Source USA, September 12, 2020 (YouTube, with Rajiv Malhotra): Very informative video interview of Siddhartha, a 19-year-old student at Stanford University in California, one of the world’s foremost universities. Having been raised in a strict Hindu home in India, he found the initial situation at the Stanford dorm made his normal daily spiritual practices impossible. Watch him tell in his…
Source VATICAN CITY, September 9, 2020 (Religion News Service, excerpts): According to one priest, Martin Lasarte, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a “large reduction” in the realm of missionary work, aggravating an ongoing decline in the number of vocations and priests seeking to become missionaries. But while Catholicism may be waning in many Western countries, new communities are emerging in other…
Source Try to treat with equal love all the people with whom you have relations. Thus the abyss between ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ will be filled in, which is the goal of all religious worship.— Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), God-intoxicated yogini and mystic Bengali saint
Source UNITED STATES, September 8, 2020 (India Currents): Madhavi Prabha, a teacher with a vision, quit her regular teaching job after 10 years to start an After School Education Center for cultural enrichment, GuruKool, in 2018. An immigrant to this country and unfamiliar with the government system, her entrepreneurial spirit was met with red-tape. Frequently redirected from city to county…
Source BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, September 11, 2020 (Hindustan Times): With 167 of the 2,000 priests of the 12th century Jagannath temple in Puri infected by Covid-19, the opening of the temple to the public now seems to be shrouded in uncertainty. On August 31, the state government had decided that none of the religious places in the state will be opened…
Source Receptivity is the ability to accept all experiences of life without reacting to them.— Mata Amritanandamayi Ma, Kerala-based hugging saint
KAUAI, HAWAII, USA, September 8, 2020 (HPI): A common experience of college-age Hindu youth in the West is to be questioned about their religious beliefs. Hinduism Today is developing a project to provide students with responses to the standard criticisms and challenges. As part of this, we’re intending to explain the “issues behind the issues” for common topics, such as…
Source JAPAN, September 7, 2020 (Telangana Today): Faith knows no boundaries. The presence of a Deity in two countries proves the claim. The famous beloved Hindu elephant-headed God of wisdom in India, Ganesha, is worshipped in Japanese form as Kangiten. There are more than 250 temples across Japan dedicated to Japanese Buddhist (Shingon and Tendai schools) form of Ganesha, who…
Source Truth is one, paths are many. Stick to one path, but do not say to others that this is the only one. Recognize all other paths and respect them.— Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002), founder of Integral Yoga Institute and Satchidananda Ashram
Source INDIA, September 4, 2020 (Swarajyamag by George Thundiparambil): The spiritual reversal that is evident in the rebuilding of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya perhaps physically signals the redemption of the human evolutionary process that had come to stagnate with the advent of the Abrahamic faiths. Ever since Abram and Sarai set foot in the Promised Land and subsequently changed…