Source INDIA, January 19, 2018 (National Herald India): A new study has found that high pollution levels contributed to nearly 1.1 million deaths in 2015, or 10.6% of the total number of deaths in India, with “the burden falling disproportionately (75%) on rural areas”. The study raises the alarm that if no action is taken, “population exposures to PM2.5 are…
Source PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA, January 22, 2018 (The Star): Kavadis that are “too big” and those bearing banned symbols or items will not be allowed past the Batu Caves main entrance on Thaipusam Day. The guidelines set by the Thaipusam Task Force list the items banned as knives, tridents and parang as well as durian, chillies and apples. Also banned…
Source GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA January 22, 2018 (The Sunday Daily): [HPI note: the Thaipusam festival in Penang is close to the same and more famous festival at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur.] More than 1.2 million Hindu devotees throughout the country and international tourists are expected to flock to the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple in Jalan Kebun Bunga here during the…
Source In India I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it. Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything but possessed by nothing.— Appolonius of Tiana (2-97 ce), Greek philosopher
Hinduism Today PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA, January 21, 2018: Funeral ceremonies and cremation were held yesterday, January 20, by family and friends of Dr. Shiva G. Bajpai who passed away at his home here on January 13, 2018. The publisher and staff of Hinduism Today will miss our long-time friend and collaborator. His family released the following account of his life:…
Source Give up everything to Him, resign yourself to Him and there will no trouble for you. Then you will come to know that every thing is done by His will.— Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886)
Source CAMBRIDGE, CANADA, January 18, 2018 (The Record): It has a hectare of empty land, purchased 18 years ago. It has 400 families worth of supporters from across Waterloo Region and Guelph. Now, the Cambridge Hindu Society would like to construct a new temple off the southern tip of the Toyota plant and move out of old digs it has…
Source BREMEN, GERMANY, January 17, 2018 (DW): A German milk cow has given her approval to a proposed site for a Hindu temple outside Bremen. The local Hindu community borrowed the animal to suss out whether the land would be good for a temple. A Hindu priest and a group of Bremen Hindus led the milk cow to the field…
Source SRI LANKA, January 14, 2018 (Sunday Observer by P. Krishnaswamy): The country’s Hindus are celebrating the “Pongal” harvest festival, popularly known as Thai Pongal, celebrated in the first four days of the month of Thai in the Tamil-Hindu calendar. Traditionally, Thai Pongal is the festival of farmers who depend on Mother Earth, sun, rain, other natural elements and cows…
Source In the four eternal Vedas; In the study and reading of scripts; In sacred ashes and in holy writs and muttering of prayers you will not find the Lord! Melt with the heart inside And proclaim the Truth. Then you will join the light life without servitude.— Sivavakkiyar, 10th-century Tamil devotional poet and mystic