Source: Press Reports KOLLAM, INDIA, December 17, 2002: At an age when most children play house, five school children in Kollam have built a temple and even manage its day-to-day affairs entirely on their own. In a profession where geriatrics rule, the head priest is a 14-year-old and the manager is all of 13. Initially, the people of Kollam shooed…
Source: The Richmond Times-Dispatch RICHMOND, USA, December 10, 2002: Seven-year-old Alana Amrose stood entranced, looking at the fruits, animals, faces, symbols and writing of the Hindu calendar — a Nakara Chaturdasi. She glowed with excitement at the Children’s Museum of Richmond’s “Our Community, One World in Celebration” exhibit featuring six miniature houses decorated with symbols of holidays observed around the…
GO TO SOURCE UNITED STATES, December 21, 2002: The following letter appeared in “Dear Abby,” a syndicated column published in hundreds of U.S. newspapers: “Dear Abby, I am a Hindu woman living in the ‘Bible Belt’ [southern USA]. Many of my friends and acquaintances are Christian, and they are all wonderful — except for one thing. Some try in small,…
GO TO SOURCE NASIK, INDIA, December 22, 2002: The dates for “Shahi Snan” (royal bath) during the Kumbha Mela of 2003, to be held at Trimbakeshwar, will take place on August 12. The auspicious dates for the second and third bathing will be August 27 and September 7 respectively, Swami Sagaranand and Mahant Govindananda Bramhachari announced. An estimated 1.1 million…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 24, 2002: A recent New York Times article describes Hindus in India taking to the Christian holiday of Christmas. While devout Hindus never start their day without lighting at least an incense stick and offering prayers to their chosen Hindu deity, come December many begin planning for Christmas. “It doesn’t matter if I’m…
GO TO SOURCE KERALA, INDIA, December 11, 2002: Mini Thapar, who studied yoga at Kerala’s Sivananda Ashram, has teamed up with TV actress, Nisha Singh, to develop a creative way of teaching both hatha and ashtanga yoga to young children. Thapar says, “Children have to be taught in a fun way, with stories interlaced and by presenting the experience as…
GO TO SOURCE WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., December 7, 2002: After three years spent reviewing more than 400 published studies on alternative treatments for cancer, Wendy A. Weiger and her colleagues at Harvard’s Osher Institute have published their conclusions in the December 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The article says, “Only one form of treatment — so called…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 14, 2002: Of the three great Indian obsessions, politics, cricket and marriage, the third comes first. Of the three great rituals that mark our lives — birth, marriage and death — marriage is the biggest and grandest of all. The poorest father will mortgage his house and drown himself in debt to provide…
GO TO SOURCE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 9, 2002: What is called paganism, heathenism and polytheism is in fact the Natural religion of humanity, states this article. In areas where it has survived the onslaught of antihuman ideologies with their ego gods, the Natural religion has retained its self-respecting name. In Japan it is Shinto, in Taiwan Confucianism and Taoism, and…
GO TO SOURCE MUMBAI, INDIA, December 18, 2002: The Japanese government has okayed the release of US$87 million for restoration of the Ajanta and Ellora caves in Aurangabad — the first time a foreign government is aiding an Indian Heritage site. But the aid has not come easy to the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), which manages the site. After…