UNITED STATES, May 22, 2018 (Patheos, by Mat McDermott): The phenomenon of non-Indians adopting Hinduism is not new. However, the stories of how individuals came to the religion have not been regularly recorded. I hope to rectify that by time to time publishing interviews with those people who weren’t raised Hindu but now publicly identify as such, in the hopes of shedding some light on what drew them to Sanatana Dharma. The following is an interview with Ram Goodman, a yoga teacher and student of Vedanta, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri.
”I grew up in Kentucky in the late sixties and early seventies and I did not personally know any Hindus. My first exposure to Hinduism was through Theosophy, which is a mix of Eastern and Western spirituality, much of it borrowed from Hinduism. By age twelve I was familiar with reincarnation, karma, meditation, and hatha yoga. Over the years I continued an interest in various spiritual practices, but felt particularly drawn to yoga. I practiced yoga asanas and meditation, learning mostly from books and VHS tapes. In the early 1990s, after reading Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s book ”Dancing With Siva” I decided to visit a Hindu temple. Through the temple I met Swamini Krishna Kanta. I visited her ashram in Kent, Ohio a few times and decided I wanted to become a yoga teacher.”
Much more at ”source”.
SORENG, INDIA, May 31, 2018 (Washington Post): Fifteen years ago, the tiny Indian state of Sikkim (population 610,000) launched a radical experiment: Its leaders decided to phase out pesticides on every farm in the state, a move without precedent in India — and probably the world. The change was especially significant for India, a country whose progress in agriculture was defined by the introduction of fertilizers and pesticides that rapidly boosted food production across the country, staving off famine and reducing the country’s reliance on foreign aid. But with the indiscriminate use of pesticides came a spike in cancer rates in industrial farming areas. Rivers became polluted and soil infertile. Sikkim’s leaders say they were driven to go all-organic by those concerns and because pesticide residue — including from some chemicals banned in other countries — was tainting fish, vegetables and rice.
The cloud-wreathed Himalayan state is starting to see the dividends. Overall health has increased in the state, leaders say, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has embraced Sikkim and organic farming throughout India, pouring about $119 million into supporting organic farmers nationwide. India is betting that Sikkim can be the global model for other jurisdictions around the world that want to go all-organic. In the years since the shift to organic, Sikkim has outlawed pesticides and chemical fertilizers, aided farmers in certifying about 190,000 acres of farmland as organic and on April 1 banned the import of many non-organic vegetables from other states. The transition has not always been easy: Some farmers have complained that their crop yields have decreased and that they haven’t gotten enough support from the government.
Much more at ”source” above.
SRI LANKA, June 1, 2018 (Up, translated from French): In Sri Lanka, a family business produces paper from elephant dung. It’s an ecological alternative to fight the ravages of deforestation. Ninety percent of the products (notebooks, photo albums, maps) are exported abroad. For the past twenty years, the company Maximus has developed an unusual and environmentally friendly paper manufacturing process, thanks to organic waste produced by elephants. This animal occupies a prominent place in the life and culture of Sri Lanka, an island located just south of India in the Indian Ocean. The elephant, symbol of peace and prosperity, is now contributing to the economic development of the country thanks to a local and ecological innovation.
Pachyderms are herbivores, large consumers of fruits and plants. They ingest up to 550 lbs per day and produce daily up to 110 lbs of droppings. Elephants do not digest the cellulose contained in plants, so their organic waste is rich in cellulose fibers. Within this company located in Kegalle, located 53 miles from Colombo, the droppings of eight elephants are collected, then dried, washed and finally tinted without chemical pigments. They then obtain natural, odorless paper, which will be transformed into manufactured products sold in 30 countries around the world.
Watch short and entertaining video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JCPd_RwCbI
Great achievements are possible through unity.
— His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, spiritual head of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha
