www.mysanantonio.com SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, May 13, 2006: Hinduism has more influence in American culture than its relatively small membership would suggest, said an American-born swami who visited San Antonio’s Hindu temple last week. “It’s more widespread than you’d think,” said Satguru Bodinatha Veylanswami, 63, publisher of Hinduism Today magazine and head of 20 monks at a monastery on Kauai, Hawaii.…
timesofindia.indiatimes.com VARANASI, INDIA, May 25, 2006: Think of Vedic gurukuls and the mind conjures up an image of a Hindu purohit (priest) chanting shlokas, his batuks (disciples) repeating in unison. Not anymore. Keeping pace with the introduction of computers at every level of education, Vedic studies have just gone hi-tech. Varanasi, the seat of Hindu learning, is now producing GenNext…
www.rediff.com INDIA, May 23, 2006: (HPI note: This editorial piece by journalist Francoise Gautier comes at a time when India’s policy of “reservations,” or affirmative action, to benefit lower classes has become a national issue.) Excerpts: At a time when the Congress government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public…
news.independent.co.uk PARIS, FRANCE, May 19, 2006: The wife of the Hindu God Siva, Shakti, decapitated in Cambodia in the 15th century, finally has Her head back, after it was discovered 500 years later on the other side of the world. A Paris museum dedicated to Asia, the Musee Guimet, is celebrating the implausible chain of events that reunited a divided…
www.samachar.com KATHMANDU, NEPAL, May 24, 2006: Hindu groups in Nepal, opposed to last week’s Parliamentary Declaration naming the country as a secular state, today blocked roads and shut down markets in the southern industrial town of Birgunj. The World Hindu Federation had made the call to close down the market in the town, an industrialist said. Transport services came to…
Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 24, 2006: “Dandi saints from all over India have started reaching Bilaspur, a town in the state of Chattisgarh in central India, for the venue Satchandi Mahayagna And All-India Saints Sammelan. While the mahayagna, a large-scale fire worship ceremony, has already begun on May 22, the saint sammelan (meeting) is scheduled to…
www.investors.com USA, May 19, 2006: HPI note: This article appears on the Investor’s Business Daily website. This magazine is almost entirely on investments, but included this editorial article which, in the American political spectrum, would be considered a “right wing Christian” point of view. It is useful to Hindus in the context of the debate over presentation of Hinduism in…
www.washingtonpost.com GOLDFIELD, IOWA, May 21, 2006: The pungent liquid called ethanol, made from corn, has Iowa farmers giddy. Inspired by high oil prices and changing sentiment in Washington, thousands of investors are pouring tens of millions of dollars into new facilities, such as the US$90 million plant here. Ethanol prices are surging across the country as legislators add incentives to…
inwww.rediff.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 23, 2006: Amid increasing fighting in Sri Lanka, the influx of Tamil refugees to India is rising and fears are expressed that the situation may become worse after the European Union bans LTTE. At least 2,000 Tamils have already reached India and several hundred more are believed to be ready to leave Sri Lanka, official…
www.lsst.org TUCSON, ARIZONA, USA: HPI note: Here’s a project that will help you evaluate your place in the universe. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a proposed ground-based 8.4-meter, 10 square-degree-field telescope that will provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky, night after night. In a relentless campaign of 10 to 15 second exposures, LSST…