In Pakistan

The ancient Hindu temple at Katas Raj, some 40 kilometres from Chakwal, has been robbed of all its relics, save for a stone carving depicting a god and a goddess, who are sitting, and two female slaves standing on either side.Kumar accused the Punjab Archaeology Department (PAD) for lack of interest and not providing the temple enough security. He said the temple had been a continuous victim to smugglers of ancient sculptures. He said the surviving statue was priceless and was also in threat of being stolen.[Only one Hindu relic left at Katas Raj temple]

In Tamil Nadu

In the last one month, there have been at least three cases of idol thefts, the latest being Thursday, where a wooden elephant was found being smuggled to France.The exquisitely carved Natarajas, Alwars and Murugans, crafted prior to 12th century have been stolen from these poorly guarded temples and make their way to many foreign countries

Officials from the idol wing say that there are idol thieves active in every district of Tamil Nadu, constantly targeting temples in Tanjavur and Madurai belonging to the Chola period, temples in Kancheepuram and Vellore belonging to the the Pallava period and temples in Tirunelveli belonging to the Pandian period.[Idol thieves target Tamil Nadu temples]

Update

In Balochistan

Lawmakers in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan assembly have demanded that the federal government drop plans to build a dam in the region as the structure will damage a historical Hindu temple visited by thousands of pilgrims every year.

In a joint resolution moved by several provincial ministers and backed by all lawmakers, except one, members of the assembly wanted the federal government to cancel plans for building the dam on Hangol river that would pass near the Makran coastal highway close to the Hinglaj Mata temple. [Balochistan lawmakers oppose dam construction near temple]

(Image by individuality)

When The Da Vinci Code, was released in Kerala, a state which has high Christian population, no one protested. There were long queues for the movie which according one theater owner generated interests second only to Titanic. That was not the case in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where the Government pro-actively banned the movie.

The High Courts of both states vituperated the governments.The Andhra High Court told the government that, “the constitution does not confer or tolerate such individualised hyper-sensitive private censor intrusion into and regulation of guaranteed freedom of others.” The Madras High court, on similar lines, wrote, “artistic expressions may be asphyxiated by law if a petulant group of self-appointed `censors’ prescribes the paradigms for suspending the screening of a film.”

More opportunities for asphyxiating artistic expressions are on the way, but this time it will not be the state governments which will be acting.

In the much awaited Kamal Haasan movie, Dasavatharam, it seems there are scenes which show idols being destroyed in the clash between Shaivaites and Vaishnavites. Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Vedantam has said that such scenes hurt the sentiments of Hindus all around the world and should be removed failing which they will resort to protests.

The second protest, which might start soon, is for the new Mike Myers movie, The Love Guru. In this movie, which also stars Ben Kingsley, Jessica Alba, and Justin Timberlake, Myers spoofs an Indian Guru who returns to Canada to get into the self help business. The fight over the movie has already started in United States with Rajan Zed, the Indian priest who was heckled by Christian fundamentalists in the Senate, stating that the movie “aids in creating negative stereotypes of Hindu characters. ” Deepak Chopra, the self-help guru, retaliated with a statement that anyone who opposes the movie is a fundamentalist.

Deepak Chopra is doing a cameo in the movie and has an upcoming book, Why Is God Laughing?, about comedy and religion and so has his own reasons for batting for Paramount and Mike Myers. That said, is this religion which survived Aurangzeb and Macaulay now facing the biggest threat from a Canadian comic? This Nawab of Arcot mentality will give free publicity to the movies and opportunities for violent mobs to destroy public property achieving nothing else. Movies come, go to DVD and their popularity would be fugacious, but something which has survived more than four millennia will live on.

If you are offended by these movie concepts, don’t watch it. Stay at home and get offended by the IPL cheerleaders.

And if we Hindus fail to ignore such Love Gurus, we have to go back to the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita and start from scratch. Because we have not even understood the basic teachings of Hinduism.[Simply Ignore the Hollywood Movie The Love Guru and the Controversy]

As for Mr. Vedantam, there are many real temples in dilapidated state around the country hurting the sentiments of Hindus all around the world. If only he could worry about them, instead of fake idols in a movie.

In Philippines, a Roman Catholic majority country, the government has rejected contraception a family planning tool since it goes against the Church doctrine. The President herself suggested what the population should do – “Women not wanting to get pregnant, Arroyo advised, should buy a thermometer and recording charts and abstain from sex when they are outside the ‘infertile phases of the monthly cycle.'” The result of this advice, according to Washington Post, is a country of poor people with large families.

Acceding to Catholic doctrine, the government for the past five years has supported only what it calls “natural” family planning. No national government funds can be used to buy contraceptives for the poor, although anyone who can afford them is permitted to buy them. Local governments can also buy and distribute contraceptives, but many lack the money.

In 2005, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines announced that they would refuse Communion to government health workers who distributed birth control devices. [Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty]

Deepak Chopra writes what is happening in the Pope’s back yard where people have rejected the thermometer and graphs.

Italy, the home country of Catholicism in Europe, has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. This implies a resort to contraception, and yet Church dogma calls that a sin, forcing its parishioners into Hobson’s choice.

During ancient times, guru dakshina used to be a tricky business; gurus could ask for anything and the shishyas, without questioning, had to provide. Pandavas, on completion of their education asked Drona and his wish was a preemptive strike on Drupada. In a separate incident related to Drona, Ekalavya had to part with his thumb.

In modern times body parts and warfare are not in vogue; the disciple donates something according to his capabilities to the guru and such convention has worked very well. The stay at Sivananda Ashram in Kasi is entirely free for few days and if you want to extend the stay, all you need is notify the receptionist. The 10 day vipassana course conducted around the world is free as well. All these are supported by dakshinas by people and there are enough people donating that both these institutions, like many others, have been running successfully for years.

By giving a dakshina, as per Indian tradition, we honor the guru parampara; all the masters in the org structure who made this transmission of knowledge possible. By our support we also make sure that our children and grand children have access to this knowledge. It was never about money this has always been the way of Indian spirituality.

Now you see certain New Age spiritual groups which sell spirituality with a predefined price list for various courses. There is a fee for basic meditation course, a larger amount for advanced meditation and half your salary for a residential course. Essentially it is like registering for a tennis or salsa dancing class – you pay a certain amount and you get packaged spirituality.

Indian philosophy has supported a market place of ideas including both astika and nāstika but there never was, during ancient times, an instance when spirituality was sold as a product in the market place. Earlier each school differentiated itself by ideas, now it is by the menu card. To top it, these spiritual groups demand a guru dakshina at the end of the class and what got by goat was a recent $100 discount coupon I got for one such spiritual course.

Selling spirituality is not to be delated. That is business and looking at the amount of people flocking to these gurus, it seems to be a profitable one too. Then, at the end of the tennis class our coaches do not ask for more money for the price for the class was negotiated and settled earlier. Asking for guru dakshina in such situations does not go with tradition and it would be as disagreeable as adding sugar to sambar. As Yoda would have said^*, “This mix and match of business and tradition, jarring I find it to be.”

(*) result of watching 6 Star Wars movies back to back.

Pandering to the Christian Right, Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain recently stated that United States was a Christian Nation, despite the fact that United States has no official religion and has a clear separation of Church and State. According to Garry Wills, historian and Professor of History Emeritus at Northwestern University, the Founding Fathers were deists who believed in creation, providence and after life. They did not believe that Jesus was divine and you could get things by praying for them.

Steve Waldman has a new book, Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America
which explores the religious beliefs of the Founding Fathers.

Franklin, we learn, believed that God created the universe, then gave over its governing to various minor gods. (Waldman describes this as a form of deism, though it strikes me as vaguely Gnostic.) John Adams’s “disdain for Calvinists was surpassed only by his contempt for Catholics,” and he appears to have been equally disgusted with many facets of orthodox Christian theology. For instance, he refused to accept that one bite from an apple “damned the whole human Race, without any actual Crimes committed by any of them.” Eventually, Adams joined a liberal Unitarian church, which emphasized Christ’s teachings rather than his divinity.

George Washington was raised as an Anglican but seldom went to Sunday service, refused to kneel and never took communion. In many ways, he was more active as a freemason than as a Christian. But he spoke up strongly for religious tolerance, even during the Revolution: “While we are contending for our liberty,” he wrote, “we should be very cautious of violating the Rights of Conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the Judge of the Hearts of men, and to him only in this Case, they are answerable.” Waldman describes Thomas Jefferson as a “pious infidel” and James Madison as a “radical pluralist.” Jefferson viewed Jesus as a moral teacher and nothing more: He actually cut up a copy of the Gospels, removing all references to miracles and any claims that Jesus was more than human.

Madison appears to have respected religion without being seriously attached to any sect in particular. But, like his fellow Virginians, he did feel strongly the need for tolerance, and it is to him that Waldman believes we owe our freedom of conscience. He helped frame the Constitution, which mentions neither Jesus nor God, and later the First Amendment.

The Catholic Church has updated the list of sins. According to the new list, you are a sinner if you harm the environment, deal with drugs or do stem cell research. Amusingly you are a sinner if you have obscene wealth.

No, what’s perhaps most amusing is that in this modern age, someone still feigns to have the authority to invent new sins in the first place, to perpetuate the inanity of the very concept, to torque and mold and reshape divine will as he sees fit, just sort of making it up as he goes along, expecting everyone to basically kneel and cower and kiss the ring. Is that not fabulous, in a hey-look-we’re-back-in-1328 sort of way?

And yes, I also enjoyed the new sin of excessive wealth, given how the Vatican is one of the most — if not the most — gluttonously wealthy organizations on the planet, oozing with real estate and massive stock portfolios, dripping with cash, billions of dollars in hoarded treasure and unknown gems, icons, art, the solid gold vaginas of 1,000 pagan goddesses locked up in its vaults. The hypocrisy is positively comical. Epic. Makes Eliot Spitzer’s trifle look like Mary Ann smoking a roach in rural Idaho.[Thou shalt not kid thyself]