Page 42 - Religion Belief
Modi's brother visits temple in Telangana
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's younger brother Prahalad Modi Saturday visited the Veerabhadra Swamy temple in the district and participated in a special pooja. According to chairman of the temple committee Srinivas Reddy, Prahalad Modi emphasised on educating people about history, culture and rich tradition during his visit to the place of worship. Temple priests, its executive officer Sridhar and BJP state executive council Member G Raju and others were present.
Rajnath Singh visits temple in Karnataka
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Polali Shree Rajarajeshwari temple and offered prayers Saturday. Singh was accompanied by Nalin Kumar Kateel MP, Rajesh Naik MLA, and other BJP leaders. The visit was during the celebration of 'Brahmakalashotsava' at the temple. Earlier in the day, state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa also visited the temple along with his son B Y Raghavendra MP.
Make spiritual immersion from Himalayas part of higher education, says Indian author
India must consider inducting a course in spirituality from its ashrams in Himalayas especially making it part of degree and MBA courses, given that the stressed executives of international corporations have sought solace in these holy spots, according to the author of a new book. Ravi Dabral pointed out that international personalities such as Steve Jobs of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook had sought spirituality under the patronage of the Himalayan ashram gurus and yogis. "Taking such examples, a spiritual immersion course can be made part of the higher education, degree courses and MBAs as students from here onwards head for a very stressful materialistic world, Dabral, an Uttarakhand native whose latest book Greed Lust Addiction' in English and Laalach Vaasana Lath in Hindi was launched in Singapore recently, said. He said that he understood the importance of the Himalayas very late. I was embarrassed to know that foreigners understood the importance of spiritual powers of ...
UN-founded University for Peace confers Honorary Doctorate on Vice President Naidu
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by the University for Peace founded by the United Nations Organisations (UNO) for his contribution "to the Rule of Law, democracy and sustainable development in India".He received the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa" from the Dean of the University for Peace here.In his acceptance speech, Naidu said, "This (Honorary Doctorate) is an honour for my country than to me as an individual. It is an honour bestowed on a country, a civilization and a culture that has been an ardent and consistent champion of peace since time immemorial. I am privileged to receive this honour when the world is commemorating the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhi Ji, the extraordinary apostil of peace."He also called for defeating the destructive forces of hatred, the fanatical cries of religious bigotry and the megalomaniac designs of despotic rulers to ensure peace for promoting the welfare of humankind. Urging the people to see
First Hindu female lawmaker chairs Pakistan Senate on Women's Day
The first-ever Thari Hindu woman to be elected to Pakistan's Senate, Krishna Kumari Kohli chaired the session of the Upper House on occasion of International Women's Day.
VP Naidu calls for defeating 'destructive forces of hatred'
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday called for defeating the "destructive forces of hatred, the fanatical cries of religious bigotry and the megalomaniac designs of despotic rulers" to ensure peace for promoting the welfare of humankind. He also said that terrorism has emerged as the "biggest threat" to the world peace and India is bearing the impact of this most serious challenge. Naidu made the remarks after receiving an honorary doctorate by the University of Peace founded by the United Nations for his contribution "to the rule of law, democracy and sustainable development in India". He is the first Indian to receive an honorary doctorate from this varsity. In his acceptance speech, Vice President Naidu "called for defeating the destructive forces of hatred, the fanatical cries of religious bigotry and the megalomaniac designs of despotic rulers to ensure peace for promoting the welfare of humankind", said a statement issued by his office. "The ability to appreciate and ...
Pope hails 'irreplaceable contribution' of women
Pope Francis on Friday hailed the "irreplaceable contribution of women in building a world that can be a home for all" to mark International Women's Day. "Women make the world beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive. They bring the grace of renewal, the embrace of inclusion, and the courage to give of oneself," the pope said at the Vatican. "Peace, then, is born of women, it arises and is rekindled by the tenderness of mothers," he said during an audience with the American Jewish Committee. "Thus the dream of peace becomes a reality when we look towards women." "If we take to heart the importance of the future, if we dream of a future peace, we need to give space to women," he said. International Women's Day is an annual celebration marked with events around the world.
Pope denounces 'depraved' antisemitism and urges dialogue
Pope Francis denounced the "depraved hatred" behind a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in parts of the world and said interfaith dialogue can help counter it. Francis met Friday with a delegation of the American Jewish Committee and praised their longstanding good relations. He lamented that their meeting was taking place amid the spread of a "climate of wickedness and fury, in which an excessive and depraved hatred is taking root." And he warned that for Christians, any form of anti-Semitism is "a rejection of one's own origins, a complete contradiction." The audience occurred days after Francis responded to longstanding requests from Jewish groups to open the Vatican archives of its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, who has faced accusations of having failed to speak out enough against the Holocaust. Francis didn't refer publicly to Pius, whom the Vatican has long defended as having used quiet diplomacy to save lives. The president of the AJC, John Shapiro, did, thanking Francis for ...
Mukesh Ambani's son Anant named member of Badrinath, Kedarnath temple committee
Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani's youngest son Anant was Friday appointed as a member of the Shri Badarinath Shri Kedarnath Mandir Committee. An order issued by the Uttarakhand government on Friday named 10 members of the prestigious temple management committee. Anant Ambani's name figures at No.1 on the list. Anant has been a regular visitor to the Badrinath and Kedarnath temples along with his parents. Mukesh and his wife Nita have three children -- twins Akash and Isha and Anant. Ambanis had last year offered prayers at Kedarnath and Badrinath and sought the blessings of the presiding deities at the famous Himalayan shrines for the wedding of Isha Ambani. The temple committee is headed by Mohan Prasad Thapliyal. Badrinath or Badrinarayan Temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu which is situated in the town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand. The temple and town form one of the four Char Dham and Chota Char Dham pilgrimage sites. Kedarnath Mandir is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Located on the Garhwal .
Important and essential to build Ram temple at Ayodhya: BJP leaders
A number of senior BJP leaders made it clear Friday that building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse, soon after the Supreme Court ordered a time-bound mediation to resolve the long-pending issue. Union minister Uma Bharti said one has to respect the Supreme Court order but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity. BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said that keeping the dispute pending for long is not in anyone's interest. "It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi. This cannot be kept pending for a long time," he said. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also stressed that the construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable. "There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born," he added. The party has been insisting that it stands for building a ...
Ultra-Orthodox Jews attack reformers at Jerusalem holy site
Thousands of young ultra-Orthodox Jews mobbed women seeking equal prayer rights at one of Judaism's holiest sites on Friday, leading police to escort them away from Jerusalem's Western Wall. The Women of the Wall group has for 30 years been demanding changes to rules at the site barring females from leading Jewish prayer, wearing ritual prayer shawls or handling Torah scrolls. A police statement said the prayer space in front of the Wall was packed with worshippers marking the start of the new Jewish month, according to the lunar calendar. "During the prayers, friction arose between the worshippers, including the Women of the Wall, including curses and various comments," it said. Video posted by Haaretz newspaper showed a crowd of black-hatted ultra-orthodox men jeering and trying to shove their way toward the rival group. "Thousands of ultra-Orthodox youth violently disrupt @Womenofthewall 30th anniversary prayer service," the group wrote on Twitter. An AFP photographer at the scene .
Hindu Dalit woman chairs Pak Senate session on Women's Day
Krishna Kumari Kohli, Pakistan's first female senator from the Hindu Dalit community, on Friday chaired the session of the Upper House of Parliament on occasion of International Women's Day. "Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on Women's Day," Senator Faisal Javed tweeted. Krishna, 40, was elected as senator in March 2018 after spending many years working for the rights of bonded labourers in Muslim-majority Pakistan. She is the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Pakistan senate. She belongs to the Kohli community from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar area of Sindh province where a sizeable number of Hindus live. "I consider myself very fortunate today to be sitting on this seat...," she said before starting the session. International Women's Day is observed across the world on March 8. Born to a poor peasant, Jugno Kolhi, in February 1979, Krishna and her family members ...
Uttrakhand CM appoints Anant Ambani as member of Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Friday appointed industrialist Mukesh Ambani's son Anant as a member of Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee.It has been noticed that Ambanis visit the holy shrines every time something important comes up in the family.Last year, they offered prayers at Kedarnath and Badrinath and sought the blessings of the presiding deities at the famous Himalayan shrine for the wedding of Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani.Kedarnath Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Located on the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river, Kedarnath is located in the state of Uttarakhand.Due to extreme weather conditions, the temple is open to general public only between the months of April and November.
Last rites of Matua matriarch Binapani Devi held
The last rites of Matua community matriarch Binapani Devi, who died in a city hospital on Tuesday, was held with full state honours and gun salute in North 24 Parganas district Thursday. The mortal remains of Binapani Devi, popularly known as 'Boro Ma', was taken to various streets in a procession before it was consigned to flames at a crematorium in Thakurnagar. Thakurnagar is the headquarters of the Matua Mahasangh, the central body of the scheduled caste community which is a significant political force in the state. The last rites, attended by thousands of followers of Boro Ma, were earlier scheduled to be held on Wednesday evening. It was rescheduled on Thursday to enable the Matua community members pay their last respect to Binapani Devi. The funeral pyre was lit by Boro Ma's younger son Manjul Krishna Thakur. Her elder son Kapil Krishna Thakur, who was a Trinamool Congress MP, died in 2014. Manjul Krishna Thakur was a Trinamool Congress MLA and minister but he had .
BJP harassing Muslims, says SP MLA
Samajwadi Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan on Thursday accused the BJP of harassing Muslims so badly that they were left with only two options: give up Islam or join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Voters being deleted from electoral rolls: TDP
TDP workers Wednesday staged a sit-in at the Krishna district collectorate and alleged that the opposition YSR Congress Party was deleting names of voters in the Andhra Pradesh's Machilipatnam assembly constituency. They were led by Andhra Pradesh Law Minister Kollu Ravindra. The TDP supporters and leaders, including Machilipatnam Municipal Chairman M Baba Prasad, also took out a motorcycle rally from Koneru to the collectorate. YSR Congress Party leader and former MLA Perni Venkataramaiah and his team have submitted fake Form-7s as the fear of loosing in the general elections, Ravindra alleged. Form-7 is an application for voter deletion. The opposition party stands exposed and the matter must be probed, he said. The TDP also submitted a memorandum to the Krishna District Revenue Officer.
RSS shakhas produce ill-informed bigots: Omar Abdullah
National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah Wednesday said RSS shakhas produce ill-informed bigots. Abdullah made the remark attacking former Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta for his reported remarks that madrasas breed militants. "And RSS shakhas produce ill-informed bigots like Gupta here," said Abdullah in a tweet. The BJP leader and former dy CM Gupta had earlier said, "Madrasas are the places where militants are born." NC chief spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, meanwhile, dubbed Gupta's remarksas "sheer idiocy" arising out of "mental frustration". Mehdi said Gupta's statement reveals the amount of revulsion that the saffron party and its cadres have for Muslims. Gupta's statement indicates his ignorance and malice against Muslims, he said. "The statement is coming from a person who is affiliated with RSS, an extremist rightwing organisation that didn't play any role in the independence movement of the country, on the contrary it showed revulsion for
Pakistan violates ceasefire, used artillery guns to shell areas along LoC in J-K
The Pakistan army Wednesday targeted several forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri and Poonch districts with artillery guns and small arms, officials said. The intense shelling and firing from across the border continued throughout the night in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, while it started in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch in the early hours of Wednesday, they said. The officials said Pakistan also targeted areas in the Nowshera sector in Rajouri. However, the firing and shelling from across the border stopped this afternoon in the Sunderbandi, Nowshera and Krishna Ghati sectors, they said. The Indian army retaliated strongly and effectively to the Pakistani firing and there was no report of any casualty on the Indian side, though some structures, including residential houses and cow sheds, were damaged, the officials said. The firing in the Krishna Ghati took place from 6 pm to 8:15 pm. Firing in the Sunderbani sector ...
No plan to bring in Church Act: Kerala CM
The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala Wednesday asserted it had no plans to bring in a law to manage temporal properties of the church in the state, as it distanced itself from a draft bill published by the Law Reforms Commission. Chief Minister Pianrayi Vijayan told a group of Catholic church representatives, who called on him here, that the commission had published the draft of the Kerala Church (Properties and Institutions) Bill, popularly known as the Kerala Church Act, without consulting the government. During the tenure of the previous LDF government in 2006-11 also, the then Law Reforms Commission had submitted such a proposal but it was also rejected, Vijayan said. Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis, the Major Archbishop of Syro Malankara Catholic Church, Archbishop Soosa Pakiam, the head of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) and Thamarassery bishop, Mar Remegiose Inchananiyil were among those who visited the Chief Minister and appraised their concern ...
Amarinder seeks restoration of material removed from Golden Temple library in 1984
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking immediate restoration of the historic material removed from the library of the Golden Temple in Amritsar during Operation Bluestar in 1984. The chief minister said a delegation from Sikh organizations from the UK met him recently and discussed issues related to resident Indians and the Sikh community diaspora of the UK. Among them, was the subject of the material taken from the Golden Temple. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has said 15,000 rare books, 16,000 artefacts related to the Sikh religion and history, edicts issued by the 10 gurus, and handwritten 'birs' (copies) of Guru Granth Sahib had gone missing after the 1984 operation. It has approached the Centre on multiple occasions for the "return" of the items. In the letter to Rajnath Singh, the Punjab chief minister said the issue requires "urgent intervention" of the Home Ministry. He said that most of the material were ...