GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND, September 13, 2002: Gods and Goddesses were enlivened in elaborate Vedic ceremonies held the middle of September at the southeast London Maha Lakshmi Vidya Bhavan. Devotees from the United Kingdom, Canada, America, Finland, India, Guyana and Trinidad pilgrimaged to the 3-day event called the Murthi Sthaapna celebration. Spearheaded by Param Pujya Swami Gopal Sharan Ji…
GO TO SOURCE BANGKOK,THAILAND, November 10, 2002: An animal rights group has urged tourists to stop visiting Thailand, accusing the kingdom of abusing elephants for tourism. In a video released by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, a baby elephant was shown separated from its mother during what’s called a “Phajaan ceremony” at an elephant camp in the Thailand.…
GO TO SOURCE PATNA, INDIA, November 11, 2002: Christians in densely populated areas are increasingly turning to the Hindu tradition of cremation as cemeteries get more crowded. As younger Christians spruced up the graves of their ancestors recently for All Souls Day, many of them said they were willing to opt for cremation rather than burial when their time comes.…
GO TO SOURCE PATNA, INDIA, November 10, 2002: Patna’s Mahavira temple, one of the biggest temples in the country, is known for its break with tradition. Not only the traditional Brahmin priests but also Suryavanshi Das, a Dalit (“untouchable”), also performs religious rituals at the temple and has been a priest there for the past nine years. “We believe in…
Source: Vinay Krishna Rastogi, Lucknow AYODHYA : A high-power delegation from South Korea visited Ayodhya to revive two millennia-old ties with the temple town. The South Koreans discovered that a Princess of Ayodhya was married to Korean King Suro in the first century CE. Suro was the King of Kimhay kingdom or the present Korea. The Princess was married to…
GO TO SOURCE TRINIDAD, November 10, 2002: The Caribbean Cultural Council (ICC) wishes to announce the publication and sale of its latest souvenir magazine, Divali 2002 in Trinidad and Tobago. The theme of the magazine is cultural ecology or, alternatively, religion and the environment. Hindus comprise the second largest religious groups in Trinidad and Tobago after Roman Catholics. Most Indians…
GO TO SOURCE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, November 7, 2002: This interesting article by Frank Parlato begins, “The city of Chicago has been the Western architect for Hinduism in America. It was here that Swami Vivekananda, the first Hindu monk to come to the West, introduced Yoga and Hinduism at the World’s Parliament of Religions to America, in 1893. It commenced with…
GO TO SOURCE SINGAPORE, November 9, 2002: The rebuilding of Sri Senpaga Vinayaka temple is almost complete. A consecration ceremony for the 127-year-old Hindu Temple, often referred to as the Ceylon Road temple, will be held on February 7, 2003. Funds for the work came not only from Hindus but also non-Hindu Singaporeans, including Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. They contributed…
GO TO SOURCE SINGAPORE, November 4, 2002: A group of children spent Deepavali at the museum learning about rangoli, an ancient art traditionally seen on the ground in front of Hindu homes. The audience were left spellbound by the intricate patterns and colors used. Mrs. Vijaya Mohan, rangoli artist, explained that ‘rang’ means color and rangoli means you are expressing…
Source: The Hindustan Times NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 5, 2002: Nine million SMS (Short Message Service) messages were sent across the airwaves on Deepavali, sending Delhi’s mobile messaging highways into gridlock. The SMS surge slowed things to a crawl for the better part of Monday. According to estimates, close to nine million SMS messages were exchanged by cell phone users…