Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com JOHOR BARU, MALAYSIA, July 29, 2009: The Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman temple in Jalan Tebrau will not only be a boon to Hindu devotees but would also be a major tourist attraction. Built at the cost of 850,000 dollars, it is the first glass temple of its kind in the world, said temple chairman S.Sinnathamby. He said 95…
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com MUMBAI, INDIA, July 30, 2009: Over 300 children from various city schools attended the Young Environmentalists’ Eco Ganesha Workshop at Powai on Wednesday to make biodegradable murtis, that will be immersed in rivers during the next Ganesha Chaturthi festivities. Mayor Shubha Raul inaugurated the workshop. Speaking on green initiatives like these, she said, “I’m proud of the efforts…
Source: www.chron.com HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA, July 22, 2009: In the early 1990s, Hindus in Bhutan were banned from speaking their language and practicing their religion. This ethnic and religious persecution forced 100,000 to flee to Nepal, where they have lived in refugee camps for 19 years. A resettlement program started last year by the U.S. State Department is expected to…
Source: www.laprovincia.es CANARY ISLANDS, June 30, 2009: At the end of June, fifty members of the Hindu community of Spain’s Canary Islands ceremoniously handed over 7,000 kilos of food to the Catholic diocese of the Virgin del Pino, patroness of the Canary Islands, to be distributed to the needy. The country is mostly Catholic, and Hindus are willing to help…
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com INDIA, July 24, 2009: Modern science has substantiated the extraordinary healing power of turmeric. A team of scientists led by Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy , an IIT Kanpur alumnus and a professor of chemistry and biophysics at the University of Michigan, has deciphered the exact functioning of curcumin, a major ingredient of turmeric powder, in curing wounds, infections and other…
Source: news.bbc.co.uk INDIA, July 26, 2009: Environmental campaigner Bianca Jagger has called on the Church of England to rethink its investment policy. At issue is the Church’s $4.1m investment in a company which intends to mine a mountain in India that is considered sacred by the tribe that lives there. “I appeal to the Church of England to realize that…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Catholic philosopher, theologian
Source: www.nytimes.com MUMBAI, INDIA, July 20, 2009: Like many Indians who came of age in the 1980s, Samir Patil grew up on the comic books published by Amar Chitra Katha. Made up of Indian-style religious parables and biographies of historical figures, they taught him about the great, and lesser-known, stories of India in a didactic format meant for young audiences.…
Source: news.bbc.co.uk BALI, July 26, 2009: Balinese food is exquisite. It is a blessing to be shared with the Gods, and never taken for granted. All over the island, even on taxicab dashboards, one sees little woven baskets called banten jotan containing tiny colorful offerings of rice, fruit and flowers to the Gods. Ritual worship interwoven with daily life is…
Source: www.mywtxchatter.com MIDLAND, TEXAS, USA, July 26, 2009: “If your parents ever advised you to avoid conversations about religion and politics, well, I hope you didn’t listen to them” is what a witty advertisement for the My West Texas, a newspaper, says. Intent on engaging the diverse local community, it created a religion page on its website to ” give…