NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 12, 2017 (Indian Express): Over fifty school-going adolescent girls, armed with lathis, swords and knives, with a saffron ribbon tied around their wrists, brandished their weapon-wielding skills in the open courtyard of GLT Saraswati Bal Mandir school in New Delhi on Sunday. This was the culmination of a 15-day training camp, which began on May 27, organized by the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, the right-wing RSS women’s wing, which trained the girls to fight while also instilling moral values in them. During the performance, the girls exhibited yoga asanas and later huddled to form pyramids, where they cried in unison, ”Bharat maata ki jai!” (Long live India!)
”This is the goal of the sanstha,” said Rashtriya Sevika Samiti’s Uttar Shetra Karyavahika, Chandrakantha, who was the chief guest at the event. ”We teach the girls to be fully empowered and equipped – that is, physically, mentally and spiritually strong, so that a girl is capable of protecting herself and is able to guard her country, its traditions, its sanskriti and its languages. The Samiti instills pride for the nation in her.” While training the young girls to combat, the Samiti also teaches them the importance of upholding the family values. Chandrakantha said that at the end of the day, a woman was responsible for keeping the family together as a tight unit.
EMMENBRUeCKE, SWITZERLAND, June 9, 2017 (Obwaldner Zeitung, translated from German): It was a rare religious ceremony for Switzerland: The third Hindu temple of central Switzerland was opened with elaborate rituals. The building is dedicated to the Goddess Sri Rajarajeswary. On Thursday at 5 pm, on Emmenweid Street in the middle of the industrial area of Emmenbruecke, several Tamil women arrived at the scene. But even for the local people, it is difficult to know where to go, as the temple is not recognizable as such from the outside. The temple hall is located on the upper floor of a commercial building. On entering the interior, however, it soon becomes clear that this is a sacred space of a special kind. The first visual impression is overwhelming: in an area of 1,100 square feet there are eleven opulently decorated shrines, which in a few days will serve as a new ”home” for numerous murtis.
Countless offerings, coconuts, flower garlands, and vessels with sacred water, which has been brought from the Ganges to Emmenbruecke for the ceremony, are ready for the initiation. ”During the temple consecration, it is very important for us to pour the water of the sacred rivers over all the altars, thus providing our temple with cosmic energy,” explains Saseetharen Ramakrishna Sarma, the Lucerne-based Hindu priest, who previously inaugurated the first Hindu temple of Central Switzerland in Gisikon-Root. According to Ramakrishna, it will be a definite advantage for the nearly 3,000 Tamil Hindus in the region to have another nearby temple at their disposal, especially since many of them live in Emmenbruecke and the surrounding area.
When one remains without thinking, one understands another by means of the universal language of silence.
— Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950), South Indian mystic
