A Hindu temple opened amidst the picturesque area of the East Village in New York City. This temple is operated by the Ramakrishnananda Yoga Vedanta Mission, 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/

Giving a Soft-Spoken Faith a Louder Voice

Hindus are a lot of things. There are Hindu monotheists, polytheists, panentheists, and even atheists. There are Hindu monists, dualists, non-dualists, and qualified non-dualists. There are Hindus who identify strongly with terms like these, and there are those who feel strongly that the religion shouldn’t be pigeonholed into convenient subdivisions. One thing Hindus aren’t, however, is conspicuous.

You won’t find Hindus sitting behind a table on College Walk and passing out flyers in an effort to convince you that whatever you believe in is wrong. The Hindu lecturers invited to campus speak to inform, not to preach. Unless you usually attend the annual Diwali celebration in the fall or play Holi on the steps in the spring—events to which anyone with a penchant for having fun (and eating good Indian food) is invited—you might easily never notice the large Hindu presence on campus.

Keeping a low profile is a manifestation of the non-interventionist mindset that has enabled Hinduism to survive some 8,000 years in spite of assaults like the Muslim invasions, the Goa inquisition, and more recent encroachments like the Gospel Fellowship Trust India’s campaign to aggressively convert Dalits and impoverished tribesmen to Christianity. Although this live-and-let-live philosophy probably originated as either a product of geographic isolation or a defensive tactic, it persists in Hindus today—not due to isolation or fear of ostracism, but because it is inherent in the religion and in the tradition of Sanatana Dharma, the literal translation of which is ”eternal natural law.“ Sanatana Dharma is simultaneously a weltanschauung, a set of spiritual laws, and a philosophy, central to which is the idea that lauding one’s own beliefs as superior to other belief systems is unnatural and contrary to the notion that people must progress toward truth on their own.

Being Hindu and living Sanatana Dharma at Columbia on a daily basis is not difficult—in general, the people here are accepting. There are challenges, however, associated with the fact that Hindu students are not an especially noticeable presence on campus. In October of last year, anti-Semitic graffiti, including a swastika, was found in Lewisohn Hall. Although in context the swastika was intended to be offensive to Jews, its use was cause for alarm among other groups—not only because the graffiti was hateful and destructive, but also due to the history of the symbol. Among Hindus, the swastika has long been an extremely holy and auspicious symbol. The administration, commendably, dealt with the graffiti expeditiously and contacted those student groups they felt were most likely to be affected. But the Hindu Students Organization (HSO) wasn’t among those groups. When some members of the Hindu community expressed concern about the possibility that the perversion of the swastika and its use as an anti-Semitic symbol might reflect negatively on the Hindu community, the HSO was at a loss to respond because it hadn’t been promptly informed about the incident.

Another effect of the Hindu community’s inconspicuousness is the lack of academic discussion at Columbia about Hinduism, which is both a boon and a disadvantage. In both informal and organized arguments about religion, Hinduism is often overlooked—these arguments are, more often than not, about Abrahamic religion rather than about religion in general. While this allows Hindus to escape any uncomfortable perlustration, it also means that followers of Dharmic religions don’t benefit from the same scrutiny that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are often subjected to—largely, they must question and challenge their personal philosophies for themselves.

The intellectual and personal growth of students at any university is contingent upon the presence of engaging and open-minded debate. The absence of such debate is not only detrimental to those whose views are left unchallenged, but also to students who are largely unfamiliar with a religion whose relevance increases every day, as most of Hinduism’s adherents inhabit a country with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It is imprudent to allow the third-largest and oldest extant religion to go unnoticed, especially at a university that is always at the forefront of global affairs. In spite of the lack of debate about Hinduism, the open-mindedness of the people at Columbia and the presence of a close-knit Hindu community have, for me, greatly facilitated the process of self-discovery that many people begin to undergo when they reach young adulthood. It has been a largely positive experience.

Ramkrishna Order president

Swami Gahanananda is dead

Kolkata, Nov 4: Swami Gahanananda, the 14th president of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, died here Sunday evening after a protracted illness. He was 91.

The end came at 5.35 p.m. at the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan hospital, the Ramakrishna Order said in a statement.

His body would be kept at Belur Math, the global headquarters of the order on the banks of the Hooghly in Howrah district near here for the visitors to pay their last respects. He would be cremated at 12.30 p.m. Monday.

Gahanananda had been suffering from various old-age ailments.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi mourned the death of the monk on whose passing away a pall of gloom descended the Order.

An able administrator, Gahanananda became the president of the Order on May 25, 2005 after serving as its vice-president for several years.

He was born in Paharpur village of Sylhet district (now in Bangladesh) in October 1916.

Known as Naresh Ranjan Roy Choudhury in his pre-monastic days, Gahanananda joined the Ramakrishna Order at its centre in Bhubaneswar in January 1939. He received diksha or initiation in 1939 and took a vow of brahmacharya (celibacy) in 1944 with the name 'Amrita-chaitanya'.

He was greatly influenced by the dedicated lives of some of the monks of Ramakrishna Order, especially Swami Prabhananda (Ketaki Maharaj), who was his cousin in his pre-monastic life.

Gahanananda had once met Swami Abhedanandaji Maharaj, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He served at the Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, from 1942 to 1952.

From 1953 to 1958, he was in the Shillong centre, where he worked under the guidance of Swami Saumyanandaji Maharaj. During this period he also organized flood relief operations in Assam a couple of times.

Keenly interested in service to sick and suffering people, Gahanananda was posted to the Mission's hospital centre, Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan here, in 1958.

He headed the hospital for 22 years and worked tirelessly to develop the services of the Seva Pratishthan to cater to the medical needs of more and more people belonging to poor and low-income sections of society.

The small maternity hospital was converted into a huge 550-bed, well-equipped hospital that it is today.

Gahanananda was elected a trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and member of the governing body of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1965. In 1979, he was appointed an assistant secretary of the twin organisations.

He became the general secretary of the Math and Mission in 1989 and continued in that post for three years till 1992 when he became vice-president of the Order.

In 1993, Gahanananda represented the Ramakrishna Order at the commemorative function organised in Chicago to celebrate the centenary of Swami Vivekananda's historic appearance at the World Parliament of Religions.

From 1992, he was also simultaneously the head of Ramakrishna Math (Yogodyan) at Kankurgachhi, Kolkata.

As vice-president of the Math and Mission, Gahanananda travelled extensively in India and abroad.

Swami Vivekananda had founded the Ramakrishna Mission Association in 1897. The body received a legal status and was registered as 'Ramakrishna Mission' in 1909.

Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission are together referred to as the Ramakrishna Order.

There are over 138 official centres of the Ramakrishna Order and many more unofficial or unaffiliated ones in the Indian subcontinent, Europe, Russia, Japan, South America, Africa, Canada and the US.

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.