Hinduism Today, January/February/March, 2010
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January/February/March, 2010 US$7.95 Affirming Sanatana Dharma and Recording the Modern History of a Billion-Strong Global Religion in Renaissance new york public library archives COVER: Bhutanese Hindus in Kathmandu about to depart for the US. Our story tells of squandered decades in refugee camps and a people’s flight to freedom, hope and new challenges in the West. Above: dancer Ruth St. Denis plays Radha in an opulent 1915 production. January/february/March, 2010 • Hindu year 5111 Virodhin, the year of adversities www.gurudeva.org In t er nat Iona l Youth: Three Eloquent Essays Reveal the Bountiful Feature: After 19 Years, Bhutan’s Abandoned Hindus Challenges of Being Hindu in America 68 Flee Nepal Camps for New Lives in the US 18 opInIon Issues: Ahh, Silk! So Soft! So Elegant. So...Violent? 54 In My Opinion: Kudos to Sewa International, Big l If e s t y l e Brother to the Hindus No One Wanted 9 Culture: Meet Ruth St. Denis, Pioneer of “Modern Publisher’s Desk: Can Our Religious Obligation to Dance,” American Evangelist for India 32 Give also Bring Us Material Abundance? 1X Insight: Yoga for Spiritual Striving: the Eight From the Agamas: The Steps to Deep Meditation 17 Limbs of Raja Yoga Explored 36 dIge s t s Education: How Chinmaya Mission Trains Global Teachers: a First-Person Account 62 Global Dharma 6 Quotes & Quips 14 Digital Dharma 86 Letters to the editor, subscription and editorial inquiries may be sent to Hinduism today, 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii 96746-9304 USA, let- [email protected]. Hinduism Today (ISSN# 0896-0801; USPS# 023082), January/February/March, 2010, Volume 32, No. 1. Editorial: 1-808-822-7032; subscriptions from USA and Canada 1-877-255-1540; subscriptions, copies or bulk orders from other countries 1-808-240-3109; subscribe@hindu. org; advertising: 1-888-464-1008, [email protected]. All-department fax: 1-808-822-4351. Hinduism Today is published four times a year in January, April, July and October by Himalayan Academy, a nonprofit educational institution at 107 Kaholalele Road, Kapaa, Hawaii 96746-9304 USA. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Founder; Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, Publisher; Paramacharya Palaniswami, Editor-in-Chief. USA subscriptions: us$35/1 year, $65/2 years, $95/3 years, $155/5 years, $1,001/lifetime. Contact us for international rates. In Malaysia: Sanathana Dharma Publications, 45 Jalan Ungu U 9/34C, Sunway Kayangan, 40150, Shah Alam. Tel: 016-380-2393; E-mail: [email protected]. In Singapore: Sanathana Dharma Publications, Bhutan’s Hindu Refugees Blk 210 #06-326, Pasir Ris Street 21, 510210. 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Subscribe to the Print Hinduism Today Amazing Publications, Edition of Hinduism Today Archives Online Viewable Online Submit an Article to Read the Story of Shop at the Himalayan Hinduism Today Hinduism Today Academy Online Store Send Comments Subscribe to Hindu An Audio Library To the Editor Press International, a Of Inspired Talks (e-mail) Daily News Summary Pushed out of their Bhutanese homeland 19 years ago, nearly all of the 106,000 refugees living in camps like this one in Nepal are to be resettled in the West. Most are coming to the US... page 18 thomas kelly The Maoists had also pad- mounting pressure, the Maoists was nineteen and has lived archeology/linguistics locked the temple offices. Tourist removed the padlocks and by in the US ever since. She is fees could not be collected and the end of the month the flow of the president of Asian Indian the PADT suffered a daily loss tourists and devotees nearly re- Women in America. Computers Call it Language! n e pa l of us$6,500 for two weeks. More turned to normal. Only time will In an interview with the Ex- n july, 2009, a group of diverse content, both of which than 600 tourists a day visit the tell if the uneasy truce will keep press in Chennai, she said the Icollaborating researchers from are suggestive of a linguistic area and each tourist is charged Lord Siva’s priests from further Council is more about social South India and the University writing system rather than a Pashupatinath Tensions an entrance fee of Rs. 500. Under harassment. initiatives than spiritual process. of Washington submitted the nonlinguistic symbol system.” ancorous fighting over PADT, to help the temple She will work for knowledge results of their analysis Rwho should be the priests during occasional illness sharing and community service of the Indus script to of Nepal’s famed Pasupathinath or absences. This time, it development among Americans the National Academy temple continued through the was the Maoist camp that of Indian origin. She plans to of Sciences (see http:// fall of 2009. In late 2008, the protested. see that service initiatives such www.pnas.org and Maoist government had bowed In September a group of u s a as the Hindu American Seva search “Indus script”). under protest from Nepal’s 40-50 Maoists assaulted Charities, (HinduAmercan- The report says, “Us- orthodox Hindus to remove the five newly-arrived Indian Seva.org) which she convened, ing the Markov prob- chief priest of the temple, Bish- priests and made their de- Anju Bhargava receive the same funding as abilities model, we show nu Dahal, a Nepali. Priests from mands again to overturn Christian organizations. “The how missing, ambigu- the South Indian states of Kerala, the 800-year-old tradition On Obama’s churches have evolved as huge ous or unreadable signs Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and of having Indians be the service organizations due to the on damaged objects Tamil Nadu were reinstated. main temple priests. The Committee support they receive from the can be filled in with After the fall of the Maoist disruption forced closure n april, 2009, anju bhar- government. We are seeking most likely predictions government in the spring of of the temple for two days. Igava became the second In- such a support, too.” Bhargava from the model. Taken 2009, in August the Pashupati- India’s Ambassador to dian American and first Hindu is an ordained Hindu priest and together, our results nath Area Development Trust Nepal lodged a strong pro- to be appointed to Obama’s works to instill dharmic values indicate that the Indus (PADT) took the opportunity to test with the Home Minis- Faith Based and Community and the inner meaning of prac- script exhibits rich increase the number of Indian ter. He demanded and got Partnerships Council. Bhargava tices into the new generation of syntactic structure and Scientists struggle to decipher the myste- priests by contacting four Indian more security for the five came from Chennai when she Hindu Americans. the ability to represent rious 4,000-year-old Indus script peeths —sacred monasteries —in Indian priests. The temple Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat and was reopened. However, g e n e t i c o r i g i n s Uttarakhand. The monaster- security guards checked Priests invoke rain; graph: a ies were to shortlist suitable each and every devotee month-long drought breaks candidates, who would be to prevent any Maoist Siva’s pujaris under duress: Nepal’s most holy sanctuary has become when rainfall begins to screened and interviewed by infiltration. the center of a struggle over the national identity of it priests increase after August 25 Brahmins, Tribals, All Castes Originated in India i n d i a abundant rains in the city and n january, 2009, the journal Indian American (search the country,” explained 65-year- I Human Genetics published “Christian girls try to old Venkataraman Shastri, the an Indian genetic researchers’ convert Hindu girl”) was Tuning In to Cosmic Forces head priest of the temple and report titled, “The Indian Origin sad, hilarious and en- uring the august 1, a trustee of Kashi Vishvanath one of the priests who sat inside of Paternal Haplogroup R1a1 couraging all at once.