Source: www.thejakartapost.comJAKARTA, INDONESIA, February 17, 2010: Thousands of people across Bali have been busy making the giant ogoh-ogoh effigies in preparation for the celebrations of the upcoming Caka Hindu New Year 1932, popularly known as Nyepi, or the Day of Silence. The event falls on March 16. Local resident Wayan Chandra said making the ogoh-ogoh [...]Source: Press ReleaseBALI, INDONESIA, February 2010: Bali-India Foundation will be organizing the second International Bali-India Yoga Festival from 3-10 March, 2010. The theme of the festival is ‘Yoga & Global Warming’. Bali, which has an ancestral relationship with India, shares a great concern about Global Warming. Bali, the Island of the Gods, where the sage [...]Source: www.indianweekender.co.nzNEW ZEALAND, February 13, 2010: The Sri Balaji Temple Project which is the first of its kind in New Zealand held its first prayers and conducted the Sudharsana Homan on 23rd January, 2010 at the Phoenix Hall in Hamilton. Secretary Bala Bhaskar Tikkisetty welcomed the hundreds of devotees present. The Maha Sudharsana Homan, is [...]Source: www.i-newswire.comUNITED STATES, February 22, 2010 - Bloggermoms, a website that celebrates life and parenting at the intersection of multiple cultures, today released a package of ideas for celebrating Holi in schools, preschools and the workplace. The package contains ideas for crafts and celebrations in the classroom, hosting a Holi party for kids, precautions to [...]Source: www.hinduismtoday.comAn English professor wrote the words, Woman without her man is nothing on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly. The men wrote: Woman, without her man, is nothing. The women wrote: Woman: without her, man is nothing. Source: beta.thehindu.comKATMANDU, NEPAL, February 9, 2010: Almost two years after he was stripped of his crown and became a commoner, Nepal’s deposed king Gyanendra hit the headlines Tuesday with reports that he had attended, for the first time in the history of Nepal’s Shah dynasty, a religious fair in a town till now considered out [...]Source: beta.thehindu.comTAMIL NADU, INDIA, February 2010: Near Chennai, the ancient village of Sembian Kolathur has a name denoting Chola connection. The small village, famous for Sama Vedic is home of the rare Sri Thulaseeswarar temple, where Lord Siva temple takes the name of tulsi, or holy basil. The 850-year old Sri Thulaseeswarar temple has been [...]Source: www.azcentral.com[HPI note: According to the Mounier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary, Prasada means "Clarity, brightness; grace." It is often used to signify food offered to the Deity or the guru, or the blessed remnants of such food, or any propitiatory offering.]ARIZONA, U.S., February 5, 2010: A Sanskrit word meaning “gracious gift” or “clarity” has resulted in anything [...]Source: www.hinduismtoday.comThough we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Ralph Waldo EmersonSource: india-herald.comFORT PARKER, TEXAS, February 17, 2010: Fort Parker State Park in Mexia, Texas was filled to capacity from February 5-7, for the Hindu student’s South Regional Retreat with 91 students representing eight universities and three states across the southern United States. Anju Bhargava, a member of President Barack Obama’s new Faith Advisory Council, flew [...]Source: Paras Ramoutar, HPI StaffTRINADAD/TOBAGO, February 2010: Devout Hindus thronged mandirs and other places of worship in observance of Shiva Ratri on Carnival Friday night, Feb. 12 from sunset to Saturday sunrise. It is the night of the great awakening of Lord Shiva. Hindus keep vigil all night. Lord Shiva is manifested in all aspects [...]Source: news.rediff.comANDRA PRADESH, INDIA, February 19, 2010: Supporters for a new Telangana state protested and burned an effigy of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati for his comments disfavoring the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. However, when asked about the row triggered by his remarks, the seer told reporters, “There is nothing wrong in carving out a separate [...]Source: beta.thehindu.comDHARMAVARAM, INDIA, February 12, 2010: If an elegant woman can grace those around her with the subtle fragrance of her perfumes, why not also, as if in a movie, provide her own soundtrack? Swaramadhuri, a singing silk sari, embedded with eight micro speakers on its border has caught the fancy of many silk traders [...]Source: www.hinduismtoday.comThe secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. Siddhartha Gautama (ca 566-486 bce)Source: www.phnompenhpost.comCAMBODIA, February 15, 2010: Archaeologists and government officials have high hopes that a new watch list of endangered antiquities will prevent them from being traded illegally. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) this week published its Red List of at-risk Cambodian antiquities, which are commonly looted, trafficked and then sold on the illicit art [...]