Questions of Taste Over Chocolate Deities
As religious questions go, it is a relatively small one. But, inevitably, it must be asked: Is it O.K. to eat a chocolate statuette of your favorite holy figure?
The matter arose at Bond Street Chocolate, a small boutique in Manhattan that traffics in detailed figurines of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and the elephant- headed Hindu god Ganesh.
在關於宗教的問題中，這是相當小的一個。但無可避免的，這問題必須要問：吃掉你最喜愛的神明造型的巧克力沒關係嗎？
這個問題在曼哈坦的一間小小的巧克力店「邦德街巧克力」出現，這家店販售造型細緻的耶穌、摩西、佛陀和象頭的印度教象神。
Last month, an organization called Universal Society of Hinduism issued a demand: “Upset Hindus urge withdrawal of Lord Ganesh-shaped edible chocolate.”
The owner of the store, Lynda Stern, was puzzled. For more than five years, she has been selling the gold-dusted Ganesh and his shelfmates, beside passion fruit bonbons and chocolate-coated wasabi peas, with barely a whiff of controversy.
名為「全球印度教協會」的組織，上個月發出要求：「感到不悅的印度教徒力促撤下象神造型的巧克力食品。」
店主琳達．史登感到不解，她販賣這個撒了金粉的象神及百香果巧克力糖、裹上巧克力的芥末豆等各式產品已經超過五年，幾乎不曾發生爭議。
In the news release, the society’s president, Rajan Zed, wrote that Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, was “highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshiped in temples or home shrines and not to be eaten casually.”
But Ms. Stern, whose nearly eight-centimeter-tall Ganesh sells for $15, has no intention of desisting.
“All spiritual icons are treated equally in my shop,” she said, “with honor and respect to the religion.”
在新聞稿中，這個協會的會長拉揚．介德寫道，象神是破除障礙之神，「在印度教中非常受尊敬，應該在寺廟或家中神壇受膜拜，而非被隨便地吃掉」。
但是史登並不打算中止販售這款8公分高、每個15美元的象神巧克力。
她說：「所有宗教象徵的商品在我店裡的待遇都是平等的，所有宗教皆受尊崇與敬重。」
But whether the statues offend the devout depends on whom you ask. “We Hindus look at the universe as eternal and god almighty as one,” said Uma Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America in New York . “So we would not say that the lord resides only in that little piece of chocolate. It’s more like when they eat it, the lord comes back to us — he is within us.”
The store’s Divine Collection also includes a 10-centimeter- high Virgin of Guadalupe . The Reverend Santiago Rubio, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in New York, was not pleased to hear this. “We consider statues and images as sacred objects that help connect with the divine or the supernatural,” he said. “So to transform them into merchandise, candy to eat, I don’t think it’s the best way to go. ”
不過這些造型是否冒犯信徒，要看你問的是誰。紐約的「北美印度教寺廟協會」會長烏瑪．米索雷卡說：「我們不會說神明只存在於這小小一塊巧克力中，這應該像是，當吃下巧克力時，神明回到我們身邊，祂與我們同在。」
這家巧克力店的「神明系列」也包括一款10公分高的瓜達魯佩聖母，紐約的瓜達魯佩聖母堂主任司鐸桑提亞戈．魯比奧神父，聽聞此事時並不高興。他說：「我們認為塑像和畫像是神聖之物，幫助我們與宗教或神產生連結，所以將它們轉換成商品、可食用的糖果，我不認為這是最好的做法。」
But a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Joseph Zwilling, recalled a Catholic organization’s dinner at which guests were given white chocolate Virgin Marys. “I don’t think there’s anything inherently sacrilegious about it,” Mr. Zwilling said, speaking about Ms. Stern’s Jesus treat, which is cast from a dashboard ornament. “It’s the intention of the person making it that matters.”
Hun Lye, a Tibetan Buddhist lama , said that an ancient Buddhist text, “A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life,” “says that those who get upset when the Buddha is being insulted should not call themselves disciples of the Buddha.”“It’s the Dalai Lama’s favorite text,” he said. “But probably you wouldn’t see the Dalai Lama buying the statue and chomping on it.”
但是天主教紐約總教區發言人喬瑟夫．崔林想起，曾有一個天主教組織在晚餐中給賓客白巧克力做的聖母瑪利亞。崔林談到史登以汽車儀表板裝飾品為模子製成的耶穌巧克力時說：「我不認為這件事本質上有任何褻瀆神明之處，製作者的意念比較重要。」
藏傳佛教喇嘛黎幸佑說，佛教古籍「入菩薩行論」中提到，「於佛塔像法，誹詆損毀者，吾亦不應瞋，因佛遠諸害。」他說：「這是達賴喇嘛最喜愛的一段經文，但是你應該不會見到達賴喇嘛買這些巧克力並大口咀嚼。」
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