Source BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, July 10, 2015 (Niti Central): Barely a week before the Nabakalebara Rath Jatra of Lord Jagannath gets underway, Shankaracharya of Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati today blamed the chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration for the mismanagement in the 12th century shrine. “I hold Shree Jagannath Temple Administration’s chief administrator responsible for all the chaos in…
Source The syllable gu means shadows. The syllable ru, he who disperses them. Because of the power to disperse darkness, the guru is thus named.— Advayataraka Upanishad
Source (Eugene, Oregon. July 2015). Skipping Stones Multicultural Literary Magazine has announced the winners of 2015 Skipping Stones Book Awards in their Summer 2015 issue which may be downloaded from source above. This year, they have selected 25 multicultural and/or nature books and 5 teaching resources. Two of special interest to Hinduism Today readers are: India Unveiled: Spirit, Tradition, People…
Source NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 4, 2015 (Sunday Guardian): India may get its first multi-page daily newspaper in Sanskrit this Navratri. A group of enthusiastic Sanskrit lovers, who have been publishing the Sanskrit weekly Sajal Sandesh from Delhi for about the last two years, are working overtime to start the daily. “Currently, the lone Sanskrit newspaper Sudharma is published from…
Source There are two great forces in the universe, silence and speech. Silence prepares, speech creates. The strength of noise and activity is great. But infinite is the strength of stillness and silence, in which great forces prepare for action. To be capable of silence, stillness and illuminated passivity is to be fit for immortality.— Sri Aurobido (1879-1950)
Source KOLKATA, INDIA, July 4, 2015 (Times of India): Rural India has over 70,000 transgenders, with Uttar Pradesh topping the list with nearly 13,000, and West Bengal home to around 10,000, reveals the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011. The census’s gender analysis reports rural India has 74,286 transgenders. According to Ranjita Sinha, transgender activist and a member of Bengal’s…
Source INDIA, July 5, 2015 (By Mridula Chari): Travelling to the subcontinent from Africa as mercenaries, merchants and slaves, Sidis are now well assimilated. Yet they are frequent victims of discrimination. When people think of Africans in Indian history, Malik Ambar tends to be the first name to come to mind. Brought to Ahmadnagar as a warrior-slave in the 16th…
Source UNITED STATES, March 20, 2015 (Linkis, by David Frawley): One of the main ideas used to interpret–and generally devalue–the ancient history of India is the theory of the Aryan invasion. According to this account, India was invaded and conquered by nomadic light-skinned Indo-European tribes from Central Asia around 1500-1000 BC, who overthrew an earlier and more advanced dark-skinned Dravidian…
HPI DELHI, INDIA, July 5, 2015 (By Rajiv Malik, India/South Asia Correspondent, Hinduism Today magazine): A grand celebration and book release event of Dr. Kalam’s book “Transcendence” was held at Pramukh Sabhagruh, Akshardham Swaminarayan Mandir , New Delhi on Friday, July 3rd , 2015, in the presence of over 500 dignitaries, well wishers and devotees. The event was graced by…
Source “Sweet are the sounds of the flute and the lute,” say those who have not heard the prattle of their own children.— Tirukkural