Source: www.mumbaimirror.com

MUMBAI, INDIA, January 28, 2010: The Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, that manages the shrine, has decided to ban VIP darshan during week days. The decision was taken at a meeting of the trust held at Mantralaya.

VIP darshans at the popular shrine has been a contentious issue because devotees regularly faced inconvenience when their queues were stopped to enable politicians and other bigwigs to offer their prayers first. The trust has now decided that paid darshan, in which devotees can pay a fee to jump the regular queue, will be allowed on Saturdays and Sundays between 9 am and 12 noon.

On a regular day, over 100,000 people visit the shrine, which is the second richest in India. On holidays and weekends, the number goes up to 500,000, and during festivals it exceeds 800,000. Though most devotees are from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, a large number come from other parts of the country. The shrine has been attracting devotees from abroad as well.

It has also been decided that the number of devotees who will be able to avail of the paid darshan will be limited to 10 per cent of the total number of people waiting in the queue, said Jayant Sasane of the trust. “Our intention is not to generate revenue but to avoid inconvenience to ordinary devotees,” added Sasane. VIPs holding up queues of the regular devotees has been perennial bone of contention. It is estimated that every VIP visit holds the queue for at least 15-20 minutes - not a pleasant experience for pilgrims, some of whom wait for five to six hours before getting close to the saint’s samadhi. During holidays, the temple town is so packed with pilgrims that no accommodation is available at hotels and charity hostels.

Source: www.expressindia.com

JAMMU, INDIA, February 3, 2010: The cave shrine of Vaishnodevi, one of the most revered places of worship visited by about eight million pilgrims each year, faced a fresh terror threat and security has been upgraded.

Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) Special Director General N. K. Tripathi on Tuesday warned of the threat to the hill shrine, about 38 miles from here, saying it is on the radar of militants.

“Elaborate security measures are in place as per the threat perception,” he said, adding”the shrine is secured and safe, so pilgrims need not fear. They can undertake pilgrimage as CRPF is there for their security”.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page1.asp?relid=57507

INDIA, February 1, 2010: Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, inaugurated the 10th World Spice Congress here on 3rd February, 2010. India occupies a prominent position in the world spice trade with a share of 44%. Annual production of spices in recent years has gone well above four million tons. Share of spices in India’s total agricultural exports ranges between 6 to 7%.

Source: www.nytimes.com

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND, January 2, 2010: Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to recall the past, their bodies leaned slightly backward. While fantasizing about the future, people made a two or three millimeter shift forward. Lynden K. Miles, one of the study’s conductors, said: “It was pleasing that we could take an abstract concept such as time and show that it was manifested in body movements.” Miles’ study is part of a popular field called embodied cognition, the idea that the brain is not the only part of us with a mind of its own.

Research in embodied cognition has revealed that the body takes language to heart and can be awfully literal-minded. In a recent study at Yale, students who had been cradling a warm beverage were far likelier to judge a fictitious character as warm and friendly then those who had recently held an iced coffee. Researchers at the University of Toronto found that student participants in a colder room were more likely to conjure up memories of rejection. Another study showed that participants asked to think of a personal moral transgression were more likely to request an antiseptic cloth than those instructed to recall a good dead.

In a report published last August in Pyschological Science, Dr. Jostmann and his colleagues at the University of Amsterdam explored the degree to which the body conflates weight and importance. They learned, for example, that when students were told that a book was vital to the curriculum, the students judged the book to be physically heavier. In a series of experiments, they found that study participants given questions on the city of Amsterdam, foreign currency and the level of student participation in university financial affairs to answer on heavier clipboards gave responses of higher “weight”/value.

Source: www.hinduismtoday.com

The man who is kind and practices righteousness, who remains passive in the affairs of the world, who considers creatures of the world as his own self, he attains the immortal Being; the true God is ever with him.
   Saint Kabir (1440-1518)