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SRI LANKA, May 11, 2013 (New York Times by Aatish Taseer): Four years ago this week, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam announced that their struggle for an independent homeland in northern Sri Lanka had "reached its bitter end." The group had been fighting on behalf of the Tamil people for more than a quarter-century, and its defeat was absolute.

Today, great sections of Tamil country are still a scene of devastation. The houses are either destroyed or brand-new; the land is uncultivated and overgrown; there are forests of decapitated Palmyra palms, damaged by heavy shelling. And then there are the relics of war -- graveyards of L.T.T.E. vehicles rotting in the open air.

When I first arrived there last March, I saw the loss in primarily military terms. But the feeling of defeat among the Tamils of Sri Lanka goes far deeper than the material defeat of the rebels. It is a moral and psychological defeat.

For the truth is that the Tamil defeat has less to do with the vanquishing of the L.T.T.E. by the Sri Lankan Army and much more to do with the self-wounding ("suicidal" would not be too strong a word) character of the movement itself. The Tigers were for so long the custodians of the Tamil people's hope of self-realization. But theirs was a deeply flawed organization. Under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers pioneered and perfected the use of the suicide bomber. This was not simply a mode of warfare, but almost a symbol, an expression of a self-annihilating spirit. And it was to self-annihilation that Mr. Prabhakaran committed the Tamils. He was a man who, like a modern-day Coriolanus, seemed to lack the imagination for peace. He took the Tamils on a journey of war without end, where no offer of compromise was ever enough, and where all forms of moderation were seen as betrayal.

More at source of this insightful essay.

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Youth is not a time of life--it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. It is freshness of the deep springs of life. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
-- Swami Bua, famed yogi who lived approximately 120 years

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VIETNAM, May 1, 2013 (Tuoi Tre News): The Ponagar fest, the biggest cultural event held by Cham people in the south of the central region, kicked off on April 30 in Khanh Hoa's Nha Trang coastal city. The event also earned the recognition as an intangible national heritage the same day.

From April 30th to May 2nd when the festival takes place, the 1,200-year-old Ponagar tower is open free of charge to tourists. Roughly 60,000 pilgrims and visitors, almost double last year's number, are expected to join the four-day festival. The festival features such rituals as dressing up the Ponagar Goddess, requiems, floating flowers and colored lanterns, processions and offerings to the Goddess and Cham traditional dances.

The fest, held annually in the third month of the lunar calendar, is to pay tribute to Goddess Yan Po Nagar, or Thien Y Thanh Mau in Vietnamese, who is identified with the Hindu Goddesses Bhagavati and Mahishasuramardini. As legend has it, Thien Y Thanh Mau taught locals how to do farming, weaving and knitting along with several other vocations to fend for themselves and safeguarded them from calamities and wars.

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MARTINIQUE, May 2013 (martinique.franceantilles.fr): The 160th anniversary of the arrival of Indian workers in Martinique was celebrated in Basse-Pointe during the first weekend of May 2013. The festivity was the second edition of the "Days of Indianness." It was an opportunity to showcase all those who are contributing to the preservation of the Indian cultural contribution to Martinican society.

Among the activities were an exhibition "History of Indianness in Martinique" at the town hall and a walking tour of the two small Hindu temples in the area. There were also seminars and exhibitions of Tamil language, cuisine, traditional dress, jewelry and medicinal uses of plants of Indian origin that are growing on the island. There was a seminar on important Indian historical figures and an honoring of the elders.

To honor the event the town named a street after Antoine "Zwazo" Tangamen, who was a respected Hindu priest, one of the last fluent Tamil speakers on the island, and widely recognized for helping to insure the survival of Hindu tradition in Martinique. The event was organized by the tourist office in Basse-Pointe in collaboration with the Martinique-India cultural association.

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Man arrives at immortality by breaking beyond the limitations not only of his physical self, but of his mental and his ordinary psychic nature into the highest plane and supreme ether of the Truth: for there is the foundation of immortality and the native seat of the triple infinite.
-- Sri Aurobindo (1879-1950)

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Though Pakistan was established as a state for Muslims, the original vision of its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was of a place of tolerance and inclusion. "You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the state," he said in speech in August 1947.

Yet Jinnah's vision has steadily been eroded. Today, as Pakistan prepares for a historic election on 11 May, its Christians and Hindus, which together comprise perhaps 3 percent of the population, face persecution and assault. Some have fled. "If people have any resources, they want to leave here," Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, of the Pakistan Hindu Council, said from Karachi.

The Pakistanis who have made their way to the village of Bijwasan, not far from Delhi's international airport, all belong to the same low Hindu caste and come from the same part of Sindh province. They have applied unsuccessfully for visas to India for years and hit upon the idea of asking to visit the Kumbh Mela festival, the most auspicious date in the Hindu calendar. "Getting a passport is not so difficult. But getting a visa is very hard," said 35-year-old Hanuman Prashad, another fruit trader from Hyderabad, explaining how they told the Indian authorities they wished to attend the festival.

The Hindus, who came in three groups, said their biggest motivation to leave was the challenge of educating their children. There was discrimination in government schools, where they were referred to as "kafirs," told to go and work in the fields and obliged to recite the six kalimas, or tenets, of Islam.

They said the situation had become worse since the rule of the military leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who seized power in 1977 and for the next decade oversaw an increased Islamisation of Pakistan. Following the notorious destruction of India's Babri mosque by a Hindu mob in 1992, the Hindus of Pakistan were often the victims of revenge attacks.

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PHUKET, THAILAND, May 8, 2013 (The Phuket News): Despite having already served the Thai-Nepalese community for more than a decade, the Thai-Nepalese temple on Patong Hill was officially opened on April 19. The event attracted hundreds from the local Nepalese community, many of whom work in the tailor industry in Patong and other tourist areas, as well as a select group of politicians and local government representatives.

Phanuphong 'Daniel' Limbuprasertkul, president of the Thai-Nepalese Association, took time to speak to The Phuket News. "We have many VIP guests here today, including nine Hindu priests from Nepal and of course the Ambassador of Nepal," Daniel said, as we watched the lighting of incense sticks and offerings of food.

The whole bright and colorful celebration had begun a few days before, with the initial offering of donations that included water, milk, honey, butter and rice to several newly installed statues. "These objects represent life," explained Omjee Khodomkul, just one of the devotees wearing traditional dress, "and on this day we give these things back to those from whom we received life."

Although similar to Buddhist ceremonies in certain aspects, Hindu events are also very different, with such as the ritual walking in circles by devotees around the new statues. "This reminds everyone that we are constantly going around the universe by dying, being reborn, and dying again," said Daniel.

Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa, representing the island's government at this culturally significant ceremony, expressed the importance of the Nepalese community to Phuket. "There are around 1,500 Nepalese in Phuket and they do business very well and are important for Phuket industry - they are especially very good at tailoring."

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When I came out of the spacecraft (Discovery) for a space walk, I had this feeling that Ganesha was looking over me.
-- Sunita Williams, astronaut, the second Indian-American to orbit the Earth

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MAJULI, INDIA, April 14, 2013 (New York Times): Not too long ago, Ganesh Hazarika grew rice, vegetables and peas near the edge of the Brahmaputra River on a small plot that provided him a livelihood and a safety net. Then one day the river took it away. Steadily and mercilessly, it had chewed at the banks until his tiny farm fell into the water.

Landlessness is a rising problem for farmers across India, but Mr. Hazarika's situation is unusual: his plot was located on Majuli, one of the world's largest "inland" islands, an ancient religious center that is home to about 170,000 people and dozens of monasteries. The same river that has encircled the island and sustained it for centuries is now methodically tearing it apart.

For many environmentalists and scientists, the Brahmaputra is a critical laboratory in studying the impact of climate change, with much of the attention focused on the mouth of the river in Bangladesh, where rising waters are expected to radically reorient one of the world's most important estuaries and potentially displace millions of people in the coming decades.

But many miles upstream, the Brahmaputra is also proving difficult to predict or constrain. Seasonal flooding, always a problem, has intensified in recent years in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Erosion is a concern across Assam, as the huge river regularly shifts course while carrying sand and other sediment from the Himalayas in a simultaneous process of construction and destruction: new sandbars appear even as old, inhabited places are battered by the currents of the river.

Climate change is contributing to these upstream changes, some scientists say, though the Brahmaputra is naturally unstable because of seismic activity and the river's braided shape. The erosion of Majuli has become the most drastic example of the river's ruthless power, and local officials, trying to protect the monasteries and the island's growing population, have responded by building embankments and other protective measures.

Since the 15th century, Majuli has been a center of Vaishnavism, a monotheistic branch of Hinduism centered on the God Vishnu and His avatar Krishna. Today, there are 36 monasteries, known as satras, yet erosion has forced several of them to relocate within the island. Another 28 monasteries have been moved off the island altogether.

Much more at source.

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TRINIDAD/TOBAGO, April 26, 2013 (Guardian): Quick action by a 27-year-old lover of historical buildings saved a Hindu temple in Reform Village, constructed in the 1940s from gobar (cow dung) and other materials, from possible demolition or modification by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. Liam Boodoo, a Spanish teacher at Couva East Secondary and also a photographer and budding historian, made a determined bid to save what he is referring to as scarce East Indian-built heritage in T&T.

He said the Reform Village Hindu School is on the same property as the temple and the Maha Sabha, which runs the school, wanted to build an addition which would have affected the structure of the mandir. He got the intervention of the National Heritage Trust by seeking to have the building listed as a protected site. Boodoo said plans to demolish the temple or modify it have since been halted.

He said the temple was constructed by Reform Village residents in the early 1940s and designed by a craftsman from the Sidoo family of Debe, during a period of transition from indentureship to small peasant proprietorship. The land was paid for in advance for 100 years by members of the community.

Boodoo said the temple was patterned after those found in the central states of India and was plastered on the inside with gobar, and reinforced with sand and gravel from the Guaracara River and stones from the San Fernando Hill quarry. The Shiva Mandir was opened on March 2, 1946, Maha Shivratri night--an auspicious night on the Hindu calendar--Boodoo told a gathering of members of Citizens for Conservation at the Medulla Art Gallery on Fitt Street, Woodbrook, during a presentation on the temple recently.

"Any modification to the temple will destroy the original structure," Bodoo said. He said in an attempt to stave off the plan, he spoke to architects Geoffrey Maclean and Rudylyn Roberts, of CFC, and they suggested he do a dossier of the temple and submit it to the National Heritage Trust for listing as a protected building. "I got a reply from the National Heritage Trust last Monday and was told they contacted the relevant parties and it was agreed plans would be revised so as not to negatively impact the mandir," he said.

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OTTAWA, CANADA, April 8, 2013 (National Post): -- A growing number of Canadians are identifying themselves as having no religious affiliation, although more than two-thirds of the country's population says they're Christian. Statistics Canada's voluntary National Household Survey (NHS) released Wednesday also shows immigration is contributing to the growth of non-Christian religions, including Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist.

The NHS shows nearly one-quarter (about 7.85 million people) of the Canadian population had no religious affiliation -- a sizable increase from 16.5% a decade earlier. Roman Catholics easily remain the largest Christian group, with more than 12.7 million people identifying themselves as Roman Catholic, or approximately 38.7% of Canada's population.

Nearly half a million people said they're Hindu (1.5% of the population), with about 455,000 people identifying themselves as Sikh, and 366,800 as Buddhists. Most of the recent Hindu or Sikh immigrants came from India, while most Buddhists came from China. Ontario was home to 73.6% of the total Hindu population in 2011.

Immigration is responsible for the growing popularity of some religions in Canada and absence of faith among others, according to the National Household Survey. Among immigrants who arrived in Canada before 1971, only 2.9% identified themselves as Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist. However, these religions accounted for 33% of immigrants who arrived between 2001 and 2011.

In the latest survey, 16% of immigrants who came to Canada before 1971 had no religious affiliation, but that proportion rose to 22% among immigrants who came between 2001 and 2005, and 19.5% of recent immigrants.

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As a dog, let loose after being tied up for some time, is energetic and active, so one, who learns to remain summa, or still, gets increased energy which can be put to good use.
-- Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna (1872-1964)

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NIZHNY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA, April 30, 2013 (Indrus.in): Golden domed temples and tastefully landscaped lawns have replaced dilapidated wooden houses in the riverside region of Nizhny Novgorod (about 200 miles east of Moscow, on the Volga River). A picturesque monastery complex now exists where there used to be an abandoned village. About a decade ago, a handful of Russian Hindu monks led by Swami Vishnudevanand laid the foundation of Divya Loka Ashram. They sought to expand the reach of Sanatana Dharma and to lead a life guided by the Vedas.

'Veda' in Sanskrit means 'knowledge.' The Vedas are ancient Indian scriptures which form the basis of Hinduism. When Vishnudevanand, still a young boy, didn't find an explanation for his spiritual questions in the works of great philosophers such as Berdyaev, Solovyov, Schopenhauer, and Voltaire, he turned to the ancient wisdom of Hindu literatures. He found a confirmation for his internal divine surge in the Gita, the Bhagwat Purana, and philosophical texts of Sri Sankracharya, who was the principal exponent of Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism.

In 2010, during the Kumbh mela in Haridwar he was conferred the title of a mahamandaleshwar of Juna Akhara, which is one of the major sects of sages in India. A mahamandaleshwar is a high ranking monk of an akhara who is granted special authority and responsibility for the propagation of Hinduism. "This title is a blessing from the saints. It's an honour which has opened many new possibilities. It enables me to serve Sanatana Dharma in Russia, to support and protect it," the swami describes what being the first ever Russian mahamandaleshwar means to him. Following Swami Vishnudevanand's footsteps, his disciple Anandlila Giri became the first Russian woman to be ordained such at the Maha Kumbh in Allahabad earlier this year.

Considering an enhanced interest in spirituality in Russia, this academy works as a catalyst for promoting Indian values. Ilya Kurylenko, a disciple of Vishnudevanand, suggests that Russians are especially interested in yoga and Vedic practices. "Many people read the books of Adavaita teachers such as Sri Ramana Maharishi, his disciple Papaji, Ramesh Balsekar, and Sri Nisargadatta," he says. The academy reports that their recent Congress of Advaita Vedanta hosted in Moscow was attended by about five thousand people. The Vedic film festival held in St. Petersburg and Vedic literature festival celebrated in Yekaterinburg were also heavily attended.

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ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, May 4, 2013 (The Hindu): Remains of Buddhist sculptures are still being worshipped as Lord Siva in all the major temples within the radius of 10 km of Nidumolu village in Movva mandal of Krishna District. These are the places where Buddhism once flourished during 1st and 2nd Century ce and its remains are still available on the premises of as many as 11 temples till today and are being conserved by the locals.

The Buddhist sculptures under the control of locals are pillars, bricks and half-lotus medallions standing witness to the emergence of different stages of Buddhism.

"Worshipping Ayaka Pillar or Ayaka Mantapa, made of Dachepalli green stone, as Lord Siva Linga is a common feature in these 11 Siva temples," Krishna district-based historian Mohammed Silar told The Hindu.

The temples at Ghantasala, Pamarrru, Pedamuddali, Mantena, Manzuluru, Kruthivennu, China Muttevi, Mallavolu, Pedakallepalli and Nidumolu are now flourishing as famous Siva temples in Krishna district.

An Ayaka Pillar worshipped as Lord Siva accompanied by two half-lotus medallions at Pedakallepalli is mute witness to how Hindu temples were built on the Buddhist sites.

Considering the two half-lotus medallions as Satya Pillars, the villagers confess their sins before them.

Sri Sanni Siddheswara temple of Nidumolu, 16-km away from Machilipatnam, remains a classical example of how temples were built on Buddhist sites (HPI note: following the decline of Buddhism in South India).

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There are three kinds of devotees. The inferior devotee says, "God is out there" and thinks God is different from His creation. The mediocre devotee says, "God is antaryami, the inner guide who dwells in everyone's heart;" thus the mediocre devotee sees God within. But the superior devotee sees that God alone is everything, for He has become the twenty-four cosmic tattvas. That devotee finds that everything, above and below, is filled with God.
-- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886)