Source KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 15, 2019 (Free Malaysia Today): Hindu monk Simheswara Dasa, like many of his co-religionists, looks forward every year to the four-day Thai Pongal, the Tamil celebration of the rice harvest as a mark of gratitude to Surya, the Sun God. Hindu scriptures say that on Pongal, the day when the sun enters Capricorn, the charioted…
Source PRAYAGRAJ, INDIA, January 15, 2019 (Times Now News): The much-anticipated Kumbh Mela 2019 at Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) commenced on January 15 and will go on till March 4. Hindu devotees from across the world have congregated at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna to take the holy dip. The Ardhra Kumbh Mela is held every six years, while…
Source NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 9, 2019 (New York Times by Farhad Manjoo): Because I live in Northern California, where this sort of thing is required by local ordinance, I spent New Year’s Day at a meditation center, surrounded by hundreds of wealthy, well-meaning, Patagonia-clad white people seeking to restore order and balance to their tech-besotted lives. In the…
Source MAURITIUS, December 14, 2018 (Inside News translated from French): Mauritius is perhaps the only country in the world where the state offers religious subsidies for the preservation of places of worship and also for the propagation of religious and spiritual values. Pandit Ved Gopee, who spoke at the 18th graduation ceremony of the “Akhil Bharatiya Vidvat Parishad” in Varanasi,…
Source TANJUNG KARANG, MALAYSIA, January 14, 2019 (The Star): The Pongal festival which is a thanksgiving celebration for a bountiful harvest by rice farmers is among the important celebrations of the Tamil community throughout the world. Hindu rice farmers in Malaysia await with excitement to celebrate the festival tomorrow following the harvest. V.R. Arumugam, 68, who owns a rice farm…
Source A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches and thoughts, the consequences of even the least of them is far-reaching. — Swami Sivananda, (1887-1963) founder of the Divine Life Society
Source The mind cannot know what is beyond itself; but the mind is known by what is beyond, that essence of timelessness and spacelessness which makes everything perceivable, yet itself is beyond perception. — Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Hindu sage
Source SPAIN, January 9, 2019 (El Periodico Mediterraneo, translated from Spanish): A Castellon resident settled for four years in Benicassim, Miriam Arias, has triumphed in India with her particular dance, a fusion of flamenco and kathak, one of the nine classical dances of that country. The dancer participated in the prestigious Visakha Utsav festival, which was celebrated, as every year…
Source WASHINGTON, D.C., January 7, 2019 (Hindustan Times): Hindus are the most educated — based on college degrees — among US religious groups, followed by Unitarians Universalists, Jews, Anglicans and congregants of the Episcopal Church, according to a new study. They are ahead also of atheists and agnostics. The study by Pew used the four-year college degree as the marker,…
Source All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. — Swami Vivekananda, (1863-1902) founder Ramakrishna Mission