Source BALI, INDONESIA, March 7, 2019 (The New Daily): Lights on Indonesia’s busiest holiday island were blacked out on Thursday night, airports were closed and tourists banned from the beach – ordered instead to hole up in resort rooms. Tens of thousands of security guards patrolled Bali’s abandoned streets, pouncing on anyone speaking too loudly or appearing too animated in…
Source Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature. — Tirukural 259
Source JAMMU KASHMIR, March 8, 2019 ( National Herald): Amarnath Yatra this year will begin July 1, go on for 46 days and will conclude on August 15. The decision was taken by the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik. The SASB said it noted the steps taken by its CEO for registration of pilgrims…
Source PRAYAGRAJ, INDIA, March 5, 2019 (Financial Express): Even before midnight, devotees from different walks of life and parts of the country began to pour into Sangam city to take holy dip on Mahashivratri, the great night of Lord Shiva and the last bathing day in the one-and-a-half-month-long Kumbh Mela. Till Monday evening, more than 10 million devotees had taken…
Source When I look inside and see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see I am everything, that is love. — Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Hindu spiritual teacher
Source BALI, INDONESIA, MARCH 7, 2019 ( Daily Mail): Bali’s airport will close for 24 hours, the Internet will be turned off and streets emptied as the predominantly Hindu island in Indonesia observes its New Year with an annual day of silence.The Day of Silence, Nyepi to the Balinese, is a day of reflection and TV and radio broadcasts also…
Source INDIA, February 28, 2019 (First Post by Dhananjay Joshi): A combing operation is conducted to weed out unwanted elements from an area. In our digital age, when narratives are built from keystrokes causing a dissonance between what we hear and what we see, let us comb the Kumbh and separate the unwanted elements from the much-tangled hair of humanity.…
Source Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.— Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Source SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, February 28, 2019 (courthousenews.com): California’s State Board of Education Thursday defeated a lawsuit claiming it treats Hinduism unfavorably compared to Western religions in its educational standards and curriculum. “A reasonable observer would not view the standards and framework as primarily denigrating Hinduism,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his 33-page ruling. (click to download: http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hindu-education-ruling.pdf).…
Source Hinduism is such a joyous religion, freed of all the mental encumbrances that are prevalent in the various Western faiths. It is freed of the notion of a vengeful God. It is freed of the notion of eternal suffering. It is freed from the notion of original sin. It is freed from the notion of a single spiritual path,…