News

Source WASHINGTON D.C., US., May 20, 2016 (First Post): A California commission — mandated with recommendation and revision of school textbooks — has rejected demands of replacing India with South Asia for pre-1947 references, which had become a major bone of contention from various academic groups in the US. The California Department of Education’s (CDE) Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), at…

Source Eternal, pure, groundless, death-and-birth free, pervasive, ever immaculate, distant, near, enveloping effulgence of void, the support of all, the fullness of bliss, the consciousness-form beyond thought and speech, That which thus stood, the expanse vast that generates bliss, let us contemplate.— Tayumanavar (1706-1744), South Indian devotional poet

Source HYDERABAD, INDIA, May 18, 2015 (Times of India): The Iron Age may have come into existence in Telangana much before the rest of the world. At least that’s the conclusion reached by archaeologists excavating the University of Hyderabad campus who found iron artefacts dating back to roughly 2,200 BC. The team of archaeologists, led by professor KP Rao, has…

Source WASHINGTION, D.C., US, May 21, 2016 (Times of India by Chidanand Rajghatta): India has survived in California school textbooks. Nothing calamitous was going happen to the country itself, but a pedagogical and academic battle over use of the term “India” over “South Asia” has been resolved to the satisfaction of overseas Indian nationalistic groups and Indophiles. At the heart…

Source CALIFORNIA, May 17, 2016 (Press Trust of India): A group of 41 prominent scholars, including several Indian-Americans from across the US have written to the California Department of Education opposing proposals to change “India” to “South Asia” in the state text books.Signed by distinguished academics such as Barbara McGraw of Saint Marys College of California, Diana Eck of Harvard…

Source If you would walk the way of love, never feel hurt nor yield to anger, but accept pain as a part of life.— Dada J.P. Vaswani, spiritual head of Sadhu Vaswani Mission

Source NEW YORK, USA, May 11, 2016 : Hindu Students Council (HSC), the largest Hindu youth organization in North America, will be hosting its 25th Annual Camp at the Shanti Mandir, in Walden, NY. HSC, which hosted a successful Global Dharma Conference featuring over 55 world renowned speakers and performers in September 2015, will conclude its Silver Jubilee celebrations at…

Source UNITED STATES, May 8, 2016 (The Chronicle of Higher Education by Prof. Arvind Sharma, McGill University): I should respond to Wendy Doniger’s essay (“The Repression of Religious Studies,” April 29, 2016, Chronicle of Higher Education, behind paywall) because I am the “Hindu” whose entry on Hinduism was substituted for her own by Microsoft Encarta in 2003. As it was…

Source He cannot be seen by the eye, and words cannot reveal Him. He cannot be reached by the senses, or by austerity or sacred actions. By the grace of wisdom and purity of mind, He can be seen, indivisible, in the silence of contemplation. This invisible Atman can be seen by the mind wherein the five senses are resting.—…

Source MONTREAL, CANADA, May 15, 2016 (invitation from the conference convenor, Dr. Arvind Sharma): Most people remember where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news of the aerial assault on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. The ground may not have shifted under our feet at the moment but…