Source INDIA, May 8, 2012: The Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that only the post independence records of permanent nature recently received from various Ministries/Departments etc. need immediate attention for their preservation. National Archives of India (NAI) has employed 45 preservation professionals for preservation of such records. In a written reply in…
Source INDIA, May 15, 2012 (The Hindu): A statue was installed in honor of Chitra Tirunal, in Chennai, for enabling temple access to all Hindus. Chitra Tirunal Bala Rama Varma was the last ruler of Travancore. He became ruler at the age of 12, his aunt Setu Lakshmi Bayi serving as the regent. In 1930, he became ‘maharajah’ in his…
Source SABARIMALA, INDIA, May 14, 2012 (The Hindu): The Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala opened on Monday afternoon for the five-day monthly rituals in the Malayalam month of Edavom that begins on Tuesday. The head priest, N.Balamurali, opened the sanctum sanctorum amidst loud chants by the scores of Ayyappa devotees who were camping at the holy hillock, awaiting the opening…
Source If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.— French scholar Romain Rolland
Religion News Service WASHINGTON, MAY 2012 (RNS): One of the biggest growth areas in political activism around religion is coming from an unlikely source: the nonreligious. The Secular Coalition for America, an umbrella organization that represents 11 nontheistic groups including American Atheists and the American Humanist Association, is looking to take its secular-based activism out of the nation’s capital and…
Source INDIA, April 28, 2012 (India Today): The Indian system is fair and best in the world when it comes to acknowledging the contribution of women, India’s top diplomat to the U.S. has said. This is amply demonstrated in the very fact she being a women rose to be the highest position in Indian diplomacy, Indian Ambassador to the U.S.…
Source KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA, May 6, 2012 (The Borneo Post): Two Indian temples and three organisations received a shot-in-the-arm following the distribution of RM200,000 (US$65,000) allocation from the state government, yesterday. Presented by the Sabah Malaysian Indian Congress chairman Datuk V. Jothi, the allocation, he added, is part of the party’s continuous effort in championing the cause and interest of…
Source INDIA, May 8, 2012 (pib.nic.in): The Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Ministry of Culture has entered into an agreement with the University of Chicago, USA for establishing “The Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Chair.” In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, the Chair will commemorate…
Source The end of ego is the mystic death of the meditator.— Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of the Chinmaya Mission
Source HYDERABAD, INDIA, MAY 2, 2012 (India Today): SR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s religious slant once again sparked a big controversy on Wednesday when he entered the famous Hindu temple of Lord Venkateshwara in Tirumala without signing the mandatory declaration about his faith in the Deity. Jagan, a Christian, along with his 60 followers, including former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams…