HPI KAUAI, HAWAII, January 27, 2006: HPI reader Sher Agrawal points out, “I read the news item as quoted in your January 27th HPI which states that Pongal is celebrated in South and Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra. Please note that Makar Sankranti is a very important and most religious and auspicious January festival and is celebrated with lots of fan…
www.nytimes.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 31, 2006: (HPI note: Though vultures are quite unpleasant in appearance, and have dining habits to match, they are environmentally important. They also figure benevolently in Hindu history from time to time. The vulture king Jatayu tried to save Sita from abduction in the Ramayana, and was injured in the process. Jatayu informed Rama who…
www.newindpress.com MUMBAI, INDIA, January 29, 2006: If all goes well, Hindu temples across India could soon have an apex body. A two-day meeting of temple bodies, including one from Nepal, began here on Saturday to examine the possibility of forming a national trust for temple management. The International Temple Summit 2006 has representatives from the management committees of 25 prominent…
Darpan MAURITIUS, January 31, 2006: HPI has received this report that the venerable founder of the Human Service Trust in Mauritius died in December. The report reads, “Bhai Dhundevji had breathed his last at Bombay Hospital in early morning on Monday 19 December 2005…. With his voluntary works and service to the community at large, in very little time Bhai…
www.ibnlive.com BARMER, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, January 30, 2006: The Thar Express train that will connect Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokrapar in Pakistan’s Sindh might have to wait but a special pilgrimage is all set to cross the border from Munabao. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh will lead a group of about 100 pilgrims to Hinglaj Mata shrine…
thestar.com.my KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 30, 2006: About 30,000 Hindu devotees and visitors came to witness the official unveiling of the country’s tallest Lord Murugan statue on Sunday and the garlanding of the golden statue today. Temple officials were now hoping to get the 42.7m statue, located at the Sri Subramaniar Temple at the foot of Batu Caves, into the…
www.smh.com.au SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, January 28, 2006: (HPI Note: The following article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s leading newspaper.) Hinduism is the predominant religion of India but in the global spread of eastern religions it has been Buddhism that has found a firm foothold in the spiritually barren lands of the West. But as the revered American-born Hindu monk…
www.the-week.com INDIA, January 22, 2006: Ganesha is everybody’s mascot–be it in the commercial, political, cultural or global arena. He was always adored, worshipped and held in great adulation. Ganesha, Ganapati, Vigneshwar, Gajavadana, has shifted base, begins this article by Vijaya Pushkarna. The son of Shiva and Parvati, the endearing God with the head of an elephant and a human body…
news.webindia123.com MADURAI, INDIA, January 14, 2006: January marks the month of two festivities in India, Pongal as a harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, and Makar Sankrati honoring the Sun God in Maharashtra and other states. The news release explains, “The annual harvest festival was celebrated in a colorful manner in rural areas where rice milled from newly harvested paddy was…
www.thehindubusinessline.com MUMBAI, INDIA, January 20, 2006: The year 2005 may well have been the year of news channels, which became hugely popular among viewers, but the actual surprise element has been the significant rise in viewership of religious channels such as Aastha, GOD, Sanskar and Zee Jagran. According to a TAM report, religious channels had a viewership share of 0.63…