Source One must seek the shortest way and the fastest means to get back home–to turn the spark within into a blaze, to be merged in and to identify with that greater fire which ignited the spark.— Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri (1885-1961), South Indian Mystic
Source WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2018 (HAF): Over the last few months, anti-Hindu sentiment has spiked, prompting HAF to gather more data on the prevalence of anti-Hindu bullying in classrooms. This is why we’re appealing to you, both as students and as parents of students, to make sure your children take HAF’s second nationwide survey on bullying. But this survey…
Source NEPAL, January 30, 2018 (Nepali Sansar): Hindus across Nepal witnessed the celebration of the annual Madhav Narayan festival at Thecho, Lalitpur on January 28, 2018. The festival that begins with the start of full moon in the month of Poush, the ninth month according to Nepali calendar, commenced on January 03, 2018 this year. Devotees take dips in holy…
Source CHENNAI, INDIA, January 31, 2018 (India Today): Thai Poosam, a key event in the Tamil Shaivite calendar signifying triumph of good over evil was today celebrated in temples across Tamil Nadu. Devotees lined up in huge numbers at the temples of Lord Muruga across the state, including the Vadapalani Sri Murugan temple here, since early morning and offered prayers.…
Source The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him–that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. — Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Source UNITED STATES, January 26, 2018 (RNS by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman): I just returned from my first trip to India and Nepal, a soul-stretching pilgrimage that was as much mentally as physically demanding. Along the way, I made my peace with the swastika. Not that swastika, that unrepentant symbol of hate seen most recently on the streets of Charlottesville. No,…
Source NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 26, 2018 (New York Books, by Kenan Malik): The sun may have long ago set on the British Empire, but it never seems to set on the debate about the merits of empire. The latest controversy began when the Third World Quarterly, an academic journal known for its radical stance, published a paper by…
Source You are here to eat mangoes; not to count the number of leaves in the mango tree.— Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), guru of Swami Vivekananda
Source WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2018 (HAF): Bullying isn’t just being pushed into a locker or intimidated by students at school. Has your teacher singled you out because of your religious background? Have students made fun of your culture? That, too, can be a form of bullying. If anything like this has happened to you, or even if none of…
Source INDIA, December 16, 2017 (Daily O by Devdutt Pattanaik): Who said how a Hindu or any human is supposed to worship the divine? Who made these rules? This question is rooted in Abrahamic myth that frowns upon God being given any form, and the Biblical condemnation of “idolatry” as indicative of a false religion. In the 19th century, as…