BORN: Medicine Wheel, a silvery-white buffalo calf on a South Dakota, USA, ranch, May 9, 1996. Native American Indians regard the one-in-ten million birth as a good omen equivalent to weeping statues or Lord Ganesha's drinking milk. Medicine men say the white calf is a sign "to begin to mend life's sacred hoop."
DIVA TO DEVI: Virtuoso European opera singer Astrid Van Helden, initiated as Kaalikamaba Swami by Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda, recorded an audio-cassette of healing Sanskrit bhajans. She has dedicated her life and prodigious voice to healing people through song.
VINDICATED: The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Bruce Anderson, a vegetarian bus driver fired in June for refusing to hand out coupons for free hamburgers, was discriminated against by his California employer. He may return to his job as well as receive attorney's fees and back pay. Yea, dharma prevails.
LIBERATED: Swami Bhashyanandaji, 79, on October 4th, former head of the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, of heart failure after a long illness. He was born in India in 1917 and earned degrees in English and Sanskrit before joining the Ramakrishna Mission Order at age 20. He served in various capacities at Indian RK centers and was sent to the US in 1964. A dynamic religious leader, he was instrumental in developing the Chicago Society and the Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat in Ganges, Michigan, as well as founding many Vedanta groups in the US and Canada. We at Hinduism Today fondly remember his visits with us in Hawaii.