INDIA, April 5, 2013 (Wall Street Journal): Sunita Williams addressed students at the Science City in Kolkata, April 2, 2013. Ms. Williams, who is on a weeklong trip to India, has also held talks at the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai and the National Science Centre in New Delhi. A pendant of Lord Ganesha, a copy of Hinduism’s holy book,…
Source RAJKOT, INDIA, March 31, 2013 (Times of India): As you reach near the entrance of the ashram of revered saint Bajarangdas Bapa in Bagdana town of Bhavnagar district, you will find a notice board which says that “those wearing half pants, night dress, gowns which are indecent in nature, should not enter into the Ashram.” The religious place is…
BALI, INDONESIA, April 6, 2013 (The Jakarta Post): Balinese Hindus will flock to temples throughout the island as they observe Kuningan on Saturday. Kuningan Day is the end of a series of ceremonies to celebrate the victory of Dharma (goodness) over Adharma (evil) that begins with Galungan on March 27. Galungan and Kuningan are observed every 210 days, or every…
Source INDIA, April 2013 (youtube): The oral tradition of the Vedas consists of several pathas (recitations) or ways of chanting the Vedic mantras. Unesco proclaimed the tradition of Vedic chant a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. To view a nice short video on Vedic chanting by UNESCO click source above.
Source INDIA, March 31,2013 (Hindustan Times): An astrologer and social activist has turned the religious practice of offering water and milk in temples into a unique way of water conservation. Pandit Purushotam Gaur, known as Guruji, has developed water harvesting infrastructure in more than 300 temples in Rajasthan over the past 13 years. Gaur is harvesting the millions of gallons…
Source WARSAW, January 14, 2013 (Hindustan Times): The Ramayana, the great Indian epic, is now available in the Polish language, courtesy of Janusz Krzyzowski, an Indologist in Poland who has translated the monumental work. Though a few episodes of Ramayana were translated into Polish in 1816, these were mere translations of Western writers. Krzyzowski collected the material from dozens of…
Source BANGLADESH, April 3, 2013 (The Daily Star, Dhaka): Miscreants torched a Hindu temple after vandalism of its three idols of God and Goddess in Morelganj upazila of Bagerhat early Wednesday. Unidentified criminals broke into the Sarbojanin Durga Temple at Herma Bazar of Teligati union in the upazila anytime after midnight and wrecked the idols of Hindu God “Ganesh” and,…
Source Out of purity and silence come words of power.— Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of Chinmaya Mission
Source I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Source MASSACHUCETTS, USA, April 4, 2013 (archinect.com, by Rahul Mehrotra): HPI Note: This is a report given April 1 at Harvard’s South Asia Institute entitled “Kumbha Mela, Mapping the Ephemeral City.” The project specifically did not include any religious aspects of the Mela. The introduction reads: The research analyzes this ephemeral city from different perspectives. Being the biggest public gathering…