A Hindu temple opened amidst the picturesque area of the East Village in New York City. This temple is operated by the Vishwa Dharma Mandalam, funded by His Holiness Swami Ramakrishnananda. This magnificent temple is attended by expert pujaris and the disciples of Swami Ramakrishnananda. The Mandir was opened in 96 Avenue B, (Btwn. 6 and 7 Sts.), for the purpose of serving the Hindu community. Pujas and vedic ceremonies are performed daily, and the hindu holidays are celebrated in a classical way, as well as Satsangs and classes given personally by Swami Ramakrishnananda. Numerous members of the Hindu community expressed their greetings and well-wishes for the opening of the Mandir. The public that follows Santana-Dharma enthusiastically attend the daily ceremonies. There are free lectures, classes about Hinduism, Ayurveda, classical Hindu music, Vedanata, and hatha yoga classes.          http://www.ramakrishnananda.com/

Religion Journal; Yoga in Aspen Public Schools Draws Opposition

Yoga has become as trendy as this glamorous ski hamlet, so it would not seem surprising that some local schools have added it to the students' day. But some parents and religious leaders here are objecting, saying that teaching yoga in school violates the separation of church and state.

''At its base element, yoga is a spiritual practice,'' said Steven Woodrow, pastor of the First Baptist Church here. ''You can't separate the religious from the spiritual. Why not teach Pilates or aerobics if it's just stretching?''

Last fall, officials with Aspen Elementary School, a public school with about 500 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, and the Aspen Country Day School, a private school with about 180 students in kindergarten through ninth grade, invited yoga instructors to conduct classes as part of a pilot program.

''We anticipate that the yoga classes will provide them with some skills to learn how to better focus and be more attentive,'' said the Aspen Elementary School principal, Barb Pitchford. ''More and more kids seem to have trouble with their attention spans -- which is about as long as TV commercials.''

Ms. Pitchford said 10 to 12 families, including the Woodrows, would not allow their children to participate in yoga classes because of concern over religious implications. Only about half of the school attends yoga classes because of varying teacher participation and schedules. School officials will review the program this spring to decide how -- and if -- the classes will continue.

Opposition was initially directed at the curriculum -- prepared by two yoga practitioners from Los Angeles, where the curriculum is also used in some schools -- which has since been altered to eliminate any language that might be construed as religious. A lawyer for the public school advised that the revised curriculum did not violate the Constitution.

Leah Kalish, an author of the curriculum being used in Aspen, said opponents took issue with any Sanskrit words. One was ''namaste,'' a word that she said was used in yoga classes to say, ''The light in you is the light in me,'' or more generally, ''to acknowledge our common humanity.'' The students end class here by saying ''peace'' rather than ''namaste.''

At the private school, there was little resistance from parents over yoga classes. But yoga classes for sixth through ninth grade were canceled because of lack of interest.

Yoga is taught in schools from California to Florida to Ohio and has raised eyebrows and ire before. In a lawsuit that was settled by an appeals court in 2001, parents sued the Bedford Central School District in Westchester County, N.Y., in part because a Sikh minister taught yoga at a high school. The case began in 1996, and the school district prevailed once the federal appeals court vacated many of the charges.

Here at Aspen Elementary School, with children being children, their yoga instructor spends a great deal of the 25-minute class time simply reminding them to stop talking and be quiet, please.

''If you are a beanbag, beanbags don't talk,'' an instructor, Staci Stokes, said to the group of about 30 third graders as they tried to lay flat on their backs with their eyes closed. As the children squirmed, the same was said as they posed as the fish and the silent rock.

The language of yoga has also been adapted to their young imaginations and the students are told to fly like Superman or pretend to be a banana with their arms stretched out overhead and legs lifted off their floor mats.

''Is that even yoga?'' asked Stephen Grant, vice president for the American Yoga Association in Sarasota, Fla. The small group, founded in 1968, provides yoga instruction and publishes educational material for yoga practitioners.

According to the curriculum used by Aspen Elementary School, Hatha Yoga is a system of physical exercise that studies and integrates the mind, body and breath. Hatha is one type of yoga -- others include Ashtanga, Bhakti, Karma and many others, all of which incorporate different poses and goals.

The American Yoga Association says yoga is built on three main structures: exercise, breathing and meditation. It says that the practice of yoga predates Hinduism, but that Hindus, along with other religions, adopted the practice.

Mr. Grant said yoga had become so commercialized that it no longer was truly yoga. ''Yoga has become an enormous fad and is completely adrift from its mooring as an ancient and classical tradition that has always been taught face to face with a master,'' he said.

The core difference between the two sides in the disagreement could be one of semantics. Mr. Grant believes there is a yoga philosophy, but critics say that philosophy is derived from known religions, like Hinduism and Buddhism.

A Roman Catholic priest in Aspen also objected to yoga in the schools.

''The ultimate goal of the yoga is to balance the body, the mind, the soul and the spirit,'' said the priest, the Rev. Michael O'Brien of St. Mary's Catholic Church. ''When you are talking about the soul and the spirit, then aren't you in the realm of religion? And if so, which religion?''

Mr. Woodrow, a father of four, said that even watered-down yoga incorporated aspects of Eastern religions that believe in reincarnation and pluralism, which conflict with his beliefs.

''It's not fine, it's Hinduism, and it's a completely different value system,'' he said.

Officials with the American Yoga Association said they were less concerned with philosophy and religion than physiology and cautioned against allowing children under 16 to practice yoga because they believe that their growth may be affected. But other practitioners say they have no objections except for advanced techniques.

Trisha Lamb Feuerstein of the Yoga Research and Education Center in Santa Rosa, Calif., said, ''From our viewpoint, yoga is not a religion. Really, it's a spiritual practice, and we don't equate spirituality with religion.''

Historic Hindu prayer opened Colorado State Senate

A milestone was created on Tuesday in Colorado when Rajan Zed, prominent Hindu chaplain and Indo-American leader, opened the Colorado State Senate with a Hindu prayer for the first time since its formation.

After sprinkling traditional Gangajal (water from holy river Ganga in India) on the podium, Zed recited from Rig-Veda, considered the oldest scripture of the world still in common use, dated from around 1,500 BCE; besides from Brahadaranyakopnishad, Taittiriya Upanishad, and Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), all ancient Hindu scriptures. He started the prayer with "Om", the mystical syllable containing the universe, and ended with "Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti", which he then translated as "Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all".

Reading from Taittiriya Upanishad, he prayed, "…May we work together with great vigor, May our study be enlightening…" Quoting from Bhagavad-Gita, he urged the senators to "Fulfill all your duties; action is better than inaction."

Sporting a ruddraksh mala (rosary) and traditional orange sandalpaste tilak (religious mark) on the forehead, Zed, after reciting the original lines in Sanskrit, then read the English translation of the verses. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism. After the prayer, Zed presented a copy of Srimad Bhagawad-Gita to Peter C. Groff, President of Colorado Senate, who introduced Zed.

Andrew Romanoff, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives; Ken Gordon, Senate Majority Leader; Cary Kennedy, Colorado State Treasurer; whom he met after the prayers, personally welcomed and thanked Zed for the opening prayer.

Zed was accompanied to the Colorado Senate by Ved P. Nanda, Vice Provost of University of Denver; Sridhar Talanki, Trustee of Colorado Telugu Association; Sudhir Verma, Trustee of Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of the Rockies; Sridhar Ponnapalli, General Secretary of Colorado Telugu Association; Katherine Nanda, attorney; Mohan

Ashtakala, publisher of The Himalayan News newspaper and his wife Radha.

"This is a great day for Colorado and a historic day of honor for us," Zed said at the start of the prayer. The prayer was well received in the Senate where everybody stood silently with heads bowed down.

Rajan Zed created history on July 12 last when he opened the United States Senate session in Washington DC with Hindu prayer for the first time in its 218 years history. He has also read first Hindu prayers in California, Nevada and New Mexico State Senates and Nevada State Assembly.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has no datable beginning but some scholars put it around 3,000 BCE. It has no founder, no one authoritative figure, and no single prophet or holy book. One of its scriptures, Mahabharata, is the longest poem ever written, comprising over 100,000 couplets. Hinduism in North America was introduced in 1830s with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau studying Hindu scriptures like Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. Vivekananda made a strong impression at World´s Parliament of Religion in Chicago in 1893 and he then founded Vedanta Society. Protap Chunder Mozoomdar of Brahmo Samaj delivered his first American address on September 02, 1883 in Concord, Massachusetts.

Colorado State Senate is composed of 35 members, with each district having a population of about 123,000. Colorado has the highest mean elevation of any state of USA, with more than 1,000 rocky peaks over 10,000 ft high and 54 towering above 14,000 ft. Breathtaking scenery and world-class skiing make Colorado a prime tourist destination.

Photo: Rajan Zed (fourth from left) with Andrew Romanoff, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives (third from left) and leaders of the Hindu community of Colorado after the prayer.

Hinduism is one of the Oldest Religions of the World

Hinduism has more than 800 million adherents. It is a global religion. The majority of Hindus reside in India and Nepal in South Asia. A significant population also lives in other countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Hinduism is one of the oldest and major religions of the world. It has the third largest religious following in the world next to Christianity and Islam. Hinduism is not attributable to one founder — in other words, it is not based on the wisdom and teachings of one founder. There is no one central authority on religious matters. Hinduism has enriched itself from the wisdom and teachings of the great sages over several millennia.

KNOWN FOR DIVERSITY

Hinduism is diverse in its culture and religious beliefs and practices. It has a rich history of incorporating different religious views in the Hindu tradition. It respects different social customs and different ways of worshiping and performing rituals by people in different regions of India.

The indigenous people of India lived in the valley of the Indus River in the northwest region of the country. They had an advanced culture called the Indus Valley Civilization which flourished around 2,500 B.C.E. (before Common Era) and lasted until about 1500 B.C.E. Today, in addition to flowing through Tibet and northern India, a large portion of the Indus River flows through Pakistan, which was part of India during the Indus Valley Civilization.

Around 1500 B.C.E., Indo-Aryans entered India through the northwest region. Scholars differ on the exact venue where the Indo-Aryans lived before migrating into India. Some scholars believe that they came to India from Central Asia.

The early Indo-Aryans were nomads; they ate meat, which was offered before consumption to the Gods for their blessings. Later on, they formed and settled in communities in the northern region, especially along the plains of the Ganges River. Their society was agricultural. Thus, those early settlers came to be known as the Aryans. The religion was known as the Sanatana Dharma - the Eternal Law. The words Hindu and Hinduism did not exist in the early Aryan culture; their genesis took place much later. Vegetarianism was encouraged in the later Vedic period of the Aryan culture.

ULTIMATE KNOWLEDGE

The Aryans assimilated the culture of the indigenous people into their own. Sanskrit was the spoken and literary language of the Aryans. The scriptures are called Vedas. The word Veda means knowledge — meaning, for Hindus the ultimate knowledge is revealed in these scriptures. The Rig-Veda is the first Veda that was composed around 1200 B.C.E. The Bhagavad-Gita is the renowned Vedic scripture worldwide.

The teachings of the Vedas are timeless, eternal, sacred, and authentic, and the knowledge in the Vedas was revealed to the great sages through the divine inspiration.

Encyclopaedia on Hinduism

It took 33 years for the swamiji to compile the book

TREASURE: The cover of the book.

BANGALORE: ”It was the lack of infrastructure leading to dearth in the study of Hinduism which propelled me to write this encyclopaedia,“ stated Swami Harshanandaji of the Ramakrishna Monastic Order and the author of ”A Concise Encyclopaedia of Hinduism“, the first such work on Hinduism in English.

Covering approximately 3,600 entries on the religion the encyclopaedia deals with important topics such as religion, philosophy, mythology, rituals, scriptural works, festivals and pilgrims centres in great detail. As Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are closely related to Hinduism, they too have been described briefly along with biographies of their founders.

Swami Harshananda, who has written 80 books, took 33 years to research and complete the encyclopaedia, which is a three-volume compilation. Priced at Rs. 1,500, it is expected to be released in April. For bookings, contact the Ramakrishna Math, Bull Temple Road, Bangalore-04 or call Ph: 26613149 or 26671010.

Passion to the rescue of Vedas

THE MAN AND HIS MACHINE: R.V.S.S. Avadhanulu working on the digitization of the Vedas. — Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

HYDERABAD: He started with no resource except his will. Almost a decade later, he is aware that only small steps in the journey have been completed. Yet the man is unflinching in his commitment of digitising Vedas.

"It may take a decade or more but I am determined in my pursuit to put the available Vedic literature on the electronic medium," says R.V.S.S. Avadhanulu, working as a Deputy Director (Computers), Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).

"It's an alarming situation since most of the vast Vedic material has been lost. I would say that only one per cent of the original material is available. That too would be lost if we do not take steps to conserve it," says the scholar.

Personal finances

A post-graduate in nuclear physics, he has dipped into his personal finances for the mission. A few others joined the endeavour and some donations too have trickled in. But all that is not enough. "A lot of money is needed for the project as we are recording each and every hymn of the Vedas that we can lay our hands on."

Since he could not afford recording studios, the operation was recently shifted to a rented room which was made soundproof as best as it could be. There are 11 different types of chanting the Vedas and locating a person who could render them in all the styles was quite a task.

In Pandit Narendra Kapreji, he found his man and together, they are pooling free time to record the hymns. The Herculean effort Dr. Avadhanulu has taken up can be gauged from the fact that it is estimated to cost Rs. 5 crores for recording the available Vedic material and expected to run into 3,000 hours of recording.

Vedic material

Through `Shri Veda Bharathi' that the intrepid scholar in his late 50s had set up along with a few other enthusiasts, he has released several packages of Vedic material including a five audio-CD set of `Abhisheka', nine CD-set of `Yajurveda' chantings, 32 CD-set of `Rigveda Samhita' apart from multi-media CDs of `Yajurveda' and `Rigveda'.

"We have succeeded in recording three modes of chanting. Eight more have to be completed. But for the support of `pandits' who are making their scholarly contributions without really looking for remuneration it just would not have been possible to record our great Vedas," says Dr. Avadhanulu (Ph.No. 23812577). He also started free Sanskrit classes and a training programme in Vedic sciences recently.

Over 500 reconvert to Hinduism in Orissa

In a 'reconversion' ceremony, 567 Christians returned to Hinduism in Indian state Orissa,Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) , the Hindu apex body sources said.

The ceremony was organised by the VHP and an elaborate arrangement was made at a local school premises where the people, mostly belonging to scheduled caste, had assembled.

VHP sources said that activists of the organisation had been in touch with these persons for a long time, counselling them to return to Hinduism.

All of them had sworn affidavits in this connection, which were sent to the Government authorities.

Dharma Narayan Sharma, VHP national secretary, Rohini Parmanik, national joint secretary, and Satyanarayan Panda, vice-president of state VHP were present on the occasion."

38 Hindu pilgrims killed in bus crash

  At least 38 Hindu pilgrims were killed and dozens injured overnight when an overcrowded bus plunged into a gorge in western India, police said yesterday. The private luxury bus was traveling to Nasik town in Maharashtra state after visiting a popular Hindu shrine late Sunday when the brakes failed above a 600-foot (183-metre) gorge, a police spokesman said.