorities and speak for them when attempts are made at ridiculing them? Somebody has to make sacrifices so that others can live honorably.

People associated with the film might claim that this film has nothing to do with Hinduism and portrays “completely made up system of teachings”. But the terms used such as guru, ashram, yoga, karma, etc.; all clearly point to Hinduism.

Guru is a highly revered spiritual teacher/master/preceptor in Hinduism 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. The antics of Guru Pitka of “The Love Guru” -- from the information we have -- are a mockery of the esteemed institution of guru. A reference on MySpace to the occupation of Guru Pitka -- linked to the official site of the movie -- listed “Guru/life guide/Bikini inspector”.

Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. On the movie's web site, “The Love Guru” ridiculed yoga in a repugnant way and named some of the yoga poses as “no shoes, no shirt, no nirvana”, “ass, gas and grass."

The tagline of the movie is “His Karma is huge”. “Karma” is again a very serious term at the core of Hinduism not to be taken frivolously in double-meaning taglines. Karma was reportedly first spelled out in Satpatha Brahmana around 600 BCE and forms one of the fundamental components of the Hindu system of philosophy. It is implanted in the idea of rita (universal order), which is the root of dharma. It forms part of the celestial/cosmic law enacted by the gods, and provides earnest testimony of the causation law. Philosophy of Ajivikas was based on this thesis. It finds mention in Bhagavad-Gita, one of the ancient scriptures of Hinduism. Because of significance attached to karmic law, the action is meticulously examined in Hindu philosophy.

At the movie's web site, along with all the buffoonery of “His Holiness Guru Pitka,” there was in image of Lord Ganesh, who is one of the most widely worshipped deities in Hinduism as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles.

Comedy should make everybody smile and should not come at the expense of ridiculing others’ faith and spreading misinformation. 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.

Moreover, cinema is a forceful medium and it can create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences. So it should handle faith related subjects especially carefully.

We are very satisfied with the outcome of the protest. In the process, we have been able to create awareness and clarify some of the Hindu concepts among the populace who was not well aware of Hinduism and its beliefs. Moreover, with this awakening, we hope that future filmmakers will be more sensitive to the feelings of devotees when handling faith related topics. We are thankful to various volunteers world over who helped us at different stages of protest.