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Showing posts from June 21, 2007


The Holy Cow Worshipped in Hindu Religion

Milk, butter, curd are food. Urine and cow dung are medicines in Ayurveda. Dried cow dung is fuel. Dung mixed with daub is used to plaster walls and is a building material. Butter is used lavishly in Hindu rituals. The sacred white powder made from dung is applied on the forehead – the holy ash in Hinduism, symbol of God Shiva. Dried cow dung is also used in Hindu funerals in some parts of India .   Food, medicine, house, fuel, prayer….the list goes on…Tell me one reason why five thousand years ago the cow should not have been worshipped. God is the all provider and a cow was the all provider in ancient Hindu society. Various products provided by the cow are an integral part of a Hindu way of life. Quite often many Hindus might not be aware of it. Even today there are millions of households in India whose economy revolves around the cow. In rural India , you will find stories like… it is by selling this cow’s milk I was able to educate my son! Majority of the Sou

Hindu Youth in America

Growing up Hindu in America - A Surprising Success Story is a Youth and Religion Project by R. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at Chicago . The Youth and Religion Project (Y&RP) looked into the ways in which religious institutions serve the needs of younger Americans (aged 8 to 30) in the rapidly changing society through a focus on religious institutions in metropolitan Chicago. The project was directed by R. Stephen Warner of the University of Illinois at Chicago . Some excerpts from the project We expected Hindu youth in our focus groups to manifest bewilderment about their religious identity… We did not expect what in fact we found well represented among the UIC students we began to talk with five years ago: enthusiastic, knowledgeable American-born and American-raised Hindu youth of both sexes. Our subsequent study of Hindu institutions and Hindu families has revealed some of the ingredients in what seems so far to be a success story: religious institution