How can Goddess Lakshmi be born with four hands: Swami Prasad Maurya; Pramod Krishnam says he's sick, netizens fume

Swami Prasad Maurya asked as to how Goddess Lakshmi was born with four hands when no child has ever been born with more than two hands. Netizens criticised him for his statement and Acharya Pramod Krishnam said he would ask the chief minister to impose restrictions on his speech.

Lucknow:Samajwadi Party leader and Legislative Council member Swami Prasad Maurya has yet again courted controversy after he worshiped his wife on Diwali while raising questions on Goddess Lakshmi's existence.

Mauya said that if one wants to worship Goddess Lakshmi then he should worship and respect his wife because she is a "goddess in true sense". Condemning for mocking the Goddess, Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam said Mauya is suffering from "piles in his mouth" and said he would urge chief minister Yogi Adityanath to restrict him from speaking.

Maurya shared photographs of his wife being worshipped on Diwali on his X handle. The photographs show the woman being applied tilak on her forehead, garlanded and given gifted. He then wrote, "Every child born in every religion, caste, race, colour and country of the whole world has two hands, two legs, two ears, two eyes and a nose with two holes. There is only a head, stomach and back. If a child with four hands, eight hands, ten hands, twenty hands and a thousand hands has not been born till date, then how can Lakshmi be born with four hands?"

Maurya then went on to say that one should worship and respect his wife if he wants to worship Goddess Lakshmi as it is the wife who fulfills responsibilities and takes care of the family with utmost devotion. "If you want to worship Goddess Lakshmi, then worship and respect your wife who is a goddess in true sense because she fulfills the responsibility of nurturing, happiness, prosperity, food and care of your family with great devotion," he tweeted.

His statement received strong criticism from Congress national spokesperson Acharya Pramod Krishnam, who said that Maurya is suffering from serious illness that needed treatment. "Swami Prasad Maurya has piles in his mouth. He is sick and needs treatment immediately. I appeal to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to ban him from speaking," he said.

The issue raised a storm on the social media platform with many users raising questions on Maurya's religion. One user said, "Before that you should also worship your mother, but as soon as someone abandons Hindu religion, he also forgets his values. Along with that, he also forgets his upbringing and parents." "Please tell me your religion? Are you a Hindu? or non-Hindu?" asked another user.

Earlier, Maurya had sparked off a controversy over his statements against Sanatan Dharma. He had claimed that crores of people do not read Ramcharitmanas and it should be banned because Tulsidas wrote it for his own pleasure.

In August, Maurya had said that Hindu religion is a fallacy. "If Hindu was really a religion then backwards, Dalits and tribals would be respected," he had said. In July he said that Badrinath Dham was built by demolishing the Buddhist monastery.