PARIS, FRANCE, February 6, 2011: Claims that there could currently be up to two million Christians in Nepal are considered exaggerated by several observers of the local religious scene. But the growth of Christianity is real, reports the news agency Eglises d’Asie. The figure of two million was quoted in the recently released 2010-11 edition of the Nepal Catholic Directory:…
NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 14, 2011: Can ancient mantras induce rains? Do Vedic chants impact the surrounding environment? A team of scientists will attempt to find out the answers when they descend on the ancient village of Panjal in Kerala to study the 3,100-year-old Vedic ritual called Athirathram to be held from April 4 to 14. The ritual to invoke…
Never do anything which you would not wish to do during the last hour of your life. Dada J.P. Vaswani Source
NEW YORK, February 1, 2011: (by Mark Bittman) For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest diet. We worried little about this diet’s effect on the environment or on the lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its sustainability. We’ve come to recognize that our diet is…
Source Anything is possible if a path can be perceived.
NEW YORK, February 4, 2011: In recent years, so-called ‘yoga for fertility’ classes have become increasingly popular. They are the latest in a succession of holistic approaches to fertility treatment. No study has proved that yoga has increased pregnancy rates in infertility patients. But students of yoga-for-fertility classes say that the coping skills they learn help reduce stress on and…
CRESTONE, COLORADO, January 31, 2011: Belinda Ellis’ farewell went as she wanted. One by one, her family placed juniper boughs and logs about her body, covered in red cloth atop a rectangular steel grate inside a brick-lined hearth. With a torch, her husband lit the fire that consumed her, sending billows of smoke into the blue-gray sky of dawn. The…
BALI, February 02, 2011: Dozens of people protested in front of Bali Police headquarters in Denpasar on Tuesday over what they said was the light jail sentence given to a man convicted of stealing hundreds of Hindu statues and murtis. Protesters from two Hindu groups, Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia and Sandhi Murti, gathered outside the headquarters with banners reading ‘Respect…
INDIA, January 21, 2011: Sheldon Pollock, a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Indian literary history, warned that in literary terms, India is on the verge of becoming a country as brand-new as America. He gave the keynote speech opening the Jaipur Literature Festival Friday morning. ‘It is now entirely legitimate to ask, if dismaying and disturbing, if within two generations…