www.thaindian.com

PATNA, INDIA, March 28, 2008: Buddhist monks are upset with the Bihar government for “deliberately” delaying the formation of a panel for running the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, Buddhism’s holiest shrine, and want control to be vested with Buddhists. The Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BGTMC) has been without a head for more than six months. Monks say this is hampering the day-to-day functioning of the 1,500-year-old temple at Bodh Gaya, located about 110 km from here where the Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago.

Bhadant Anand, president of the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi Vihar All-India Action Committee, says the delay is a “conspiracy” by the government to keep the management under the control of non-Buddhists. “We fail to understand why non-Buddhists have the control over the holiest shrine of Buddhists. We have decided to take up the issue by lobbying support to demand Buddhist control over the management,” Anand told IANS. Anand has been leading a pressure group of Buddhist monks for over a decade and a half favoring an amendment to the Mahabodhi Temple Management Act 1949 so that management can be handed over to Buddhists.

According to the Mahabodhi Temple Management Act 1949, the panel should comprise four Buddhists and the same number of Hindu members for a three-year period with the Gaya district magistrate as its ex-officio chairman and the Mahanth (presiding priest) of Sankaracharya Math (Saivite monastery, Bodh Gaya) as ex-officio Hindu member. The state government nominates a Hindu as chairman for the period when the district magistrate is a non-Hindu.

The BTMC has over 75 staff, including 35 daily wagers, who clean and look after the temple. The Mahabodhi Temple, declared a World Heritage Site in 2002 by Unesco, is visited annually by thousands of tourists, especially from Buddhist countries.

deseretnews.com

UTAH, USA: March 30, 2008: A fusion of colors exploded on the east side of the majestic white Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork Saturday evening as thousands celebrated the Festival of Colors, one of the most important Hindu holidays of the year. To rejoice in the coming of spring and the victory of good over evil, natives of India, Hindus, Utah County residents and BYU students chucked bags of purple, green, pink, yellow, blue and silver chalk at each other.

“It was really intense,” said Cristine Vallone, who moved to Provo nine months ago. “You couldn’t breathe at all, but it was really fun though. It was just a blinding mess of color.” For 15 minutes the crowd was lost in a pink-tinged cloud after people began to toss colors. The throwing of the colors “is to signify that people are the same,” said Marish Bansal, a native of India. “Nobody is bigger or smaller. We are all children of God.”

The festival “is a very big part of the religion,” said Rajnikant Shalma, a Hindu from India. “It’s good for friendship. Even if you are enemies on that day you are friends.”

www.thetimes.co.za

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, March 31, 2008: It’s hypocrisy, says Maha Sabha head, but Catholic teacher says it has helped her draw closer to Christ. A Catholic spiritual teacher who encourages her pupils to find God through yoga has been criticized by Hindu leaders. Winnie Young, 96, has spent most of her life teaching yoga after studying under one of the world’s leading yogis, Yogacharya BKS Iyengar. Young, who founded a national yoga institute in 1975, said people had a misconception of yoga as a religion. Her institute believed yoga was a tool to connect to God.

However, religious leaders in the Hindu community have criticized her, saying it is impossible to teach yoga from a Christian perspective. Young said yoga had helped her draw closer to Christ. Her institute practices hatha yoga, which advocates controlled breathing to calm the body and cleanse the mind in an effort to achieve nirvana, an elevated mental state.

“I have been led by my Christian beliefs, but I don’t do indoctrination. I teach as a Christian, my Christian principles guide me.” In her book “Yoga for the Christian,” Young says while she realizes that yoga is based on an Eastern philosophy, she can draw from the technique and knows where to draw the line. She concedes that there are certain Hindu beliefs incorporated in yoga that Christians cannot accept.

But the head of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, Ashwin Trikamjee, is critical of Young’s teaching. “It’s hypocrisy of the highest order. I don’t understand how anyone can teach yoga from a Christian background. It is an indisputable fact that yoga has its origins in the East and in Hinduism,” he said.

www.elephantartgallery.com

THAILAND, March 31, 2008: Elephants at the National Elephant Institute, Thailand, can express their artistic genius more than anywhere else. There they get a blank canvas, paint, a brush and freedom to express themselves in surprising art. Many of the National Elephant Institute’s artists were rescued from mistreatment in captivity, and the proceedings help keep support the artists and their elephantine friends.

You can click on the link above to see the painting, and here for an unbelievable self-portrait.

www.hinduismtoday.com

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
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