News from Hindu Press International
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Posted on 2011/3/21 16:32:12 ( 1492
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NEW YORK, March 8, 2011: (by Mark
Bittman) The oldest and most common dig against organic agriculture is that
it cannot feed the world's citizens; this, however, is a supposition, not a
fact. And industrial agriculture isn't working perfectly, either: the
global food price index is at a record high, and our agricultural system is
wreaking havoc with the health not only of humans but of the earth. There
are around a billion undernourished people; we can also thank the current
system for the billion who are overweight or obese.
Yet there is good news: increasing numbers of scientists, policy panels and
experts are suggesting that agricultural practices pretty close to organic
-- perhaps best called 'sustainable' -- can feed more poor people sooner,
begin to repair the damage caused by industrial production and, in the long
term, become the norm.
On Tuesday, Olivier de Schutter, the United Nations' special rapporteur on
the Right to Food, presented a report entitled 'Agro-ecology and the Right
to Food.' Chief among de Schutter's recommendations is this: 'Agriculture
should be fundamentally redirected towards modes of production that are more
environmentally sustainable and socially just.'
Industrial (or 'conventional') agriculture requires a great deal of
resources, including disproportionate amounts of water and the fossil fuel
that's needed to make chemical fertilizer, mechanize working the land and
its crops, running irrigation sources, heat buildings and crop dryers and,
transportation. This means it needs more in the way of resources than the
earth can replenish. Agro-ecology and related methods are going to require
resources too, but they're more in the form of labor, both intellectual and
physical.
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Posted on 2011/3/21 16:32:11 ( 1319
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O resplendent Lord, if I were the
sole monarch of wealth as you have been, then my worshippers would have
been rich!
Rig Veda 8.14.1
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Posted on 2011/3/8 16:22:56 ( 1866
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KATHMANDU, NEPAL, March 4, 2011:
The feast in honor of God Shiva, that took place on 1 March in Kathmandu,
was transformed into a huge protest against the authorities of the temple
of Pashupatinath, with over a hundred wounded and dozens of arrests. The
Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), the company that manages the
temple, put a ten euro (US$13.90) charge for a ticket to enter without
queuing for the March 1 festival. This provoked the wrath of hundreds of
thousands of people who cannot afford the ticket and had been waiting in
queue for up to eight hours without food and water.
Manju Sharma, aged 76, said: 'The elderly and women were in the queue,
while many young people and tourists entered the temple to worship Shiva
just because they paid for it'. She adds - I had to wait for more than six
hours without eating to pay homage to Shiva. I curse my poverty. '
[HPI note: The average Nepalese makes US$ 43 in a month; the poor earn
considerably less.]
The festival in honor of Shiva (Mahashivaratri) is one of the most
important celebrations of the Hindu calendar. Each year, the Pashupatinath
temple attracts pilgrims from all over the country and India, but also many
tourists. In 2010, authorities established the possibility of reserving
tickets, to handle the huge influx of the faithful and help older people.
In fact, many pilgrims accuse the PADT of wanting to make money out of the
religion, giving priority to enter the temple to tourists, among the few
who could afford the expensive ticket.
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Posted on 2011/3/8 16:22:55 ( 1579
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LOS ANGELES, U.S., September 7,
2010: The Cambodian mastery of the medium will be highlighted in a focused
exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the
National Museum of Cambodia, on view February 22--August 14, 2011 at the
Getty Center.
The ancient capital of the Khmer people at Angkor, located in northwest Cambodia,
once formed the heart of a large sphere of influence that extended over
much of mainland Southeast Asia. Culled entirely from the collection of the
National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Gods of Angkor features 26
magnificent sculptures and ritual objects. It includes bronzes created
during the Angkor period (9th--15th centuries), as well as a small group of
works from the pre-Angkor period and some recently excavated works. Among
the Angkorian pieces are some of the finest and most beautiful Cambodian
bronzes in existence.
'We are delighted to give visitors to the Museum this rare opportunity to
see these exquisite Khmer bronzes on the West Coast, particularly given the
local presence of the largest Cambodian community in the United States,' explains
David Bomford, acting director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. 'We are deeply
grateful to our colleagues at the National Museum of Cambodia for lending
us so many important pieces for this exhibition.'
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Posted on 2011/3/8 16:22:54 ( 2250
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UNITED STATES, February 2011:
Padmaja Patel, a practicing internal medicine physician in Midland,
presents an Introduction to Hinduism in three parts. Part I introduced the
concepts of karma, reincarnation, dharma, an all pervasive deity, and Hindu
scriptures. Part II explored the Nature of God and Part III the Nature of
the Soul -- this is the third installment of her series, available online.
What does Hinduism say about the soul? Hindu teachings on the nature of the
self are as philosophically profound as they are pragmatic. We are more
than our physical body, our mind, emotions and intellect, with which we so
intimately identify every moment of our lives, but which are temporary,
imperfect and limiting. Our true self is our immortal soul, the eternal, perfect
and unlimited inner essence.
Our soul is the source of all our higher functions, including knowledge,
will and love. It is neither male nor female. The essence of our soul,
which was never created, is imminent love and transcendent reality, and is
identical and eternally one with God. The Vedas teach that the Divine
resides in all beings. Our true, spiritual essence is, like God, eternal,
blissful, good, wise and beautiful by nature. The joining of God and the
soul is known as yoga.
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Posted on 2011/3/8 16:22:52 ( 1799
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Whatever you have to do tomorrow,
do it today. Whatever you have to do today, do it now. You have only this
moment.
-- Yogi Hari, hatha yoga and sound yoga master and teacher
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Posted on 2011/3/7 16:38:58 ( 2185
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TEXAS, U.S, February 24, 2011:
Though most American yoga practitioners don't consider their work on the
mat to be worship, there's a spiritual aspect about yoga that's more than
physical. At this weekend's Texas Yoga Conference, the largest gathering
for mainstream yoga instructors and students the city's ever hosted,
instructors incorporated Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi Muslim, Judeo-Christian and
other religious perspectives into their classes, held for hundreds of
barefooted teachers and students from across the state.
Meanwhile, the Hindu American Foundation continues a nationwide campaign to
get the yoga community to recognize the Hindu roots to Sanskrit-named
postures, om chanting and traditional greeting of 'namaste.' Though these
campaigns have stirred controversy in recent months, there has always been
some confusion over the soul of yoga and how the popular practice can
affect people of faith, especially in Texas.
For those who believe that Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation, the
spiritual elements of yoga -- used to connect with the universe - may
contradict. 'If you get deep enough in the yoga practice, you'll have to
consider, 'How does this practice that's opened me up fit with my belief in
one path to God?' ' said Sheetal Shah, a senior director for the Hindu
American Foundation.
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Posted on 2011/3/27 17:16:58 ( 1781
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BANGALORE, INDIA, March 17, 2011:
Taking healthcare to the masses will be India's biggest challenge in the
next two decades, and the ancient medicinal system of ayurveda is the only
reliable way of doing so, Sam Pitroda, adviser to the PM, said. 'We can't
adopt the western model to deliver that to the masses,' he said at the
inauguration of the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (I-AIM)
on Thursday.
Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata inaugurated the 100-bed healthcare center
that aims to integrate traditional medicine with modern health science. The
center is wholly supported by Tata Trusts (Mumbai), the group's
philanthropic arm.
Pitroda, who is also the co-founder and chairman of the Center's precursor
Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, said the
integration of modern medicine and traditional health sciences was the best
way to deal with challenges that lie ahead.
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Posted on 2011/3/27 17:16:56 ( 2700
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DUBAI, March 13, 2011: People queue
in tens of thousands each week to pray at the Hindu Temple in Bur Dubai's
Old Souk. They must pass through an alleyway so narrow, one could almost
put a hand on either wall. Once inside they have to proceed quickly through
their rites, supervised by hired security guards. There is no time - or
space - for them to linger.
The Shiva and Krishna Mandir temple complex in Al Bastakiya was built in
1958, but its community has long outgrown it. The Hindus share the
overcrowded space with the Sikh community, but that group is set to move
on. They have already been granted a plot of land from the Dubai Government
and are opening a new center in the coming months.
There are 1.7 million Indians in the Emirates and although the number of
Hindus is unknown, the Indian Consulate in Dubai estimates about 50 per
cent of the Indian population are Hindu. The temple is the only gathering
point for Hindus in the UAE and one of just a few in the Gulf, making it a
sought-after spiritual lifeline. Things get even busier during religious
holidays. The two-day Maha Shivaratri festival last year drew around
125,000 people. Their queues stretched for several kilometres.
The Hindu temple's management has also put in a request with the Dubai
Government for more land, but has yet to hear back.
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Posted on 2011/3/27 17:16:55 ( 1615
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NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 9, 2011:
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, addressed a gathering on the launch
of the film 'I Believe'- universal values for a global society on the
philosophy and vision of Dr. Karan Singh for India and the World in the
21st Century. He also released the book 'Kashmir and Beyond: 1966-84' -
select correspondence between Indira Gandhi and Karan Singh, in New Delhi
today.
'We are gathered here to celebrate the life and work of a great son of
India and a unique global citizen. I feel privileged to greet Dr. Karan
Singh ji on the happy occasion of his 80th birthday. We wish him a long
life ahead and as purposeful and active a life as the one he has led till
now. I can think of no other Indian who has come to represent and symbolize
the ethos of our great and ancient civilization than Dr. Karan Singh. He is
a man of great learning, of great wisdom, of great liberalism and great
humanism,' said the Prime Minister.
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Posted on 2011/3/27 17:16:54 ( 1613
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O God of mercy who performs the
dance of illimitable happiness in the hall of inconceivable intelligence!
The Rig and the other Vedas are thundering forth in words, announcing to us
that all are thy slaves, all things belong to thee, all actions are thine,
that thou pervades everywhere, that this is thy nature. Such is the
teaching of those who, though they never speak, broke silence for our sake.
-- Tayumanavar
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Posted on 2011/3/24 16:52:10 ( 1900
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AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, March 22, 2011:
Prakashanand Saraswati, founder of Barsana Dham, was convicted of 20 counts
of indecency with a child, sentenced to 14 years in prison on each count
and also fined $200,000. He has not been seen ever since the day when he
was expected to attend court to hear the verdict, delivered in absentia.
The missing leader is likely in Mexico and soliciting flights to India, the
U.S. Marshal's Office said Tuesday. Federal authorities are also charging
Prakashanand with unlawful flight to avoid apprehension.
'He is believed to be in one of the Mexican towns of Tamilitas or Nuevo
Leon,' said Hecto Gomez, a supervisory deputy marshal. 'We've contacted the
Mexico City office to coordinate with their local counterparts there as to
likely locations. Our search efforts are focusing right across the border
or no further than Monterrey.'
Gomez said officials are convinced that Prakashanand Saraswati, 82, fled
the night before he was to be sentenced in Hays County. 'We have contacted
Interpol in [Washington] D.C. and asked them to notify member nations from
countries he has frequented in Asia, New Zealand, Canada, India and Nepal,'
Gomez said. The marshal's office said Prakashanand's passport was
confiscated by Hays County officials.
'We think he's pretty much hunkered down underground,' Gomez said. 'If he
does get caught in Mexico, hopefully we'd respectfully request the Mexican
government deport him to the United States,' Gomez said.
Officials said anyone who assists the fugitive will face charges.
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Posted on 2011/3/24 16:52:09 ( 1640
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UNITED STATES, March 10, 2011: (by
Charles Desnoyers) From the time we human beings began to develop a sense
of the sacred, mountains have played a central role in our religious
experience. Colin Thubron's latest work, To a Mountain in Tibet, takes us
to perhaps the world's highest pilgrimage site as well as its most popular,
sacred to one fifth of humanity - Mount Kailas in Tibet. Because its
sacredness is almost entirely the province of Hindus and Buddhists, the
22,000-foot peak is almost completely unknown to Americans and Europeans.
The mountain's location near the sources of the sacred rivers Ganges,
Indus, Brahmaputra, and Sutlej has imbued it with sanctity for millennia,
and it was already a prominent pilgrimage site for Hindu devotees of Shiva
when Mahayana Buddhism arrived in Tibet in the eighth century.
Both Buddhists and Hindus follow the same pilgrimage trail to the mountain
and circle it clockwise in a ritual journey called the kora, passing
through a host of local shrines, monasteries, prayer walls, and natural
features with a sacred geography known only to the believers and their
guides. No climber is known to have reached the 22,000-foot peak; the
pilgrim trail's highest point is 18,600 feet. Even here, altitude sickness
for those not carrying oxygen takes its toll. Impassively presiding over it
all are Chinese soldiers, by education and training taught to see the
entire enterprise as the kind of rank superstition from which the People's
Republic has pledged to 'liberate' Tibet.
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Posted on 2011/3/24 16:52:08 ( 1611
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WASHINGTON, DC, USA, March 21, 2011
(RNS): The White House is hoping to recruit America's college and seminary
students in a nationwide interfaith service campaign that was launched
Thursday (March 17). In the next month, the Obama administration will
solicit plans submitted by colleges, universities, seminaries and
rabbinical schools for year-long community service projects such as food
drives, house building or mentoring. Administration officials would not say
how many schools they hope will take the 'campus challenge.' The proposal
grew out of recommendations from advisers to the Office of Faith-based and
Neighborhood Partnerships that called for projects on more than 500 U.S.
campuses by the end of 2012. Joshua DuBois, director of the office, said he
hopes 'a substantial subset' of the nation's schools will take part in the
initiative, which will be promoted through letters to college presidents, conference
calls and a website. 'As a Christian who became committed to the church
while serving my community, I know that an act of service can unite people
of all faiths or even no faith around a common purpose of helping those in
need,' President Obama said in a White House video launching the program.
Schools are asked to select priorities such as healthy living or disaster
preparedness and commit to cultivating interfaith cooperation as part of
the project. The White House has requested that commitments to sponsor
service projects, which could be led by either student religious or secular
campus groups during the 2011-12 academic year, be submitted by April 22.
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Posted on 2011/3/24 16:52:07 ( 1498
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USA, March 21, 2011 (RNS): Air
travelers want to feel safe, and federal security officials want to make
sure they actually are safe. If only it were that simple. Misunderstandings
over religious expression have led to recent incidents that prompted
apologies from airlines. When does a prayer, a garment, or religious
paraphernalia constitute a threat? 'We are sensitive to travelers'
concerns,' TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said, 'but security is not
optional.'
Some religious minorities have welcomed TSA's accommodations. Orthodox
Jews, for instance, dropped complaints about new screening procedures last
year after TSA announced the option of same-gender pat-downs. The Hindu
American Foundation likewise has no pending concerns or requests to modify
TSA procedures, according to Managing Director Suhag Shukla. Others,
however, feel they're being unfairly targeted. Sikhs have been working with
TSA for years to craft screening procedures that respect turban wearers,
according to Amardeep Singh, program director for the Sikh Coalition. Yet
Sikhs continue to endure stigmatizing turban pat-downs, Singh said, even
though scanners can purportedly see through fabric.
The airline industry says staffers often have had training to make them
aware of various groups' religious customs and practices. 'Airlines deeply
understand, respect and are very sensitive to their customers and employees
who comprise varied cultures and religions and have specialized training
for their employees in this regard,' said Victoria Day, spokeswoman for the
Air Transport Association. But legal experts caution that claims of
religious freedom face limits, and don't ever trump security
considerations. 'There's no notion in our society that religion entitles
you to opt out of reasonable security measures,' Broyde said.
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Posted on 2011/3/24 16:52:06 ( 1549
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The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage. Like the apparent
distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves but are like
the haze of heat.
-- Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (563-483bce)
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Posted on 2011/3/23 20:29:50 ( 1438
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AHMEDNAGAR, MAHARASHTRA, March 10,
2011: The management of the Shani-Shingnapure Temple struck down a
decades-old tradition of compelling devotees to wear wet 'lungi' (sarong)
before praying to the Sun God here, an official said. Thousands of devotees
welcomed the move, said Shani-Shingnapure Temple Trust Chairman Shivaji
Darandale.
The trust spokesperson Tuvar Patil said the move would help protect the
murti of the Sun God which was showing wear and tear. 'Devotees used to
come in dripping wet clothes. Then they applied oil and other things on the
statue. We have noticed that the statue has become chipped and the tiny
pieces are lying there,' Patil said.
'The tradition of wet clothes came into being a few decades ago, but was
misused by a few elements. There were many complaints in this regard. So
the temple trust has decided to abandon it with immediate effect,' said
Darandale. There were allegations that the devotees were exploited and
forced to wear the rented wet lungis and buy 'prasad' (offerings) at
exorbitant rates from the 300-odd stalls outside the temple premises.
The temple town is around 186 miles from Mumbai. The village of 3,000,
attracts nearly 30,000 devotees from all over the country daily and the
figure goes to over 100,000 during weekends.
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Posted on 2011/3/23 20:29:49 ( 1568
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CHICAGO, March 21, 2011 (Press
Release): Brussels - the capital of the Belgians and of 500,000,000
Europeans - has been chosen as the host city of the Parliament of the
World's Religions in 2014. The selection of Brussels was made by the Board
of Trustees of the governing organization at its March 13, 2011 meeting in
Chicago.
More than 10,000 people from diverse religious, spiritual and convictional
traditions will participate in the 2014 Parliament, which will last for 7
days and will comprise more than 500 programs, workshops and dialogues,
alongside music, dance, artistic exhibitions and related events hosted by
religious communities and cultural institutions. Since the historic 1893
World's Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago, modern Parliaments
have been held in Chicago (1993), Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004) and
Melbourne (2009). These periodic Parliament events are the world's oldest
and largest interreligious gatherings.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, the
Government of the Brussels Capital Region and the Brussels City Hall, as
well as a number of religious, social and academic leaders and communities
in the country, supported the Brussels Bid.
The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions is an international,
non-sectarian, non-profit organization, established in 1988 to host the
1993 Parliament of the World's Religions. The office of the Council is
located in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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Posted on 2011/3/23 20:29:48 ( 1834
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USA, March 21, 2011 (RNS): Charities
are seeing improvements in fundraising, with fewer charities reporting
declines in 2010 compared with 2009, according to a report released Tuesday
(March 22). But a larger percentage of organizations reported bringing in
about the same amount of revenue both years, says the report by the
Nonprofit Research Collaborative, a coalition of six organizations that
focus on philanthropy. Just over half (52 percent) said they met
fundraising goals, about the same (53 percent) as in a similar 2009 survey
conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a member of the
collaborative.
'While many organizations stopped the bleeding, giving simply didn't
rebound like we thought it might, especially given the economic growth we
saw in the last quarter of the year,' says Paulette Maehara, CEO of the
fundraising association.
No single type of fundraising was most effective, but groups that have
ramped up opportunities for online giving are seeing a payoff. Nearly 75
percent of the groups reported online or Internet fundraising. Among
organizations that offered such opportunities, 58 percent saw an increase
in giving.
Some charitable groups are turning to even more electronic ways to make
contributions. The American Red Cross, for example, raised $32 million in
donations via text messages after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti
last year. 'It takes less time to click,' Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe
said. 'You feel like you've made a difference immediately.'
The findings are based on responses from 1,616 charities to an online
survey conducted in February. Among specifics: -- 67 percent said they
raised more money (43 percent) or the same amount (24 percent) in 2010 as
they did in 2009. That's up from 54 percent in 2009. But it's well below
the 'boom years' from 2005 to 2007, when as many as 69 percent of
organizations reported receiving more than the previous year. -- Giving was
consistent across all types of charities, including arts, education, health
and religion.
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Posted on 2011/3/23 20:29:47 ( 1284
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[HPI note: The link for this
announcement yesterday was incorrect. Please here to see the correct travel schedule for Satguru
Bodhinatha Veylanswami.]
KAPAA, HAWAII, March 22, 2011: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, guru
mahasannidhanam of Kauai's Hindu Monastery and publisher of Hinduism Today,
is frequently invited to speak at temples and satsangs throughout the US.
He will be making a tour of Texas, March 24-April 11, with stops in San
Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Midland, as well as
Shreveport, Louisiana, and Phoenix, Arizona. Visit Source for a full
schedule of public events.
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Posted on 2011/3/23 20:29:46 ( 1200
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It is easy to play with a cobra. It
is easy to walk over the fire. It is easy to uproot the Himalayas. But it
is difficult to eradicate lust.
-- Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj, founder of the Divine Life
Society in India
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Posted on 2011/3/22 19:03:33 ( 1604
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NASHVILLE, U.S., March 2011:
Vishnu: Hinduism's Blue-Skinned Savior is a new exhibit at Nashville's
Frist Center for the Visual Arts that aims to introduce American art
audiences to the visual beauty of the intricate ways Hindus throughout time
have rendered their deities.
Curator Joan Cummins, of the Brooklyn Museum, described the goals of the
exhibit recently. 'First, to introduce one aspect of a major world
religion, Hinduism, to a largely uninitiated audience,' she said. 'Second,
to show absolutely gorgeous Indian art -- the very best material from
collections all over the world, the most beautiful and rarest examples.'
A beautifully preserved sandstone stele produced in the 10th century in
central India, 'Vishnu Flanked by His Personified Attributes,' is one of
the introductory pieces in the first galleries. It is one of several pieces
that has never been seen outside its home museum or appeared in
publications. In it Vishnu wears his typical garb of an ancient Indian
prince. His four arms hold three of the four emblems and weapons usually
associated with him: a conch shell, a discus and a mace. He is also
associated with the lotus flower, which appears behind his head. His fourth
hand is raised in a gesture of reassurance.
The exhibit, five years in the making, was organized by The Frist Center
and includes more than 170 paintings, sculptures, textiles and ritual
objects created in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh between the fourth and
twentieth centuries. It runs through May 29 before moving to the Brooklyn Museum,
where Cummins serves as curator of Asian Art.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:08 ( 1593
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BOSTON, USA, April 1, 2011: Few
find much to laugh about in the field of genetic science, but while humor
seldom reflects on science, geneticists are thinking a lot about humor
these days. In an esoteric paper entitled 'Genomic DNA Sequences for the
Study of Gelotology' published today by the Reich Laboratory, Department of
Genetics, Harvard Medical School, the understanding of humor, specifically
laughter, got a giant push forward.
While laughter may not seem that difficult, it turns out that the science
is as convoluted and uncertain as astrophysics. Now scientists have
identified a tiny sequence of genes responsible for laughter in humans, and
not surprisingly this sequence is not found in any other living mammal. But
what did surprise researchers at Reich Laboratory was the geographical
distribution of the gene, named L-omega. They found the jocular gene
prevalent in all human genetic pools, except those in and around the Indian
Subcontinent, a fact that loosely corroborates anecdotal evidence of a
dearth of wit and wisecracks in that part of the world. Earlier theories
had presumed this was a cultural trait, but evidence now is strong that
Indians are not genetically equipped for quipping.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:07 ( 1499
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The problem with Internet
quotations is that many are not genuine.
Abraham Lincoln
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Posted on 2011/3/30 17:10:00 ( 1734
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NEW YORK, March 22, 2011: On
Sunday, 125th Street erupted with music and color, as thousands of people
streamed by house celebrating Hol, the Hindu holiday that greets spring's
arrival.
People bounced with excitement on the sidewalk, their hands full of colored
powder used for greeting friends and strangers, smearing stripes of pink,
green and purple on anyone who offered a smile or a traditional greeting of
'Holi hai!'
Thousands of Indian-Americans live in the neighborhood, where Hindu prayer
flags flutter in front yards littered with cricket bats. Most trace their
family histories to Trinidad or Guyana, where Holi, or Phagwah, is a
national holiday as much as a religious one.
In Queens the celebration has become a glittering pageant of Indo-Caribbean
identity, with drum groups; floats sponsored by restaurants, radio stations
and temples; and the annual crowning of Miss Phagwah. Sunday, after
observant Hindus went to temple, the community converged on the parade down
Liberty Avenue and the after-party in Phil Rizzuto Park, where the pounding
from dholak drums mixed with bhangra, reggaeton and calypso music. Clouds
of red, pink and white powder streamed in the wind, teenage boys sprayed
squealing girls with purple dye, and even decorous elderly ladies, clad in
white, decorated one another's hair with color.
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Posted on 2011/3/30 17:00:00 ( 1863
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TEXAS, March 26, 2011: Students
from the University of Texas in Austin celebrated the Festival of Colors
or, Holi on the South Mall of the UT campus on March 26, 2011. The Hindu
Students Association, one of the largest campus student organizations in
the nation, coordinated the festival.
See a beautiful slideshow here.
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Posted on 2011/3/30 16:51:24 ( 1851
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USA, March 30, 2011: Holi has gone
mainstream worldwide -- if not yet in the numbers of people joining the
celebration, at least in public awareness. Here are local media reports, from
places you never knew had ever heard about Holi:
Caracas,
Venezuela:
Millions of Indians celebrated Holi on Sunday, one of the festivals of the
Hindu religion, that welcomes spring. With water and colors, Hindus needed
to express joy at the arrival of the warm season. Children, youth and
adults threw water and smeared each other in bright colors to celebrate the
holiday. No one escapes the paint on the face and the body. According to
beliefs, bright colors bring energy and joy.
Argentina:
A slideshow in the Argentinian media.
Madrid,
Spain:
Millions of Indians who took to the streets to celebrate Holi, one of the
biggest festivals of the Hindu religion. Colored powders, balloons and
water guns is all that many Indians needed, who joined around the country
to this casual and massive celebration. Holi is one of the most important
festivals in the Hindu calendar, which has its origins in the celebrations
promoted by the god Krishna. A rhythm of drums and traditional sweets
welcomed the hot season.
Bogota,
Colombia:
Photos of Indian college students.
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Posted on 2011/3/30 16:51:23 ( 1896
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AUBURN, AUSTRALIA, March 25, 2011:
The bullet holes can still be seen on the exterior of Auburn's Sri Mandir
Temple. Less visible are the marks left by the shot that made its way
inside Australia's first Hindu temple, when it was peppered by about eight
rounds.
Two men in balaclavas were captured firing the shots on the night of March
19 by the temple's CCTV cameras. A police spokeswoman said detectives were
working closely with the community as part of investigations into the
incident. The president of the Council of Indian Australians, Yadu Singh,
said the shooting was a sign that attacks on the temple were becoming more
serious.
There were no worshippers in the building at the time of the shooting -
unlike an incident last November when two windows were smashed by people
armed with metal bars. 'The bottom line is that something needs to be done,
because it is not a one-off,' he said. 'We have a right to exist; we have a
right to practice our religion.'
The temple's priest, Jatinkumar Bhatt, who lives on the site, said he had
been harassed by youths in the past but he was scared by the shooting. 'I
have a family as well, three kids and my wife,' he said. 'Throwing eggs and
bottles is an ongoing process but this bullet really put us in a panic.'
The 35-year-old temple hosted an interfaith meeting attended by the Member
for Auburn, Barbara Perry, as well as local Muslim and Christian groups
earlier this month. The building was shot up about 10 days later. Ms Perry
said the Hindu temple was well respected in Auburn.
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Posted on 2011/3/30 16:51:22 ( 1324
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MIDLAND, TEXAS, March 30, 2011: An
interfaith event is scheduled in Midland Texas, on April 7th, 2011, 7 pm at
St Stephen's Catholic church. This will be the Permian Basin's first
interfaith event, where leaders of five religious traditions will discuss contemporary
issues and how our faith allows us to understand and confront present day
matters.
These fascinating and challenging topics for the discussion have been
submitted by the speakers. The distinguished panel of speakers includes
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami of Kauai's Hindu Monastery, Monsignor James
Bridges of St. Stephens Catholic Church, Rabbi Sidney Zimelman of Temple
Beth El, Reverend James E. Liggett, Jr. of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church
and Pastor Jay Mayo of Stonegate Baptist Fellowship. Mr. Russel Meyers, CEO
of Midland Memorial Hospital will be the moderator of the event. The panel
of speakers will answer questions from the audience following their
presentation.
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Posted on 2011/3/30 16:51:21 ( 1460
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I adopted the theory of
reincarnation when I was 26. Religion offered nothing to the point. When I
discovered reincarnation ... time was no longer limited. I was no longer a
slave to the hands of the clock.
-- American auto industrialist Henry Ford
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:14 ( 2618
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INDIA, March 19, 2011:
Kancheepuram's Shankara Math is setting up a pathshala on the outskirts of
Chennai city, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.
Spread over five acres, the pathshala was inaugurated by Kanchi
Shankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswathi on March 16 at Rajakilpakkam, 9.3
miles from Chennai. Boys and girls of any faith are welcome to get enrolled
here.
V. Shankar, a Mumbai-based businessman who initiated this project, says,
'Students will be taught Vedas and puranas from 5 am till around 7 am every
morning. They will then attend school for academic studies. In the evening,
they will once again attend pathshala classes, finishing their school work
before going to bed.'
According to Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, 'It is important to cultivate respect
and veneration for gurus. It is good to learn both traditional and modern
wisdom and for the school to be situated in the midst of several modern
schools.'
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:13 ( 1533
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UNITED STATES, March 2011: The
Hindu-American Foundation is sponsoring a traveling speaker series in the
U.S. featuring Waytha Moorthy, Malaysian Human Rights activist, lawyer, and
founder of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF).
In November 2007, HINDRAF organized a mammoth rally of 50,000 Hindus and
ethnic Indians in peaceful protest against the Malaysian government for its
mistreatment and marginalization of Indians. The Malaysian security forces
responded brutally, and Waytha Moorthy was jailed, along with hundreds of
other protesters. He has been living in exile in London since the Malaysian
government revoked his passport.
Though HINDRAF was banned, it continues to raise various human rights
issues including calling for the end to demolitions of Hindu temples,
advocating for the rights of Hindu mothers and fathers to raise their
children as Hindus when one of the parents converts to Islam, advocating
for educational rights, jobs and economic opportunities for Malaysian
Hindus because Malaysia's 'bhumiputara' policies favor the Muslim Malay
majority, and an end to police brutality against Hindus.
The events are in early April, see source for dates and places.
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:12 ( 1913
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WASHINGTON, March 2011: Atheist
Michael Newdow plans to continue his fight to get 'In God We Trust' off
U.S. currency after the Supreme Court denied a hearing in his case on
Monday (March 7).
'I plan on bringing the lawsuit again on behalf of other Americans who
believe they are injured when the government lends its power to one side of
the controversy over whether or not God exists,' he said.
Newdow, a doctor in Sacramento, Calif., has filed numerous First Amendment
suits concerning government endorsement of religion. He filed the challenge
to the national motto in 2005. A year ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled against him, citing a 1970 decision that said the use of the
motto on U.S. coins and bills is 'of a patriotic or ceremonial character
and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious
exercise.'
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:11 ( 2077
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ISLAMABAD, March 2011: In
Islamabad, the Rawal Lake temple, although on its last legs, exudes
presence. It is a rectangular building with two arched openings on its
southern side. There are five flights of steps leading to the garbhagriha,
a small unlit shrine where only priests may enter.
Today, one finds rubbish inside the main chamber of the Rawal lake temple.
The outer wall of the temple has fallen. One wonders if it's too much to
ask of the authorities to save the ancient structure from further damage.
Before partition, a Samadhi shrine belonging to a Hindu ascetic of the Nath
Jogi order was located near the present Rawal Chowk. It was a small, domed
structure where Hindu ascetics practiced rituals. There are many other
sacred places of Nath yogis in and around Islamabad. Among these, the sacred
spaces at Bagh Joghia are quite prominent. Another place associated with
yogis is located just two kilometres west of Bari Imam.
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:10 ( 1660
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DALLAS, USA, March 23, 2011:
Organized religion would all but vanish eventually from nine Western-style
democracies if current social trends continued, a team of mathematicians
predict in a new paper based on census data stretching back 100 years.The prediction
was made based on mathematical modeling using census data of countries.
The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from
countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia,
Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New
Zealand and Switzerland.
The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.
Dr Wiener said: 'In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's
been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with
religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was
in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.'
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Posted on 2011/3/28 16:52:09 ( 1314
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Nothing has been left undone,
either by man or Nature, to make India the most extraordinary country the
Sun visits on his round. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing
overlooked.
-- Mark Twain
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Posted on 2011/3/27 17:16:59 ( 1379
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KATMANDU, NEPAL, March 2011: An
official says a fire has swept through a refugee camp housing Bhutanese
refugees in east Nepal. There are no immediate reports of casualties. Chief
government administrator in the area Shahi Shekhar Shrestha says
authorities are investigating the cause of Tuesday's fire that destroyed
600 of the 750 huts and left thousands without a roof.
The camp at Goldhap is about 300 miles east of the capital, Kathmandu, and
one of seven U.N.-run camps in Nepal.
More than 100,000 ethnic Nepalese were forced out of Bhutan in the early
1990s by authorities who wanted to impose the country's dominant Buddhist
culture on the Hindu minority. Most of the refugees have been living in
Nepal ever since but nearly half now live in Western nations under resettlement
programs.
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:11:30 ( 1631
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WASHINGTON, DC, USA, April 4, 2010
(The New York Times): The Supreme Court on Monday effectively upheld an
Arizona program that aids religious schools, saying in a 5-to-4 decision
that the plaintiffs had no standing to challenge it.
Justice Elena Kagan, in her first dissent, said the majority had laid waste
to the doctrine of "taxpayer standing," which allows suits from
people who object to having tax money spent on religious matters. "The
court's opinion," Justice Kagan wrote, "offers a road map
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:11:20 ( 1625
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March 4, 2011 (by Anuradha Dutt for
the Daily Pioneer): After being carved out of the Indian sub-continent,
Pakistan is just 63-years old. Its raison d'etre is to act as an Islamic
counter-force to a predominantly Hindu India, which encompasses all
variations of religious beliefs, including the Islamic, within a secular
framework. Religious freedom is the fulcrum of our secular ideal. It is
quite the opposite in Pakistan.
But even after the partition and the exchange of peoples between India and
Pakistan, a large number of Muslims opted to stay back because India as a
secular democracy seemed a safer option, while a much smaller number of
Hindus chose to brave it out in the Islamic republic.
As a result, India today has the third largest Muslim population of over
100 million, after Indonesia and Pakistan. Hindus in Pakistan are about 3.9
million. Judging by current reports of Hindus' persecution in Pakistan,
with some of their important places of worship being forcibly turned into
hotels and tourist spots, and with no possibility of justice, they may well
be ruing their decision to stay back in their ancestral homes.
Source: www.dailypioneer.com
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:11:03 ( 1633
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BERKELEY, CA, USA, April 4, 2010
(The New York Times) Over the past 540 million years, life on Earth has
passed through five great mass extinctions. In each of those catastrophes,
an estimated 75 percent or more of all species disappeared in a few million
years or less.
For decades, scientists have warned that humans may be ushering in a sixth
mass extinction, and recently a group of scientists at the University of
California, Berkeley, tested the hypothesis. They applied new statistical
methods to a new generation of fossil databases. As they reported last
month in the journal Nature, the current rate of extinctions is far above
normal. If endangered species continue to disappear, we will indeed
experience a sixth extinction, over just the next few centuries or
millennia.
The Berkeley scientists warn that their new study may actually grossly
underestimate how many species could disappear. So far, humans have pushed
species toward extinctions through means like hunting, overfishing and
deforestation. Global warming, on the other hand, is only starting to make
itself felt in the natural world. Many scientists expect that as the
planet's temperature rises, global warming could add even more devastation.
"The current rate and magnitude of climate change are faster and more
severe than many species have experienced in their evolutionary
history," said Anthony Barnosky, the lead author of the Nature study.
Source: Multitude
of Species Face Climate Threat - NYTimes.com
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:11:00 ( 1331
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:10:39 ( 2475
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UNITED STATES, March 2011: When
Hindu students at MIT want to hold a religious gathering, they have to plan
ahead. They must book a room somewhere on campus and move their Deities
there. Sometimes, no rooms are available and they have to pray in a dorm.
Even when a classroom is available, students say MIT regulations prevent
them from doing the rituals properly.
'We are not allowed to bring candles, for instance, and we can't do any
kind of worshipping because we can't have fire,' a member of MIT Hindu
Students' Council, Namrata 'Sony' Verma, said. 'We also take off our shoes
before we pray, but (when we pray in a classroom, leaving our shoes outside
would) crowd the hallway, so we can't do that.'
So this year, the Hindu Students' Council made a request for a permanent
prayer space on campus. Chaplain of the university Robert Randolph, who was
reportedly receptive to the idea, brought the issue up at the MIT
chaplains' meeting last month. No decision has so far been made.
Several other religious groups at MIT already have designated prayer
spaces. The MIT Muslim Students Association, for instance, has a prayer
room with separate entrances and sections for men and women. This room also
houses a library of books on Islam, according to the group's Web site. The
Jewish students of MIT have a Hillel on the first floor of the Religious
Activities Center where they hold worship services, meetings and classes.
The Hillel also has a Judaic library and two kosher kitchens.
However, despite the fact that 234 students from India are attending MIT
this year -- ranking India third among countries with the largest number of
students at MIT -- Hindus on campus have no permanent place to pray.
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:10:37 ( 1642
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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, March 18,
2011: Police stepped up their search Thursday for four masked robbers who
bound and gagged a security guard at a Hindu temple and then made off with
three safes containing $10,000 to $15,000 in cash and jewelry.
'We're all shaken by what has happened here,' said Dr. Nagu B. Krishnappa,
chair of the temple's board of trustees. 'But we're all going to move
forward from this.' A prayer period that Hindus observe in the days leading
to the next full moon went on as usual in Sri Venkateswara Temple on
yesterday afternoon, just hours after the heist.
Police are looking into the backgrounds of people who may be familiar with
the temple and its layout, including current and former employees. 'This is
a little more than a crime of luck and opportunity,' Penn Hills police
Chief Howard Burton said. 'It's obviously someone who has some kind of
working knowledge of the place.'
Located on South McCully Drive, Sri Venkateswara Temple was one of the
first traditional Hindu temples built in the United States when it opened
in 1976, according to temple officials. The temple's board recently
authorized buying a security system that was to be installed this year,
Krishnappa said.
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:10:36 ( 1610
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SRI, LANKA, February 16, 2011: (by
Janaka Perera) Three centuries after Portuguese colonialism in Sri Lanka
ended, Portugal lost Goa, their last stronghold in South Asia. That was in
December 1961, when their garrisons surrendered to Indian Forces after less
than two days of fighting which ended 450 years of alien rule. Today
Portuguese people have the courage to face squarely their country's dark
colonial past in Asia and Africa and the brutal killings of so-called heretics.
However ironically in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country, it is a
different story. A section of the Catholic community, primarily the Church,
seems very uncomfortable when reminded of its connection with Portuguese
colonialism.
The topic is the subject of Dr. Susantha Goonatilake's book A 16th Century
Clash of Civilizations - The Portuguese Presence in Sri Lanka. It is
available for purchase here.
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:10:35 ( 1712
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NEW YORK, March 4, 2011: (by Erik
Eckholm) A new book by one of the country's most influential evangelical
pastors, challenging traditional Christian views of heaven, hell and
eternal damnation, has created an uproar among evangelical leaders, with
the most ancient of questions being argued in a biblical hailstorm of
Twitter messages and blog posts.
In a book to be published this month, the pastor, Rob Bell, known for his
provocative views and appeal among the young, describes as 'misguided and
toxic' the dogma that 'a select few Christians will spend forever in a
peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends
forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything
better.'
In a video, Mr. Bell pointedly asks whether it can be true that Gandhi, a
non-Christian, is burning in hell.
Such statements are hardly radical among more liberal theologians, who for
centuries have wrestled with the seeming contradiction between an
all-loving God and the consignment of the billions of non-Christians to
eternal suffering. But to traditionalists they border on heresy, and they
have come just at a time when conservative evangelicals fear that a younger
generation is straying from unbendable biblical truths.
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:10:34 ( 1590
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February 25, 2011: The new annual
industry-sponsored report from Friends of the Earth International revealed
that cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops across Europe continues
to decline - with an increasing number of national bans, and decreasing
numbers of hectares dedicated to GMOs. The report, 'Who Benefits from GM
Crops?' revealed that less than 0.06 per cent of European fields are
planted with GM crops - a decline of 23 per cent since 2008.
According to the report, seven member states uphold bans on Monsanto's GM
maize due to growing evidence of its negative environmental impacts. Three
countries have banned BASFs GM potato due to health concerns, immediately
after its authorization in spring 2010, and for the first time five member
states have sued the European Commission over the authorization of a GM
crop. Public opposition to GM food and feed has increased to 61 percent
Europe wide.
Mute Schimpf, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe said: 'The
widespread opposition to genetically modified crops and foods in Europe
continues to rise because consumers and farmers can see that they offer no
added value and only additional environmental and health risks.
Globally, the research highlights how even pro-GM Governments in South
America have been forced to take steps to mitigate the negative impacts of
GMOs on famers, citizens and the environment.
IApril Fool's Jokes on HPI
HPI
KAUAI, HI, April 2, 2010: Mastodons in temples? Kumbha Mela at the
Mississipi? A tax based on the chakras?
In case you did not notice, yesterday's edition of HPI was an April Fool's
joke. Steve Jobs is a professed Buddhist, Texas has not yet tried to get
insects to comply to biblical standards, paperwork in India is still as
overwhelming as ever and it seems that, yes, people from the subcontinent
can appreciate a good joke and laugh heartily at that. We appreciate all
the kind, funny and intelligent messages you sent us about our humble
monastic attempts at humor: life is supposed to be lived joyously!
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:16 ( 4571
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ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, April 1, 2011:
Glenn K. Murphy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gap Inc., with Mayor
Francis Slay at his side, announced Gap's successful sponsorship of the
2014 Kumbha Mela in St. Louis at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers. The huge clothing retailer, with 3,200 stores worldwide, has been
working to incorporate Indian fashion design into its lineup for the past
three seasons, with questionable success. 'It has taken us ten years of
negotiation with the various Akharas in India, but we finally convinced
them we could do a better Kumbha Mela here than at Prayag. We have some
obstacles, as any major project does, but we are raising funds now to fly
350,000 naga sadhus here for the event and provide each with a designer
loincloth donated by Gap subsidiary Banana Republic. Apple, Inc. has
promised each a vibhuti-white iPhone, and the city of St. Louis is setting
up a vast camp for their use. It's a first for the Gap, and a first for
America as well.'
Apple announced there will be a limited edition application on its App
Store, available only for those who participate in the event, called
iBathed.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:15 ( 2262
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MUMBAI, INDIA, April 1, 2011:
Modeled after the laws that allow for the takeover of Hindu temples in some
states of India, bringing in crores of rupees, the government now plans a
tax based on the chakras. The fees would be calculated according to their spinning
speed, bureaucrats said.
The question of how to gauge the chakras' development and tax bracket are
not a problem, it seems. 'We will hire clairvoyant sants to check if people
are paying the correct amount,' explained Ravi Chakraveda, one of the authorities
behind the Initiative. Mendicant sadhus with big chakras are exempt. 'We
are reasonable,' says a speaker for the government.
The community, however, is still confused with unanswered questions: Are
only the seven lower chakras tax-exempt? Does the sahasrara pay 1,008 times
more?
According to our sources, there were also plans to charge Christian
baptisms by the gallon, but the government chose to follow the model of
temples and tax only the Hindu population.
The next move is to sell karma credits, modeled after carbon credits, which
automatically create good karma with the government. A similar system was
successfully tried by dominican father Johann Tetzel in the 1400s. His slogan was, 'As soon as a
coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs.'
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:14 ( 2447
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NEW DELHI, INDIA, April 1, 2011:
India, it seems, had found the final solution to red tape. The Indian
government is about to release a permit required to allow citizens to get
permits.
'The main problem that causes so much delay in our government's services is
that anyone can get a permit now. We have, to this end, instituted the
Permit for Obtaining Paperwork, POP, which any person will have to get
before he is allowed to receive paperwork.
'This will remedy the most common cause of criticism to our bureaucracy,'
said Mr. Narendra Mutoon, a bureaucrat from the Central Bureaucracy Bureau
(CBB).
The permit first went into effect, as a test, in Delhi only. In the first
days of the new permit, confusion was created by the fact that according to
the legislation, it was necessary to have a POP to request any permit,
including a POP. The number of requests for other paperwork dropped
drastically; to zero, actually. 'This proves we are on the right path,'
said Mr. Mutoon. 'We completely processed all the paperwork that came in
today, that is, none.'
'This is absurd. I need a permit to get a permit, but I can't get a permit
without a permit. I have never faced such insane bureaucracy,' said Josef
K, a bank clerk from Germany, one day away from his 30th birthday.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:11 ( 4242
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CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, April 1,
2011: Last year the world was startled by Julia Roberts' public
announcement of her Hinduness, made all the more dramatic coming in the
wake of her movie, 'Eat, Pray, Love.' Today, Steve Jobs held a press
conference at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino to discuss the rumors he
has been quietly following a Hindu path for some eight years.
'I'm here to confirm what you already know,' the world famous CEO began.
'Nor should it come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, knows my travels
through India in the yearly years and knows my philosophy of life.' In the
mid-70s Steve Jobs took a break from his employer, Atari, and backpacked
around India in search of enlightenment. Soon after his return to the US,
he and Steven Wozniak launched Apple. His passion for quality and user-friendliness
extend, he told one journalist, to his spiritual path.
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who purchased
Hinduism Today last year,
has also quietly begun following his Hindu faith. 'Reincarnation is a much
better deal than just one life, and I know a good deal when I see one' he
explained.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:10 ( 2034
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TEXAS, April 1, 2011: Texan
legislation is following the footsteps of a much older rulebook. After
changing pi to 3 last year, the Texan legislature has now made it illegal
for insects to have six legs.
State Senator John Smith explained, 'According to Leviticus 11, which
admonishes us on what we should or should not eat, it is made explicit that
at least some insects have four legs. But today all insects defiantly have
six, which is an abomination.'
About changing the value of pi, they are unrepentant. Smith, who is also a
pastor, sees it from a religious perspective: 'The people who claim that
our rectification of pi caused a few bridges to fall do not know what they
are talking about. Those bridges were fallen by God because of our nation's
sins!'
It is unclear if insects will voluntarily comply with the new law. The
Texas Ant Association, an underground group, did not return any of this
reporter's calls.
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Posted on 2011/3/31 17:37:09 ( 1558
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CHENNAI, INDIA, April 1, 2011: With
the rise of regulations protecting elephants in temples, some people are
going for unorthodox solutions.
The laws do not mention mammoths or mastodons. A new company in Chennai is
working to resurrect these species from preserved DNA samples, with an eye
on the temple market. 'They have several advantages,' said Mr. Subhafool
Aprilmurthy, CEO of Pachyderm Solutions, Inc. 'Mammoths have much more
abundant hair, which can be groomed in beautiful styles. Mastodons have
long, curled tusks that can will draw the public.' According to him, both
animals would be better at attracting tourists than regular elephants.
'Temples will be like Disneyland,' he says.
The company does not plan to stop there. Dinosaurs that formerly lived on
the subcontinent, such as the Indosuchus and the Brachypodosaurus, could be
a hit in temples. A minor problem is that they will eat some devotees, but
not too many, according to Aprilmurthy. 'It might actually reduce the
crowding of temples,' says a temple official who wished to remain anonymous.
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:05 ( 1445
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NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 27, 2011: A large number of devotees of Lord Sri
Venkateswara on Sunday had darshan of the murthis of the famous Tirupati
temple of Andhra Pradesh, which were brought to the capital for a special
ceremony. The 'utsava murthis' or processional murthis of Lord Sri Venkateswara,
Laxmi and Padmavati were placed on the grounds of Venkateswara College here
for Kalyana Mahotsavam' puja, a symbolic wedding of Lord Balaji with Laxmi
and Padmavati.
About 40 priests, including the head priest of the temple, had escorted the
murthis from Tirupati to Delhi during a two-day journey on a special bus.
"Kalyana Mahotsavam puja is performed daily for about three hours in
Tirupati. It is for the fourth time that such a ceremony has been organized
in Delhi," said head priest Sri Sundaravaradevan.
"Traditionally, devotees go to seek blessings of the Lord but this
time the Lord has come to bless his devotees. Actually, there are a lot of
aged people who cannot make it to Tirupati so these murthis have been
brought here," said R. V. Kavitha Prasad, Secretary, Hindu Dharma
Prachara, of the Tirumala temple.
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:04 ( 1491
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UNITED STATES, March 28, 2011: Yoga for children is taking off in studios,
hospitals and schools across the country, as parents look for new
activities that can help motor skills development and even behavioral
problems. Yoga isn't just good exercise for adults. A growing number of
schools, hospitals and studios say it can also be a boon to kids, helping
them relax and focus, and improve their flexibility.
A 2003 study by California State University, Los Angeles found that yoga
improved students' behavior, physical health and academic performance, as
well as attitudes toward themselves. That same year, Leipzig University
reported that yoga reduces feelings of helplessness and aggression, and in
the long term helps emotional balance. The benefits of yoga are
particularly strong among children with special needs, research shows.
Now thousands of schools across the country--as well as yoga studios and
hospitals--are adding programs that teach children to do the exercises.
In January, Paul Ecke Central Elementary School in Southern California
added yoga to its curriculum for 650 students at $20,000 a year. Principal
Adriana Chavarin says she has seen how calm and centered students are after
practicing the techniques. At a recent assembly, students were getting
restless as they sat on the floor. Then a few sixth graders spontaneously
led the rest in yoga poses and breathing exercises.
Still, not all parents are on board with the practice. In some cases,
parents have raised religious objections to yoga, saying that it's a form
of worship that conflicts with their beliefs. So, some instructors avoid
certain phrases and exercise positions that have spiritual connotations. Or
they substitute others: At Chabad schools in New York, for instance, the
asanas are the same, but children say "shalom" instead of the
traditional "om."
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:03 ( 1438
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RICHMOND HILL, NEW YORK, March 21, 2011: Organizers of a Hindu Parade in
Richmond Hill say the NYPD confiscated the ceremonial colored powder.
Pandit Ramlill, one of the organizers of the Festival of Colors in Queens,
said in the 23 years of the parade's history, he and other organizers have
never been so offended. "We exchange colored powder as a sign of
Spring, friendship, and love every year -- the N.Y.P.D. took it away for no
reason," said Ramlill.
The NYPD told PIX11 News that officers acted appropriately and were
responding to numerous complaints that participants were throwing the
colored powder on the street, not the designated park areas.
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:02 ( 1602
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UNITED STATES, MARCH 13, 2011: If you had to name a most valuable player of
December's climate summit in Cancun, hands down the award would go to
Jairam Ramesh, India's 56-year-old environmental minster. Ramesh proved
himself an international power broker, a star among the world's climate
warriors.
But then Ramesh returned home. Awaiting him was the pending approval of a
$12 billion steel plant. The deal--the largest single foreign direct
investment in India, and clearly a boon to the country's economy--would
also vanquish a track of pristine forest along India's eastern coast. The
project, proposed by the South Korean steel conglomerate Posco, had
actually already been approved by his ministry. But local tribal groups
were protesting, complaining that the deal endangered their livelihoods,
which depend on the forest, and that they were not being fairly compensated
for their land. Ramesh heeded their call and temporarily halted the project
while two expert panels looked at the issue. Both found Posco in the wrong.
"I am not an environmentalist," Ramesh said.
"Environmentalism is the environment at all costs," he said, but
India must maintain its breakneck economic growth and do so without
devastating the environment.
Last year India's GDP grew at 7.4 percent; this year's target is a
blistering 9.2 percent. Ramesh ridicules what he calls the fashionable
"lifestyle environmentalism" that dominates Western Europe, where
the affluent compete to outdo one another in recycling, composting, and the
installation of solar panels. What India needs, he says, is
"livelihood environmentalism," which preserves the bodies of
water, forests, and grazing land on which the nation's impoverished
farmers, fishermen, and tribal groups depend. These ecosystems, he argues,
are as essential to India as its new factories and mines.
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:01 ( 1730
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UNITED KINGDOM, March 25, 2011: An order of U.S. Catholic priests has
agreed to pay $166.1 million to hundreds of Native Americans sexually
abused by priests at its schools. The pay-out is one of the largest to date
in a series of sex abuse scandals involving the Catholic Church.
The former students at Jesuit schools in five states of the north-western
U.S. said they were abused from the 1940s through the 1990s.
Under a settlement, the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, will also
apologize to the victims.
The province ran schools in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon
and Washington. Most of the alleged victims were Native American. Much of
the alleged abuse occurred on Native reservations and in remote villages,
where the order was accused of dumping problem priests.
"No amount of money can bring back a lost childhood, a destroyed
culture or a shattered faith," lawyer Blaine Tamaki, who represented
about 90 victims in the case, said in a statement.
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Posted on 2011/4/6 16:33:00 ( 1459
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Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity; of the
appetite for adventure over love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty
more than in a boy of twenty.
-- Swami Bua, age 115
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:50 ( 2322
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NEW DELHI, April 2, 2011 (The Washington Post): India's population has
jumped to 1.21 billion, an increase of more than 181 million during
2001-11, according to provisional data of Census 2011 released on Thursday.
Though the population is almost equal to the combined population of the
U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan, the past decade
(2001-11) witnessed the addition of smaller population than the previous
decade's growth. India's population accounts for 17.5 per cent of the
world's.
The number of males stood at 623.7 million and females at 586.5 million.
The percentage growth in 2001-11 was 17.64 -- males 17.19 and females
18.12.
Among the States and the Union Territories, Uttar Pradesh is the most
populous State with 199 million people, followed by Maharashtra with 112
million people. Lakshadweep is the least populated at 64,429 people. The
overall sex ratio nationwide has become more even by seven percentage
points to 940 against 933 in Census 2001. Sex ratio is defined as the
number of females per 1,000 males. Kerala with 1,084 has the highest sex
ratio followed by Puducherry with 1,038. With 618, Daman and Diu has the
lowest ratio.
The literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per
cent, a dramatic increase of 9.21 percentage points in the last decade.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:49 ( 1630
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MIDLAND, TEXAS, April 5, 2011 (Odessa American): The religions are
hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, but the conversation is all new.
Three religions will unite in dialogue for the Permian Basin's first
interfaith event Thursday, April 7, at St. Stephen's Catholic Church. The
discussion will feature leaders of the Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu and
Episcopal faiths.
The event was initiated by Dr. Padmaja Patel, who said she wanted to create
a discussion of a different sort between the religions. "I wanted to
do it for quite some time, but I wasn't sure how to go about it,"
Patel said. She asked the religious leaders to each submit one question
regarding contemporary issues. The possible topics range from political
discourse to philosophical ideas, like how a religion interprets pain or
suffering.
The purpose of the questions is to see how different faith groups analyze
and confront situations based on their philosophies and doctrines.
"The idea is to understand how our faith allows us to
understand," Patel said.
The Rev. James Bridges of St. Stephen's Catholic Church said the talk will
help in getting to know the non-Christian populations that are making West
Texas their new home. "For the first time we've had Hindus migrate
over here to help with our diocese and in the medical profession, and we're
finding mosques," Bridges said. "We're finding people who worship
God sincerely but do not have any connection with Christ and are not Christian."
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today, will represent
Hinduism at the panel.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:49 ( 2195
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ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, March 25, 2011 (IBN Live): An octogenarian Hindu
spiritual leader, who was kidnapped three months ago, was today freed in
Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan, police said. Maharaja Luckmi
Chand Garji, 82, was kidnapped with four companions on December 21. The
kidnappers later released three of Garji's companions.
"The kidnappers have released Garji and he has reached his
house," a police official was quoted as saying. There was no
confirmation of whether Garji was released after the payment of ransom or
through the efforts of tribal elders of the area. Relatives of the
religious leader too confirmed his release but did not give details.
Garji is a leading spiritual leader of the minority Hindu community in
Balochistan. His abduction sparked protests in several parts of the
province. Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani had directed authorities to
ensure the safe recovery of the spiritual leader. Dozens of Hindus have
been kidnapped for ransom in Balochistan over the past few months.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:48 ( 1644
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[HPI note: There was a problem with this article yesterday, which caused it
to be cut short. It is being re-sent, with the full summary text.]
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, April 4, 2010 (The New York Times): The Supreme Court
on Monday effectively upheld an Arizona program that aids religious
schools, saying in a 5-to-4 decision that the plaintiffs had no standing to
challenge it.
Justice Elena Kagan, in her first dissent, said the majority had laid waste
to the doctrine of "taxpayer standing," which allows suits from
people who object to having tax money spent on religious matters. "The
court's opinion," Justice Kagan wrote, "offers a road map -- more
truly, a one-step instruction -- to any government that wishes to insulate
its financing of religious activity from legal challenge."
She offered examples. "Suppose a state desires to reward Jews -- by,
say, $500 per year -- for their religious devotion," she wrote. Would
it matter to taxpayers offended by the practice whether the reward came in
the form of a government stipend or a tax credit?
The decision divided the court along the usual ideological lines, with the
other three more liberal members -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G.
Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor -- joining the dissent.
The Arizona program gives taxpayers there a dollar-for-dollar state tax
credit of up to $500 for donations to private "student tuition
organizations." The organizations are permitted to limit the
scholarships they offer to schools of a given religion, and many of them
do.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:46 ( 1852
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GERMANY, April 4, 2011: With a unique approach to the sport, German
teenager Regina Mayer taught a cow to leap.
When her parents told her she couldn't get a horse, Regina Mayer refused to
give up her dream. Regina Mayer, an enterprising German 15-year-old,
grabbed the bull by the horns and spent two years training Luna, the
family's cow, to clear fences.
Look at the video and see for yourself here.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:46 ( 1553
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By PARAS RAMOUTAR, HPI
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, April 2, 2011 (By Paras Ramoutar): There is an urgent
need for capacity building, resource mobilization and institutional
strengthening aimed a nation building, according to Ronald Chuckaree, chair
of the Youths for Unity, Virtue and Action (YUVA) seminar on Sunday. It was
organized by the Hindu Students' Council of Trinidad and Tobago.
Chuckaree told the seminar, which included Minister of Education, Dr Tim
Gopeesingh and Indian High Commissioner, that TT is, "a geopolitical
and socio-economic force to be reckoned with." Chukaree said that YUVA
sees the need to focus directly on the country.
The Hindu Students' Council of Trinidad and Tobago's mission is to develop
an active Hindu student body in TT through activities that inspire, empower
and foster brotherhood among Hindu students in order to enable them to face
challenges in the education system and wider society. "We aim to
achieve our objectives with the belief that the principles of Santan Dharma
are universal and eternal. The world view based on dharma can provide a
holistic and balanced world order that benefits mankind in all spheres. Our
vision is to have an active and united students's body dedicated to the
practice and promotion of Sanatan dharma for the upliftment of
humanity," he added. Over the years the Council, has undertaken scores
of social, humanitarian, religious and cultural projects, Chuckaree said.
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Posted on 2011/4/5 16:50:45 ( 1550
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The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein
lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling
is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of
fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists
and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties his
knowledge, this feeling... that is the core of the true religious
sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among
profoundly religious men.
-- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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Posted on 2011/4/1 16:13:20 ( 1492
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PANAJI, GOA, March 29 (iNews): A
tax imposed by the colonial Portuguese regime on Goa's Hindu temples and
which continued to be exacted even 50 years after the state's liberation,
will soon be scrapped. Chief Minister Digambar Kamat Tuesday assured the
state assembly that the 'Derram', a tax imposed by the Portuguese in 1880,
would be revoked.
'This tax is like the 'jaziya', which Moghul emperor Aurangzeb imposed on
Hindus during his regime (in the 17th century),' opposition legislator
Dilip Parulekar of the Bharatiya Janata Party told the assembly during
question hour.
The Derram, which was introduced by the Portuguese rulers in 1880, was in
1960 formally instituted by the last Portuguese governor general. A year
later, in 1961, Goa was liberated by the Indian Army from the Portuguese
yoke.
In the Portuguese days, the religious tax was used to fund educational activities
in the colony (by missionaries), which had earned the sobriquet 'Rome of
the East' because of its riches and splendor as well as the extent of
Christianity's sway in the eastern part of the world.
[HPI note: According to http://www.cathnewsindia.com, the change is now in effect.]
Source: Goa
to abolish colonial era tax on temples
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Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami ji,
Satguru Bodhianatha Velayanswami ji, Hinduism
Today dot com for the collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth,
lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
spiritual path and also this is purely a non-commercial blog)
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