Source SINGAPORE , February 2, 2018, (by Prianka Ghosh, The Culture Trip): Singapore prides itself on its religious diversity and tolerance. Considering this as well as the diversity of Singapore’s population, it did not come as a huge surprise when a 2014 Pew Research report came out stating that Singapore is the most religiously diverse country in the world. The…
Source INDIA, January 31, 2018 (UCA News): The federal National Green Tribunal (NGT) decided to maintain its order that pilgrims to Amarnath Shrine remain silent inside the cave, which houses a nine-foot-tall ice pillar considered to be the symbol of Hindu Lord Shiva. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus each year walk the treacherous mountain path to the cave situated at…
Source One must seek the shortest way and the fastest means to get back home–to turn the spark within into a blaze, to be merged in and to identify with that greater fire which ignited the spark.— Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri (1885-1961), South Indian Mystic
Source WASHINGTON, DC, January 27, 2018 (HAF): Over the last few months, anti-Hindu sentiment has spiked, prompting HAF to gather more data on the prevalence of anti-Hindu bullying in classrooms. This is why we’re appealing to you, both as students and as parents of students, to make sure your children take HAF’s second nationwide survey on bullying. But this survey…
Source NEPAL, January 30, 2018 (Nepali Sansar): Hindus across Nepal witnessed the celebration of the annual Madhav Narayan festival at Thecho, Lalitpur on January 28, 2018. The festival that begins with the start of full moon in the month of Poush, the ninth month according to Nepali calendar, commenced on January 03, 2018 this year. Devotees take dips in holy…
Source CHENNAI, INDIA, January 31, 2018 (India Today): Thai Poosam, a key event in the Tamil Shaivite calendar signifying triumph of good over evil was today celebrated in temples across Tamil Nadu. Devotees lined up in huge numbers at the temples of Lord Muruga across the state, including the Vadapalani Sri Murugan temple here, since early morning and offered prayers.…
Source The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him–that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. — Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Source UNITED STATES, January 26, 2018 (RNS by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman): I just returned from my first trip to India and Nepal, a soul-stretching pilgrimage that was as much mentally as physically demanding. Along the way, I made my peace with the swastika. Not that swastika, that unrepentant symbol of hate seen most recently on the streets of Charlottesville. No,…
Source NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 26, 2018 (New York Books, by Kenan Malik): The sun may have long ago set on the British Empire, but it never seems to set on the debate about the merits of empire. The latest controversy began when the Third World Quarterly, an academic journal known for its radical stance, published a paper by…
Source You are here to eat mangoes; not to count the number of leaves in the mango tree.— Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), guru of Swami Vivekananda