Source FIJI, July 20, 2015 (Fiji Times): The local Gujarati communities are renowned for their commercial success and as published accounts relate, their origins in Fiji could be traced to Porbander in India. Located on the Kathiawar peninsula, the coastal town is more famously known as the birth place of Indian activist and spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi. In a closer-to-home…
Source Hyderabad, INDIA, August 5, 2015 (Deccan Chronicle): Political backing for the expansion of religious structures on the city’s roads and pavements has become a major headache for the police department. Extensions of existing structures like dargahs (Islamic tomb), temples, chilla (Sufi), jhanda (Sikh) etc. might snowball into a law and order issue, but can be curbed if the problem…
Source After death, the soul goes to the next world bearing in mind the subtle impressions of its deeds, and after reaping their harvest returns again to this world of action. Thus, he who has desires continues subject to rebirth.— Shukla Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.6
Source NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 3, 2015 (Daily Pioneer): India has once again successfully protected its traditional knowledge by preventing an attempt by Europe’s Pangaea Laboratories to take a patent on a medicinal composition containing turmeric, pine bark, and green tea for treating hair loss. A senior official from the Union Science and Technology Ministry said that the Traditional Knowledge…
Source NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 2, 2015 (Hindustan Times by Saaz Aggarwal): Punta Arenas, Chile, is one of the southern-most cities in the world. There was a time when every ship crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Straits of Magellan or around Cabo de Hornos (Cape Horn) halted there. I first saw the name Punta Arenas on…
Source INDIA, August 2, 2015 (New Indian Express by Anuja Chandramouli): Having successfully completed a quintet of books skilfully chronicling the rise and fall of the Moghul Empire, Alex Rutherford is back with Traitors in the Shadows, which examines the reign of Aurangzeb, one of the most contradictory and vilified figures in Indian history. Rutherford is on familiar terrain and…
Source UNITED STATES, July 26, 2015 (Economic Times): If you read between the lines of the vandalized signboard in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, you’ll see more than just 60 shotgun pellet holes perforating the blue sans serif lettering that reads ‘Hindu Temple’. The punctures, though ominous, do little to threaten the place of the Hindu temple – in Forsyth County, or…
Source Life is meant for God-realization. If you die without attaining God-realization, your life is in vain. Even having one hundred gurus will not help, unless the disciple has a great desire for liberation and tries to get rid of all that stands in the way.— Swami Chidananda (1916-2008), President of Divine Life Society
Source O Lord of power, if I were the Lord of herds of cattle, then I would have given to those intelligent worshippers plenty, as much as I could. — Rig Veda 8.14.2
Source NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 30, 2015 (msn): While the sun is setting at the Swaminarayan Akshardam, take your seat on the ancient stepwell to experience the age old truth as the stepwell transforms into the courtyard of the heavens. The courtyard watershow features melodious music, colors, dancing fountains, lasers and more. See the nice short video at ‘source’ above.