Source ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, January 4, 2016 (The Hindu): A narrow rusty road and then a trek of more than 1.5 km on a sheer expanse of bare stone. This is how you reach the famous Shaivite shrine atop Lingala Banda, a hillock a few kilometres away from Rayadurgam town of Anantapur district, which is dubbed as a “rarest of…
Source Attach yourself to Him who is free from all attachments. Bind yourself to that bond so all other bonds may be broken.— Tirukkural 350
Source NEW DELHI, January 4, 2016 (Economics Times): The newly-formed AYUSH Ministry hogged limelight in 2015 as it successfully organized the first-ever International Day of Yoga during which two Guinness world records were achieved. The Department of AYUSH which was earlier under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was upgraded to a full- fledged ministry on November 9, 2014…
Source UNITED STATES, January 4, 2016 ( The Hindu): Making a strong case for including classical Indian music in the school curriculum, renowned mathematician Manjul Bhargava said it “can help the country produce not just better artistes, but better scientists, judges, innovators and in general, better humans.” To drive home the point that music makes individuals highly creative, he quoted…
Source POLAND, December 28, 2015 (Hindu Students Association International): Joya Patrycja Krishnadasi may not be your typical Westerner, and maybe that is why she was attracted to Hinduism. Born into a Catholic family in Poland, she became disillusioned with her faith and began a search for spirituality. She found herself studying at the local Mosque for many years and was…
Source CANADA, December 31, 2015 (Alberni Valley News): Jan Norman recently returned from her third trip to Cuba and her second one as a yoga instructor. Last year she took a group of yoga students from Port Alberni to a retreat in the country while it was under the Communist regime. Despite the lifted embargo, she saw little change as…
Source We want to claim that which we already are. You are already the Self. You are just not aware of it. Do not put it off based upon some concept that we are not ready, we are not worthy, we need more of this or that. None of those principles apply when it comes to Self-realization.— Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami,…
Source MALAYSIA, January 4, 2016 (The Malaysian Insider): The rights of a non-Muslim mother over her children’s religion remained vulnerable and unprotected by the country’s judicial system, says MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam. He was commenting on the Court of Appeal’s decision in the case of kindergarten teacher, M. Indira Gandhi, whose three children were converted to Islam…
Source BELGIUM, January 1, 2016 (this is an academic paper by Jakob De Roover Ghent University, Belgium): Some excerpts: What we can now conclude is that the idea that there were two distinct communities or “communities of communities” in Indian society, namely Caste Hindus and Depressed Classes (or Untouchables or Scheduled Castes or Harijans or Dalits) did not correspond to…
Source December 30, 2015 (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) Plant-based diets stole the spotlight in 2015. Top advisors to the U.S. government voted for a vegan diet, a veggie burger was voted “best burger in the world,” and prominent figures from Miley Cyrus and Adele to the president of the American College of Cardiology sang the praises of plant-based diets.…