April 2005 Newsletter HINDU CONNECTIONS ~~~ VOLUME 3 – Num. 4
The Post Secular Age - By Dr. Frank Gaetano Morales, Ph.D. more...
The last two centuries have been a conspicuously unique era in the history of the human race.
For, unlike any other epoch in our history, the last 200 years have witnessed the systematic and
seemingly unstoppable deconstruction of religion as an important element of Western society and
human culture. So seemingly successful has the exorcism of religion from public life been since
the modern Enlightenment era, that many 20th Century American scholars even went so far as to
prematurely pronounce the imminent death of religion in our age. As events and trends in recent
world history have shown us, however, this was an exceedingly mistaken pronouncement to say the least.
As is becoming increasingly apparent in the early years of the 21st century, religion’s obituary
may have been written somewhat prematurely. Our current era is witnessing one of the greatest
world wide religious resurgences ever recorded in the annals of human history. In America alone,
for example, we have seen the importance of religiously based human values ushered center stage
in the elections of 2004. And the rest of the world has not been immune to this trend. The
centrality of religion in human life and culture has been aggressively reasserted in India,
Israel, throughout the Islamic world, and throughout the Third World especially. Only the
modern secular states of Western Europe seem, so far, to have remained relatively untouched
by the global revival of spirituality. Rather than ushering in a new secular age, an age free
from the influence of religion, spirituality and contemplation, the evidence seems to indicate
that we are actually entering a Post Secular Age: an age wherein religion will necessarily fill
up the vacuum created by the ruinous failure of 20th century secularism………………. For the full
article, click on above link.
New Temple Complex Uncovered by Tsunami in Mahabalipurammore...
MAHABALIPURAM, INDIA, April 11, 2005: In a major success, archaeologists in Mahabalipuram district
have discovered remains of a 4th century Hindu temple built by the kings of the majestic Pallava
dynasty. Archaeologists say the uncovering is the result of the December 26 tsunami that destroyed
the beaches of various South Asian countries and claimed thousands of lives. The archaeologists
inform that the newly discovered temple is a complex by itself. "We carried out extensive diving
offshore and there we found certain remains which suggested some human activity in the region.
To confirm and correlate that, we carried out excavation on this land and during the process we
found the remains of a temple, which is quite big, with an entrance porch, open courtyard and a
big wall. Near the rocks also we are getting evidence that there was a structural temple built
on the rock and we are finding its remains," said Alok Tripathi, Deputy Superintendent Archaeologist,
Under Water Archaeology Wing. Tripathi also said that all the figures discovered in the temple
are over six feet tall. The recovered objects include an elaborately carved, life-sized head and
shoulders of an elephant, a horse in flight, and a life-sized reclining lion.
US couple goes the Hindu way in marriagemore...
Indo-Asian News Service Bhubaneswar, March 14, 2005|19:02 IST She's a Jew from California, he's a
Christian from Arizona, but both chose to get married according to Hindu rituals in Orissa's temple
town of Konark. Thousands of people attended the wedding of the American couple, Rabital Volk, 33,
and Cain Carroll, that took place last week at a yoga ashram in Konark, 70 km from Bhubaneshwar.
They had been formally married in the US earlier, but decided to go in for a Hindu wedding as well.
Every traditional detail was observed - there were Vedic mantras, a priest, a fire and even two locals,
who stood in for the bride's parents for the ritual of kanyadan to give her away.
Rabital had first come to India three years ago as a tourist and toured several religious
spots like Rishikesh and Varanasi before finding her moorings in Konark. Her husband followed her
and came to teach yoga. Both worked..
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