Source PHOENIX, ARIZONA, July 1, 2011: Paula Slamowitz just wanted Mexican food when she walked into her new neighborhood restaurant, Filibertos. “I was shocked,” she tells CBS 5 news, when she saw a red swastika symbol painted above the front door. She was immediately offended by what it stood for, to her. “Nazi-ism, Germany, Skinheads.” The owner is Hindu, and…
Source INDIA, July 2, 2011: More than 7,000 Pakistani nationals living in India, even after their visas expired, seeking permanent residency will be able to get Indian citizenship. Avinash Rai Khanna, the Union home secretary has said that those Pakistani nationals living in India, who have not been able to procure renunciation certificates from their country – which were earlier…
Source INDIA, May 20, 2011 (RNL): For centuries devadasis played a special role in Hindu temples rituals in India, but since being banned in 1947, much of their history and art have been forgotten. Devadasi (“Servant of God”) is an old Hindu tradition in which girls were ‘married’ and dedicated to a God or to a temple. The tradition includes…
Source PURI, ORISSA, July 4, 2011 (Indo-Asian News Service): Tens of thousands flocked to Orissa’s Jagannath Temple in Puri as the annual chariot festival or Rath Yatra began on Sunday. All the rituals have began almost on scheduled time, Laxmidhar Pujapanda, the public relations officer of Jagannath Temple, said. The festival marks the journey of three Hindu Deities – Jagannath,…
During the past 10 years, the Asian population — which includes Indians — increased by 150 percent in Lee County and 124 percent in Collier County, according to the 2010 census. There are an estimated 1,000 Hindu families in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. For years, Indians worshiped at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Fort Myers, but their goal was…
Source CHENNAI, INDIA, June 14, 2011 (Times of India): Epigraphists have recently unearthed a stack of engraved copper plates which show that emperor Rajadhiraja Chola I ensured that his successor and younger brother Rajadhiraja Chola II made donations he had pledged. “The famous king was a man who kept his word,” said R. Sivanandan, chief epigraphist, state archaeological department, who…
Source Try to treat with equal love all the people with whom you have relations. Thus the abyss between ‘myself’ and ‘yourself’ will be filled in, which is the goal of all religious worship.— Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), God-intoxicated yogini and mystic Bengali saint.
Source KOLKATA, INDIA, July 2, 2011: Expectations are high in India for millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath. This Sunday the entire nation gets involved in dragging Lord Jagannath’s rath (chariot) symbolizing the journey of the Deity from his temple to the garden palace in the countryside. Three beautifully decorated chariots which resemble temple structures are pulled through the streets…
Source LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, June 12, 2011 (Courier Journal): Several hundred worshippers, many in colorful saris and other traditional clothing of India, attended the biggest ceremony held at the Hindu Temple of Kentucky since its opening in 1999 in northeast Jefferson County on about 20 acres of donated land. Amid a cacophonous sounding of bells and conchs, the burning of incense…