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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)

Washington, D.C. (June 6, 2013) -- A Hindu monk offered the opening prayer for the House of Representatives and the birth sesquicentennial of Swami Vivekananda, considered Hinduism's first ambassador to the West, was marked in the Congressional record Tuesday morning. These two historical firsts led up to a gala celebration attended by over 300 as the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) marked its tenth year of advocacy on Capitol Hill. A parade of Senate and House leaders took turns at the podium of the ornate Caucus Room of the House Cannon Building and lauded the Foundation's accomplishments over the years.

"The dividends of a decade of investments in education, advocacy, and tireless interactions with every level of our nation's government were on display throughout HAF's full day of events," said Mihir Meghani, M.D., Co-Founder and member of the HAF Board of Directors. "A Hindu prayer given on the floor of the House, and the words of Swami Vivekananda offered by Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA) inspired a remarkable day and will carry us into the next decade of tireless work."

For the tenth consecutive year, over fifty delegates representing HAF fanned out in teams visiting dozens of congressional offices on the Senate and House sides of the U.S. Capitol on June 4. Delegates asked legislative leaders in direct meetings to begin a congressional letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, calling on the incoming Nawaz Sharif government of Pakistan to take concrete steps to ease the continuing tragedy of religious persecution and violence faced by Hindus, Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Christians there. They also called for the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees to host congressional hearings on the retaliatory violence faced by Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh in the wake of recent verdicts against Islamist leaders implicated for their roles in the 1971 genocide during Pakistan's partition. Delegates covered domestic issues as well, articulating uniquely Hindu perspectives on the pending immigration legislation.

At noon, HAF delegates gathered in the gallery of the House of Representatives within the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. On a joint invitation of Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, spiritual head of Kauai's Hindu Monastery and Publisher of the Hinduism Today magazine, offered a Hindu invocation to open the day's House proceedings.

"The tragic Boston marathon bombings, still vivid in all our minds, implore us to advocate the humanity of a nonviolent approach in all of life's dimensions. Hindu scripture declares, without equivocation, that the highest of high ideals is to never knowingly harm anyone," said Bodhinatha, becoming the first Hindu sannyasin, or monk, to offer the opening prayer for Congress. Chairman Royce, of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, took to the House floor after the invocation to thank Bodhinatha, while acknowledging HAF's decade of advocacy and work on the Hill.

As the gala reception got under way, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) accepted HAF's Friend of the Community award while affirming his commitment to ensuring that the FBI mandate a separate category for the tracking of data for hate crimes committed against Hindus - a position long advocated by HAF. Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY), Democratic co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, similarly was awarded for his work on pushing for the anti-Hindu hate crime data category on the House side. Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA) accepted the third HAF Friend of the Community Award for his commitment to promoting promoting pluralism and inter-religious dialogue, and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the first Hindu American elected to Congress, was recognized for her history-making win.

"Our government leaders are hearing from Hindu Americans in a sustained, consistent way for the last decade, and the results are showing," said Suhag Shukla, Esq., HAF's Executive Director and Legal Counsel. "Our commitment to the community is to continue these efforts, expand them, and usher in a new generation of Hindu American leaders making a difference in political engagement."

Among the evening's other awardees were Professor Sachi Dastidar from State University of New York Old Westbury, who received HAF's Dharma Seva Award, Professor Ved Nanda from the University of Denver, the Pride of the Community, and Professor Arvind Sharma from McGill University with HAF's Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Pluralism. Finally, HAF's inaugural Award for the Advancement of Dharmic Arts and Humanities went to Kanniks Kannikeswaran for his pioneering work in the Indian American choral movement and whose locally-based choir performed sacred Hindu songs throughout the evening's celebration.

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New Delhi, Mon, 03 Jun 2013NI Wire

Bihar's pride and Buddhism's holiest shrine, 1500 year old Mahabodhi temple and famous Hindu temple of Vishnupad in Gaya would soon get CCTVs in their premises, Bihar's Urban Development Minister Prem Kumar said on Monday.
The move has been taken following a threat of a terrorist attack at these places. "I have instructed district authorities to install CCTVs at Mahabodhi temple and Vishnupad temple soon for security reasons," Kumar said.
"CCTVs will not only keep a watch on suspicious activities, they would also record everything as proof", he added.
Kumar said authorities at both the temples have been asked to identify the locations for the installation of CCTVs, including at points of entry and exit.
Ganesh Kumar, Gaya Superintendent of Police said that he had held discussions with the minister Sunday, and an agreement was reached that the cameras would be installed soon.
Earlier last year, security of the Mahabodhi temple was handed over to the Special Task Force (STF) of Bihar Police.
The temple at Bodh Gaya was built at the place where Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago. It has also been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2002.
Vishnupad temple, which is a temple of Hindu god Vishnu and visited by thousands of Hindus from India and abroad every year is on the hit list of terror groups.
An annual fortnight-long Pitrapaksh, during which Hindus make ritualistic offering called "pindadan" for the salvation of their forefathers, takes place at the temple.
Thousands of Hindus from every part of the country and even from abroad gather in this town, about 100 km from state capital Patna.
Priests called Gaywal-pandas perform the prayers at Vishnupad temple. Moreover, it is believed that Lord Rama and his wife Sita performed this religious rite for King Dasharath, Rama's father, at this place

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One must seek the shortest way and the fastest means to get back home--to turn the spark within into a blaze, to be merged in and to identify with that greater fire which ignited the spark.
-- Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri (1885-1961), South Indian Mystic

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KAUAI, HAWAII, May 30, 2013: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami today offered the opening prayer before the US House of Representatives, the first Hindu monk and only the third Hindu in history to do so as Guest Chaplain for the Congress (click source above for the video). The prayer is given each day the House is in session, immediately after it opens for business and before the Pledge of Allegiance. Rep. Ed Royce of California's 39th district, spoke next, saying how he and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii's 2nd district had invited Bodhinatha as guest chaplain and speaking about Bodhinatha's accomplishments as Hindu leader (see text below).

The invitation has come through the work of the Hindu American Foundation, a prominent advocacy group, as part of their Tenth Annual Advocacy Day in which they host a Congressional Reception for Senators and Representatives that same evening. Additionally they conduct personal meetings with individual members of Congress in which they present HAF's legislative concerns including the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan and immigration reform. Nearly 50 members of HAF's delegation were in the gallery to hear the prayer given.

The first Hindu guest chaplain was Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala of the Siva-Vishnu Temple of Parma Ohio (http://www.shivavishnutemple.org), on September 14, 2000, to open the House of Representatives on the day that the Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, addressed a joint session of Congress. The second was Rajan Zed of Reno, Nevada, who opened the US Senate on July 12, 2007 at the invitation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The video of Bodhinatha's prayer and Rep. Royce's speech can be seen at source above. The prayer starts a few seconds into the recording, and Rep. Royce's speech follows after the Pledge.

Text of Prayer read June 4, 2013, by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami to open US House of Representatives:

"May today's session of the House of Representatives, to which Americans rightly turn for leadership, be abundantly blessed by the Lord Supreme.

"Through personal introspection, a collaborative heart and by God's all-pervasive grace, may the members present here, despite differing views and staunchly held convictions, find the wisdom to craft mutually acceptable solutions to our nation's challenges.

"The tragic Boston marathon bombings, still vivid in all our minds, implore us to advocate the humanity of a nonviolent approach in all of life's dimensions. Hindu scripture declares, without equivocation, that the highest of high ideals is to never knowingly harm anyone.

"May we here in this chamber, and all the people of our great nation, endeavor to face even our greatest difficulties with an unwavering commitment to seek out and to find nonviolent solutions.

"Peace, peace, peace to us, and peace to all beings."

Text of remarks by Representative Ed. Royce:

"Mr. Speaker. I am proud to have the opportunity to welcome Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, the spiritual leader and head of Kauai's Hindu Monastery. He has come here today to give the Opening Prayer on the Hindu American Foundation's 10th Annual Capitol Hill Advocacy Day and is a true leader in the Hindu community. Satguru has been the head of the monastery since 2001 and works to spread the principles of love and friendliness around the community. Additionally, his achievements have international reach. Not only does he oversee the Himalayan Academy's various publications, he serves as a publisher of the international magazine Hinduism Today. Furthermore, Satguru [Sat-gu-ru] dedicates his time to cultivating the religious instruction of Hindu youth around the world through producing a series of books that teach Hinduism's ethical restraints and religious observances. Thank you Satugru for your Opening Prayer and for gracing us with the same spirit that guides the Hindu belief. I am honored to welcome you and your group here today as you delivered this meaningful prayer."

United Kingdom, May 16, 2013 ( Guardian News):Christianity has had a boost from people born overseas, nearly half of Muslims in England and Wales are under 25 and Hindus are the least likely of all the religious groups to be born in the UK according to the latest 2011 Census data release by the Office For National Statistics (ONS). Christianity, which previous 2011 census data tells us is still the largest religious group in England and Wales with 33.2m people, has the oldest age profile of all the main religious groups. One in five Christians is aged 65 or over. To put this into perspective, the percentage of Christians over the age of 65 is higher than the percentage of the population aged over 65 in 2011 - 22% compared with 16%. In comparison, 88% of Muslims are under 50 and nearly half of Muslims are under 25. Although this isn't new, Muslims also had the youngest age profile in 2001, the number aged under 25 has increased by 505,000 in the past decade.

Four in ten people with no religion were aged under 25 and four in five are under 50.. Since 2001 the number of Christians born in the UK has decreased by 5.3m but the number of Christians born overseas has increased by 1.2m.). Another notable rise has been in the number of Muslims born in the UK - a rise of over half a million from 718,000 to 1.2m in 2011. The data also shows that Hindus are the least likely of all the religious groups to be born in the UK followed by Buddhists, but as the ONS note, this is a pattern seen previously. Muslims are the most ethnically diverse religious group in England and Wales, followed by Buddhists according to the census figures. Over nine in ten Christians are white, this accounts for 30.8m people. People with no religion however, are the least ethnically diverse with 93% coming from a white background.

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BALI, INDONESIA, June 3, 2013 (Jakarta Post): As many as 500 Hindu leaders from across the world will be attending the second World Hindu Summit scheduled to take place in Bali from June 13-17. The annual conference is expected to be a milestone as it will produce the World Hindu Parisad and World Hindu Center.

"The World Hindu Parisad and World Hindu Center will be a breakthrough in new Hindu history

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Wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture of course, they'll say you're crazy or you're blasphemous, and they'll either put you in jail or in the nut house (which is the same thing). But if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, "My goodness, I've just discovered that I'm God," they'll laugh and say, "Oh, congratulations, at last you found out."
-- Alan Watts, (1915-1973), English philosopher and expert in comparative religion

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NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 30, 2013 (New Indian Express): The newly-constructed Lord Sri Venkateswara temple was opened in the national capital city of New Delhi on Wednesday. Constructed in a 1.17 acre area in Udyan Marg, at a cost of approximately US$2 million. The temple was opened amidst chanting of vedic hymns by temple priests with religious aplomb, an official release by the TTD said.

Speaking on the occasion, TTD Trust Board chairman Kanumuru Bapiraju said it is indeed a pious moment to open a temple of Lord Venkateswara in the country's capital city. "The dream has come true after 16 long years," an excited Bapiraju said.

Stating that the TTD is contemplating beginning Nityannaprasadam (free distribution of food) soon in this temple on the lines of Tirumala, Bapiraju said that there will be spiritual discourses and cultural programs every day in the meditation hall. "We are also planning to invite the seers and pontiffs of various mutts across the country to stay a day in this meditation hall during the auspicious Dhanurmasa (holy month which usually occurs between December 16 to January 15)."

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MANGALORE, INDIA, May 29, 2013 (Times of India): The Kukke Sri Subramanya temple, has again emerged as the richest muzrai (government-run) temple in Karnataka. Figures released by the office of commissioner for religious endowments show the temple had a revenue of US$11.8 million during the last fiscal.

Coming in a distant second in terms of revenue is the Male Mahadeshwara temple in Chamarajanagar district with an estimated revenue of US$5.5 million. Kollur's Sri Mookambika temple, in Udupi district, is the third richest with an estimated revenue of US$3.5 million. Revenue figures for the Male Mahadeshwara and Sri Mookambika temples could be slightly more after final auditing.

Between 2007 and 2010, the Kukke temple grossed US$16.1 million by way of revenue. This spurt in revenue is remarkable given the temple's income - US$4.3 million during 2007-08 - reached US$6.3 million during 2009-10. This leapfrogged to US$7.9 million during 2010-11, and touched an all-time high of US$9.9 million during 2011-12. The audited figures for 2012-13 put this figure at US$11.8 million.

Krishna Prasad Madthila, president of the temple management committee, says the temple on an average receives 15,000-20,000 visiters daily. This goes up during weekends and on Ashlesha nakshatra and Shudda shasti.

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If you are going to control your income, start by controlling your emotions.
-- Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001), founder of Hinduism Today