Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the custodian of the world's richest Hindu temple, has signed a pact with State Bank of India (SBI) for deposit of huge quantity of the surplus yellow metal lying in its treasury. The TTD has agreed, in the first phase, to deposit a whopping 1000 kg of gold with SBI, which is said to be the single largest ‘gold deal', both in terms of value and volume, in the history of the TTD, though it has deposited 1750 kg of gold so far in various banks.
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Craig Venter’s laboratory cell violates the divine law of recreation, says Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, who believes that creating life in a laboratory is an act of defiance against God, as man is created based on his deeds in his previous birth. “Venter’s work violates karma, which alone decides the nature of life for all humans and, besides, creating life in lab could cause cultural degradation as it eliminates the need for marriage and family values,” the swami told DC when his attention was drawn to the creation of synthetic cells in Venter’s laboratory in Rockville, Maryland.
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Jyotsna Padmanabhan, a 12-year-old girl, is all set to script history by being the first female in Kerala to conduct an idol installation in accordance with tantric rituals. The girl’s entry into the sanctum sanctorum of the Paikunikavu Sri Krishna Temple at Kattoor near Irinjalakuda on Sunday to conduct the ‘prathishta’ of Goddess Bhadrakali will mark a new chapter in the religious history of Kerala as there is no precedent of a woman, other than a spiritual leader, conducting an idol installation.
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Kancheepuram: Stone inscriptions dating back to the 10th and 11th century AD found recently in a nearby village have thrown light on the way records of properties were maintained during the Chola times. The stones were found last week during digging at the Sirukarumbur hamlet, tucked away from the main road 25 km from here.
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Can downward dog transform murderers into model citizens? That's the philosophy behind a program in India's state of Madhya Pradesh where prisons offer special yoga classes to the incarcerated. Instead of breaking rocks, they learn yoga positions, like the downward dog which is when a person gets on all fours and forms an inverted V by pushing their buttocks high into the air.
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Yoga classes helped people with chronic lower back pain improve their mood and ability to function, and it eased their pain more than conventional treatment alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. People who were assigned to take yoga for two months experienced a 29 percent reduction in functional disability and a 42 percent reduction in pain, the authors reported in the September 1 edition of the journal Spine. Yoga was also associated with a 45.7 percent decrease in symptoms of depression over conventional therapy alone.
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In the chemotherapy infusion room at the Staten Island University Hospital sit several cancer patients hooked up to IVs. But they aren't leafing through magazines or staring at a talk show and worrying about their health. Instead, their right legs are lifted up in the air, and they're circling their ankles clockwise while breathing deeply under the instruction of their yoga teacher.
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India is seeking UNESCO support for an international campaign to recover its priceless antiquities that were once taken away from the country in foreign invasions, a senior official of the Archaeological Survey of India said. "As efforts so far to reclaim stolen treasures have proved futile, UNESCO support is required for launching an international campaign to achieve the end," ASI Director General Gautam Sengupta said.
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Trying to explain the core beliefs of "Hinduism" to an interested observer can be challenging to say the least. Its often stated that the word "Hinduism" itself is a total misnomer, as it basically refers to the sum total of spiritual and religious thought and practice that has taken place on the Indian subcontinent over the past 5,000 years. And lets just say it's been a busy 5,000 years.
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With 16 tiers of Hindu script inscribed into its concrete ceiling, the ornate, cream-colored temple is an incongruous structure at the end of a winding road near Brandon, a growing bedroom community just outside Mississippi’s capital city. Members of the Hindu Temple Society of Mississippi hope the new 3,500-square-foot structure, built according to ancient rules of temple design called “agama sastra,” will draw throngs of worshippers and tourists to the site in the heart of the Bible Belt.
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To answer the call of great men is to risk being touched by greatness yourself. When the call is as bold and compelling as that of Swami Vivekananda, courage and persistence become requisites. To raise India to the heights Vivekananda spoke of is no easy task, but that is the defining thread of P. Parameswaran’s life. As a thinker, a philosopher, a reformer and current president of Vivekananda Kendra, P. Parameswaran—the recipient of Hinduism Today’s 2010 Hindu Renaissance Award—strives to defend both India and Hinduism, which to him are inseparably linked.
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A temple is being constructed in suburban Warsaw, capital of Poland. The Polish ministry of internal affairs and administration (MSWiA) recently registered the proposed temple site as a holy shrine and cleared the decks for construction work to begin. The Indian Association of Poland (IAP), a community outfit behind the project, requested the MSWiA to register the shrine. IAP hopes to open the temple in August and call it the Hindu Bhavan.
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The first batch of Hindu devotees left New Delhi on Tuesday for the annual Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. The batch of pilgrims comprised of 50 devotees. "According to our holy books, pilgrimage of Kailash-Mansarovar is one of the major pilgrimages of the Hindus. It is an effort to the end the cycle of life and death," said Bharat Pathak, a pilgrim.
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Following are the excerpts from the “Report to the People 2009-10”, released by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on 1st June 2010.
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Construction of hydropower dams has recently drawn the ire of India's holy men. Saints in Nort India along the sacred ganges river have recently begun protests to stop the construction of giant hydro electric dams.
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After more than a year of work, a new Hindu temple has opened up in the city of Wmbley. The project, named the Sanatana Hindu Temple, cost a total of 16 million pounds to complete.
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A special cultural festival is being organized by the Hindu Temple Forum of New Zealand, to celebrate the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. Raksha Bandan is a traditional Hindu festival that promotes universal friendship. The Hindu Temple Forum plans to celebrate this festival in Sydney on the 1st of September.
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Two stone deities were recently stolen from a Hindu temple in Alabama, and the county sheriff is currently investigating the case.
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Excerpts from the Garuda Purana, a dialogue between Lord Visnu and Garuda, His transcendental carrier. While describing the significance of various consecrations (samskaras), Lord Vishnu told Shiva that the union of man's sperm and woman's ovum results into the birth of a child. This union along with the whole process of the foetus getting transformed into a baby is a lengthy affair during which it imbibes numerous impurities. Samskaras (consecrations) purify one from all these impurities.
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