Source SRINAGAR, July 3, 2015 (Daily Pioneer): The annual Amarnath pilgrimage began in Kashmir Valley on Thursday morning amid tight security as 6,300 pilgrims began trekking to the holy cave ensconced in mountains of South Kashmir at a height of 12,800 feet above sea level. The yatra began from both the treacherous but shorter Baltal route and the longest traditional…
Source There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one’s mind and one’s subtle body rest upon that and not rest on anything else.— Maitri Upanishad
Source INDIA, June 30, 2015 (by Missionary International Service News Agency): The Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM) accuses the Vatican and the Indian Catholic Church leadership of caste-based discrimination “by way of allowing it directly and indirectly in their spiritual, educational and administrative places”. “We have submitted seven copies of the complaint to Rajeev Chandran, assistant director of the UN…
Source RUSSIA, June 30, 2015 (Times Of India): Close on the heels of India leading worldwide International Yoga Day celebrations, yoga classes have been banned in a central Russian city by the authorities to check spread of “religious occultism.” At the center of the crackdown are two studios holding classes for Hatha Yoga — a set of asanas or postures…
Source SRI LANKA, June 30, 2015 (France-Presse): Shunned, destitute and pushed into prostitution in some cases, Sri Lanka’s Tamil widows have returned to northern Jaffna since the end of the separatist war only to discover they are not welcome even in their homeland. Now, six years after the war ended, the women who fled the fighting on the peninsula in…
Source JAMMU, INDIA June 30, 2015 (India TV News): Amid tight security arrangements, the annual Amarnath yatra will begin from Jammu as the first batch of over 5,000 pilgrims will leave for 3,888-metre high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas. The yatra will be escorted by heavy contingent of security forces to twin base-camps of Amarnath cave shrine in Baltal…
Source When I think of myself as a body, I am your servant, my Lord; when I think of myself as an individual soul, I am part of you; but when I realize I am atman, you and I become one.— Lord Hanuman in the epic Ramayana
Source INDIA, June 21, 2015 (Swarajya by Dr. Kanniks Kannikeswaran): It is an indisputable fact that everyday practice of yoga brings immense benefits. The International Yoga Day celebrations is just an attempt to underscore this fact and bring awareness to this priceless heritage that we all share. Yoga is undoubtedly one of India’s greatest gifts to the world and is…
Source TAIWAN, June 29, 2015 (Straits Times): HPI note: The use of thrown colored powder–traditionally part of the Hindu festival of Holi–has gained a following elsewhere in the world, not as part of a religious event, but as one more feature of small or large parties. During Holi, the colored and potentially flammable cornstarch powder is tossed randomly, and posses…
Source He who befriends a man whose conduct is vicious, whose vision impure, and who is notoriously crooked, is rapidly ruined.— Chanakya (350-275 bce), Indian politician, strategist and writer