Source: www.hinduismtoday.com KAPAA, HI, USA, July 29, 2010: [HPI note: Over the next weeks, HPI will bring to you some highlights of the latest issue of Hinduism Today.] The newars are the indigenous people of Nepal’s Kathmandu valley. Most are Hindus. Their rites of passage are central to their strong social and religious traditions. These ceremonies express and celebrate the…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com Children, love can accomplish anything and everything. Love can cure diseases. Love can heal wounded hearts and transform human minds. Mata Amritanandamayi Ma, or Ammachi, founder of many social, educational and medical charities
Source: www.ddinews.gov.in PURI, INDIA, July 18, 2010: Millions of devotees from across the country and abroad thronged this pilgrim town when Lord Jagannath set off on his annual sojourn to his aunt’s house accompanied by elder brother Lord Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra on three majestic wooden chariots. Special rituals like Mangla arati and Mailam were held before the Deities…
Source: www.zeenews.com COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, July 21, 2010: More than 500 Hindu temples in Sri Lanka were damaged during the war. Voicing the demand to renovate the temples, S. Yogeshwaran said in the country’s Parliament that more than 500 Hindu Kovils (temples) need to be reconstructed. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Prime Minister D. M. Jayarathne said foreign aid will also be…
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com MOSCOW, RUSSIA, July 21, 2010: Indologist Viktoria Lyssenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recently lecturing at Kashmir University, related that Indic Studies in Russia are flourishing. Thanks to the initiatives of Prof Marietta Stepanyants, the author of the first textbook on Eastern philosophies, and the Indian embassy in Moscow, a unique chair of Indian Philosophy named after…
Source: www.punjabkesari.com DEHRADUN, INDIA, July 21, 2010: Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), which overlooks the maintenance of the two temples, has scrapped the provisions of special VIP puja inside the centuries-old shrines, officials said Saturday. “Now VIPs would also have to stand in queues for having darshans of both Badrinath and Kedarnath temples,” Anusuiya Prasad Bhatt, chairman of the BKTC,…
Source: sify.com INDIA, July 17, 2010: A controversy has broken out in Kerala’s famed Sabarimala temple over a court suggestion to consider widening of the temple’s 18 holy steps as well as the door to the sanctum sanctorum to allow pilgrims easier access. The head priest of the temple and a vastu expert, among others, have opposed any attempt to…
Source: www.sundaytimes.lk SRI LANKA, July 2010: Western attire has been outlawed for this year’s Nallur Festival in the Jaffna Peninsula and pilgrims have been told that only the traditional sari or long skirt and full blouse for women and the verti for men will be allowed. Even the popular churidar (Salvars) worn by women have been banned. Jaffna Mayor and…
Source: www.derwesten.de GERMANY, June 14, 2010: The inaugural celebration for the renovation of the Hindu temple at the Robert-Koch-Strasse is in full swing. Anyone who accepted followed the friendly invitation removed their shoes and entered the long, single-story building to have a look at another world. A new statue of the Goddess Durga, the wife of Shiva, was set up…
Source: www.bbc.co.uk The amount of phytoplankton – tiny marine plants – in the top layers of the oceans has declined markedly over the last century, research suggests. Writing in the journal Nature, scientists say the decline appears to be linked to rising water temperatures. The final tally included 445,237 data points spanning the period 1899-2008. “This study took three years,…