SourceVANCOUVER, CANADA, January 10, 2005: A small Canadian Buddhist congregation has sold one of its temples to raise money for Asian tsunami victims. The abbot of the temple in Mission, east of Vancouver, handed a cheque for 500,000 Canadian dollars (US $405,000) to the Canadian Red Cross. A Tibetan group will now take over the temple after purchasing it from…
SourceKAUAI, HAWAII, January 10, 2005: HPI Note: The Hindu American Foundation (website here) is protesting the article, “Countless Souls Cry Out to God” by Kenneth L. Woodward, religion editor for Newsweek (“source”). They are concerned that the “Hindu” view of the disaster, given by a non-Hindu Western academic, does not reflect the actual views of Hindus. First we excerpt the…
SourceU.S.A., December 31, 2004: After many years of supposition but no real scientific data to back up their hunches, doctors and the public at large can now refer to a study that has been published in the Lancet medical journal that links fast food and type 2 diabetes. The news release says, “The results were derived after 15 years of…
SourceCHENNAI, JANUARY 11: Exactly two months after he was arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder case, Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi was today released on bail. A beaming Shankaracharya came out from the Vellore jail at 4.30 pm and was received by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, VHP leader Ashok Singhal, former Union Minister S Thirunavukkarasar and many devotees. Maintaining a…
SourcePHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, January 9, 2005: As Western humanitarian organizations unleash an armada of relief supplies and workers into Asia’s crisis zone, some evangelical Christian groups aim to bring the Gospel to the victims, as well. Religious groups promise to be a major presence in the massive relief and reconstruction effort. InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based nongovernment organizations, reports that…
SourceALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, January 10, 2005: HPI Note: This article appears on the conservative web site Cybercast News Service. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a recent email to supporters, said Christian missionaries are “exploiting the tsunami suffering.” In its January 7 “American Muslim News Briefs,” CAIR included a report from the Agape Press, which noted that a Virginia-based Christian ministry…
SourceINDIA, January 7, 2005: Dr. Frank Gaetano Morales’ article on what he calls “Radical Universalism,” the idea that all religions are the same, says, in part, “Of the many current peculiar concepts mistakenly ascribed to Hindu theology, one of the most widely misunderstood is the idea that Hinduism somehow teaches that all religions are equal. that all religions are the…
News ReportsTIRUCHENDUR, INDIA, January 8, 2005: Tiruchendur Lord Murugan Temple is on the sea shore – within 100 metres of the waves. The temple entrance is near sea level, and the cave inside is sloping down to the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Lord Subramaniam (Murugan) . When we stand in front of the deity, the sea water level outside is…
HPIKAUAI, HAWAII, January 8, 2005: Patrick Harrigan (see his web site here) reports from Batticaloa: “About foreign volunteers, you know that skilled people are needed here badly. But without language ability in Tamil their use would be limited. I met a whole team of foreign doctors today at Ramakrishna College, now a refugee camp until school starts on January 20.…
SourceSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, January 8, 2005: An informative web site on the traditional Baul singers of India is on-line at “source.” The opening page reads, “Welcome to the home page of the Purna Das Baul Academy, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of Purna Das Baul and the Bauls of Bengal. Through performance, teaching, research, and education–as well…