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Anger is nothing but an attachment for an object, when expressed towards an obstacle between ourselves and the object of our attachment.
-- Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of Chinmaya Mission

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MUMBAI, INDIA, March 16, 2013 (Times of India): (HPI Note: We are astounded as you are by this report. Perhaps one of our readers can explain what this is about. It appears that the Shiv Mandir trust itself made the claim that Shiva worship is not a religious act in order to receive a tax exemption, and that the Tax Tribunal agreed with them.)

Lord Shiva, Hanuman and Goddess Durga do not represent any particular religion but are regarded as supernatural powers of the universe, the Nagpur income tax appellate tribunal has said. The observation came when the tribunal was hearing an appeal by Nagpur-based Shiv Mandir Devstan Panch Committee Sanstan against an income tax commissioner's order denying it tax exemption on grounds that more than 5% of its expenditure was incurred on religious activities. The I-T act stipulates that for the purpose of tax exemption, an institution or trust must not be for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste. Differing with the I-T commissioner's order, the tribunal said, "Expenses on worshipping of Lord Shiva, Hanuman, Goddess Durga and on maintenance of the temple cannot be regarded as having been incurred for religious purposes."

The tribunal went on to say that Hinduism was neither a religion nor a community. It consisted of a number of communities having different Gods worshipped in different ways. Even the worship of God wasn't not essential for a person who had adopted the Hindu way of life, it said. "Hinduism holds within its fold men of divergent views and traditions who have very little in common except a vague faith in what may be called as the fundamentals of Hinduism," the tribunal observed.

According to it, the word "community: meant people living in the same place, under the same laws and regulations and who have common rights and privileges. This may apply to Christianity or Islam but not to Hinduism. "Technically, Hinduism is neither a religion nor a community," the tribunal said.

In 2008, the sanstan had spent US$1,535 on maintenance of its building, providing free food, festival prayers, training people in tailoring and yoga, and free distribution of spectacles. The I-T commissioner had said that expenses for building maintenance, providing free food, festival prayers and daily expenses related to "religious purposes." This added up to more than 5% of the organization's expenditure. Only $124 was spent on non-religious activities, the taxman said. The sanstan had countered this, saying its temple was open to everybody, irrespective of caste and creed. "The temple does not belong to a particular religion. Installing idols is not a religious activity," the counsel for the sanstan said.

The I-T tribunal's accountant member K Bansal and judicial member D. T. Garasia agreed. They said the word "religion" meant belief in, and worship of, a "superhuman controlling power," a particular system of faith and worship.

"It means the trust should not be for the benefit of any particular group of persons having common belief in worshipping of superhuman controlling power or having common system of faith and worship. If the trust is for the benefit of any particular religious community, it would include the advancement, support or propagation of a religion," they said, adding that no evidence or material had been placed on record to prove that the sanstan was promoting a particular religion.

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NEW YORK, U.S., January 17, 2013 (Washington Post): When Uma Mysorekar looks at the members of the new Congress, the Indian immigrant and practicing Hindu can see that, for the first time, there's someone who shares her ethnicity and someone who shares her faith. To her surprise, they are two different people.

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is the first practicing Hindu elected to Congress. Rep. Ami Bera of California, also a Democrat, is the third Indian American to serve in the House. Gabbard, however, isn't from India, where Hinduism originated and to which the vast majority of its adherents have ethnic ties. Bera is a Unitarian.

His two Indian American predecessors in Congress, Dalip Singh Saund and Bobby Jindal, also were not practicing Hindus. The late Saund, a California Democrat elected in 1956, was Sikh. Jindal, a Republican elected to the House in 2004 who is now Louisiana's governor, is Catholic.

Gabbard's presence in Congress creates an interesting moment for Hindus in the United States, a chance to celebrate a barrier broken but also a topic of discussion as they ponder how closely religion and nationality are entwined, or whether they even should be.

Gabbard "is a Hindu representative. It doesn't matter where she came from," said Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America, a temple in the New York borough of Queens that is one of the country's oldest.

According to an analysis issued last month by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, there are about 1 billion Hindus in the world. Of those, 94 percent are in India, and 99 percent in the larger South Asia region. The analysis, based on data from 2010, the latest available, estimated the population of Hindus in the United States at 1.79 million. Most are of Indian descent.

More at source above.

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There is one thing God cannot do He cannot separate Himself from the soul.
-- Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna (1872-1964)

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KATHMANDU, NEPAL, March 10, 2013 (My Republica): Around one million Hindu pilgrims visited the Pashupatinath temple on the occasion of Mahashivaratri in the Capital on Sunday. The officials of Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) said that more Hindu devotees from several other Asian countries visited the temple this year as a result of the positive impression it created about the festival months in advance. Though most of the foreign Hindu devotees came from neighboring India, pilgrims from as far as Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives and Bangladesh also arrived in large numbers this time, said PADT member secretary Sushil Nahata.

However, the festival saw fewer yogis and sadhus compared to the past years. Nahata said that only around 3,000 to 5,000 sadhus and Naga babas visited the temple this year due to the ongoing Kumbha Mela in India. Some 7,000 babas had visited Pashupatinath last year. The PADT had created three entry points for the visitors from Tilganga, Gaushala and Mitrapark. The traffic police had been deployed in the area to restrict vehicles, which were diverted. The trust made special arrangements this year, adding a number of temporary toilets, health camps and tents especially for elderly and the people with disability.

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UNITED KINGDOM, March 10, 2013 (India Today): Hindu groups based in the UK have called on the government to enforce stricter disclosure norms after it emerged that many restaurants serving Indian food in Scotland were using the wrong kind of meat. In the wake of the Europe-wide horse meat scandal that is still under investigation, it emerged that more than a third of Scottish curry restaurants could be using cheaper meat such as beef in dishes that claimed to be lamb.

"The issue does raise religious concerns as some Hindus who may eat meat would prefer not to consume beef as cows are considered sacred in our religion," said Anil Bhanot, managing director of Hindu Council UK. "Hindus are predominantly vegetarian but our estimates are that two-thirds of Hindus based in the UK are meat eaters and it is important they know what is being served to them. "The government must require strict tests on the food industry so that there is proper disclosure of the source of the meat being sold and served to us. And, the results of these tests must be made public and transparent so we can make an informed choice," he added. A spokesperson for the Hindu Temple of Scotland in Glasgow also highlighted it as a nationwide "concern". "However, 90 per cent of Hindus who are part of this temple tend to be vegetarians," he added.

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ALLAHABAD, INDIA, March 9, 2013 (Raw Story): A record 120 million pilgrims washed away their sins with plunges in an Indian holy river during the world's biggest religious festival set to end Sunday, officials said. The two-month-long Kumbh Mela Hindu festival celebrated every 12 years at the conjunction of two sacred rivers on the outskirts of the northern Indian city of Allahabad drew massive crowds of Hindu devotees, ascetics and foreign tourists.

"Over 60 million people attended the festival in 2001 and this time we believe 120 million people have participated," festival chief Mani Prasad Mishra told AFP late on Saturday. He said the job of dismantling the infrastructure that sprawled over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) to house the pilgrims had already begun. "We built a tent city to celebrate the Kumbh Mela and now we are tearing it down," he said.

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Of all the scriptures in the world, it is the Vedas alone that declare that even the study of the Vedas is secondary. The real study is "that by which we realize the Unchangeable." And that is neither reading, nor believing, nor reasoning, but superconscious perception, or samadhi.
-- Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)

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KOCHI, INDIA, March 9, 2013 (India Times): The Kerala high court has ruled that the Arya Samaj cannot conduct marriages between people if they are not followers of the samaj, and it will not be legally valid if it takes place. Arya Samaj mandirs are found in all Indian cities and towns and solemnize love, arranged, inter-religion and inter-caste marriages. The ruling was given by a division bench of justices Pius C. Kuriakose and P. D. Rajan while considering the case of a Muslim woman and a Hindu man who married at an Arya Samaj mandir in Kozhikode on December 28 last year.

The court was considering a habeas corpus petition filed by father of the girl Raihana (name changed), alleging that his daughter was being illegally detained. Disagreeing to accept their marriage as valid, the court said, "We have carefully examined the certificate of marriage as well as pramanapathram. Neither claimed before us that they are Arya samajists. The man told us that he continues to be a Hindu while Raihana told us that she believes in both religions. Having regard to the Arya Marriage Validation Act, 1937, it is very clear to our mind that it is not a valid marriage." The couple were told to get married according to the Special Marriage Act. It is the statute for solemnization of marriage between people of different religions.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, December 21, 2011 (Smithsonian Magazine): Sanjay Patel, 36-year-old pop artist and Pixar veteran, arrives at the entrance of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, breathless. His vahana, or vehicle, is a silver mountain bike; his white helmet is festooned with multicolored stickers of bugs and goddesses.

The name of the show--Deities, Demons and Dudes with 'Staches--is as quirky and upbeat as the 36-year-old artist himself. It's a lighthearted foil to the museum's exhibition, Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts. Patel, who created the bold banners and graphics for Maharaja, was given this one-room fiefdom to showcase his own career: a varied thali (plate) of the animated arts.

"I've known of Sanjay's work for a while," says Qamar Adamjee, the museum's associate curator of South Asian Art. "[Hindu] stories are parts of a living tradition, and change with each retelling," Adamjee observes. "Sanjay tells these stories with a vibrant visual style--it's so sweet and so charming, yet very respectful. He's inspired by the past, but has reformulated it in the visual language of the present."

In Patel's show, and in his illustrated books--The Little Book of Hindu Deities (2006) and Ramayana: Divine Loophole (2010)--he distills the gods and goddesses down to their essentials. Now he wheels through the room, pointing to the cartoon-like images and offering clipped descriptions: There's Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, with his cherished stash of sweets; Saraswati, the goddess of learning and music, strumming on a vina; the fearsome Shiva, whose cosmic dance simultaneously creates and destroys the universe.

It was while Patel was at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) that representatives from Pixar, which has a close relationship with the prestigious school, saw Patel's animated student film, Cactus Cooler. "Pixar loved it, and they recruited me." Patel has been at Pixar since 1996.

Patel didn't grow up enthralled with Hindu imagery, but the seeds were there. Six years into his Pixar career, he opened an art book and came across paintings from India. "The more I read," he recalls, "the more I was drawn into a world of imagery that had always surrounded me. Before, it was just part of my family's daily routine. Now I saw it in the realm of art."

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Acquire the transcendental knowledge from a Self-realized master by humble reverence, by sincere inquiry and by service. The wise ones who have realized the Truth will impart the Knowledge to you.
-- Bhagavad Gita

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DHAKA, BANGLADESH, March 13, 2013 (Times of India): Islamic activists have attacked dozens of Hindu temples and hundreds of homes across Bangladesh since an Islamist leader was sentenced to death for war crimes last month, a Hindu group said Wednesday. Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad, a group which looks after Hindu temples, said 47 temples and at least 700 Hindu houses had either been torched or vandalised since the verdict against Delwar Hossain Sayedee. Sayedee, vice-president of the country's largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, was sentenced to hang on February 28 for crimes including rape and murder committed during the 1971 independence conflict. The sentencing of Sayedee and other Jamaat-e-Islami leaders has triggered the worst violence in impoverished Muslim-majority Bangladesh since independence, with 85 people so far killed in the unrest.

Kazal Debnath, a vice-president of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad, blamed the attacks on Hindu temples and homes on Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir. "It was the work of the Jamaat and Shibir, but we also accuse the government, the police and the local government representatives including (our) MPs for failing to protect the temples and our community," he told AFP. He said the attackers were given free rein to "torch our temples, houses and properties". Jamaat has denied any role in the attacks, blaming supporters of the ruling Awami League party for the violence. But Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told diplomats last week that Jamaat and Shibir attacked Hindu temples and houses in a "pre-planned manner".

Hindus, who make up nearly 10 percent of Bangladesh's 153 million-strong population, are traditionally seen as supporters of the Awami League, which brands itself as a secular party. They were the main targets during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war against Pakistan and during post-poll violence in 2001 when a centre-right party allied with Jamaat won a two-thirds majority.

Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have been on trial at the domestic International Crimes Tribunal, accused of colluding with Pakistan and pro-Pakistan militias during the war for independence. But the party says the process is an attempt by the ruling party to settle scores and not about delivering justice.

Peers backed an Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill amendment to add caste to race discrimination laws. The government opposed the move, saying it had set up an education programme to tackle caste discrimination. But peers said this was not enough, and the law needed to be changed. The government was defeated by 256 to 153.

As the debate took place, more than 400 members of the Dalit community - so-called untouchables - protested outside Parliament.

The Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries of Pentregarth - who introduced the amendment - said the British Dalit community had reached 480,000 and evidence showed they suffered discrimination in education, employment and the provision of public goods and service.

At the moment, the bishop said, there was no means of legal redress for those suffering discrimination. "It would be utterly wrong for us to say to the world that we had the opportunity to protect people from this disgraceful discrimination and we decided not to do it"

"Nothing could be more significant and effective in reducing discrimination on the grounds of caste than to have a clear-cut law that discrimination in the public law would not be tolerated."

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You shine, all living things emerge. You disappear, they go to rest. Recognizing our innocence, O golden-haired Sun, arise; let each day be better than the last. Rig Veda (X, 37, 9)

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KAUAI, HAWAII, March 9, 2013 (Hinduism Today): Mahasivaratri is the most important festival dedicated to Lord Siva. This holy day, which takes place on March 9 this year, is observed by millions of Hindus all over the world. It is one of Hinduism's most esoteric holy days, when yoga practices, mantras and meditation take the devotee closer to God's essence within the core of himself. Hindus typically fast, maintain silence and stay up all night to perform spiritual practices, such as worshiping, chanting and singing. In some regions, devotees visit as many Siva temples as they can on this night.

Who is Siva?

For hundreds of millions of Hindus Siva is the Supreme Being, the absolute One God who both transcends creation and pervades it--thus existing as our own innermost essence. Siva is the powerful Deity whose energetic dance creates, sustains and dissolves the universe in endless cycles. He is the master yogi delving into unfathomable mysteries, the supreme ascetic, the prime mystic, the Light behind all light, the Life within all life. Siva is often called Mahadeva, "Great Being of Light," for He created other, lesser Gods such as Ganesha and Karttikeya. Although Siva is usually depicted as male, in reality God and the Gods are beyond gender and form, as depicted by His half-male, half-female form, Ardhanarishvara. Parvati, regarded as Siva's consort in village Hinduism, is mystically understood as His manifest energy, inseparable from Him. The ancient Tirumantiram scripture says of Siva, "Himself creates. Himself preserves. Himself destroys. Himself conceals. Himself all of this He does and then grants liberation--Himself the all-pervading Lord."

What happens on Mahasivaratri?

Many Hindus perform an all-night vigil, plunging the soul into its own essence, led by Siva, the supreme yogi, who is both the guide and the goal of the search. Staying awake through the night is a sacrifice and a break from life's normal routine, a time out of time to be with God within, to reach for the realization of our true, immortal Self. Siva is known as Abhisheka Priya, "He who loves sacred ablutions," and thus many temples and home shrines have water always dripping on the Sivalinga. On this special night, Sivalingas are bathed with special substances, sometimes several times. Mahasivaratri occurs on the night before the new moon in February/March.

What is the Sivalinga?

Linga means "mark, token or sign." A Sivalinga, representing Siva, is found in virtually all of His temples. The Sivalinga is the simplest and most ancient symbol of the Divine. It is especially evocative of Parasiva, God beyond all forms and qualities, the unmanifested Absolute. Sivalingas are commonly made of stone, but may also be of metal, precious gems, crystal, wood, earth or even transitory materials like sand or ice. Ardent devotees make special Sivalingas to worship during Mahasivaratri.

Is there a special mantra for Siva?

Namah Sivaya is among the foremost Vedic mantras. It means "adoration to Siva" and is called the Panchakshara, or "five-letters." The five elements, too, are embodied in this ancient formula for invocation. Na is earth, Ma is water, Si is fire, Va is air, and Ya is ether, or space.

Tidbits About Mahasivaratri

What is holy ash? Holy ash is a sacrament that is dear to devotees of Siva. Taken from sacred fires, it purifies and blesses those who wear it. This fine, white powder is worn on the forehead as a reminder of the temporary nature of the physical body and the urgency to strive for spiritual attainment and closeness to God.

What is the special offering to Siva? Hindus believe that offering bilva leaves (Aegle marmelos) on Mahasivaratri is most auspicious. Legend tells of a hunter who was chased by a tiger. Scrambling up a thorny tree, he plucked and dropped its leaves to stay alert. The tree was a bilva, The leaves happened to fall on a Sivalinga, and it was the night of Sivaratri. That all-night worship of God, though inadvertent, earned the hunter liberation from rebirth. Siva accepts devotees irrespective of their faults and foibles, forgiving man's cognizant and innocent mistakes.

Fasting & Silence

While virtually every Hindu festival comes with a sumptuous list of foods to feast on, during Mahasivaratri most Hindus fast. A spiritual practice found in almost all of the world's religions, fasting calms the physical, mental and emotional energies, helping the devotee draw nearer to the ineffable Self within. While the most strict fast on nothing but water; others permit themselves fruits, milk or rice.

Many observe silence on this night, thinking of nothing but God. Silence, known in Sanskrit as mauna, quiets the demands of the mind and body, bringing forth spiritual clarity.

In Hinduism, God is not separate from creation. A virtuous life and certain techniques, such as yoga and ascetic practices, allow a person to remove the veil that makes us think of ourselves as separate from Him.