Week 287: Number Rakshak Initiative, Dark Side of Sufis, Aesthetic

06/15/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: Number Rakshak Initiative, Dark Side of Sufis, and an aesthetic!

Tech Highlight: Number Rakshak

During this year’s Kumbh Mela, Vodafone Idea (VI), an Indian telecom operator launched a very interesting program to help with the throngs of visitors (the estimated size was 450-660 million) making pilgrimage to the various sites. Obviously at that scale, and with that many people from various cultural backgrounds visiting, one issue pilgrims face is getting lost from their families, friends, or tour groups.

Enter “Number Rakshak” (rakshak meaning “protector” in Sanskrit). VI gave attendees in various spots free bracelets made from Rudraksh and Tulsi beads to pilgrims at the VI Number Rakshak booth near Swami Ramanand Acharya Shibir Akhada. These were engraved with emergency contact numbers of family members, allowing pilgrims if lost, to navigate to booths and reconnect with family members.

The Hindi-language mission statement of this initiative was: ‘Bhakti mein khoyein, Maha Kumbh mein nahin’ (Lose yourself in devotion, not in the Maha Kumbh).

To read more: https://www.impactonnet.com/more-from-impact/vi-number-rakshak-reunites-lost-pilgrims-at-maha-kumbh-mela-2025-10313.html

A video on the initiative is linked below:

History Highlight: The Dark Side of Sufis

Aesthetic: West Bengal Temple

Week 286: Bangladesh Files, His Story of Itihaas, Aesthetic

06/07/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: Bangladesh files, His Story of Itihaas, and an aesthetic!

History Highlight: Bangladesh Files

The “History Under Your Feet” blog has a great piece here on Bangladesh’s history after independence and what Hindus have gone through.

Bangladesh Files-1

Media Highlight: His Story of Itihaas Movie

We highly encourage our readers to watch the movie “His Story of Itihaas” - check out the piece from our friends at Hindu Parenting below:

His Story of Itihaas - Movie

Aesthetic: Andaman Hindu Temple

Sri Vetrimalai Murugan Temple in Port Blair.

Week 285: Hinduism Online Summer Camps, Challenges for Trad Youth, Aesthetic!

05/31/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: Online Summer Camps for Hindu students, Challenges facing traditionalist youth, and an aesthetic!

Education Highlight: Hinduism Online Summer Camps

(via Hindu Parents Network)

1. Hindu Dharma Through Stories (Ages 10+)
   July 7 – July 11, 2025
   A week-long journey through captivating stories that illuminate the fundamentals of Hindu Dharma.

2. Hindu History Through Stories – Part 1 (Ages 10+)

   July 14 – July 18, 2025
   Explore ancient Hindu history through the lives of great kings, sages, and civilizational milestones.

3. Hindu History Through Stories – Part 2 (Ages 10+)
   July 21 – July 25, 2025
   Discover medieval Hindu history through the inspiring lives of three great heroes — a journey of confidence, clarity, and connection.

4. Hindu Values Through Stories (Ages 8-15)
   July 28 – August 1, 2025
   Stories that bring to life 25+ core values of Hindu Dharma.

5. Being A Hindu (Ages 10+)
   July 7 – August 1, 2025
   A month-long interactive program that encourages teens to explore and express their identity as Hindus in today’s world.

Praxis Highlight: Challenges for Traditionalist Youth

(via Centre for Studies in Hindu Conservatism)

Challenges for the Traditionalist Youth

Aesthetic: Darjeeling Hindu Temple

Week 284: Academic Paper on Hinduphobia, Eelam-Gujarat Connection, Dezeen Temple feature

05/24/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: an academic paper on Hinduphobia, how Eelam Tamils rescued refugees from Somnath Temple’s breaking, and a temple designed by a modern architect!

Academia Highlight: Paper on Hinduphobia

Even though Western Academia is quite biased against Hindus, it is important for Hindus to engage with the academic process as that is how knowledge is created in the modern era. Dr. Indu Viswanathan does just that with her piece “Examining Anti-Hindu Bias in American Public Education: The Endogenous Cycle of Hinduphobia” in the Journal of the Council for Research on Religion.

Viswanathan, Indu. 2025. “Examining Anti-Hindu Bias in American Public Education: The Endogenous Cycle of Hinduphobia”. Journal of the Council for Research on Religion 6 (1). Montreal, QC, Canada:25-45. https://doi.org/10.26443/jcreor.v6i1.130

Link to Paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391177826_Examining_Anti-Hindu_Bias_in_American_Public_Education_The_Endogenous_Cycle_of_Hinduphobia

History Highlight: Eelam Tamil Hindus Sheltering Somnath Refugees

Aesthetic: A Temple Designed by a Modern Architect

The “Ganga Leheri” temple is located in the village of Raichak in West Bengal and designed by Abin Design Studio. It is meant to be both a place of worship and a community center and it elevated so that it stays above the tides of the Ganges river.

The Dezeen article goes into more detail: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/05/18/ganga-legeri-temple-abin-design-studio/

Ganga Leheri is built with locally sourced materials, including stone. The corbelled spire, or shikshara, is built with local brick nodding to surrounding brick kilns and is in adherence with religious custom, which dictates that steel or concrete should not be used.

An elevated plinth and bridge connect the temple with the surrounding river landscape and lead to the mandapa – an open pavilion or pillared hall that is a significant architectural element in Hindu temples.

The Instagram post below also has some of the images, which look stunning and truly “aesthetic”.

dezeen

A post shared by @dezeen

Week 283: Erasure of Bengali Hindu identity, Mistakes Hindu Parents Make, Aesthetic!

05/17/2025 - Modern Hindu Content

Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: a book on Bengali Hindu identity erasure, common mistakes Hindu parents make, and an aesthetic!

Reading Highlight: The Joy Bangla Deception

Via a Tweet from the author. The title of the book is “The ‘Joy Bangla' Deception: Bangladeshi Islamism Under the Facade of Bengali Nationalism” by Kaushik Chattopadhyay and Devavrata available at: https://garudalife.in/the-joy-bangla-deception-bangladeshi-islamism-under-the-facade-of-bengali-nationalism

For decades, liberals like Amartya Sen have claimed Bangladesh to be the paragon of peace, harmony and tolerance in the Indian subcontinent. The massive rise in Hindu persecution post August 2024 has proved that the liberal narrative of Bangladesh could not have been more wrong.

The book uncovers the story of Bangladesh that the alleged left had actively attempted to suppress and censor. It dispels the myth of 21 February as well as the language movement in East Pakistan. The story of Bangladesh is that of subversion of Hindus and Buddhists through legalised thefts to waves of pogrom to constant discrimination while paying lip service to the rhetoric of secularism.

After being the victim of violence in East Pakistan and Bangladesh, Bengalis are now facing the loss of their identity with the noise of Greater Bangladesh called by Maulana Bhasani becoming louder. The conferring of the award of the greatest Bengali to Mujibur Rahman or the peddling of the complete distortion of history by the Encyclopaedia Britannica that Bengali ethnicity was born from a massive migration of people from the middle-east around 1,400 years ago are its two expressions.

In conclusion, the book calls for safeguarding the Bengali identity and language by preventing its appropriation by the Bengali-speaking Islamists.

Also available at:

• Hindu eShop - https://www.hindueshop.com/product/the-joy-bangla-deception/

• Amazon India - https://www.amazon.in/Joy-Bangla-Deception-BANGLADESHI-NATIONALISM/dp/B0F7LB2ZMZ

Praxis Highlight: 5 Things Hindu Parents Get Wrong

Via Shawn Binda (YouTube - X/Twitter - Instagram )

Aesthetic: Chhattisgarh Shiva Temple