1. One Million Worship at Batu Caves On Thai Pusam
2. California Board of Education Committee Schedules Meeting for Final Textbook Review
3. Yoga Journal Magazine Arrives in Spain

1. One Million Worship at Batu Caves On Thai Pusam

www.bernama.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, February 11, 2006: More than a million Hindu devotees converged at the Sri Subramaniyar Temple grounds in Batu Caves here Saturday to fulfil vows and pay penitence in conjunction with the Thaipusam festival which began Friday night. Thaipusam is celebrated by Hindus in remembrance of the Goddess Parvathi who gave her son Lord Muruga a holy spear to fight evil. The festival, which is celebrated throughout the country, began early today with devotees wanting to fulfil vows carrying the kavadi (mini-chariot), paal kudam (milk offerings) and shaving their heads bald, climbing up the 272 steps to the temple to complete the ritual. An estimated 20,000 kavadis of various sizes and colors and 10,000 paal kudam were carried by the devotees over a distance of one kilometer to the Sri Subramaniyar Temple where the statue of Lord Murugan resides.

Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and wife Datin Seri Indrani were among the dignitaries who came to the temple, accompanied by the president of the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple committee, R. Nadarajah. This year's celebrations also had an added attraction - a 42.7 metre-tall gold colored statue of Lord Murugan positioned at the entrance of the temple. It is the tallest statue of Lord Murugan in the world. As usual, the festival also attracted throngs of tourists who did not want to miss the annual event.

Catherine Fallon, 26, from Washington in the United States said she came to Malaysia for the sole purpose of seeing the celebrations here as they were grander than other countries such as India.

In Penang, thousands of devotees including from Kedah, Perlis and the south as well as hundreds of tourists descended on the Arulmigu Balathandayuthabani Temple in Jalan Kebun Bunga here for the festival.

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2. California Board of Education Committee Schedules Meeting for Final Textbook Review

www.cde.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, February 15, 2006: The "Committee of the State Board of Education On 2005 History-Social Science Primary Adoption" has scheduled a public meeting for February 27 at the Department's headquarters in Sacramento. This meeting is to "To consider edits and corrections, and any errors, objections, and comments, for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade primary adoption of history-social science instructional materials, and to make recommendations to the Board." The meeting is the next step in the on-going saga of the California textbook adoption process. Hindus have been actively attempting to get changes made to the Hinduism sections of the proposed books where they are inaccurate or not in accord with the California Standards which require each religion to be described respectfully.

The latest list of "edits," as the proposed changes are called, is given at "source." This is the list the committee will discuss. One column of the document indicates if the Board staff endorse the edit or not. It includes edits from the Board's own staff, the Council on Islamic Education, the Institute for Curriculum Services (Jewish), the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation. Of the 53 staff edits, all are recommended for adoption; of the 94 Islamic edits, all are recommended; of the 186 Jewish edits, all are recommended with the exception of three minor rejections and two major ones. For Hindus, on the other hand, only 60 of the original 152 edits were approved as is, the remaining ones subject to various revisions or outright rejection. By HPI's count, about 26 of the unaccepted edits remain important issues. This list of edits appears to be the result of the closed door meeting of January 6 by members of the Board with Dr. Shiva Bajpai and Dr. Michael Witzel (see here).

The remaining important unaccepted edits fall mostly into three categories. First is the origins of Hinduism as resulting from an Aryan invasion or migration in ancient times versus the Hindu view that Hinduism is indigenous to India. Second is the presentation of caste as an integral, even key central feature of Hinduism, as opposed to its treatment as a social system. On these two issues, most non-Hindu Western academics such as Dr. Witzel take the first point of view and Hindu academics (and some non-Hindu ones, too) take the second. The third is the identity of the Hindu concept of "Brahman" with "God" (capital G), with the Western academics arguing the Hindu concept is not "monotheistic," and therefore not supposed to be capital G. Probably the best Hindus could hope for is to get in the texts that an alternative point of view exists on each of these issues.

There remain a few notable uncorrected errors. For example, edit 74 of the Vedic Foundation, objected to this inadequate definition, "Yoga is a type of ... slow breathing," but no correction was allowed.

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3. Yoga Journal Magazine Arrives in Spain

www.prnoticias.com

SPAIN, February 13, 2006: Globus Communication, a branch of the Sweden's Bonnier Group, has just released to the Spanish market the Spanish language edition of Yoga Journal, the yoga magazine with the greatest circulation and prestige anywhere in the world. Yoga Journal was born in 1975 in the United States, where it has a print run of 334,000 units and an estimated 1,125,000 readers. From its launching Yoga Journal has reached great recognition in the international community of professionals and medical instructors of yoga. During 2005 Yoga Journal has also begun new editions in Italy and Russia. With a cover price of cover of 2.9 Euros (US$3.45), and 50,000 units, the Spanish edition targets a mainly feminine audience with an upper middle social demographic profile and an average age of 35-40 years.

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