www.ptinews.com KALPETTA, KERALA, October 28, 2008: Breaking centuries-old caste barriers, 22 children from different communities, including Scheduled Tribes, have completed an 18-month course of training and have been authorized to serve as temple priests. These boys are the first to graduate from a program which was launched in 2007 by the Kshetra Samrakshana Samity in coordination with leading Vedic scholars…
www.wotzon.com WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, October 22, 2008: The Diwali Festival of Lights 2008, a 10-day program of events celebrating all the exciting colors, sounds and spicy aromas of India, is well under way. Asia New Zealand and the Wellington City Council have joined forces to produce the festival, bringing artists from India to join top local performers for a number…
Source: HPI WASHINGTON, D.C., October 28, 2008: Princeton University will make religious history on November 8, 2008 at 8:30 pm, when the Princeton University Chapel hosts its first-ever official celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali. The prestigious university, founded over 200 years ago, set another precedent this fall when it hired Vineet Chander to be its first Hindu chaplain.…
www.freshplaza.com PAKISTAN, October 27, 2008: Hindus in Pakistan, just like everywhere else, have been preparing to celebrate Diwali. All the preparations have been completed; families have renovated their houses and cleaned their neighborhoods. On Tuesday evening, Maha Laxmi or Lakhshmi Pooja (worship of the Goddess of wealth, Laxmi) will commence and houses and temples will be decorated with lights. This…
www.hinduismtoday.com Of all the scriptures in the world, it is the Vedas alone that declare that even the study of the Vedas is secondary. The real study is that by which we realize the Unchangeable. And that is neither reading, nor believing, nor reasoning, but superconscious perception, or samadhi. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
p class=”source”/p p class=”summary”br /The 2001 census showed Kandhamal with a Christian population of 117,950, up from 75,597 a decade earlier. According to District Collector Krishnan Kumar, “The Christian growth rate in the district is 66% as against 18.6% for the overall population growth in the district.”br /br /Kumar said that the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, which took effect…
The eight men and two women from the banned Hindu Rights Action Force, who had been protesting the continued detention of five of their leaders under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act, were freed on bail just before Monday’s Hindu Diwali festival of lights celebrations. Police say they were released on humanitarian grounds, to enable them to celebrate Diwali. According to the…
Cameron removed his shoes before entering the temple as a customary mark of respect, and was decorated with a tilak, the red dot on the forehead which is worn by Hindus.
www.buddhapia.com KOREA, October 30, 2008: As HPI readers may know, South Korea was after World War II nearly all Buddhist. It became the special focus of Christian missionary activities for the next several decades, with great success. It is a success story that missionaries hope to repeat in other countries, specifically India. This article, “Buddhism Under Siege 1982-1996” details various…
By Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent, India/South Asia (HPI note: The announcement below run on the October 24th edition of HPI but mistakenly stated Swami was 86. We reproduce the article with Swamiji’s correct age.) NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 20, 2008: His Holiness Sri Swami Vimalananda, 76, a senior monk of the Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, has been elected as the…