www.chinapost.com.tw

DENPASAR, INDONESIA, March 10, 2008: The normally vibrant Indonesian tourist destination of Bali came to a standstill last Friday as the island’s Hindu majority celebrated the Hindu New Year. The Day of Silence, known as Nyepi, saw Balinese staying home, not working or playing, and for the most devout not even talking or eating. The island’s international Ngurah Rai airport was closed while shops were shuttered and streets deserted, apart from the presence of traditional guards tasked with enforcing the silence. Tourists who had on Thursday been hitting beaches and shopping streets were also made to spend the day inside their hotels out of deference to the holiday.

The strictly enforced silence is intended as a time of spiritual contemplation for Balinese Hindus, whose sometimes unique observances incorporate practices found only on the island. Despite the fact that Balinese Hindus make up a small minority of the general population, Nyepi is observed as a national holiday in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

www.bloomberg.com

NEW YORK, U.S.A., March 10, 2008: The Vatican has put together a list of seven “social” sins that includes excessive wealth, drug abuse, littering, genetic tampering and creating poverty.

Echoing the concept of the seven cardinal vices — set to paper by Pope Gregory I in the sixth century — the new list adds a social dimension, Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said in an interview yesterday with the Vatican’s official newspaper l’Osservatore Romano. According to Catholicism, these are “mortal sins,” sins which could result in a person being consigned to hell.

“You offend God not only by stealing, taking the Lord’s name in vain or coveting your neighbor’s wife, but also by wrecking the environment carrying out morally debatable experiments that manipulate DNA or harm embryos,” said Girotti, who is responsible for the body that oversees confessions under the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI.

The seven social sins are: 1.”Bioethical” violations such as birth control; 2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research; 3. Using or dealing drugs; 4. Polluting the environment; 5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor; 6. Excessive wealth; 7. Creating poverty. The seven cardinal vices leading to sin are: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed and Sloth.

www.hinduismtoday.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 9, 2008: “Karan Singh, Sakshat Itihas” (”Karan Singh, History Personified”) is a pictorial biography in Hindi launched with grand fanfare by Delhi’s Chief Minister on Friday, 9th March, 2008, the 77th birthday of Dr. Karan Singh. The illustrious gathering on the occasion included capital’s leading lights from literary and political circles.

Both the Chief Minister of Delhi Mrs. Sheila Dikshit and well-known scholar of Indian art and culture Mrs. Kapila Vatsyayan presided over the function, lauding Dr. Karan Singh as a devout Siva Bhaktar with qualities of head and heart.

In his own address Dr. Karan Singh said, “Lord Siva has given me everything. However if anything that I would like to achieve in my life, that would be peace in the Jammu and Kashmir region to which I belong. I am always available for all that I can do to achieve this goal.”

www.hinduismtoday.com

Mind absorbed in God, no place to go.
Poondyswami, when asked by a Hinduism Today staffer why he sat for 10 years at a roadside shrine in South India without moving from his seat