(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)
KAUAI, HAWAII, March 25, 2014 (Hinduism Today): The April/May/June, 2014,
edition of Hinduism's foremost spiritual magazine, Hinduism Today, has just
been released in digital form and is now available for free at
"source" above on your desktop. You can read articles online or
download the PDF or ePub to enjoy on your iPad or other devices. And feel
free to share articles with family, friends and associates.
On the cover you will see the Cham Hindus of Vietnam, a 60,000-strong
community that has eluded world notice but now is known. They are
indigenous Vietnam peoples who trace their Hindu roots back to the 7th
century when Tamil rulers built a kingdom here, replete with South Indian
style temples and an exquisite culture. Learn how they live and the challenges
they face far from India.
Malaysia is the subject of our feature story, specifically the Waterfall
Temple in Penang. It's a Murugan temple with a 150-year-old history that
will fascinate you. For the past 12 years the temple has been under
construction and was opened in 2012. Its driving force is an energetic band
of bhaktars. Their example of seva is unmatched in this part of the world.
These young ones have a lot to say about the importance of God in their
lives and the central roll that service in the temple plays in their life.
Our publisher, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, addresses an issue faced by
college students in every nation, the omnipresent drone of secular
humanism/atheism/existentialism/materialism. He sets this modern philosophy
beside Hinduism and makes apt comparisons that will give any Hindu faced
with a non-believer's rant with fresh insights. He even draws it all
together in a two page chart that deftly unpacks the subtle differences
between the humanism of Hinduism and that found in modern universities.
It seems the official national museum of the United States has discovered
India (again). Our New York contributor, Lavina Melwani, takes us to the
Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery where crowds are being wowed by a major art
exhibit on yoga and its transformative powers. Just this week she is back
in DC for a Beyond Bollywood piece you will see in you next issue. Great
work, Lavina!
With YouTube dominating the digital instructional universe, it was just a
matter of time before a Hindu group produced a world-class series of films
on Hinduism. The Chinmaya Mission has completed a 54-episode series of TV
shows that give a systematic portrayal of key Hindu and Vedantic teachings,
all in an innovative retelling of ancient stories.
Most of us think that the great Sanskritic works were produced in India's
far past, but now comes a major new work worthy of Sankara himself. Guided
by Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Swaminarayan Fellowship, Sadhu Bhadreshdas
has completed the five-volume Swaminarayan Bhashyam. What's amazing (and
important) about this project is that it is the first effort for hundreds
of years to create a rigorous bhashya on the Prasthantrayi: the Upanishads,
the Brahmasutras and the Gita. But the story doesn't end with the work, it
dives into the amazing challenges, including a flood that completely
destroyed the work midway
He cannot be seen by the eye, and words cannot reveal Him. He cannot be
reached by the senses, or by austerity or sacred actions. By the grace of
wisdom and purity of mind, He can be seen, indivisible, in the silence of
contemplation. This invisible Atman can be seen by the mind wherein the
five senses are resting.
-- Atharva Veda
NEW DELHI, March 11, 2014 (The Hindu): The Supreme Court has upheld a
notification issued by the Rishikesh Municipal Board banning the sale of
eggs within the town limits, holding that it was not an unreasonable
restriction. A Bench of Justice Shivaraj V. Patil and Justice D. M.
Dharmadhikari rejected an appeal by Om Prakash and other traders against a
judgment of the Allahabad High Court dismissing a writ petition filed by
them challenging the notification banning the sale of eggs.
The appellants had challenged the ban under an amended provision of the Uttar
Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1916 on the ground that it imposed unreasonable
restriction, affecting their rights under Article 19(1)(g) of the
Constitution. However, the Bench noted that by the amended provision, the
Municipal Board had added only "eggs" in the list of already
banned non-vegetarian food articles.
"There was already a prohibition in regard to any kind of meat or
fish. The High Court has noticed that under the amended provision, the ban
on sale of meat and fish, which was existing for a long time, was not
challenged." The Bench said the High Court was right in holding that
the prohibition on sale of eggs within the limits of Rishikesh -- a town of
Hindu temples -- was not an unreasonable restriction being in the larger
interest of welfare of the people, consistent with the provisions of the
Act.
Keeping in mind the religious sentiments attached to the three towns of
Haridwar, Rishikesh and Muni Ki Reti, the Bench said: "Geographical
situation and peculiar culture of the three towns justify complete
restriction on trade and public dealing in non-vegetarian food items,
including eggs, within the municipal limits of the towns."
SUVA, FIJI, March 23, 2014 (Fiji Times): Interest in participating in the
first ever Fiji National Hindu Conference is growing, said Ashika Chandra
of the World Hindu Council's Fiji chapter.
"People are making enquiries and registering their interest in taking
part in an event which will not only recognize the contribution of the
Indian people to Fiji but also address social, economic, health and
education issues as well," she said.
Ms Chandra said all major Hindu organisations such as the Sanatan Dharm,
Arya Samaj, TISI Sangam, Gujarati Samaj, Sri Ramakrishna Mission, Art of
Living and Brahma Kumaris would make presentations at the event.
"The conference program will have oral presentations and we also aim
to publish all the conference papers and the copies will be available to
government agencies and community workers, and also to all participants of
the conference."
The conference will be held on April 12 and 13 at the Tanoa International
Hotel in Nadi. It is organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Fiji. For more
information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/vhp.fiji/posts/653127461412115.
MADURAI, INDIA, March 29, 2014 (Times Of India): Amidst election duty,
3,000 police personnel in Dindigul will be deployed to provide security for
the over one million devotees who are expected to the throng the Palani
Dandhayudapani temple on the occasion of the Panguni Uthiram festival in
mid-April.
Panguni Uthiram is one of the important festivals of the temple and draws
people from across the state to the hill temple. Flag-hoisting for the
festival will be held on April 7, the thirukalyanam or celestial wedding on
April 12 and the car festival is scheduled on April 13.
Every year elaborate arrangements are undertaken by the Dindigul district
administration and the temple authorities weeks before the festival. This
year's festival will pose a challenge to authorities as it will be held
when the campaigning for the Lok Sabha election will be at its peak.
AUSTRALIA, March 10, 2014 (Chasing Aphrodite): Ron Radford, the embattled
director of the National Gallery of Australia, sat down last week for his
first media interview since the Subhash Kapoor scandal broke. Radford's
stumbling performance and reality-defying denials already have some leading
experts questioning his ability to lead Australia's premiere national
museum. "The gallery's council must surely question whether the
director can remain in place," University of Sydney law professor Duncan
Chappell told the Australian.
Radford staunchly defended the museum's investigation of the bogus
ownership history that Kapoor supplied for the Shiva, which claimed it had
been in the private New York collection of a woman named Raj Mehgoub.
"We did everything that was humanly possible," Radford told ABC's
Anne Maria Nicholson. "The negotiations went on for a year as we were
testing whether it had been stolen from anywhere or its provenance and we
were checking all of that with great thoroughness. We went through about
eight different processes before we bought it."
His skepticism flies in the face of his museum's own lawsuit against Kapoor
claiming it was duped; Radford's December offer to seek avenues for the
Shiva's restitution to India; the Australian Attorney General's stated
urgency to resolve the case; the guilty plea of Kapoor's gallery manager
Aaron Freeman, who admitted forging the Shiva's false provenance and
detailed its path from an Indian temple to New York; the indictment of
Kapoor's girlfriend and sister for allegedly forging provenance documents
and holding stolen art; a detailed criminal investigation by Indian
authorities that since 2009 has publicly named the alleged thieves who
stole the Shiva; Vijay Kumar's careful analysis of the links between the
stolen Shiva and the one at the NGA; and our first report last June showing
the Shiva in the house of the alleged temple thief who stole it.
ONEHUNGA, NEW ZEALAND, February 14, 2014 (Indian Weekender): Thousands of
people thronged Onehunga, Auckland, over four days last week as the Shirdi
Saibaba Mandir opened its doors to the public. Twelve years, more than $4.5
million, and countless hours of toil by members of the Shirdi Saibaba
Sansthan of New Zealand came to fruition at 12-18 Princess St on February
6, as the splendor of the mandir was unveiled to all. Four days of rituals,
pooja and discourses culminated with cultural programmes and Shej Aarti on
Sunday, February 9. Sansthan executives told the Indian Weekender they were
delighted with the opening of the mandir and the way the community had
responded to make the event so successful.
PAKISTAN, March 29, 2014 (Tribune): A small temple belonging to the Hindu
scheduled-caste community was desecrated on Friday morning. Three unidentified
attackers entered the temple of the Hindu deity, Hanuman, in the SITE area
of Latifabad at around 7 am. The men prayed for two minutes and then broke
Hanuman's statue before setting the temple on fire. This temple is located
in the same compound as the more popular temple of Kali Mata.
"They asked me to let them in because they wanted to pray," said
Darshan, a student of class five, who has been looking after the temple for
the last five months. "But, once they entered, they broke the statue,
sprayed kerosene oil and set everything ablaze."
The temple is located in Kali Mata Colony on the foothills of the Ganjo
Takkar mountain range. The colony, inhabited by around 500 to 600
scheduled-caste families, is named after the historic Kali Mata temple, which
was located in a mountain cave before the new temple was built. Hanuman's
temple is situated at the colony's entrance, some 350 to 400 feet away from
the Kali Mata's temple. The attack came weeks before the April 14 fair
organized at the temple every year.
Krishan Kumar, who represents the colony's community, refused to accept
that Friday's attacks were caused due to any rivalries. The people of this
area mostly belong to the labor class, he said, adding that they neither
fight with neighboring communities nor have they received any threats.
"We have been living here for centuries because of Kali Mata's temple.
Never in the past were we attacked this way."
Life should be dynamic, full of movement, flowing endlessly like the mighty
Ganges. Life's movement should be channelled in the right direction. Life
becomes a burden for many people because it has lost its dynamism. For them
life is not like a flowing river. It is a static, turbid puddle. Understand
that action gives movement to life, knowledge gives it direction and
devotion bestows the inspiration to life's journey.
-- Rameshbhai Oza, inspired performer of Vaishnava kathas
PAKISTAN, March 29, 2014 (Indian Express): A Hindu temple has been
desecrated and set on fire by unidentified persons in Pakistan's southern
Sindh province, two weeks ahead of an annual fair at the holy site. The
caretaker of the temple of Hindu deity Hanuman, in Latifabad town told
police that three men came on Friday to offer prayers. "But after
offering prayers they first broke a statue of Hanuman and then sprayed
kerosene oil and set it on fire," said a police official.
Around 500-600 scheduled caste Hindu families inhabit the locality the
temple is situated in. They staged protests at several places in the city.
The initial investigations suggest the attack is not related to any
communal strife. The local Deputy Superintendent of Police and Station
House Officer have been suspended and an FIR has been lodged against three
unidentified attackers, said DIG Sanaullah Abbassi.
DENPASAR, BALI, March 29, 2014 (The Jakarta Post): Balinese Hindus marched
to the beaches, major rivers, lakes and holy springs on Friday to perform
Melasti, a ritual to cleanse temple paraphernalia and to recharge the
supernatural power of the temple's sacred objects, in preparation for
Nyepi, the Hindu Day of Silence, which will falls on March 31.
Dressed in mostly white and yellow traditional attire, customary village
members escorted the temple paraphernalia -- colorful parasols and
ceremonial weapons -- as well as pratima (sacred effigies made of rare
woods and precious gems) and object of worship, such as the lion-like
barong and the terrifying-looking rangda masks, onto the shore.
All these sacred objects were neatly arranged facing the ocean and
surrounded by their devotees sitting on the sand. Temple priests and
community leaders then presented the offering to Baruna, Lord of the Ocean.
Balinese Hindus believe that the ocean's water has powerful, supernatural
healing and protective properties. Ocean water can be used to neutralize
negative energy while sand can be used to fortify houses from black magic
attacks.
March 30, 2014 (Vijayvaani by J. Venkatasubramanian): Meditation or Dhyanam
has become a sure catch phrase in today's India. Today's Hindu media is
abuzz with the idea of meditation as a must for the modern person.
Corporate gurus are advocating meditation to all their followers. Given
this scenario, is there truth in the statement that meditation or dhyanam
is the key for spiritual progress of an average man? All the modern gurus said
that spiritual progress is impossible without meditation, and here I was,
not able to close my eyes for a few minutes. I became frustrated and
totally abandoned meditation.
The revelation that meditation belonged to the tradition of Yoga changed my
conception of the discipline completely. It is not that I did not know
this, everyone knows meditation is a limb of yoga. But the crux of the
matter is - has anyone paid attention to the other limbs of yoga? Dhyanam
is the seventh limb in an ascending order listed by Patanjali.
1. Yama: The five qualities of ahimsa, adherence to truthful ways,
non-coveting of other's property, brahmacharya, and non-interest in
accumulating wealth make up the first limb called Yama.
2. Niyama: Cleanliness, pleasantness regardless of one's status, life of
sadhana, self study of works of adhyatma path, dedication of all oneself to
Iswara constitute Niyama.
3. Asanam: A proper posture which can afford painless sessions of sadhana
is asanam. This is also a victory over our posture which allows us to do
long sadhanas.
4. Pranayama: Retaining the prana inside or outside with regard to the
place, time and count are called thedeergha and sookshma pranayamas.
5. Pratyahara: The stage in which the senses are withdrawn from the sense
objects and dwell in the chitta is called pratyahara.
6. Dharana: Focussing the mind for quite a length of time is called
dharana.
7. Dhyanam: Ability to focus the chitta further for much longer periods is
called dhyaanam.
8. Samadhi: When the feeling of 'I' vanishes during dhyaanam and only the
meditated object remains, that state is samadhi.
My mistake was to have started with the seventh step without the least idea
of the basic steps. It was Swami Bhajanananda who so beautifully
illustrated the fault lines in the modern understanding of dhyanam. His
book (Meditation) was the first book I have read which stated explicitly
that puja is a very sure and safe path for a beginner of yoga. I am in
total agreement with this since for the last ten years I have been drawing
much spiritual strength from my daily puja and sloka chanting.
We who have come from the East here have been told day after day in a
patronizing way that we ought to accept Christianity because Christian
nations are the most prosperous. We look about us and see England as the
most prosperous nation in the world, with her foot on the neck of 250
million Asiatics. We look back in history and see Christian Spain's wealth
beginning with the invasion of Mexico. Such prosperity comes from cutting
the throats of fellow men. At such a price the Hindu will not have
prosperity.
-- Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, at the
Parliament of the World's Religions, 1893
LONDON, March 31, 2013 (Press Release of National Council of Hindu Temple
UK): The last decade has seen a dramatic upsurge in the area of
"Indology" the academic study of Hindus and their civilization
and typically this involves non-Hindus dissecting and commenting upon what
they think we Hindus are all about. Of late, this has developed a nasty
unpleasant streak where members of other religions, (very very commonly
members of the Church), usually "academics", have openly taken to
demeaning and humiliating Hindus and Sanatan Dharma, on a global scale.
This is done usually by deliberately misrepresenting the contents of Hindu Sacred
texts or by misrepresenting historical events. The British Board of Hindu
Scholars has been established to provide an authoritative scholarly source
of the unpolluted essence contained in the oldest scriptures known to the
Human race, without the taint caused by either very poor quality academic
ability, or deliberate religiously motivated intellectual terrorism.
As "source" is a quick video (no more than a few minutes worth!)
to introduce the BBHS.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA, US, March 22, 2014 (Altoona Herald, by Rekha Basu):
Whatever you call what happened, it was an unfortunate introduction to the
community of 350 Indian "pandits" and their purpose here. Curious
about what could have provoked purveyors of peace to such disruptive
measures, I spent a couple of days last week in Fairfield and nearby
Maharishi Vedic City, the municipality where the pandits live -- in a
large, fenced-in compound out of view. I toured it, talked to leaders of
the program, members of the Fairfield community and local, state and
federal officials.
"Maharishi saw that America plays a leading part in the fate of people
around the world, so we should bring large groups of pandits to America to
make sure America stays on the track of world peace," said Bill
Goldstein, dean of Global Country and the legal counsel for the Fairfield
university. He launched the program with donated funds -- he didn't reveal
the budget -- hoping to bring in as many as 1,200 priests for 30-month
stays.
The priests get room and meals plus a mere $200 a month, $150 of which is
deposited in Indian bank accounts for their families. Administrators say
that was decided by program heads in India. The priests have placed
makeshift barriers from the cold or sun over their shadeless windows. They
have a recreation space, prayer centers and a courtyard where they play
cricket. They have no access to the Internet or cellphone communications
(they buy prepaid calling cards to phone home) and their TV viewing choices
are limited to Indian news programs via satellite in a common area.[For more
details from this investigative piece see 'source' above.
DENPASAR, BALI, March 21, 2014 (The Bali Daily): The Jagatnatha Temple in
Denpasar said it had increased security measures by assigning special
guards to accompany the existing pemangku (priests) that had been guarding
the temple. The decision was in follow-up to the thefts of pretima --
small, sacred effigies usually made of precious woods and bedecked with
jewels -- from 34 temples since 2008. The Bali Police successfully resolved
several cases late last year and arrested some suspects, including a
priest.
The most high-profile case occurred in 2010 and involved an Italian art
collector, Roberto Gamba, who was believed to be the mastermind behind a
ring of thieves. The police and prosecutors, however, failed to prove that
accusation and Gamba was only charged with fencing stolen goods and
punished with a brief sentence of five months' imprisonment before being
deported to his home country.
Indonesian Parisadha Hindu Council (PHDI) and scores of Hindu organizations
demanded the police not release the confiscated items. The police caved in
and agreed to shift the custody of more than 400 confiscated pretima to
Bali Museum. Council deputy chairman Ketut Pasek said, "stolen pretima
are considered defiled, no longer sacred and no temple wants them,
explaining why no temple took the stolen pretima after they were recovered
by the police.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN, March 25, 2014 (Tribune): Out of 428 Hindu places of
worship in the country, 408 have been converted into commercial use
including toy stores, restaurants, government offices and schools after
1990, a survey has found. Another shocking figure disclosed in the survey
conducted by the All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (PHRM) was that only 20
Hindu temples out of the 428 places of worship are operational.
"The remaining places of worship have been leased for commercial and
residential purposes by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), said PHRM
Chairman Haroon Sarab Diyal. The 135,000 acres of land owned by around four
million Hindus is now under ETPB's control.
Representatives of the Hindu community also wrote to all the chief
ministers of the four provinces but have not received a response yet, Diyal
added. He urged the government to hand over these religious places to the
Hindu community to mitigate their resentment and fear of being forced to
leave their homeland.
"Even if we have control of the temples, local residents dump oil
drums, utensils and animals around them," complained Diyal. However,
Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Yousaf assured that the Evacuee Trust has
already been directed to gather the data pertaining to all religious places
owned by minority communities. "At least, [all this] did not happen
during our government's tenure," he said when he was informed of the
survey's findings. "I'll take up this matter with minorities' leaders.
It's a serious matter." A committee will be constituted to address
these concerns, he routinely added.
CALIFORNIA, U.S., March 17, 2014 (Mercury News): In the beginning, there
was nothing. And then, in an explosive instant: Everything. That explains
not just Stanford physicist Andrei Linde's landmark theory, but also his
moment of epiphany, in Moscow 30 years ago, that transformed our
understanding of the beginnings of the universe. Astronomers announced new
findings last week that, if corroborated, validate his pioneering vision
that the universe was born in a fraction of a second, expanding
exponentially from a size smaller than a proton.
Last Monday, a team of scientists reported that a telescope at the South
Pole had detected gravitational waves that are the first tremors of the Big
Bang, when the universe was a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of
a second old. The news, heralded as one of cosmology's biggest discoveries,
lends "smoking gun" evidence to Linde's once-radical Chaotic
Inflation theory about the universe's violent expansion.
"Even if one tries to interpret our results in religious terms, I
think that it would be such a waste of energy for 'God' not to use this way
of creating a universe -- to take a milligram of matter and then the
universe does the rest of the job by itself, producing infinite number of
universes," he said.
If there was a creator of the universe, was the work signed? Is there a
hidden message? The inflationary expansion could make it too huge to read,
he concedes. But perhaps the message is encoded in the laws of that
universe -- legible only to physicists. The thought brings him joy.
"Maybe God is a physicist hacker," Linde laughed. Then he turned
quiet. "I am not so sure this is just a joke."
As to a mountain that's enflamed, deer and birds do not resort--so, with
knowers of God, sins find no shelter.
-- Krishna Yajur Veda, Maitreya Upanishads 6.18
Whatever you call what happened, it was an unfortunate introduction to the
community of 350 Indian "pandits" and their purpose here. Curious
about what could have provoked purveyors of peace to such disruptive
measures, I spent a couple of days last week in Fairfield and nearby
Maharishi Vedic City, the municipality where the pandits live -- in a
large, fenced-in compound out of view. I toured it, talked to leaders of
the program, members of the Fairfield community and local, state and
federal officials.
"Maharishi saw that America plays a leading part in the fate of people
around the world, so we should bring large groups of pandits to America to
make sure America stays on the track of world peace," said Bill
Goldstein, dean of Global Country and the legal counsel for the Fairfield
university. He launched the program with donated funds -- he didn't reveal
the budget -- hoping to bring in as many as 1,200 priests for 30-month
stays.
The priests get room and meals plus a mere $200 a month, $150 of which is
deposited in Indian bank accounts for their families. Administrators say
that was decided by program heads in India. The priests have placed
makeshift barriers from the cold or sun over their shadeless windows. They
have a recreation space, prayer centers and a courtyard where they play
cricket. They have no access to the Internet or cellphone communications
(they buy prepaid calling cards to phone home) and their TV viewing choices
are limited to Indian news programs via satellite in a common area.
DEHRADUN, INDIA, April 9, 2014 (Times Of India): Only eight pilgrims have
registered for road travel towards Kedarnath this year. Nearly 1.3 million
had visited Kedarnath and Badrinath last year, during the Char Dham Yatra
(pilgrimage to four holy sites). Rattled by last year's devastation in
which floods killed 6,000 and stranded 100,000, only 77 devotees have opted
for the chopper service for Kedarnath this year. With the Char Dham Yatra,
the backbone of Uttarakhand's economy, scheduled to kick off in the first
week of May, it is clear that the state is set to lose millions of dollars
in revenue.
The Char Dham Yatra used to have over 20 million visitors through the
pilgrimage season. It fueled the economy of Uttarakhand, triggering money
circulation in the form of taxi rides, hotel bookings, chopper rides and
road taxes. This year, the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) has only 294
bookings, including 77 for Kedarnath, for the Yatra.
Stunned by the low head-count, the state government has held meetings with
over 250 tour operators based in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. "In the
meetings we are telling the private tour operators about arrangements made
by the state government in all the four shrines. This includes the medical
facilities, helipads, emergency services, communications and
transport," said a senior Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board
official.
LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA, April 4, 2014 (Independent News): The Shiva Vishnu
Temple's soaring white gopura, the ornate tower at the temple's entrance,
is awe-inspiring against Livermore's deep blue sky, but the people gathered
within are beyond warm and welcoming. "Our motto is, 'Serving God
through serving mankind,'" said Kruthi Shah, emcee of the Hindu
Community and Cultural Center (HCCC)'s annual Grant in Aid Ceremony on
March 22nd.
"Grant in Aid is in the spirit of giving back to the community,"
said Karunakar Gulukota, chairman of the Human Services Functional
Committee. "The HCCC stands for community overall, and is sincerely
making efforts to bring a positive difference to our community. Our
facilities are open to everyone who could make suitable use of them while
being mindful of the fact that it is attached to the Hindu Temple."
Since 1987, around $30,000 each year is granted to non-profit organizations
that focus on meeting a wide range of human needs, particularly those
ensuring food, shelter, health and education. Nearly 30 non-profits were
chosen this year to receive grants which varied in amount according to the
organization's needs, size and programs. Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Chief
Jim Miguel accepted a grant of $1,200 that will help those impacted by
fires and local emergencies, along with assisting firefighter's families
when needed.
LONDON: April 5, 2014(Times of India): In a first-of-its-kind case, a Hindu
prisoner being held in a British jail has won the right to perform the last
rites at his father's funeral following a major legal battle. Joginder Paul
Kashyap, serving a default prison sentence over non-payment of a
confiscation order at Oakwood prison near the West Midlands city of
Wolverhampton, was given immediate permission this week to be "chief
mourner" and have his handcuffs removed to take part in the rituals of
the Hindu funeral.
The 57-year-old had originally been told by the prison that he could only
attend the cremation while handcuffed and accompanied by two guards. He
launched judicial review proceedings and a judge ruled earlier this week
that the original decision was wrong. "The claimant's handcuffs are to
be removed in accordance with the terms set out in the Schedule to this
Order," reads the court order by Justice Leggatt, sitting at the
Administrative Court in Birmingham.
Kashyap's claim was backed by the Hindu Council (UK), which gave scriptural
advice on the basis that "it could not be in dispute that the eldest
son performs the funeral rites where the offspring consists of sons and
that he must be allowed to do so with dignity". The case, believed to
be the first of its kind, is expected to have wide-reaching repercussions
on similar cases across the UK. The prisoner's legal team had argued that
the decision of the prison was incompatible with the European Convention on
Human Rights.
SRINAGAR,INDIA, Apr 8, 2014 (Rising Kashmir, by Sumaiya Yousuf): Ram
Navami, the birth anniversary of Lord Rama, was celebrated in Summer
Capital with religious fervor and gaiety on Tuesday ending their
nine-day-long fast of Chaitra Navratri. Hundreds of devotees thronged the
temples since morning to pay obeisance. Havans, sankirtans and preeti bhoj
were conducted. The local pujaris (priests) had organized rallies and other
functions that were conducted smoothly.
A group of Kashmiri pandits told Rising Kashmir that they conducted the
festival effortlessly. Expressing gratitude to Muslim community, they said
that they were very happy to see Muslim brothers and sisters helping and
supporting them. "We are pleased to see how everyone is supporting and
enjoying our festival, we could see our Muslim brothers smiling and
cheering with us so what could be better than this feeling on such a
precious day," another devotee from Karan Nagar Varun Gupta said. In
several other places across Kashmir, Rath Yatra (religious processions) of
murthis of Lord Rama and Sita are also organized, with devotees chanting
hymns.
According to Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti, an organization of Kashmiri
Pandits staying in Kashmir valley, currently there are 651 families with of
population of 2,764 Kashmiri Pandits staying in and outside Srinagar
[against a pre-1995 population of more than 100,000]. As per the Indian
online pages, J&K has 10,143,700 total population and among them
3,005,349 are Hindu population maintaining 29.6% of the total population.
Go beyond science, into the region of metaphysics. Real religion is beyond
argument. It can only be lived, both inwardly and outwardly.
-- Swami Sivananda (1887-1963), founder of Divine Life Society
KYODO, JAPAN, November 27, 2013 (Japan Times): There is a
"natural" convergence among yoga practitioners in Japan: Those
who have practiced it primarily for slimming or health are becoming more
interested in its spiritual aspects, while those who have approached it as
a philosophy are more actively engaging in physical exercise, according to
an experienced yoga instructor.
"When you have a dialogue with your body as a real object, you have to
face yourself," Mamoru Aizawa said. "This is an awakening. Lots
of people practice Ashtanga yoga early in the morning before going to work."
Ashtanga yoga is a modern form of classical Indian yoga increasingly
practiced in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Aizawa, whose yoga name is Chama, is an instructor at TOKYOYOGA, which
offers a large number of classes in the capital. Following his
instructions, students perform a series of poses ranging from the basic to
the complex.
With the yoga boom spreading, what organizers called the biggest yoga event
in Asia was held in Yokohama in late September. The 10th Yogafest Yokohama
offered various yoga classes, including those for children and physically
disabled people.
NEW YORK, April 5, 2014 (New York Times, by Barbara Ehrenreich): My atheism
is hard-core, rooted in family tradition rather than adolescent rebellion.
According to family legend, one of my 19th-century ancestors, a dirt-poor
Irish-American woman in Montana, expressed her disgust with the church by
vehemently refusing last rites when she lay dying in childbirth. From then
on, we were atheists and rationalists, a stance I perpetuated by opting,
initially, for a career in science.
How else to understand the world except as the interaction of tiny bits of
matter and mathematically predictable forces? There were no gods or
spirits, just our own minds pressing up against the unknown.
But something happened when I was 17 that shook my safely rationalist
worldview and left me with a lifelong puzzle. Years later, I learned that
this sort of event is usually called a mystical experience, and I can see
in retrospect that the circumstances had been propitious: Thanks to a
severely underfunded and poorly planned skiing trip, I was sleep-deprived
and probably hypoglycemic that morning in 1959 when I stepped out alone,
walked into the streets of Lone Pine, Calif., and saw the world -- the
mountains, the sky, the low scattered buildings -- suddenly flame into
life.
There were no visions, no prophetic voices or visits by totemic animals,
just this blazing everywhere. Something poured into me and I poured out
into it. This was not the passive beatific merger with "the All,"
as promised by the Eastern mystics. It was a furious encounter with a
living substance that was coming at me through all things at once, too vast
and violent to hold on to, too heartbreakingly beautiful to let go of. It
seemed to me that whether you start as a twig or a gorgeous tapestry, you
will be recruited into the flame and made indistinguishable from the rest
of the blaze. I felt ecstatic and somehow completed, but also shattered.
Of course I said nothing about this to anyone. Since I recognized no
deities, and even the notion of an "altered state of
consciousness" was unavailable at the time, I was left with only one
explanation: I had had a mental breakdown, ultimately explainable as a
matter of chemical imbalances, overloaded circuits or identifiable
psychological forces. There had been some sort of brief equipment failure,
that was all, and I determined to pull myself together and put it behind
me, going on to finish my formal education as a cellular immunologist and
become a responsible, productive citizen.
It took an inexcusably long time for me to figure out that what had
happened to me was part of a widespread category of human experience. Some
surveys find that nearly half of Americans report having had a mystical
experience.
Of course all such experiences can be seen as symptoms of one sort or
another, and that is the way psychiatry has traditionally disposed of the
mystically adept: The shaman was simply the local schizophrenic, Saint
Teresa of Avila a clear hysteric. A recent paper from Harvard Medical
School proposes that the revelations experienced by Abraham, Moses, Jesus
and Paul can all be attributed to "primary or mood-disorder-associated
psychotic disorders." I suspect we would have more reports of uncanny
experiences from ordinary, rational people if it were not for the fear of
being judged insane or at least unstable.
Fortunately, science itself has been changing. It was simply overwhelmed by
the empirical evidence, starting with quantum mechanics and the realization
that even the most austere vacuum is a happening place, bursting with
possibility and giving birth to bits of something, even if they're only
fleeting particles of matter and antimatter. Without invoking anything
supernatural, we may be ready to acknowledge that we are not, after all,
alone in the universe. There is no evidence for a God or gods, least of all
caring ones, but our mystical experiences give us tantalizing glimpses of
other forms of consciousness, which may be beings of some kind, ordinarily
invisible to us and our instruments. Or it could be that the universe is
itself pulsing with a kind of life, and capable of bursting into something
that looks to us momentarily like the flame.
Like a tortoise withdrawing five limbs into its shell, those who restrain
the five senses in one life will find safe shelter for seven.
-- Tirukkural 126
UNITED STATES, April 3, 2014 (Voice Of America): Located in remote,
northwestern Cambodia, the ancient Angkor Wat temples have been a wonder from
afar for many who had neither the time nor money to pay a visit. Now, a
tour is just a free click away, thanks to Google Street View. The company
announced the launch of its new ground-level view of the complex Thursday
in Siem Reap province, where the temples are located.
Senior Google staffer Divon Lan Thursday said the service was the product
of more than a year of work. "It has significance beyond Cambodia.
This is a very important part of history of the world. The site is the
biggest religious site in the world. It's the biggest Hindu temple in the
world, so for the billions of people who believe in Hinduism in the world,
this is very important for them. So this a very important heritage site in
the global scale. This is a part of the world of information that we want
to bring to everyone in the world," said Lan.
Google Street View users can now visit 100 temples and sculptures around
Angkor Wat, via a 360-degree perspective. The new initiative adds to
existing virtual tours of the Taj Mahal in India and Mt. Fuji in Japan.
PHILIPPINES, April 4, 2014 (ph news): In the Philippines, a religious feast
from a foreign land is starting to gain ground among Pinoy communities.
Following the lead of Indian nationals now in the country, some Filipinos
have joined the Hindu spring festival called Holi through music, dance and
a clash of colors. The feast is also called the festival of colors, as it
usually involves people throwing colored powder and water at each other.
Holi, which commemorates Hindu God Krishna's dance with the gopikas,
signifies the victory of good over evil.
Do not be proud of wealth, people, relations and friends, or youth. All
these are snatched by time in the blink of an eye. Giving up this illusory
world, know and attain the Supreme.
-- Adi Shankara, 9th century Indian philosopher and saint
MADURAI, INDIA, March 29, 2014 (Times Of India): Amidst election duty,
3,000 police personnel in Dindigul will be deployed to provide security for
the over one million devotees who are expected to the throng the Palani
Dandhayudapani temple on the occasion of the Panguni Uthiram festival in
mid-April.
Panguni Uthiram is one of the important festivals of the temple and draws
people from across the state to the hill temple. Flag-hoisting for the
festival will be held on April 7, the thirukalyanam or celestial wedding on
April 12 and the car festival is scheduled on April 13.
Every year elaborate arrangements are undertaken by the Dindigul district
administration and the temple authorities weeks before the festival. This
year's festival will pose a challenge to authorities as it will be held
when the campaigning for the Lok Sabha election will be at its peak.
AUSTRALIA, March 10, 2014 (Chasing Aphrodite): Ron Radford, the embattled
director of the National Gallery of Australia, sat down last week for his
first media interview since the Subhash Kapoor scandal broke. Radford's
stumbling performance and reality-defying denials already have some leading
experts questioning his ability to lead Australia's premiere national
museum. "The gallery's council must surely question whether the
director can remain in place," University of Sydney law professor
Duncan Chappell told the Australian.
Radford staunchly defended the museum's investigation of the bogus
ownership history that Kapoor supplied for the Shiva, which claimed it had
been in the private New York collection of a woman named Raj Mehgoub.
"We did everything that was humanly possible," Radford told ABC's
Anne Maria Nicholson. "The negotiations went on for a year as we were
testing whether it had been stolen from anywhere or its provenance and we
were checking all of that with great thoroughness. We went through about
eight different processes before we bought it."
His skepticism flies in the face of his museum's own lawsuit against Kapoor
claiming it was duped; Radford's December offer to seek avenues for the
Shiva's restitution to India; the Australian Attorney General's stated
urgency to resolve the case; the guilty plea of Kapoor's gallery manager
Aaron Freeman, who admitted forging the Shiva's false provenance and
detailed its path from an Indian temple to New York; the indictment of
Kapoor's girlfriend and sister for allegedly forging provenance documents
and holding stolen art; a detailed criminal investigation by Indian
authorities that since 2009 has publicly named the alleged thieves who
stole the Shiva; Vijay Kumar's careful analysis of the links between the
stolen Shiva and the one at the NGA; and our first report last June showing
the Shiva in the house of the alleged temple thief who stole it.
"The downfall of a religous sect begins from the day that the worship
of the rich enters into it."
-- Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Om Tat Sat (Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
ji, Satguru Bodhianatha Velayanswami ji, Hinduism
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lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
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