Source: Hindustan Times, October 25, 2000 NAGPUR, INDIA: A city doctor is set to enter the Guiness Book of Records for creating the tallest lamp on Earth — 48 feet. The electric lamp is 12 feet in diameter and features four elephant heads around the base and a series of yakshas, mythical figures, which appear to carry the lamp. It…
Source: Hindustan Times, November 27, 2000 VARANASI, INDIA: Vedic scholars in Varanasi have taken exception to a scene in the film “Mohabbatein” by Yash Chopra, now under production, in which Amitabh Bachchan recites the sacred Gayatri Mantra with his shoes on. Just last year another movie production company (“Water”) was chased out of Varanasi for complaints over insults to Hinduism.…
Source: Hindustan Times, November 27, 2000 RANCHI, JAHRKHAND, INDIA: Now that the new state of Jahrkhand has been formed, the Jahrkhandi tribals want government outsiders to leave and tribals to take their posts. The newly formed government, they felt, left them out. “Only the tribals fought for a separate state and not the outsiders. Due to all the injustices they…
GO TO SOURCE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: There are demons here, some people say, the kind that torment and manifest themselves through the people they possess, evil spirits that can trap people inside themselves and utter foreign languages. That belief was at the root of a decision by the archdiocese of Chicago to appoint a full-time exorcist last year for the first…
GO TO SOURCE Himalayan Academy Publications announced that its comprehensive lexicon to “Dancing with Siva” is now on-line in it entirety.
Source: The Hindu, November 26, 2000 BANGALORE, INDIA: With the purpose of bringing uniform law to religious institutions, the Legislative Council passed the Hindu Religious Institutions Bill on Friday, November 25th. The Bill, replacing seven former acts in Karnataka State, will bring more than 43,000 Hindu temples, maths, and religious groups under the control of a commissioner. Officers and staff,…
Source: The Hindu, November 21, 2000 HUBLI, INDIA: A unique institution has been imparting education in dharma and tradition to a few students through the gurukula system at Mayuri Extension in Vijayanagar. Started by the Mahacharya Trust, the Mahacharya Vidyalaya selects students over nine years of age to undergo the 12-year course in Sahitya, Vyakarana, Tarka and Vedanta. Headed by…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA: With around 400 people under their care, Sivananda Ashram is appealing outside its homeland for additional funds for maintenance and expansion. The non-profit institution of more than 50 years, receives only RS 36/per month (US$0.78) from the government for each inmate. Orphans, destitute women, physically handicapped persons, old people, and AIDS-infected children are nurtured within…
GO TO SOURCE LONDON, ENGLAND: Long before the first slave ships started supplying labor to the cotton plantations of the American south, and many centuries before the first Africans were brought ashore to the sugar estates of Brazil and the Caribbean, Africans were being sold as slave-soldiers for India’s princely states. Their descendants are the least visible part of the…
Source: Associated Press, November 24, 2000 MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, USA: A proposed comparative religion course for high school students has prompted debate in Memphis. The Shelby County School Board first tried to offer Bible history classes but was stopped by the state because the courses were found to focus too heavily on Protestants. It was then proposed that the board adopt…