Latest Hindu News

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, April 30, 2007: Six persons including a Hindu priest were killed when the Sri Lankan Navy stormed a Hindu temple on an island off the northern Jaffna peninsula Sunday. The military claimed five of them were rebels belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had taken cover inside the temple and attacked the navy, which arrived at the location to carry out a search operation. But the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said that six persons were killed when the navy carried out a search operation following an attack on a group of sailors on the previous day where a naval officer was killed on Kayts island, 420 km north of the capital. There was no independent confirmation about the incident. Fighting in the north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka has left over 4,000 dead and more than 200,000 displaced during the past 15 months.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, April 28, 2007: A year ago, two young men took baseball bats to Deities at a Hindu temple in Maple Grove. And the Hindus keep seeking goodness in the ugliness. Again last week, leaders of the temple praised a Hennepin County Court judge who showed impatience, but mercy, for one of the individuals responsible for the mindless act. On Wednesday, Paul Spakousky, who was involved in the desecration of sacred statues, again was standing before Judge Kevin Burke, because he had violated terms of his probation. He had been caught drinking alcohol as a minor, then lied about going to treatment. Burke told Spakousky that he was thinking about simply sending him to jail for 30 days. But in the end, Burke informed Spakousky that he would be sentenced to 30 days' work release, meaning he'll spend his nights in jail but be allowed to continue working by day, with his earnings turned over to the temple.

In the first such incident since Idi Amin’s regime, Ugandan-Indians have been targeted by violent mobs in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Three Indians are reported to have been killed, and countless Indian owned establishments, including a Hindu temple, were ransacked by roving mobs.
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SCARBOROUGH, TOBAGO, April 20, 2007: Tobago's first Hindu temple is being established with funding from the National Commission for Self Help Limited. They have pledged $250,000 for the temple being built by the Tobago Hindu Society. The NCSH's financial commitment to the project was formally "endorsed" during a ceremony on location at the proposed site at Carnbee, on the western outskirts of Scarborough, yesterday. Addressing the ceremony, NCSH chairman Krishna Ramkumar pointed out that the Commission has done a lot of work throughout Trinidad and Tobago, and indeed in Tobago itself. "We will continue to make this commitment to people in Trinidad and Tobago who are dispossessed or people who are in need; communities that are in need, you can feel free to come and apply to the NCSH where we will respond favorably depending on the availability of funds", Ramkumar assured.

BERKSHIRE, UK, April 5, 2007: Patients at a Berkshire hospital are to be offered pastoral care from a new Hindu chaplaincy. Reading Hindu Temple has commissioned 11 chaplaincy volunteers to provide spiritual guidance for Hindu patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. The volunteers received training over the past year at the temple and under the guidance of officials from the hospital's chaplaincy service. A public ceremony was due to be held at the temple on Tuesday evening.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, March 23, 2007: Jacksonville Hindus are delighted that a Hindu temple has been opened in their community. Now the 4,000 Hindus living in Jacksonville have a place to pray and worship. The news release explained, "On Friday, Hindu priests and others were busy readying the temple, which is located on Greenland Road in Mandarin. A ceremony was held outside on Friday as five priests from across Florida came to sanctify Jacksonville's first Hindu temple. With fire and water, Priest Kadambi Shrinatte Ji led the ceremony. Others gathered to pray."

Shrinatte Ji added, "They're praying for this divine event. All these prayers are going for this installation ceremony. So, these are all adding to the energy. We worship the different forms in our temples, different forms of the One Almighty. One almighty Supreme Being is being worshiped in the different forms in the Hindu religion."

DUNDAS, ONTARIO, CANADA, March 23, 2007: A new community-based anti-racism group has emerged from the arson of the Hindu Samaj Temple. Hamilton's political, social and business community came out in force this week to welcome the creation of the Hamilton Centre for Civic inclusion (HCCI). The center is the merging of two community groups Strengthening of Hamilton's Community Initiative and the Civic and Resource Centre. "We need to bring multi-culturalism to the next level," Madina Wasuge, executive director of the HCCI, told a standing-room only crowd at the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. "Racism is not acceptable, violence is not acceptable. Our role is to raise awareness."

KUALA LUMPER, MALAYSIA, March 25, 2007: A century-old Hindu temple in Malaysia has probably become the first shrine in the world to get an international quality service certification. The Sri Sundararaja Perumal Temple in Klang, just outside Kuala Lumpur, got the ISO 9001:2000 certification in November for its quality in religious, cultural and social services, according to Malaysian news agency Bernama. The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization certifies companies and service providers worldwide for quality upon achieving certain benchmarks. Malaysia's Works Minister S. Samy Vellu will officiate the certification award ceremony Wednesday. According to the temple president S. Anandakrishnan, for the past three years the temple administration worked hard to get the certification by streamlining and standardizing the day-to-day working of the temple.

UNITED KINGDOM, March 22, 2007: A precious consecrated statue of a Hindu God was stolen from a temple just minutes after an afternoon worship. The US$10,000 Deity, which depicts Lord Subramaniam, was taken from the Gita Bhavan temple in Whalley Range. It's thought the raiders broke in through a front entrance and then hooked a rope from the front door of the priests' living guarters inside the temple to a radiator to lock the priests inside. Ranga Nath Shastri and Shyam Sunder, Gita Bhavan's two priests, live in separate living quarters inside the temple. Neither of the two men are thought to have been in at the time, but Prepremlata Shastri, the wife of Ranga Nath Shastri, arrived back at the temple at about the time the thieves struck. The access to the priests' quarters is in a different part of the building and when Mrs. Shastri tried to open the door to get into the main worship area she couldn't get out because the door was stuck.

CARSON CITY, NEVADA, March 20, 2007: Rajan Zed, Director of Public Affairs of Hindu Temple of Northern Nevada, Public Relations Officer of India Association of Northern Nevada, and a Hindu chaplain, read ancient Hindu prayer/blessing in Sanskrit at the opening of the Nevada State Assembly session here. This is the first time any Hindu prayer is delivered in the Nevada State Legislature since its formation in 1864, says Pastor Albert Tilstra, Chaplain Coordinator for Nevada Legislature.

CARSON CITY, NEVADA, March 7, 2007: History will be created when Rajan Zed (e-mail above), Director of Public Affairs of Hindu Temple of Northern Nevada, will read a Hindu prayer/blessing at the opening of the Nevada State Assembly session on March 19 and Nevada State Senate session on May 07, both in Carson City. This will be the first time any Hindu prayer will be delivered in the Nevada State Legislature since its formation in 1864, says Pastor Albert Tilstra, Chaplain Coordinator for Nevada Legislature. Rajan Zed says that he still has to choose which prayer he will deliver, but he is thinking of something from the Rig Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use, dated from around 1,500 BCE. He adds that in keeping with the Legislature tradition, the prayer will offer inspiration, reflection, and encouragement, and will be thought provoking.