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BUTTERWORTH, MALAYSIA, June 14, 2013 (nst.com): A 100,000 strong crowd -- largely made up of Hindu devotees, while people of other faiths included locals and tourists from Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India -- thronged the Arulmigu Sree Maha Mariamman Devasthanam temple for the annual seven-day fire-walking festival here recently.

The festival started with a fire-walking ritual at Jalan Mengkuang, where some 3,000 devotees walked over a 22 ft. long and 6.5 ft. wide poo-kuli (fire pit). This fire-walking tradition in Butterworth has been practiced for over a century.

On Tuesday, more than 5,000 devotees, including local Chinese and foreigners, fulfilled their vows by carrying decorated kavadis, paal kudams (milk pots), agni satee (pot of burning fire), shaving their heads, performing the angga paravesam (rolling on the floor), carrying the maa vilakku (lighted lamp made of flour) and performing the madi pitchai (fulfilling vows by asking for alms).

Temple chairman Parthiban Sanderasaggaran said 10 days prior to the fire-walking ritual, the kodi yaettram (flag-raising ceremony) signified the start of the festival. "Hindus celebrating the festival will adhere to a strict vegetarian diet for at least 21 days. "The celebration is the longest and second largest Hindu event in the state," he said. Parthiban said the festival has been celebrated at the same place for more than 140 years.

On the third day, the silver chariot bearing the statue of the deity Arulmigu Sree Maha Mariamman was taken on a 12 mile procession around the northern part of the town. Devotees, well-wishers, businessmen and women, especially from the Chinese community in Jalan Raja Uda, broke thousands of coconuts on the streets as a symbol of cleansing to pave the way for the chariot to pass.

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UNITED KINGDOM, June 14, 2013 (BBC): India's population is forecast to continue to grow until 2050, according to the United Nations. India looks set to overtake China as the world's most populous country from 2028, according to the United Nations. At that point, both nations will number 1.45 billion people each. Subsequently India's population will continue to grow until the middle of the century, while China's slowly declines.

The UN also estimates that the current global population of 7.2 billion will reach 9.6 billion by 2050. That is a faster rate of growth than previously estimated. The population growth will be mainly in developing countries, particularly in Africa, the UN says.

The world's 49 least developed countries are projected to double in size from around 900 million people in 2013 to 1.8 billion in 2050, whereas the population of developed regions will remain largely unchanged. The UN said the reason for the increase in its projection is largely new information on fertility levels in certain high birth rate countries.

Large developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, have seen a rapid fall in the average number of children per woman, but in other nations, such as Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia and Uganda, fertility levels remain high.

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One does not suddenly reach a point where desire goes away. Desire is life. Desire can be directed according to the personal will. Through sadhana you can gain mastery over all the forces of your mind and body.
-- Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001), founder of Hinduism Today

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JAMAICA, NEW YORK, June 1, 2013 (press release): The 2nd Hindu Mandir Priests' Conference concluded at the Shri Surya Narayan Mandir here in Jamaica. The Conference was hosted by the Shri Surya Narayan Mandir, in collaboration with the Bhavaanee Maa Mandir, the New York Sanatana Mandir and the United Community Mandir under the auspices of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of American. The Inaugural Session of the conference got underway on the evening of Friday, May 31. In attendance were more than 130 Hindu devotees, pandits and swamis.

As the audience listened in rapt attention, the speakers made very thoughtful presentations that covered the challenges facing priests in the community by Amrutur Srinivasan, the work of the USA Pandits' Parishad in Guyana and here in the USA by Pandit Parasram, and Swamini Svatmavidyananda's talk on Devotion, Dharma, Prayer and the Priesthood. The Arya Spiritual Center's Dharmacharya Pandit Ramlall also spoke about the challenges facing the Hindu in hostile societies. The sessions covered topics such as priests' role: issues and concerns; community's issues and concerns: devotees' and executives' inputs; sharing resources; and education and training. In the third session dealing with community issues and concerns, young Aneesh Bairavasundaram stole everyone's hearts with a polished presentation of "My story: Growing Up in a Priest's Family." One outstanding feature of this conference was the number of youthful Hindus who made presentations. In addition to Aneesh, there was also Austin Ayer who spoke about the training available at universities in the Maharishi Organization, Devi Mehotra who spoke about the Hindu Students Council at Yale University and Dr. Anand Ramnarine, who called for a "national Hindu voice, as a means of solidifying our Hindu identity." After all the presentations, the participants unanimously approved 2 resolutions for action:

1. Enhance communication among priests in North America by building a dharmic bridge between priests and the community they serve.

2. Develop a priests training workshop model that includes development of a guide book.

The conference is part of HMEC, an initiative of World Hindu Council of America (VHPA). Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) of America (VHPA), founded in 1970 and incorporated in the state of New York in 1974, is an independent, nonprofit, tax- exempt and volunteer-based charitable organization serving the needs of Hindu community in USA.

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By practicing tolerance of those who insult us, we will feel honor and insult as the same. Just as we feel good when someone praises us, we should feel just as good when we are insulted. Stability in honor or insult is the ability to still have love for our aggressor.
-- Sri Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Spiritual Guru of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha

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AIZAWL, INDIA, May 23, 2013 (Mizo News): The Assam Rifles temple inside the Assam Rifle Compound in Aizawl was attacked on Thursday morning around 1:30 am with a gelatin bomb. No casualties have been reported in the incident. However, the bomb destroyed 26 glass panes, sources said. As soon as the report reached the police they rushed to the mandir and started an investigation. A forensic expert also examined the incident on the spot. No one has been arrested. Meanwhile, the Mizoram unit of the Congress has strongly condemned the explosion,"If this was the act of some party, that party should be banned," the MPCC said. The Zoram Nationalist Party also strongly condemned the attacked and urged the government to investigate the incident and arrest the culprits. The explosion came on the day when the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) is organising a rally called 'Milem Biak Duhloh Kawngzawh' or Anti-Idol Worshipping Rally.

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Capetown, South Africa, June 5 2013( SABC News): One of the iconic artworks of people's painter, Vladimir Tretchikoff, has been sold to an unknown buyer for US$138,000 at an auction in Cape Town, on Tuesday. The painter lived in South Africa from 1946 to his death in 2006. The portrait, known as "The Hindu Dancer," bears the image of a female Indian dancer with eight hands in various positions (see "source" above for the painting). Auctioneer Anton Welz says ironically, the painting has been up for auction before, but drew no interest from art lovers.

"Three years ago we had the painting up on auction and it didn't sell and then there was the big Tretchikoff exhibition at the National Gallery which raised an enormous amount of awareness about him and his work and earlier this year, one of his works sold in London US$1.1 million and all of a sudden people saw big value in his work," says Welz. Tretchikoff has been described as one of the most successful commercial artists of all time. Once described as kitch (meaning lowbrow, popular, sentimental), Tretchikoff's paintings have found huge favor years on. He made comfortable living selling prints of his works, while alive, he never got recognition as a serious artist. For his story, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tretchikoff.

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You may develop a thousand virtues and be reckoned as the greatest in the land. But the lotus of your heart will not blossom until you receive the grace of the Guru, the grace of God!
-- Dada Sadhu Vaswani

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WASHINGTON, D.C., June 10, 2013 (PTI): Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, has gifted an imposing 16-foot-high statue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of education and wisdom, to Washington DC. The Goddess' statue, on top of a lotus, stands in front of the Indonesian Embassy just a block away from the Indian Embassy and its statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

Hindus constitute just three per cent of the Indonesian population. A little over a mile from the White House, the statue is yet to be formally inaugurated, but has already become an attraction for city residents and large number of tourists who visit the city every day.

HPI Note: What is not explained in this PTI report is the three children sitting in front of the statue (see the photo in source above). They are a young Barack Obama with two fellow Indonesian students during his time in Indonesia when he attended elementary school there.

"Devi Saraswati is one of the Goddesses in Hinduism, the primarily practiced religion among Balinese people in Indonesia, which itself is the world's biggest Muslim-majority country. Yet, Her representation at the Indonesian Embassy was not decided out only of any religious grounds, but more on its symbolized values that parallel with several key principles of Indonesia-U.S. relations under comprehensive partnership, in particular education and people-to-people contact," a spokesperson at the Indonesian Embassy told PTI.

The construction of the statue began in mid-April, and was built by five native Balinese sculptors led by I. Nyoman Sudarwa, who wrapped up the job in five weeks.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK, June 3, 2013 (Wall Street Journal): Vegetarians live longer than meat-eaters, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, a Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors tracked 73,308 members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for almost six years. The church is known for promoting a vegetarian diet, though not all of its followers adhere to that teaching. Researchers found out what type of diet participants ate, then followed up to find out how many of those participants had died and how. Vegetarians in the study experienced 12% fewer deaths over the period. Dietary choices appeared to play a big role in protecting the participants from heart disease, from which vegetarians were 19% less likely to die than meat-eaters. There also appeared to be fewer deaths in the vegetarian group from diabetes and kidney failure.

WSJ's Shirley Wang reports on a new study showing that eating plant-based fat and proteins such as peanuts and soy milk is far more effective in lowering bad cholesterol than a diet low in saturated fats. Also researchers don't know why a plant-based diet seems to have a protective effect, but one likely reason is the nutrient profile of vegetarian diets, which tend to be higher in fiber and lower in saturated fat. Vegetarians tend to be thinner, another factor known to have an effect on health outcomes, Dr. Orlich says.

Loma Linda University is a Seventh-day Adventist institution specializing in health care. The church recommends a diet with "generous use of whole-grain breads, cereals and pastas, a liberal use of fresh vegetables and fruits, a moderate use of legumes, nuts and seeds," according to a statement on its website. The study published Monday was funded by the National Institutes of Health. When adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, nutritionists recommend watching closely to make sure the intake of key nutrients is sufficient. These include iron and zinc, frequently found in meat, and calcium and vitamin B12. Roughly 5% of Americans consider themselves to be vegetarians, according to a survey published last year by Gallup.

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NEW ZEALAND, May 29, 2013 (Scoop Independent News): Rotorua District Community Awards were presented last night in recognition of outstanding achievements and outstanding service to the Rotorua community. This year Murali Krishna Magesan, a volunteer of Hindu Youth New Zealand, the youth division of Hindu Council of New Zealand, was one of the youth recognized by the Rotorua District Council for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the Rotorua community. Murali is the Head Prefect of the Western Heights High School, Rotorua. "The youth leadership training I received through the Hindu Council of New Zealand and related organisations helped me to develop a sense of responsibility and commitment to community, and encouraged me to volunteer for the benefit of community," he said. "Getting a youth award, that too during the ongoing world-wide celebration of Swami Vivekananda's 150th Birth Anniversary, is a great feeling."

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G-o-d, d-o-g. both the same. Top and bottom. See God in everything. You must do that!
-- Satguru Yogaswami (1872-1964), Sri Lanka's revered contemporary mystic

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DHAKA, June 3, 2013 ( Haroon Habib): The Sheikh Hasina Cabinet on Monday gave final approval to a draft law to ensure proper development and management of the "Devottar property" ( Hindu Charitable Endowments) and make the transfer of those property, donated to Hindu places of worship, completely illegal. Once the law comes into effect all such property will come under effective control and opportunities will be created for their development, bringing benefit for the members of the Hindu community, said the government. Till now, such properties are managed by committees constituted locally.The government would make a list of the property of charitable endowment of the Hindu community with the constitution of a management board.

Briefing the media, Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said a central board would be constituted to regulate management of the properties. The vice-chairman of the Hindu Religious Welfare Trust would be the ex-officio chairman of the board while a new post of an administrator equivalent to the rank of a joint secretary would be created to run it. The administrator from the Hindu community would act as the member -secretary. The proposed law provides for fines up to US$65 or imprisonment for a year for irregularities in managing these endowed properties. But for misleading the Board with wrong information about these properties, the fines could be up to US$645 or a year in prison.

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United States, June 5, 2013 ( Corrie Mitchell,Washington Post) With the release of their ninth annual report, members of the Hindu American Foundation are pushing policymakers to take action against international human rights violations directed at Hindus.The four countries the report categorized as egregious violator are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Pakistan -- are all Muslim-majority countries. Samir Kalra, author of the report, titled "Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human Rights" said the foundation included countries in which the plight of Hindus is largely overlooked. The impact of the report, he said, is twofold: It gives a voice to Hindu minorities and educates officials in the U.S. and worldwide.The 2012 report cites Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Jammu as countries of serious concern, while Fiji, Saudi Arabia and Trinidad and Tobago as countries where conditions for Hindus have improved. Kalra said the problem is that many of these nations sanction discrimination, creating "an atmosphere of intolerance at the top, which trickles down."

Kalra said he's concerned the U.S. government hasn't taken more notice of this persecution, adding that human rights often take a back seat to geopolitical issues. But he hopes the foundation's report works to create a link between the two issues. The release of the foundation's report comes the same day that the FBI's Advisory Policy Board is scheduled to discuss a congressional recommendation to update its Hate Crime Statistics Act. More than 100 members of Congress signed a letter spearheaded by Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., that would add three categories --anti-Sikh, anti-Hindu and anti-Arab --to the FBI's data collection mandate.

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Happiness eludes us if we run after it. In fact, happiness comes only from within. It is not a commodity to be bought from outside.
-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)