INDIA, October 8, 2021 (Times of India): Navratri is one of the most prominent Hindu festivals in India, celebrated with much fervor and enthusiasm. During this time, ardent devotees observe a nine-day fast and visit revered Durga temples to offer their prayers to Maa Shakti (a form of Durga). This is also the time when prominent Shakti Peethas in the…
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA, October 6, 2021 (Deccan Chronicle): With the annual pilgrimage season in Sabarimala only a month away, the Kerala government on Wednesday said elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure a safe darshan for pilgrims in the wake of the Covid pandemic. All basic facilities for the pilgrimage, adhering to social distancing norms according to the government guidelines, are…
USA, October 8, 2021 (hinduamerican.org): Diwali is known as the “Festival of Lights” and is a Hindu holiday widely celebrated in India and across the Hindu Diaspora. The word Diwali derives from Sanskrit meaning “a row of lights” and clay lamps or diyas are lit to signify the destruction, through knowledge, of all negative qualities. In other words, Diwali celebrates…
UNITED STATES, October 6, 2021 (History News Network): For decades, Douglas Latchford cut a romantic figure: The genial Englishman was an explorer of jungle temples, a scholar and a connoisseur seduced by the exquisite details of ancient sculpture. Beginning in the 1970s, he amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of Khmer treasures, mostly Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, the…
KERALA, INDIA, October 3, 2021 (Aljazeera): Deftly parrying her son with a bamboo cane, Meenakshi Amma’s prowess at Kalari – thought to be India’s oldest martial art – belies her 78 years. The great-grandmother in Kerala, southern India, has been a driving force in the revival of Kalarippayattu – as the ancient practice is also known – and in encouraging…
UNITED STATES, April 13, 2015 (Outlook India, by Tony Joseph): If you have been following Indian mass media or social media in the last few months, you couldn’t have escaped the narrative being spun by some. It goes something like this: “Christianity is posing a growing and serious demographic threat to Hinduism by converting large numbers of Hindus through aggressive…
KAUAI, HAWAII, OCTOBER 2, 2021 (HPI): Hinduism Today’s latest issue has gone to press and is now available online free of charge at https://www.hinduismtoday.com/category/magazine/oct-nov-dec-2021/. You can also download our free Hinduism Today app and get the entire magazine in a mobile-friendly format for your device at https://www.bit.ly/HT-APP. Our publisher, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, takes us on an ascent through consciousness, climbing…
BENGALURU, INDIA, September 29, 2021 (The Hindu): The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday rejected a petition against anointment of a minor boy as the 31st seer of Udupi Shiroor Mutt while holding that there is no statutory or constitutional bar on a person aged below 18 being initiated into sanyasa. “The petition has not been able to make out…
CHENNAI, INDIA, September 30, 2021 (Times Now News): Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department has retrieved temple property in Chennai worth about $40.5 million, it was announced on Wednesday. The property, situated on Poonamalle high road, belongs to the Kancheepuram Ekambareswaram Temple, and is over an acre in extent. “We have recovered temple land worth $40.5 million from…
UNITED STATES, September 24, 2021 (RNS): When Vineet Chander accepted his job as the Hindu chaplain at Princeton University in 2008, his Hindu community was baffled by his profession. Their puzzlement was understandable: Chander, a former prosecutor, was not just the only full-time Hindu chaplain at any place of higher learning at the time; he was the first Hindu in…