Latest Hindu News

KARACHI, PAKISTAN, April 29, 2007: Seven-year-old Angela finds it difficult to study Islamiyat at school. "I don't know if I have to study it or not, but it's really difficult to pronounce the Arabic properly," she said. Angela, one of many children belonging to the Hindu Maheshwari, is a class three student at N. A. Bechar Government Primary School that has been converted into the Syed Mahmood Shah Ghazi Government Primary School in Old Kumbhar Para near Lee Market in Lyari Town.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 21, 2007: (HPI note: These proposed regulations could have a dramatic impact on the ability of Hindu temples to bring in religious workers on the R-1 visa. Hindu organizations are advised to download the proposal at the URL above, and have it studied by their immigration experts. There are proposed changes that state the petitioner for the R-1 visa be the "same religious denomination" as the US employer, and that a "religious denomination" is a group of believers "administered under some form of ecclesiastical government." What would this mean with respect to Hinduism? Only some traditions have what could be construed as an "ecclesiastical government," which is a very Christian form of religious organization. The word "ecclesiastical" is defined in the dictionary as "of or relating to the Christian Church or its clergy." Comments on the proposals will be taken until June 25, 2007, see here.)

TEXAS, USA, April 18, 2007: (HPI note: The following is a press release from HSC.) The Hindu Students Council (HSC) and all of its chapters extend their condolences to its fellow members at Virginia Tech and their campus community at large. The senseless shooting of 32 members of the Virginia Tech community has shocked the nation, but our shock pales in comparison to the loss, grief, and mourning that the students, staff, and faculty of Virginia Tech are experiencing right now. Satyasheel Korpe, President of the Virginia Tech chapter of HSC, reported, "No HSC members have been harmed, but two members of the Indian community [were victims of the shooting], a professor and a student." Those two victims, Professor G. V. Loganathan, a professor of civil engineering from Chennai, India, and Mina Panchal, a first-year student from Mumbai, India, were both killed in the classrooms of Norris Hall on the campus. Prof. Loganathan was a regular attendee to HSC events on campus.

RISHIKESH, INDIA, April 14, 2007: (HPI note: The following press
release is from Parmarth Niketan.) Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji
(Muniji), President and Spiritual Head of Parmarth Niketan Ashram,
Rishikesh (Himalayas), India is a highlighted speaker at the major
conference organized by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, called
Consciousness in Action, from the August 9 to 12, 2007 in Palm Springs,
California. The conference brings together dozens of scientists,
visionaries and yogis. Pujya Swamiji will discuss the most important
foundation of global transformation: becoming the change we want to see
in the world. See URL above for details and registration information.

NEW JERSEY, USA, March 23, 20077: (HPI note: above URL is corrected from yesterday's item to take you directly to the Summer Hindu Studies Program web page.) Perhaps for the first time in summer, Rutgers University is including four new credit courses under religion department about Hindu culture and religion: 1. Hinduism through its Narrative Tradition; 2. Hindu Rituals, Festivals and Symbols; 3. Hindu Philosophy; and 4. Hinduism and Modernity. In addition, Sanskrit, the ancient Indian classical language is also offered as a credit course. All these courses can be taken by anybody without any pre-requisites. For more info, please visit URL above. (HPI note: Our thanks to Pankaj Jain for this information.)

NEW JERSEY, USA, March 23, 20077: (HPI note: above URL is corrected from yesterday's item to take you directly to the Summer Hindu Studies Program web page.) Perhaps for the first time in summer, Rutgers University is including four new credit courses under religion department about Hindu culture and religion: 1. Hinduism through its Narrative Tradition; 2. Hindu Rituals, Festivals and Symbols; 3. Hindu Philosophy; and 4. Hinduism and Modernity. In addition, Sanskrit, the ancient Indian classical language is also offered as a credit course. All these courses can be taken by anybody without any pre-requisites. For more info, please visit URL above. (HPI note: Our thanks to Pankaj Jain for this information.)

NEW JERSEY, USA, March 23, 20077: (HPI note: above URL is corrected from yesterday's item to take you directly to the Summer Hindu Studies Program web page.) Perhaps for the first time in summer, Rutgers University is including four new credit courses under religion department about Hindu culture and religion: 1. Hinduism through its Narrative Tradition; 2. Hindu Rituals, Festivals and Symbols; 3. Hindu Philosophy; and 4. Hinduism and Modernity. In addition, Sanskrit, the ancient Indian classical language is also offered as a credit course. All these courses can be taken by anybody without any pre-requisites. For more info, please visit URL above. (HPI note: Our thanks to Pankaj Jain for this information.)

NEW JERSEY, USA, March 23, 20077: Perhaps for the first time in summer, Rutgers University is including four new credit courses under religion department about Hindu culture and religion: 1. Hinduism through its Narrative Tradition; 2. Hindu Rituals, Festivals and Symbols; 3. Hindu Philosophy; and 4. Hinduism and Modernity. In addition, Sanskrit, the ancient Indian classical language is also offered as a credit course. All these courses can be taken by anybody without any pre-requisites. For more info, please visit URL above. (HPI note: Our thanks to Pankaj Jain for this information.)

CHENNAI, INDIA: S. Kalyanaraman of Chennai writes to HPI that the four dots that are part of the "voided cross" (see yesterday's HPI) on the latest Indian two-rupee coin are seen in some forms of the "Jerusalem cross." This is a solid cross with equal arms (ie, a "plus" sign) with four smaller crosses set around the arms, and in one example, dots, just as the dots are on the rupee. See Wikipedia, here, and scroll down to "Crusaders' cross" for an illustration. The description reads, "Also known as the Jerusalem cross. This cross was the symbol of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which existed for almost two hundred years after the First Crusade. The four smaller crosses are said to symbolize either the four books of the Gospel or the four directions in which the Word of Christ spread from Jerusalem. Alternately, all five crosses can symbolize the five wounds of Christ during the Passion."

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, March 16, 2007: (HPI note: The following press release is from Swami Shankarananda's ashram.) In February Swami Shankaranand led a group of 60 Shiva Yogis from Melbourne, Australia to India. The group spent two weeks in Ganeshpuri in the ecstatic environs of Bhagawan Nityananda's shrine and Baba Muktananda's ashram. Thirty of the group then travelled to Kankhal, Haridwar where we had been invited by our friend Swami Aproxananda. The main purpose of our visit was the inauguration of Swami Shankarananda as a Mahant by Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Maharaji Swami Rasanandaji. The title was given in recognition of Swamiji's spiritual attainment Swamiji was made a Mahant in the Pancha Agni Akhada, one of the six Akhadas the ancient ascetic sects of Shaivism. He is now officially known as "Mahant 1008 Swami Shankarananda Saraswati of the Pancha Agni Akhada" but he says, "Swamiji will still work!"

KAUAI, HAWAII, March 14, 2007: Under the Hindu kings, palm leaf manuscripts upon which are recorded Hinduism's scriptures were recopied every 100 years or so to preserve them. Since British times, this process has ceased and existing manuscripts, even in the best-preserved collections, are deteriorating, some already to the point of uselessness. Microfilm is relatively expensive and requires bulky equipment. The resulting product, film, needs a separate process of digitization to distribute by the Internet.

In consultation with scholars in Tamil Nadu, Kauai Aadheenam, home of Hinduism Today and HPI, has investigated the used of digital cameras for the purpose of rapid photography and hence preservation of the leaves. The system is much simpler, cheaper and less technical than microfilm. The results are easily posted to the Internet.

At URL above is a detailed explanation including samples of photographs from actual palm leaves recorded by this process.