Source MADURAI, INDIA, March 2, 2013 (The Hindu): With Meenakshi Amman Temple coming under a security blanket, devotees as well as residents in the vicinity are uneasy over the heightened police presence. “The temple has been taken over by the police for all practical purposes and under the guise of security the police are troubling the common man,” devotees complain.…
Source ALLAHABAD, INDIA, March 1,2013 (Washington Post): — Onno Ruhl, head of the World Bank in India, calls it “an incredible logistical operation.” Harvard researchers describe it as “a pop-up megacity”. On the sandbanks of the Ganges River at Allahabad, bureaucrats and workers from Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its poorest, took less than three months…
Source The poverty of poverties is having plenty yet shunning guests. Such senselessness is only found in senseless fools.— Tirukkural
Source INDIA, March 6, 2013 (HPI): At source above is a three-minute video of a dance performance by two children, brother and sister, age 11 and 7 on the India’s Got Talent show. The highly professional performance melds classical Indian dance with modern ballet moves such as lifts. Definitely worth watching.
Source LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, March 6, 2013 (press release): Fifty American high school teachers will receive an in-depth summer education in nonviolence, thanks to a special program facilitated by the Center for Jain Studies at Claremont Lincoln University. From July 15 through August 7, the teachers will study in Delhi, Aligarh and Jaipur to gain a multifaceted understanding of ahimsa,…
Source TAMIL NADU, INDIA, March 4, 2013 (The Hindu): Grama Kovil Poojarigal Peravai and the Tamil Nadu unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have urged the State government to sanction monthly remuneration for priests of village temples. The two organisations have urged the State government to end the practice of issuing tickets for special darshan in temples that were…
Source “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.”— Swami Chinmayananda (1917-1993), Vedantist writer, lecturer and Hindu renaissance founder of Chinmaya Mission International
Source MAURITIUS, February 24, 2013 (business.mega.mu): The president of Mauritius, Kailash Purryag, Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, and other government ministers will inaugurate the first phase of the Somnath Spiritual Park at Grand Bassin. The ceremony will include the dedication of a Shiv Mandir and laying the foundation stone for the second phase of the project. Veerendra Ramdhun, president of Hindu…
Source TIRUPATI, INDIA, March 2, 2013 (India Times): The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which administers the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara, has approved a Rs 2,248 crore (approx. US$409.4 million) budget for the fiscal year 2013-14. The offerings, to be made by millions of devotees in the temple hundi (offering box), was expected to fetch about US$156.5 million while the interest…
Source One who is established in a comfortable posture while concentrating on the inner Self naturally becomes immersed in the Heart’s ocean of bliss.— Siva Sutras III, 16