DUBAI, March 13, 2011: People queue in tens of thousands each week to pray at the Hindu Temple in Bur Dubai’s Old Souk. They must pass through an alleyway so narrow, one could almost put a hand on either wall. Once inside they have to proceed quickly through their rites, supervised by hired security guards. There is no time –…
BANGALORE, INDIA, March 17, 2011: Taking healthcare to the masses will be India’s biggest challenge in the next two decades, and the ancient medicinal system of ayurveda is the only reliable way of doing so, Sam Pitroda, adviser to the PM, said. ‘We can’t adopt the western model to deliver that to the masses,’ he said at the inauguration of…
KATMANDU, NEPAL, March 2011: An official says a fire has swept through a refugee camp housing Bhutanese refugees in east Nepal. There are no immediate reports of casualties. Chief government administrator in the area Shahi Shekhar Shrestha says authorities are investigating the cause of Tuesday’s fire that destroyed 600 of the 750 huts and left thousands without a roof. The…
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA, March 22, 2011: Prakashanand Saraswati, founder of Barsana Dham, was convicted of 20 counts of indecency with a child, sentenced to 14 years in prison on each count and also fined $200,000. He has not been seen ever since the day when he was expected to attend court to hear the verdict, delivered in absentia. The missing…
The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage. Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves but are like the haze of heat. — Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (563-483bce) Source
USA, March 21, 2011 (RNS): Air travelers want to feel safe, and federal security officials want to make sure they actually are safe. If only it were that simple. Misunderstandings over religious expression have led to recent incidents that prompted apologies from airlines. When does a prayer, a garment, or religious paraphernalia constitute a threat? ‘We are sensitive to travelers’…
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, March 21, 2011 (RNS): The White House is hoping to recruit America’s college and seminary students in a nationwide interfaith service campaign that was launched Thursday (March 17). In the next month, the Obama administration will solicit plans submitted by colleges, universities, seminaries and rabbinical schools for year-long community service projects such as food drives, house building…
UNITED STATES, March 10, 2011: (by Charles Desnoyers) From the time we human beings began to develop a sense of the sacred, mountains have played a central role in our religious experience. Colin Thubron’s latest work, To a Mountain in Tibet, takes us to perhaps the world’s highest pilgrimage site as well as its most popular, sacred to one fifth…
It is easy to play with a cobra. It is easy to walk over the fire. It is easy to uproot the Himalayas. But it is difficult to eradicate lust. — Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj, founder of the Divine Life Society in India Source
[HPI note: The link for this announcement yesterday was incorrect. Please here to see the correct travel schedule for Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.] KAPAA, HAWAII, March 22, 2011: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, guru mahasannidhanam of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery and publisher of Hinduism Today, is frequently invited to speak at temples and satsangs throughout the US. He will be making a tour of…