SourceBHUBANESWAR, INDIA, March 12, 2004: At least four people died and seven were seriously injured Friday when the temple they were constructing in an Orissa village collapsed. The incident took place at Salabani village in Balasore district, 224 km from here. Rescue teams that rushed to the site recovered the four dead bodies and were investigating if there were any…
SourceSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, March 9, 2004: In the U.S. the ancient discipline of yoga has boomed in popularity over the past several years. Yoga is now practiced by 7 percent of U.S. adults, or 15 million people, according to a market study conducted by Harris International this summer for Yoga Journal. That’s up 28.5 percent in the last two years…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, March 11, 2004: Boosting the government bid to free the holy city of Rishikesh of “non-vegetarian” items, the Supreme Court has upheld an official notification banning sale of eggs which followed a similar ban on sale of meat and fish in the city, the gateway to important pilgrimage centres. Dismissing an appeal challenging the notification on the…
SourceLONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, March 09, 2004: Sant Shree Morari Bapu, Rameshbhai Oza and Swami Satyamitranand Giriji Maharaj have all delivered sermons for up to 100,000 devotees at a time at Rushey Fields in the United Kingdom. So a local English college is not finding it that easy to build a $31 million campus at Rushey Fields. Gateway College says it…
Times LedgeNEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 8, 2004: A co-founder of the annual Phagwah Parade dismissed concerns among New York’s Richmond Hill and Ozone Park civic leaders who are afraid the use of celebratory powders and liquids could serve as cover for a possible terrorist attack. Ramesh Kalicharran, who adapted the India parade in Manhattan to include Guyanese influences in…
SourceRAJASTHAN, INDIA, March 9, 2004: With the efforts of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) more than 750 Christians recently returned to the Hindu fold. About 650 people belonging to 144 families and 22 villages of Udaipur district in Rajasthan resolved to join their ancestors’ roots at a function held at Richhavar Mata Mandir in Jhadol tehsil on February 29. After performing…
SourceNEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 9, 2004: Richard Cimino of Religion Watch newsletter is conducting research on Hindus involved in engineering and information technology and how they relate their beliefs and spirituality to their work. He is looking for any previous studies that have been conducted on this subject. He is also interested in interviewing Hindu engineers and hi-tech workers…
SourceNEW DELHI, INDIA, March 9, 2004: J.S. Rajput, director of India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training, published the following article in the Hindustan Times. The essay, reproduced here in full, is titled “Freedom for History” and is his defense of the various changes in India’s history school textbooks being made by the council: The inventors of the controversy…
SourceCHICAGO, ILLINOIS, March 7, 2004: In life, Pandurang Shastri Athavale, the spiritual leader of 30 million people, visited the Chicago area nearly every year since 1979. In death, he returned one last time Saturday, and more than 5,000 of his followers went to the Rosemont Theater to view his cremated ashes. Athavale passed away last October at the age of…
SourceNAIROBI, KENYA, March 8, 2004: The catwalk fashions of Paris and Milan came to a women’s prison in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday, where the inmates celebrated International Women’s Day by turning on the style. Prisoners dressed in traditional and contemporary outfits sashayed across a courtyard at Langata Women’s Prison as rock music played in the background and scores…