Source SINGAPORE, April 8, 2013 (Straits Times): About 10,000 worshippers thronged the Sri Vairavimada Kaliamman Temple on Sunday to bear witness to the consecration ceremony and receive blessings. The temple with a 150-year-old history has undergone a $2.5 million refurbishment and is now equipped with a new glass panel roof to shelter devotees plus other improvements to the entrance and…
Source UNITED STATES, April 4, 2013 (Harvard): The Maha Kumbh Mela, an eight-week Hindu festival held every 12 years in India and the largest human gathering on the planet, ended three weeks ago. Already, the tent city that had sprung up to accommodate millions of pilgrims is beginning to disappear from the sandy banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers,…
Source INDIA, September 2012, (Daily Mail): Hindu Worshippers take to roads of India clad in Saffron robes as they carry holy water from the Ganges to their home temple. The Kawarias, as we call them, carry metal canisters filled with holy Ganges water and take a ritual journey of the roads of India which can be hundreds of miles back…
Source LEICESTER, ENGLAND, March 30, 2013 (This Is Leicestershire): Up to 7,000 people are expected at the opening of a temple in the city centre today. The Shri Shirdi Sai Baba temple, at the grade II-listed Guild of Disabled building, in Colton Street, Leicester, is the second of its kind in the UK and follows the teachings of Sai Baba…
Source INDIA, April 4, 2013 (Times of India): Tirupati’s Lord Balaji continues to command a premium. Even the banks oblige the Lord of Seven Hills, said to be among the richest in the world, with higher returns for deposits. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, the trust that manages the money of the Venkateswara Temple, secured 130 basis points more returns than…
Press Release PARIS FRANCE, April 5, 2013 (Press Release): Vaithilingam Sanderasekaram, founder of the Sri Manicka Vinayaka Temple in Paris, passed away on April 1, 2013. He was 68 years old. Sandera (Chandra), as he was commonly known, was born in Sri Lanka in 1946. He arrived in France in 1975. In 1985, he founded a small Ganesha Temple in…
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.