A letter to Walmart
Sun Mar 20, 2005 at 05:26:26 PM PDT
I noticed an ad the other day that Walmart had... Below is a letter I sent to Walmarts customer relations.. if anyone is in agreement, please cut and paste it.. the more the merrier... Here's my letter:
The other day I watched a Wal-Mart Ad of a Wal-Mart employee sitting in a lotus position, hands resting on her knees in the Gian Mudra, chanting "Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart". I found this totally repulsive, insensitive, disrespectful and ignorant of a spiritual practice that has been around for 4,000 years, and codified (by the Sage Panatajali) 5-800 years before the birth of Christ. Mantra yoga, one of the many types of yoga, is used to still the mind and find inner peace, very much like a Catholic would pray on a rosary. Do you think a Catholic would approve of a Wal-Mart ad where an employee makes the sign of the cross and says "In the name of the father, son and Wal-Mart"? Can you imagine the outrage a born-again Christian would feel if you showed an ad of "The 10 Commandments of Wal-Mart", the first commandment in your ad saying "there shall be no other discount retailers before us"?
Yoga is not only a spiritual path to enlightenment, but it is a life science; a blending of the mind, body and spirit that not only gives one inner peace, but heals the physical and mental bodies if practiced on a regular basis. No religion can heal the physical body as well as the mind. I am totally perplexed how a company could prostitute a spiritual practice older then any religion and use it to sell products. It is unconscionable to mock a beautiful communion with the supreme being. . Do you feel threatened by a discipline that teaches people how to heal themselves, to take control of their own lives, to maximize their own human potential? Are you afraid that if too many people learn the art of healing themselves they won't need your antacids, laxatives, and pharmaceuticals?
In the last few months Wal-Mart has received a lot of bad press for its threat to close down a store in Quebec because its employees unionized, and your recent fine by the government for being involved with the hiring of illegal aliens. Mocking an ancient spiritual practice in an ad sinks even lower in the column of morals and ethics. Please pull this ad IMMEDATLEY. I anxiously await your explanation of why you would allow such an ad in the first place.
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