SourceBALI, INDONESIA, March 2, 2004: Balinese New Year will commence this year on March 18 with an early morning purification ceremony performed by all the temples in Bali. Temple murthis (icons) are paraded in grand style by devotees to a nearby beach where the temple priests then perform a traditional puja to invoke the blessings of God Varuna. On March…
SourceKUMBAKONAM, INDIA, March 6, 2004: More than 500,000 people took a holy bath at the Mahamaham tank in Kumbakonam after Vedic pandits recited hymns praying for prosperity and peace to mark the auspicious Mahamaham day today. The Kanchi seers, Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi, as well as the Madurai Adheenam, were among those who took bath, along with the pandits…
Radio FijiSUVA, FIJI, March 7, 2004: The Brahmin Sabha of Fiji has lodged an official complaint with the Immigration Department on foreign palm readers in the country. Sabha President Vivekanand Sharma says, they suspect the palm readers are deliberately defrauding the public by playing on their insecurities. The organization says some palm readers have reportedly charging their clients hundreds of…
SourceWASHINGTON, D.C., February 29, 2004: This article in the Washington Post by Jana Long reads: “I had practiced yoga for more than 10 years before getting serious. What changed? For the first time, I had a black teacher who blended African music, mantra and meditation into the practice. The classes named ancient Egypt as the place where yoga originated and…
SourceLONDON, UNITED KINGDON, March 1, 2004: Leaders of the Hindu community in Britain are accusing the BBC of biased coverage of allegations made by Awaaz, a group of Muslim and Leftist organizations, that a Hindu charity had collected funds for the Gujarat earthquake and diverted them to extremist organizations. “Although Awaaz has not provided a single figure or fact, the…
SourceNOIDA, INDIA, March 3, 2004: Hundreds of students at a premier school in Noida on Wednesday took part in a special prayer ceremony to seek divine blessing ahead of their career-determining high school examinations, considered to be most crucial. Organized by a school in Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, the ritual was performed with full Hindu rites, as…
SourceMADURAI, INDIA, March 2, 2004: The ongoing work of installing silver kavacham (ornate covering of the Deity and sanctum) at the Velliambalam in the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple at a cost of around US$165,000 will be completed by the end of next month. The chairman of the renovation committee, Karumuttu T. Kannan, told reporters that 50 percent of the work to…
Kumudini MayurWASHINGTON, D.C., March 4, 2004: “I seldom recognized why I was here for the time passed like a second. My life was too fast as if it was a legend,” wrote Rashmi Mayur prophetically in “Poetry of Life,” his last collection of writings, which he wrote while he was recovering from a stroke in Mumbai, India. On February 10,…
SourceLONDON, ENGLAND, February 29, 2004: Indian youth has a new relationship with religion, according to this BBC report. Bachia Karkaria, The Times of India Associate Editor, writes about contemporary attitudes of faith and in particular Hinduism. God has a new incarnation in India–cool, user-friendly, results-oriented and upwardly mobile, says this article. Like the sitar, guru shirts and transcendental meditation in…
SourceEDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA: The Maha Ganapati temple in Edmonton, Canada has planned activities for the Alankaara Utsavam (2004 annual festival). Starting on Tuesday, June 16th, and culminating on Friday, June 25th, festivities are outlined at “source” above. Devotees can sponsor pujas, prepare and serve meals or offer abishekam milk in containers. Music on each day of the festival will be…