GO TO SOURCE JAMMU, INDIA, November 25, 2002 : The attack on the historic Raghunath Temple, which claimed many lives and left dozens others wounded, was for Jai Gopal Shastri, a pujari of this temple, an unforgettable experience. Shastri, who is lying in the disaster ward of the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, believes that it is his devotion…
GO TO SOURCE KOZHIKODE, INDIA, November 27, 2002: While attending the Ninth International Symposium on Vedic Astrology, namakarana samskaras, name-giving sacraments, were given to twelve foreign nationals on November 20 and 21. The new Hindus, ten Americans and two from the UK, were welcomed into the Hindu religion, which they believe preaches “total tolerance, peace and love.” The samskaras, performed…
GO TO SOURCE PATHANAMTHITTA, INDIA, November 29, 2002: The Kodiyettu ceremony, marking the beginning of the 10-day annual festival at the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, will be held at the Ayyappa Sannidhanam during the auspicious muhurthom between 9:41 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. The Tantri (head priest), Kantaru Mohanaru, had performed Bimbasuddhi, the preparatory rituals, on Thursday. The hoisting of the…
GO TO SOURCE JAMMU, INDIA, November 27, 2002: The Raghunath Temple, which had been closed after the latest terrorist attack, as been reopened to devotees following a purification ceremony. The ceremony started at 10 a.m. and continued until 2:30 p.m. Renowned pandits of Jammu, Bihari Lal, Mool Raj Shastri, Surinder Shastri and Kewal Krishan Shastri, performed the ceremony. A portion…
GO TO SOURCE JAMMU, INDIA, November 26, 2002: An already suffering tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir has been dealt a blow by Sunday’s temple attack that left 13 people dead. In the winter capital, Jammu, frightened tourists scrambled for tickets at the city’s railway station. Many of them had come to offer prayers at the Vaishno Devi shrine, and…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, November 26, 2002: Armed police have been deployed at all major temples in Tamil Nadu in the wake of last Sunday’s terrorist attack in the Raghunath Temple in Jammu. Armed guards frisked devotees entering the Lord Kapaleewswar temple and the Lord Parthasarathy temple, among others, in Chennai. Security was also tightened at temples and major…
Source: NDTV.com JAMMU, INDIA, November 26, 2002: Having survived two attacks this year, the 200-year-old Raghunath Temple stands out as an example of resilience in the heart of Jammu. Though the temple itself will be reopened to the public tomorrow, the situation in the city is still unstable. A curfew imposed in Jammu in the aftermath of the attack has…
Source: New Straits Times Berhad KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, November 19, 2002: Some of the world’s leading thinkers on globalization, philosophers and interfaith communicators came together at a conference in Genting Highlands, November 25 to 27. Participants in the three-day meeting, entitled “The Challenge of Globalization: Towards a Shared Universal Spiritual and Moral Ethic,” included former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, Indian…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 24, 2002: Temples in the New Delhi area have been put on high alert after terrorists stormed into the Raghunath Temple in Jammu on Sunday evening. Security at all religious places and important government installations across the nation has been stepped up and is especially tight around 50 or so major temples in…
GO TO SOURCE ATTAPADI, INDIA, November 22, 2002: Mudda Moopan doesn’t know how old he is — not that he cares. What he does know is that he has married 23 times, fathered too many children to remember, has had the distinction of meeting both the first President of India and the latest, and that he still feels young. Mudda…