Source AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, June 11, 2015 (New Zealand Herald): Investigations have begun after Auckland Council upset the Hindu community by trying to hold the Auckland Diwali celebrations a month before the actual religious festival. Diwali, the Hindu festival celebrating victory of light over darkness, falls on November 11 this year. Traditionally, devotees observe Navratri, or nine nights of prayer…
Source INDIA, June 10, 2015 (Business Standard): Renowned spiritual leader Sadguru Kandukuru Sivananda Murthy died today at his Warangal residence after being indisposed for over a month. He was 87. The end came in the wee hours around 1.55 am at his home Gurudham in Warangal, where he was shifted to recently from his ashram in Bheemunipatnam in Visakhapatnam district.…
Source NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 5, 2015 (Indian Express): The government appears determined to ensure that its showpiece event in New Delhi this month — to mark the inaugural International Day of Yoga — makes it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest such session at a single venue. And so, the target: apart from the 40,000…
Source Devotion must not be like the flood of the rainy season in which all get washed away. Devotion should be like the river that retains water even in the hottest season. — Saint Kabir (1440-1518)
Source UNITED STATES, June 6, 2015 (Washington Post): Inside the newly opened Meditation Museum in Silver Spring, exhibits refer to the pursuit of “God,” the “Supreme Soul” and often “The One.” A constant visual theme is orangeish-reddish light emanating from a vague, otherworldly source. The message is clear: Meditation is about connecting with the divine. Yet in gyms, businesses and…
Source HYDERABAD, June 9, 2015 ( Deccan Chronicle): Priests and temple staff called off their three-day-old strike after the government agreed to increase their salaries. The government will hike the grant to each temple from Rs 2,500 per month to Rs 6,000, of which Rs 4,500 would be paid to priests and Rs 1,500 to conduct basic rituals. Endowments minister…
Source If you long to see God, take to spiritual practices. What is the good of merely crying, “O God! O God!”?— Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886)
Source INDIA, June 2, 2015 (by Anirvan Chatterjee, India currents): In January 28, 1900, Swami Vivekananda looked out at the white audience at the Universalist Church in Pasadena, California, and spoke out against anti-Black racism. “As soon as a man becomes a Mohammedan, the whole of Islam receives him as a brother with open arms, without making any distinction, which…
Source RAJKOT, INDIA, June 3, 2015 (Times of India): Now non-Hindus will have to take permission from THE office of general manager of Shree Somnath Trust before entering into Somnath Temple for darshan. It has been made mandatory to all non-Hindu pilgrims. Shree Somnath Trust, which manages the ancient Somnath temple, put up a prominent notice board at the temple…
Source HYDERABAD, INDIA, June 5, 2015 (Deccan Chronicle): Archakas and temple staff in several temples, under the banner of the Telangana State Archaka Sangam, went on an indefinite strike across the state on Thursday demanding the government treat them at par with government employees and pay salaries besides other perks. However, archakas and staff of some of the major temples…