SourceETAUNJA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA, May 28, 2005: In today’s jet age when one hears of things like people praying to a banyan tree, it is believed as superstition. But to the villagers of Etaunja, some 40 kilometres from Lucknow, things certainly are different. The residents of this village have been praying to a 250-year-old banyan tree for generations. They believe…
SourceMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, USA, May 27, 2005: The Mayans of Guatemala – representatives of the Maya civilization that flourished during the first millennium AD in Central America – believe their ancestors came to this part of the globe 20,000 years ago from the East. One of the most dominant ethnic groups, Kekichi Maya, has always had special attraction for India in…
SourceNEW YORK, USA, May 18, 2005: A former American practitioner of yoga has cast the fitness regime in a narrow Hindu religious context and offered a “Christian alternative” says this article in the Hindustan Times (based on a report in Christianity Today magazine). “From experience I can say that yoga is a dangerous practice for the Christian and leads seekers…
SourceHAMBURG, GERMANY, May 24, 2005: Christian Eckert (48) is a Journalist, TV presenter and television producer, living in Hamburg, Germany. He has been teaching journalism and media presentation at German media schools for many years. For 25 years he has been visiting Sri Lanka regularly. He was in the City of Galle when the tsunami hit the island–Eckert just managed…
SourceKERALA, INDIA, May 24, 2005: Five months after the tsunami hit the southern coast of India, relief work has stalled in the southern state of Kerala after a row between Hindu and Christian groups. Right-wing Hindu groups are angry at the local administration for allowing Christian organizations to participate in the reconstruction of homes for the mainly Hindu tsunami victims,…
SourceWINNIPEG, CANADA, May 24, 2005: A man who moved to Canada from India with just $8 in his pocket is now giving C$1 million (US$794,000) to the new Hindu temple and community center in Winnipeg. Raj Pandey came to Canada in the early 1960s to get his master’s degree on a scholarship at the University of Toronto. He’s now a…
SourceKOLKATA, INDIA, May 25, 2005: Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj, age 88, has been elected 14th President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Math and the Governing body of the Mission today. Gahananandaji, one of the vice-presidents of the Math and Mission since April 14, 1992, succeeded Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj who…
SourceTAMPA, FLORIDA, May 23, 2005: The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) expressed support over portions of the annual report released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last week. HAF particularly appreciated the attention the USCIRF report brought to the atrocities suffered by Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. The foundation plans to release…
SourceWASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2005: A US bankruptcy court has ordered the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to pay $9.5 million (nearly Rs 42 crore) to about 450 victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at its boarding schools in the US and India. The abuses relate to the 1970s and the ’80s and have been the subject of…
SourceTIRUPATI, INDIA, May 21, 2005: A group of Agama Sastra (scriptural texts) experts is said to have advised the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the famous Sri Venkateswara temple, against the move to involve woman barbers for tonsuring heads of woman devotees who have it done to fulfill their religious vow. The issue came up during a meeting of…