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COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, March 19, 2008: A Hindu activist is campaigning to create awareness about the ancient Nandi (sacred bull) flag and revive the practice of hoisting it at religious functions and temple festivals. “Muslims raise the Islamic flag, the Buddhist raise theirs, but Hindus do not hoist any though they have the Nandi flag,” says Sinnadurai Dhanapalaa, senior vice president of the Colombo branch of the World Saiva Council.

“Over the years, the practice of hoisting the Nandi flag at temples in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu has been discontinued. The significance of the Nandi (the sacred bull) and the Nandi flag is not appreciated enough,” Dhanapalaa told IANS. “It is Lord Siva’s vahana, his guardian, as well as his chief disciple. In Hindu lore, the Nandi represents dharma or righteousness.”

Dhanapalaa explains, “For the last 10 years I have been trying to create awareness about the importance of Nandi and getting temples to make the flag an important part of the proceedings. The Nandi flag is to be a rallying point for the Hindus, an object with which they can identify, an insignia of their faith.” Dhanapalaa said. “The Nandi stands for selfless work, devotion and ability to be calm. It represents Saivism in its essence.”

Dhanapalaa’s book, “The Significance and Glory of the Nandi Flag,” will be released at the Fourth International Saiva Siddhanta Conference in Madurai in Tamil Nadu March 22.

www.dailymail.co.uk

LONDON, UK, March 11, 2008: Children Newbury Park Primary School learn key phrases in more than 40 languages - all spoken fluently by one or more pupils at the school. By the time they leave for secondary school, they boast far more than a mere smattering of French or Cantonese.

They can say something in everything from Afrikaans to Hebrew, Japanese to Norwegian. Classes start by greeting each other in that month’s chosen language. Teachers say Newbury Park’s “language of the month” program has also helped tackle the sense of alienation felt by newcomers to the school in Redbridge, East London. In little more than a decade, the proportion of pupils at the school who do not speak English at home has doubled to 80 per cent.

The biggest ethnic group are Tamils who have fled the civil war in Sri Lanka. “You have 250 Tamil children in the school. It is just polite to greet them in their own language and recognize their culture,” said teacher Joe Debono, who runs the language scheme. “It gives the children a lot of self-esteem,” he explains. “And it is a way of celebrating the ethnic diversity of the school and not seeing it as a problem.”

www.hinduismtoday.com

TORONTO, CANADA, March 19, 2008: (Via Religion News Service) The premier of Ontario has dropped a political hot potato with his recent announcement that the daily recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in the provincial legislature should be dropped. “It’s time for us to ensure that we have a prayer that better reflects our diversity,” Dalton McGuinty, a Liberal Party member, said last month. “The members of the Ontario Legislature reflect the diversity of Ontario — be it Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or agnostic. It is time for our practices to do the same.”

Canadian leaders have been increasingly more supportive of religious pluralism. In 2007, at the opening of the Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto, McGuinty said “Toronto is a place where people from all over the world can come together to create something beautiful — a strong and diverse society.” At the same event, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper said “Today we celebrate one of our country’s greatest strengths–its commitment to pluralism.”

McGuinty’s proposal has touched off a decidedly religious debate in largely secular Canada, and one that echoes similar fights south of the border over the proper role of religion in civic spheres.

The U.S. debate, for the most part, has not centered on the Lord’s Prayer but on other references to the divine — specifically, whether civic councils can open with prayers that end “in Jesus’ name.” That’s the fight playing out in a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va.

www.hinduismtoday.com

Out of purity and silence come words of power.
Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of Chinmaya Mission