SourceNADIAD, INDIA, March 30, 2004: It was a chance meeting with Pramukhswami Maharaj of the Bochanvasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) in the U.S. in 2000 that Mangalnidhidas, newly initiated into the world of sainthood in Nadiad on Tuesday morning, says was responsible for his change of heart, begins this article. Mangalnidhidas, a graduate from Harvard, was the only…
SourceTAMIL NADU, INDIA, April 1, 2004: Thousands of devotees came to worship the Goddess, with new gold kavasam (decorative covering) and ornaments worth US$320,000, at Mariamman Temple near Thanjavur. The article explains, “Gold contributions by devotees and gold given by Rajaram Rajah Saheb, grandfather of Babaji Rajah Bhonsle were used for making the new kavasam and ornaments. Mr. Divakar contributed…
The Houston ChronicleHOUSTON, TEXAS, March 27, 2004: The Sri Meenakshi Temple in Pearland, Texas, recently celebrated a four-day festival where the main deities were removed from the sanctums so that the temple could be cleansed, reconsecrated and repaired. Normally the event called Maha Kumbhabhisekham takes place every 12 years. Housing three main icons, Meenakshi, Siva and Vishnu, the temple leaders…
SourceDELHI, INDIA, April 8, 2004: The Animal Welfare Board of India publishes a long list of ingredients of animal origin that may be contained in food, cosmetics, clothing, etc., at “source” above. Note that this is specifically dealing with products available in India. Here’s just a few samples. Food: Aspic: jelly derived from meat & fish Ajinomoto: Japanese product made…
SourceTRIPURA, INDIA, April 02, 2004: A Kumbh Mela in Tripura may sound unbelievable when there are others in Ujjain, Haridwar and Nasik. Yet this Kumbh is an annual pilgrimage thousands take. It attracts about 200,000 devotees on the 7th, 8th and 9th days of Chaitra, the month prior to Poila Boisak, the Bengali new-year in April. It is held in…
SourcePATNA, INDIA, March 23, 2004: Japanese devotees, accompanying their guru, Mizo Guchi, prayed for world peace on the banks of the river Ganges recently. Travelling from Nagono, Japan the group of 61 men and 23 women prayed with such devotion and concentration that even the locals were surprised. The article says, “Guru Guchi told the devotees that Lord Siva had…
SourceUSA, April 7, 2004: We thank an HPI reader for bringing this article on a Christian evangelist website to our attention. It is rather old, apparently posted in 1999, but still useful. We found it revealing of methods and heartening in that it was so hard to convert a Hindu, for the reason that he was innately too tolerant to…
SourceLUCKNOW, INDIA, March 23, 2004: Celebrating the Sindhi new year and the birthday of Lord Jhulelal (patron saint of the Sindhis), the Sindhi community in the City of Nawabs filled the city with glamorous processions and prayer sessions. Coinciding with the new year festivities was the 50th anniversary of the Hari Om Mandir. Governor Vishnukant Shastri opened the celebrations by…
SourceCHENNAI, INDIA, April 2, 2004: The Madras High Court has ordered that cows donated to temples in Tamil Nadu by devotees which stop producing milk should not be sold or auctioned for any reason, but be sent to authorized or registered goshalas. The order was given by a Division Bench, comprising Justice R. Jaisimha Babu and Justice M. Karpagavinayagam, on…
SourceWASHINGTON, April 1, 2004: The Department of Justice has filed a complaint against a local school in the U.S. state of Oklahoma for suspending an 11-year-old Muslim girl for refusing to remove her head scarf. The complaint alleges that Muskogee, Oklahoma, Public School district violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars states…