Source GUADELOUPE, FRANCE-ANTILLES, January 12, 2013 (France Antilles): According to Fred Negrit, the festival of Pongal, a harvest festival, is celebrated in other places where there is an Indian diaspora (Reunion, Mauritius, etc.). The second day, the most important, is dedicated to the sun, which is offered rice cooked in milk. The third day is devoted to cows which are…
Source UNITED STATES, January 2, 2013 (Huffington Post, by Anju Bhargava): Having worked closely with President Obama’s administration from its early days, as a community builder, now I pause and reflect on the Obama impact to the Dharmic community. When I first got appointed, my community wondered about what government supported faith-based activities meant. We learn in America that faith…
Source WASHINGTON, D.C., January 16, 2013: The Hindu American Foundation’s Jay Kansari is looking for Hindu Americans going to the Kumbha Mela in early February. He’s been asked by CBS News Asia for some names of Hindus from the US for their reporters to meet and possibly interview at the Mela. If you are going and would like to help,…
Source PRAYAG, INDIA, January 10, 2013 (BBC, by Mark Tully): The Kumbha Mela is expected to be the biggest religious gathering of humanity in the world. In my long years in India I have seen many spectacles but none so remarkable as the two Maha or Great Kumbha Melas which I attended. I have seen vast crowds assemble but none…
Source We do not know the various kinds of saints, how they behave, what they do and eat, etc. We only know that by God’s grace they manifest themselves in this world to liberate the ignorant and bound souls.— Shirdi Sai Baba (1838-1915)
KAUAI, HAWAII, January 15, 2013: Hinduism Today’s reporting team, journalist Rajiv Malik and photographer Thomas Kelly, will arrive at the Kumbha Mela January 28th and stay through February 12th. We would appreciate suggestions of noted swamis and sadhus to meet and interview so that we may give an expanded coverage to this great event. There are hundreds of thousands of…
Source ALLAHABAD, INDIA, January 12, 2013 (India Times): For the beleaguered Kumbh Mela authorities drawing flak from virtually every quarter for mismanagement and insensitivity towards stakeholders, here’s some more bad news. Samajwadi Party national general secretary and member of Parliament from Allahabad Rewati Raman Singh has come down heavily on mela authorities for failing to keep participants in good humour…
Source LUCKNOW, INDIA, January 11, 2013 (Outlook India): Airlines, hotels, tour operators and Uttar Pradesh in general are likely to reap a windfall during the Maha Kumbha Mela in the state with the government likely to see its coffers swelling by US$2.2 billion, according to an industry body. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India’s paper — “Maha…
Source KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 13, 2013 (The Star): Malaysia’s Tamil Hindu community celebrates on Monday its best-loved festival, Pongal, the only festival which follows a solar calendar to mark the beginning of Uttarayana, the Sun’s movement northward for a six-month period. To usher in the harvest festival, the community is buying an assortment of colorfully-decorated clay pots, wooden ladles…
Source For seven lives in seven bodies the grateful will remember friends who relieved their anguish and affliction.— Saint Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, verse 107