Source INDIA, December 3, 2013 (Niti Central): (HPI Note: Niti Central is not exactly an “unbaised party” in reporting on this issue, but their article is quite comprehensive.) On Wednesday, December 4, the Supreme Court will decide the much sought return of the sacred Nataraj temple at Chidambaram to its traditional custodians, the Podu Dikshitars. The Chidambaram temple, where Shiva…
Source Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with wool to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.— Sri Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950), South Indian mystic
Source CHENNAI, INDIA, December 6, 2013 (rsschennai.blogspot): HPI note: This is a very long article on the unusual appearance of a full-fledged college for Muslim women in the famed Hindu pilgrimage destination of Tirupati. A news item appeared in the newspapers regarding the construction of a big complex of 7 stories near Thondavada village about 7 miles from Tirupati in…
Source AUSTRALIA, November 16, 2013 (The Australian): HPI Note: This article follows on the one yesterday about the sale of a stolen Siva Nataraj to an Australian museum. Only now is the scale of the smuggling of stolen treasures from India becoming apparent. A little more than two years ago, in August 2011, a small, delicate Madonna and child ivory…
Source You may develop a thousand virtues and be reckoned as the greatest in the land. But the lotus of your heart will not blossom until you receive the grace of the Guru, the grace of God!— Dada Sadhu Vaswani
Source LUCKNOW, INDIA, December 4, 2013 (Deccan Herald): Varanasi-based famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple management will distribute hundreds of thousands of liters of milk offered to Lord Shiva among patients and other needy people. A temple official said the offered milk will be distributed among women, patients at mental hospital and prisoners. “Lakhs of litres of milk is offered to Lord…
Source AUSTRALIA, December 6, 2013 (The Australian): The National Gallery of Australia will launch legal proceedings against disgraced art dealer Subhash Kapoor after it was confirmed yesterday the gallery’s prized 900-year-old dancing Shiva was stolen from India.The $5 million bronze, which last night was still on display at the entry to the gallery’s Indian Gallery, was the first item cited…
Source ALLAHABAD, INDIA, December 3, 2013 (Indian Express): A red sandalwood rosary, which is said to have been given to Sant Kabir in the 15th century by his guru, has gone missing from the sanctum of Kabir Ashram in the Chetganj area of Varanasi. A monk and two of his accomplices, said to be hailing from Thailand and regular visitors…
Source In thinking ‘This is I’ and ‘That is mine’ one binds himself with himself, as does a bird with a snare.— Krishna Yajur Veda, Maitreya Upanishad 3.2
Source LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS, December 4, 2013 (brill.com): The five-volume Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism -with first volume published in 2009 and to be completed in 2013 with Vol. 5- is a thematic encyclopedia, presenting the latest research on all the main aspects of the Hindu traditions in original essays written by the world’s foremost scholars on Hinduism. The Encyclopedia explicitly…