Source: HPI KAUAI, HAWAII, August 26, 2010: Raimon Panikkar embodied endless contradictions, though he saw none. He was a devout Christian, who said he had become a Hindu and later a Buddhist. He was a Roman Catholic priest who used zealous reason to pursue the unfathomable mysteries of faith. He married at age 70, but continued to think of himself…
Source: www.monstersandcritics.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 3, 2010: An Australian woman had her last wishes fulfilled when a clerk in the northern Indian state of Haryana travelled hundreds of miles to scatter her ashes in the Ganges River. Jill Villers was born in 1945 in Lahore, a city in pre-partition India which now lies in Pakistan. She passed away at…
Source: expressbuzz.com BANGALORE, INDIA, August 5, 2010: The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board on Thursday called on Bangaloreans to celebrate Ganesha festival in an eco-friendly way. Tupil Venkatesh, an environmental consultant, said there was a need for 12 million Ganesha statues for the 60 million population in the state. “An average murti weighs about 4.4 lbs. and contains around 7…
Source: www.nbcmontana.com MONTANA, U.S., August 19, 2010: The 14 crosses erected along Utah roads to commemorate fallen state Highway Patrol troopers convey a state preference for Christianity and are a violation of the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. The ruling reverses a 2007 decision by a federal district judge that said the crosses communicate a secular message…
Source: Religion News Service WASHINGTON, August 2010: When the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 12-foot crosses erected to honor fallen Utah state troopers violate the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government endorsement of religion, it said “We hold that these memorials have the impermissible effect of conveying to the reasonable observer the message that the state…
Source: pakistannewsblog.com KARACHI, PAKISTAN, August 22, 2010: Divinity triumphed over disaster, claimed the people of Ghouspur after seeing what they called a miracle. One temple and one mosque were completely unaffected amid the ravaging flood that hit Ghouspur. The town in Kashmore district is completely submerged. However, local residents report that floodwater could not reach the Hindu temple and the…
Source: www.malaysianmirror.com KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, August 22, 2010: The Sri Maha Mariamman temple, the oldest functioning Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, has been given the honor of being the first ever temple portrayed on a postage stamp. The stamp was launched Saturday by MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu to commemorate the temple’s sixth consecration ceremony to be held tomorrow.…
Source: www.hindustantimes.com INDIA, August 22, 2010: A new website set up by the Common-wealth Games Travel Office, incredibleairindiapackages.org, provides social cues to foreigners planning to visit India during the Games. A kiss on the cheek while greeting a female acquaintance is “just not done” when you are in India. Tourists should, however, discuss politics. Most Indians love to talk politics…
Source: www.bakersfield.com USA, August 20, 2010 (by Stafford Betty, professor of religious studies at Cal State Bakersfield): A recent poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that 28 percent of American Catholic adults believe in reincarnation. Why have so many adopted the belief? What attracts them to it? In the course of teaching Asian religions…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com O God of mercy who performs the dance of illimitable happiness in the hall of inconceivable intelligence! The Rig and the other Vedas are thundering forth in words, announcing to us that all are thy slaves, all things belong to thee, all actions are thine, that thou pervades everywhere, that this is thy nature. Such is the teaching…