Source INDIA, December 21, 2012 (New York Times): The rutted road, part paved, part dirt, was a border between two worlds. To the left, a patchwork of villages, farms and fields covered the fertile plains between the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers. To the right rose the rugged, forested wilderness of the Shivalik Hills. Dehradun, the bustling capital of the northern…
Source CHINO HILLS, CALIFORNIA, December 23, 2012 (baps.org): After six years of unflinching dedication and thousands of hours of volunteer work, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, in Chino Hills, California stood glistening under the sun as the much anticipated inauguration ceremony started on the morning of December 23, 2012. Sadguru Pujya Kothari Swami (Pujya Bhaktipriya Swami) performed the consecration ceremony…
Source By constantly repeating, “I am free, I am free,” a man verily becomes free. On the other hand, by constantly repeating, “I am bound, I am bound,” he certainly becomes bound. The fool who says only, “I am a sinner, I am a sinner,” verily drowns himself in worldliness. One should rather say: “I praise the name of God.…
Source USA, December 18, 2012 (Washington Post): An extraordinary photo of Mount Everest has been produced by David Breashears. He has already climbed the highest mountain in the world five times. He used old images of Everest and its glaciers and combined them with new ones. The photo is part of a broader project called GlacierWorks by the mountaineer Breashears,…
Source CALIFORNIA, U.S., December 23, 2012 (Himalayan Academy): On the weekend of December 22-23, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, Publisher of Hinduism Today, and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami attended the inauguration of the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills, near Los Angeles, California. Saturday they toured the mandir and conducted a series of interviews for an article in Hinduism Today about the temple,…
Source Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the heart.— Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), South Indian mystic
Source December 18, 2012 (ndtv.com): (HPI note: This report is on the same study cited above, but with a different focus.) People with no religious affiliation make up the third-largest global group in a new study of the size of the world’s faiths, placing after Christians and Muslims and just before Hindus. The study, based on extensive data for the…
Source WASHINGTON, U.S., December 19, 2012 (Deccan Herald): Hinduism is the third largest religion of the world after Christianity and Islam and 97 per cent of all Hindus live in three Hindu-majority countries – India, Nepal and Mauritius, according to a study. Pew demographic study – based on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers – finds…
Source INDIA, December 2012 (The Hindu): The Supreme Court has issued notice to the States of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Puducherry on a writ petition filed by Sri Dayananda Saraswati Swamiji, Sri Paramatmananda Saraswati Swamiji and Sri Vishweswaranand Giriraj Maharaj, challenging the Hindu Religious and Endowments Acts of the respective governments. A Bench of…
Source The mystery is no mystery to the mystic.— Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001), founder of Hinduism Today