CPM General Secretary, Prakash Karat,
has magnanimously declared that party members 'can attend religious events organised by others'. However they have to have to
'adopt a scientific outlook and abandon religious faith'.
He has instructed that
'party activists and people’s representatives should not conduct religious programmes nor should they observe religious rituals'.
He has further said, though, that
'they are not asked to abandon their faith or religious practices'.
Wanted:-An interpreter to decipher the meaning of all this.
There are many who believe that during his missing years, from the age of 12 to 30, which are not accounted for in the Bible, Jesus lived in India and Tibet. During this time, he stayed in Jagannath Puri, Meenakshi Temple Madurai and Ladakh. There is also a belief, examined in some
documentary films, that he died in Kashmir, where some claim his tomb exists.
British film producer
Kent Walwin is making a film, 'Young Jesus – The Missing Years' which will ”put the question out there”. It will be an interfaith film. For advice on Hinduism and Buddhism, Walwin has approached the Swaminarayan Sanstha and through Satish Kumar Modi, Buddhist groups.
As per Yogananda Parmahansa's
'Autobiography of a Yogi', Babaji also spoke, in 1894, about the obscured “underlying unity” between Hindu and Christian scriptures. Strange?
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Further reading: A new ecumenism based upon
reexamination of the "Lost Years" evidence
A 36-year old priest of the Machaesa Perumal Temple in the pilgrim town of Kancheepuram has been arrested for
having sex with women inside the sanctum sanctorum.
The shocking behaviour of the priest came to light when he gave his mobile, in which he had recorded his escapades in MMS format in 19 files running into 90 minutes, for repairs. These have become a rage among some people and are even available on the net.
Devanathan, a father of two, used to entice women who came alone to enter the sanctum and then seduce them. Those who fell for his charms got preference over others for puja.
In an unrelated nation wide study, NGO Gram Niyojana Kendra has found that pilgrim centres are becoming a
growing hub for sex tourism, after major cities and places for sightseeing.
After 759 years, Jigme Wangchuk, an 11-year-old boy based in Boston, has been enthroned near Darjeeling as
the first reincarnation of His Holiness Gyalwa Lorepa.According to
Dichen, Jigme's mother, "He used to always talk of his past life but we did not take it seriously”. Two years back when they were visiting the Kagyu Nalanda Monastery in Mysore, Jigme suddenly started narrating his past life as if in a trance...a monastery somewhere in the Himalayas, surrounded by huge rocks and a dragon. That turned out to be the exact desription of the monastry in Bumthang, Bhutan. Two hours after the incident, Gyalwang Rinpoche identified Jigme as the reincarnation of HH Galwa Lorepa.
For the followers of the Drukpa Kagyu Sect of Tantrayana Buddhism,
it is a time for joy. But for his family, the transition has been trying.
According to a 2008 report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Buddhism has become the
third most popular religion in the US after Christianity and Judaism. In fact, the most complex Buddhist city in the world is now Los Angeles, where there are more than 300 Buddhist temples and centers, representing nearly all of Buddhist practices around the world.
As per CNN, “programs and workshops educating inmates about meditation and yoga are sprouting up across the country.” In December this year, Thomas Dyer, a former Marine and one-time Southern Baptist pastor, will head to Afghanistan as the first Buddhist chaplain in the history of the U.S. Army.
It is not Buddhism alone. According to a report in Newsweek, Americans are
“becoming more like Hindus”. The East-West twain are finally beginning to meet, it seems.
The statement by Sheik of al-Azhar University, Egypt, that
niqab or face veil has nothing to do with Islam has angered Islamists in that country who say it is part of a larger plan to de-Islamise Egypt. A majority of scholars, however, feel that the niqab is a pre-Islamic custom followed by tribal and nomadic communities living in the Arabian desert. Al-Azhar university has, in fact, gone a step further and banned the niqab in all-women classes.
It may be recalled that a few months back, the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa board had
banned co-education in madrassas on the ground that parda (veil) is essential in Islam and co-education encourages 'be-pardagi'.
Is it a coincidence that in every religion there are discriminatory social customs that have been given a religious cloak? Surely God has better things to do!
The Chinese are not afraid of
His Holiness the Dalai Lama for nothing. There is perhaps no other living man who evokes so much of loyalty and devotion in his followers.
Three of Dalai Lamas followers recently
travelled on foot for five months all the way from Ingappa village in Tibet to Bodh Gaya, where Buddha attained enlightenment, to pray for his long life. On reaching there last Thursday, Kelsang Dondup, 56, Sangau Dolma, 62, and Chultim Lama, 43, offered prayers to Buddha at the Mahabodhi Temple.
Two years ago, monk Gyansen Lama had also offered prayers at the Mahabodhi Temple. But he did not come on foot from Tibet. He crawled all the way.
It may be recalled that the Dalai Lama had
fled Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese occupied it, and has been living in Dharamsala since.
What is it that make some men of religion do exactly the opposite of what religion teaches and what they themselves preach? Particularly when it comes to sex?
The latest in the unending series of sexual crimes involve a
pastor and a
granthi.
Father Sadhu Immanuel has been arrested for raping a 20 year old girl. This 60 year old man runs a charitable trust in a village near Minjur in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu. Reportedly, he has sexually assaulted other girls too, even inside the church.
A few days after a granthi was found watching pornographic clips on his mobile while reading the Granth Sahib, another one has been caught after he tried to assault a five-year old girl in a village near Barnala, Punjab.
Makes one wonder whether Osho was right, after all.
Americans are “becoming more like Hindus” . In support of this view, Lisa Miller, in a Newsweek article, cites some startling statistics: 65% Americans believe that “many religions lead to eternal life”, 24% call themselves “spiritual, not religious”, 24% believe in reincarnation and “more than a third now choose cremation”.
This change directly flows from the almost unfettered freedom to question, without any fear, the reduction of the limitless dimensions of God into a book or two, with competing claims that that is all that there is to Him.
Buddha once told his followers that they should not believe the word of any holy man or book, even of Buddha himself. He asked them to walk their own paths and find the answers themselves.
2500 years later, America seems to be taking that walk.
