UNITED STATES, January 26, 2018 (RNS by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman): I just returned from my first trip to India and Nepal, a soul-stretching pilgrimage that was as much mentally as physically demanding. Along the way, I made my peace with the swastika. Not that swastika, that unrepentant symbol of hate seen most recently on the streets of Charlottesville. No, I’m talking about the original swastika, the ancient Asian swastika, the one you get when you peel away that nasty layer of red and black paint. I saw how, in India, this symbol brings a sense of warmth and protection to tiny village huts, similar to the role played by the mezuzah in Jewish homes. I also saw how it conveys a feeling of grace and order in public art, grand squares and vast temples. In Sanskrit, the word connotes well-being; the four arms symbolize sun, wind, water and soil, the basic elements of existence.
Making peace with the swastika does not mean making peace with Nazis past and present, nor with their hateful ideology — nor with their corrupted version of that symbol. Rather, it is a statement of defiance to those who so grotesquely distorted an emblem held sacred by half the world.
More of this account at “source” above.
Muruga Song Released for Thai Pusam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isrCboz8AvY&feature=youtu.be
SINGAPORE, January 25, 2018: For those wanting to get in the mood for the Thai Pusam festival in a few days, we recommend this YouTube video by our friends Aks and Lakshmi of Eclipse Nirvana and Padmini Chandrashekar singing this upbeat arrangement of the traditional song, “Velava Velava Vel Muruga Vaa Vaa.” Filmed at the Sri Murugan Hill Temple of Singapore.