Source KOLKATA, INDIA, October 21, 2012 (Indian Express): Making a departure, prominent Durga Puja committees this year have modeled their pandals on the famous structures found across the country, compared to past years when aesthetically-designed mandaps were the rule. Singhi Park Sarbojanin Durga Puja, one of the biggest crowd-pullers, this time designed its pandal after the famous Meenakshi Amman Temple…
Source BENGAL, INDIA, October 18, 2012 (BBC): An excellent slideshow on Durga Puja in Bengal is available at source above.
Source SRINIGAR, INDIA, October 20, 2012: As part of continuous efforts to revive the centuries-old harmony and brotherhood in the Kashmir Valley, a Shiva temple at Rainawari in the city here was thrown open on Saturday to public after a gap of 22 years. The dilapidated temple was recently renovated by the Jammu and Kashmir Dharmarth Trust at a cost…
Source KOLKATA, INDIA, October 18, 2012 (firstpost.com): As the city remains busy doing last-minute shopping before the Durga Puja festivities kick off this weekend, a group of young men rehearses shlokas and rituals at a crash course to counter a priest shortage in Kolkata. Due to the mushrooming puja committees in the city and its outskirts, a shortage of skilled…
Source MADURAI, INDIA, October 20, 2012 (Press Trust of India): Madurai, Oct 20 (PTI): Swami Nithyananda was on Friday sacked by the senior pontiff as his successor of a 1,500-year old Saivite mutt here, an appointment which had attracted widespread condemnation from various quarters including Tamil Nadu Government as Nithyananda is facing criminal charges in Karnataka. Sri Arunagirinathar, the 292nd…
Saiva Agamas Honored Upon Arrival in Toronto Press Release TORONTO, CANADA, October, 2012 (Thiru Satkunendran): A computer disk drive containing the large collection of Saiva Agamas from the archives of the French Institute of Pondicherry Institute arrived today in Toronto. It is a gift from Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today. This gem, containing over a million photos, including…
Source SHIMLA, INDIA, October 16,2012 (Indo-Asian News Service): Tens of thousands of devotees assembled in different parts of Himachal Pradesh Tuesday and offered prayers on the onset of the nine-day Navratra, considered by Hindus to be an auspicious period. “We are expecting the arrival of 50,000 people daily at the Naina Devi temple during the festival,” temple office Sukhdev Thakur…
Source GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA, October 16, 2012 (The Star): Thousands of devotees, carrying candles and incense, thronged the Nine Emperor Gods (Kew Ong Yeah) temples in Penang to seek blessings and in typical multi-religious style, Hindu devotees marked their ‚ÄúNavarathri‚Äù (nine nights) vegetarian festival. Over in Burma Road leading to Tao Bo Kong Temple, there was a bumper-to-bumper crawl stretching…
Source To give love is true freedom; to demand love is pure slavery.— Swami Chinmayananda
Source GAYA, BIHAR, INDIA, October 14, 2012 (ANI): Hindu devotees lit earthen lamps over the weekend as an obligatory duty ahead of the annual ancestor worshipping ritual of Pind Daan, which falls during the Pitr-Paksha period (16-lunar day period as per Hindu calendar). Pitr-paksha generally falls in the month of September or October every year. Devotees were seen lighting earthen…