Florida Apparel Company Halts Sale Of 'Inappropriate' Yoga Mats

MIAMI BEACH, FL — A Florida sports apparel company on Monday agreed to stop selling a popular yoga mat that featured the image of a Hindu deity after a prominent member of the Hindu community complained the product trivialized the religion to its more than 1 billion adherents around the world.

"We are not very familiar with the Hindu culture and philosophy and we didn’t intend to offend anyone designing this mat," Marina Pavlovska, one of the owners of Platinum Sun Inc., told Patch. The Miami Beach company removed its Platinum Sun Ganesha Cork Yoga Mat from the company website as of Tuesday morning. The mat sold for $79.99.

The cork mat was imprinted with the image of Ganesha, a Hindu deity that is worshiped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles. The deity is invoked at the beginning of any major undertaking, according to Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, who asked the company to stop selling the mat and issue an apology on Monday.

Zed released a statement saying that Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and "not to sit on or put feet/buttocks/legs on or sweat on."

He said the use of Hindu deities or concepts in a yoga mat was highly inappropriate.

"Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers," Zed explained.

According to information published by the Hindu American Foundation, Hinduism is the world’s oldest living religion.

"It is a richly diverse family of philosophies, traditions, and practices that are rooted in ancient Indian civilization and have been followed primarily throughout Asia for thousands of years," the organization said on its website. "Today, Hinduism is a global religion with adherents living on every continent and comprising majorities in three countries: India, Nepal, and Mauritius."

Pavlovska said the mat has been selling "very well" for the past two years and never received any complaints in the past.

A description on the company website that has since been taken down said the mat was "perfect for hot yoga, Bikram, sweaty practice, pilates, floor exercises, stretching and meditation."

In addition to removing the product from the company website, Pavlovska said her company also apologized to Zed.

"Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled," Zed noted in his request for the company to stop selling the product.