HINDU RENAISSANCE TEAM

We have been asked about this enough times to want to share the untold story behind the stories in Hinduism
Today. Basically, the magazine is a global public service to the family of Hindu faiths, produced by a small
monastic community based in Hawaii, which does it for the same reason other orders run ashrams, free eye-clinics
or orphanages--as a selfless service to the world.

But wait, that's just the beginning of understanding this until-now mysterious, international publication and doesn't
explain why a select committee seeking the Hindu view on the ethics of human cloning for a report to US
President Bill Clinton called our editorial offices in late March of 1997 or why this March the Ford Foundation
sponsored two of our editors to join the 50 most prominent religion editors in the US at a meeting in Atlanta,
Georgia. So, our major outreach service written by a leading Indian journalist.

The People Behind the Magazine

• Founder: Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)
• Publisher: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
• Editor-in-Chief: Paramacharya Palaniswami
• Publisher's Aide: Paramacharya Ceyonswami
• Deputy Editor: Acharya Kumarswami
• Managing Editor: Sannyasin Arumugaswami
• Production Manager: Sannyasin Sivakatirswami
• Assistant Editor: Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami
• Assistant Editor: Sadhaka Satyanatha
• Advertising: Sadhaka Jothinatha

Correspondents: Choodamani Sivaram, Bangalore; Rajiv Malik, Prabha Prabhakar Bhardwaj, Madhu Kishwar,
Delhi; Mangala Prasad Mohanty, Orissa; V. S. Gopalakrishnan, Kerala; Basudeb Dhar, Bangladesh; Archana
Dongre, Los Angeles; Lavina Melwani, New York; Dr. Hari Bansh Jha, Nepal; Anil Mahabir, Paras Ramoutar,
Trinidad; V. G. Julie Rajan, Philadelphia; Rajesh Jantilal, South Africa; Tara Katir, Hawaii. HPI Staff: Janaka
Param, Toshadeva Guhan, Clive Roberts, Easan Katir, Adi Alahan, Chandra Sankara, Shama Vinayaga, Arjuna
Daswani. Sanskritist: Dr. P. Jayaraman, New York. Artists: A. Manivelu, S. Rajam. Cartoonists: M. Arumugam,
Bob Thaves, Ripin Karla. Photo Contributors: Thomas L. Kelly, Stephen P. Huyler, Dinodia, Amit Kumar, Dev
Raj Agarwal, Gilles Flament, Vel Kadressen, Mu Devarayan, Indivar Sivanathan. Web Masters: Nitya Nadesan,
Sadhunathan Nadesan. Distribution: USA: Ingram Periodicals, New Leaf, EBSCO Subscription Services,
OneSource, Ubiquity. Europe: SWETS Subscription Service. Malaysia and Singapore: Sanathana Dharma
Publications. India: Central News Agency Limited, Delhi. Mauritius: CODIP. Trinidad: Pandit Narendra &
Ashwinee Ragoonanan. Printer: RR Donnelly, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

The Story of Hinduism Today

By: Lavina Melwani - New York
As the new millennium approaches, the world's oldest religions is donning shining new clothes. The age-old
Hindu philosophy passed from mouth to mouth in tiny villages across India is now going high-tech, thanks to
Hinduism Today, the preeminent global journal of Hindu Dharma. This Hawaii-based publication is shedding its
broadsheet image after 18 years and transforming into a sleek, easy-to-carry, full-color magazine. Its on-line
version is not quite as eye-catching but will bring every aspect of Sanatana Dharma to millions of Internet users
across the world. Hinduism, which had always been the domain of unchanging swamis in far-off ashrams, is now
entering the computer age with Hinduism Today. Founded by Satguru Sivaya Subramaniyaswami and published
by the Himalayan Academy on the idyllic island of Kauai in Hawaii, the magazine is totally service oriented.
Observes Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva): "Hinduism Today was created to strengthen all the
many diverse expressions of Hindu spirituality, to give them a single, combined voice because everywhere else
their voices were individualized. There was nothing that encompassed the whole Hindu experience around the
world. Every religious order has a mission and instead of starting an eye-clinic or an orphanage, we created a
global publication to advance the cause of Hindu Dharma." Hinduism Today's rebirth as a full-color magazine is
an idea whose time has come. According to Gurudeva: "It's something we've wanted to do for a long time, so it's
just a natural evolution." It was indeed the logical outcome of an 18-year mission to give all Hindu denominations
and their lineages a voice to and thus Hindus as a global community.
WHY Hinduism Today? While bookstores and newsstands are filled with countless newspapers and magazines,
it was apparent there was nothing to satisfy contemporary Hindus, to articulate in modern language India's ancient
wisdom. As Acharya Palaniswami, editor of Hinduism Today, points out, "Open up many books, and they are so
cluttered with technical terms, obscure references and other languages that the average seeker would go about
three pages and not pursue it further." Hinduism Today wanted to say all the important things, the profound things,
but in an interesting voice which all could understand and appreciate. While Hindus living in India are surrounded
by their culture and faith, HT's mandate was to also reach the millions of Hindus who are trying to keep their faith
alive in far-off places surrounded by different cultures. In isolated, alien townships and cities, shared words can
provide courage and enthusiasm, energy to keep true to a faith. Hinduism Today is a voice for Sanatana Dharma's
all-embracing philosophy. It tells the world about India's cultural riches: ayurveda, classical dance, literature and
drama, the healing power of meditation and yoga, and the virtues of vegetarianism. To those who are Hindu and to
those merely attracted by the principles of Indian spirituality, it offers a common platform, a feeling of family,
setting off good vibrations.
Mark Twain Meets HT: Few know that the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn spent time in India, and
fewer still that he was karmically connected to Hinduism Today. That story begins decades ago. Starting life as a
black-and-white newsletter about the doings of Gurudeva's worldwide fellowship on January 5, 1979, its founder's
53rd birthday, Hinduism Today has evolved over the years to embrace everything of interest to a Hindu. Before
the newspaper appeared, Himalayan Academy was publishing books on Hindu-related metaphysical topics as
early as 1957, laying the groundwork for Hinduism Today. Recalls Palaniswami, "We've gone from trudging
through 30-foot snowdrifts in our Nevada monastery in the 1960s to walking under rainbow skies in Hawaii in the
1990s, so that's a good step forward." Interestingly enough, the Academy's earliest books on yoga and meditation
were hand set by the young monks on the same wooden type Mark Twain used as editor of the Territorial
Enterprise, a Nevada newspaper. There was a symbolic meaning for the editors of HT in this, and by coincidence
the Hawaiian island they settled on many years later was the very one, Kauai, Mark Twain had visited on his way
to India, a hundred years earlier.
Editor in Chief Palaniswami notes: "Mark Twain was the author of "Following the Equator," which he considered
his finest work, the pinnacle of his career. He had visited India for three months, on the lecture circuit, giving a
one-man show called "An Evening with Mark Twain." While in India he observed that all the world's religions are
really paupers and beggars, but India's Hinduism is the only millionnaire, because of its pantheon of Gods
compared to other religions which have to make do with just one God! Of the home of Hinduism Today, the island
of Kauai, Mark Twain had this to say: "It was the most beautiful in the world." From the hand-made wooden type
sorts that Mark Twain used to set his headlines, to the computer-generated font called Quantum Leap customized
by the mathavasis in a program called Fontographer, HT has come a long way. It was an unsung pioneer in the
desktop publishing revolution, embracing the microchip revolution early and with gusto, presenting the ancient
wisdom of Vedic Dharma in a contemporary way. In fact, two decades ago Apple Computer, so impressed by their
efforts, sent a video team for three days to the Hinduism Today ashram to capture the production of the journal by
monks on Apple's Macintosh computers. This film was later shown to Apple's 8,000 employees to demonstrate
how a small group of monks had constructed the world's first desktop publishing network.
In October, 1996, Hinduism Today proved it's still on the cutting (veterans call it the bleeding) edge of technology
when the staff completed the CD-ROM, called Dharma Graphics, containing over 1,500 illustrations representing
twenty years of graphic images drawn from village arts and crafts, now all preserved in digital form. The CD-
ROM, with its sophisticated imagery, is available as clip-art for temple bulletins and children's books. In India the
pandits still sit on the ghats in Haridwar-nothing ever changes. But Hinduism Today has embraced change with
enthusiasm in full cooperation with some of these same wisdom-laden pandits.
So, Who Reads Hinduism Today? Hinduism Today reaches millions of Hindus in 39 countries. Besides Hindus
in countries across the globe, readers include seekers of every ethnic group and religion, attracted to the sublime
philosophies of Sanatana Dharma: ayurveda, yoga and the benefits of the vegetarian lifestyle. Indophiles and all
who have traveled to India and been mesmerized by her magic count themselves among the readers of Hinduism
Today, and, perhaps surprisingly, the clergy and theological students of other major religions form a strategic part
of the HT family. A very vital contingent of Hinduism Today is the second-generation Indians growing up in
foreign lands. For them, many who know the magazine only in its digital version on the Worldwide Web,
Hinduism Today provides answers to perplexing questions in an intelligent and easily accessible way. These are
the children who have to deal with classmates who have formed misconceptions about Hinduism from films like
Indiana Jones in which Hindu sects are shown eating eyeballs and cracking monkey skulls to eat the brain. Every
Indian child living abroad has had the distressing experience of peers asking "In India, do you ride elephants and
tigers and live in trees?"
With its colorful graphics, comprehensive cover stories, and educational Insight Sections with detailed
descriptions of Indian traditions, rites and customs, Hinduism Today makes religion contemporary, current and
viable for these young Hindus by birth. The Publisher's Desk and Editorial, the Letters page as well as the My
Turn column all conspire to set up a lively dialogue between intelligent readers, academics and believers. Columns
like Trends to Watch and Diaspora keep readers abreast of the current events affecting Hinduism. The Quotes &
Quips humor page and Healing touch upon many issues of interest to even non-Hindus, such as the dangers of
second-hand smoke or ways to alleviate menopause. Their goal was and is to create a true Hindu renaissance by
providing readers, browsers, believers and non-believers alike a forum, a soapbox to vent their feelings and
discuss every aspect of Hinduism and how it effects modern life. HT has done this, and Hindus worldwide
wholeheartedly congratulate them for achieving their goal of renewing a diminished sense of Hindu pride and
presence in the modern world. And now in its new magazine format, looking something like Newsweek, only
better, our Hindu front continues to promote the world's oldest relgion.
Role Models for Today's Hindus: Unlike most religious publications which focus narrowly on one sect or
tradition, Hinduism Today uses the printed words as a magnetic net to draw in all types of readers. Its editors
realize that Hindus-often stereotyped by the mass media as fundamentalists or swamis living in mountains-are
ordinary, everyday people in the swim of life, and it is these millions that Hinduism Today tries to reach with
stories of spirit and courage. Especially abroad, where there are so few markers for Hindus in mainstream life, the
people profiles in Hinduism Today serve as encouraging role models: famous scientists, artists and doctors who
contribute to the world around them and are proud Hindus. Hindus such as Kiran Bedi, Pundit Athavale, Madhu
Kishwar, Ram Swarup, Lata Mangeshkar and Pankaj Udhas. HT's Hindutva Satya Sanga , an informal council of
dynamic spiritual leaders, has over 1,000 swamis within it, serving and preaching among all sects of the Santanta
Dharma daily to followers and the public at large. This creative cooperation among leaders is one of HT's unique
(and not easily achieved) contributions to the varied of streams of Indian spirituality.
To young people well-versed in computerese, Hinduism Today is especially attractive. It's on the Internet, and its
colorful, exciting graphics and text provide many megabytes of hard-to-find information for seekers. The new
magazine format is even more attractive on the Internet, since it fits perfectly with a color picture on each page. A
whole generation of young people, so used to the computer, will be able to read Hinduism Today on their own,
even without parental encouragement. For children growing up abroad who have few role models and too many
colorful distractions, HT shows the best of Hinduism in a subtle, one could say a sneaky, way. Before they know
it, children and young adults are lured into the wonderful world of Sanatana Dharma through computer graphics
and colorful websites. For those of them who don't know the Hinduism's classical languages of Sanskrit and
Tamil, English translations of ancient Sanskrit classics and Tamil scriptures offered on the HT Web Site open up a
whole new wonderful world for the younger generation. Hinduism Today succeeds in reaching a savvy young
audience who may or may not visit the temple regularly or attend religious meetings.
Observes editor Palaniswami, "Gurudeva and the editors get e-mail every day from Europe, America, Australia,
Indian and Malaysia. Young Hindu kids who are on the Internet site write to us and say, 'You know I've been
thinking about karma. My grandmother always talked about it but I never really understood it.' The modern kid is
much smarter than most people think, asking all sorts of profound and personal questions. We answer them all."
Yes, Western technology can be used to advance the course of the Eternal Truth. My Turn is a forum where young
Indian Americans can vent their feelings. Wrote Smita Patil, an intern for the Oregonian newspaper, "If Indian
women were truly treated in accordance with Hindu belief and teachings, India would be a heaven on Earth.
Instead, many Hindus have formed a convenient duality where they worship women in temples but enslave them
at home." The Letters page encourages lively debate, often by e-mail. One reader felt it was OK to eat meat as
long as she lived the principles of the Vedas. Another expressed that being vegetarian is not just a random decision
but a well-thought-out tradition, thousands of years old. "To give that up is like regressing thousands of years."
A Resource for Mainstream America: Hinduism Today has landed on several lists around America as a place
where people can find authentic and reliable information on Sanatana Dharma, and its editorial team is often
called upon for hard-to-find answers that few other institutions seem inclined to take the time to address.
Houghton Mifflin, one of America's largest publishers for children's textbooks in middle and high schools, asked
Hinduism Today to vet its chapters on Hinduism for a civilization series for American sixth graders destined for
school rooms where half a million 13-year-olds will study it in the United States. Houghton Mifflin had called
Harvard to vet the chapters, and Harvard defered to the editors of HT. Recalls Acharya Palaniswami, "The two
chapters were awful, devastatingly bad, even wrong in places. We ended up rewriting the whole thing, and also
provided graphics. All the chapters on other religions had really nice graphics, but for Hinduism they had found a
horrible, monster-looking Shiva for these young children to study. We sent them elegant, graceful images that
Hindus would be proud to see." To the amazement of the HT team, the publishers adopted in its entirety the
rewritten chapters, and as a result American kids will have a really authentic and compelling introduction to the
world's oldest religion, not some rehashed, demeaning stereotype.
Harvard University is engaged in the production of a massive Pluralism Project by which high school children will
be taught about other cultures and religions on CD-ROM. Prof. Diana Eck, head of the religion department at
Harvard, invited HT to participate in the Hindu expressions. Elsewhere, the United Nations is developing the very
strategic Earth Charter, a parallel to the Human Rights Declaration. This official UN declaration will define for the
future how nations will look upon and treat the environment. Besides scientific input, religious contributions are
being called for from five religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism), and the project is
being guided by Steven Rockefeller, one of the famed family, who happens to teach comparative religions. The
UN committee has approached HT to help help develop the Hindu representation for a panel of spiritual experts
who can give voice to environmental ethics for the Earth Charter. There is more. In early 1997 the ex-editor of
Christianity Today, Terry Muck, contacted Hinduism Today to have it collaborate on one chapter of his new
Doubleday book, A Guide to Religions in America. And another scholar found their FAQs on the Web, and wrote
to include it as one chapter in a book on the six major faiths in the US, and.....well, you get the idea.
Time Magazine Has a Question, Swami: HT has also been getting a lot of calls from religion editors in America,
and was recently lauded as a solid source of Indian spirituality in a book published by John Dart of the Los
Angeles Times called Deities and Deadlines. Time Magazine called in August to verify a Hinduism-related story,
an as yet unpublished feature on Deepak Chopra's phenomenal success. Indeed, Hinduism Today has gained a
reputation for having credibility, access to authentic information and a commitment to objective, unexaggerated
reporting.
Many religious journals walk a tightrope between propaganda and journalism, but HT has always chosen the
harder path of honest reporting. Says Palaniswami: "Happily, we are not just another bhakti rag, as one reader
observed. While remaining upbeat, we do try to tell readers even about the painful underbelly of one-sixth of the
human race's religion, Hinduism, to make it real and not paint an unrealistic or Polyanna picture. It's important to
express things in that way; otherwise people stop listening." To that, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami adds:
"We report the news after verification, showing both sides. As someone said, We like to know all the bad news,
but put it in the back of the magazine." Even when the Ayodhya riots took place in India, HT gave a clear and
factual picture of the events to document the resurgence of a controversial but emphatic Indian renaissance.
Ancient Wisdom, Current Problems: Unlike most religious journals, HT never preaches, giving too many
should do's or to do's, nor does it become overly moralistic in tone. The editors realize that the congregation in
diaspora has changed and the magazine must change with them, keeping pace with its readers. So, one finds
Hinduism Today broaching subjects such as abortion, intercultural marriages, divorce, working mothers and
adoption. These are the subjects that pose problems for Hindus today, and HT is there with the answers, be it
cross-cultural parenting, sex before marriage or bringing up adopted children. Not afraid to discuss tough social
topics like wife battering, bride burnings, child-abuse or the fact that Indian girls have the highest suicide rate,
Hinduism Today takes on all these issues and tries to find solutions, especially pointing to insights found in the
Vedas.
Interviews with strong Hindu women such as Madhu Kishwar, activist editor of Manushi, animal-rights activist
Maneka Gandhi and prison reformer Kirin Bedi are part of the consciousness-raising features. While the core team
is composed of monks, Hinduism Today has over 100 reporters and journalists and dozens of photograpers and
artists working for it worldwide. These are people who actually live in the communities being reported on and
understand the problems Hindus in a modern world face. It is interesting to note that a majority of the columnists
are Indian women.
The editors are always on the look out for for fresh, new contemporary voices. Over the years HT has picked up
the cudgels on behalf of persecuted Hindus in countries from Fiji to Dubai to South Africa to Afghanistan.
Without being highlighted in the press, these victims would have disappeared from human memory. By headlining
their stories in bold letters on the front page, HT assures that the sacrifices of these people will not be in vain.
There have been stories about Nepal, the only Hindu nation, being stormed by foreign missionaries: there were
only 25 baptized Nepalese Christians in 1960. The figure by 1994 had grown to 120,000. One rarely sees such
stories in the mainstream press, but these are facts. Is it possible to be a good Hindu and a successful
businessman? Time and again, with its countless success stories of important CEOs, artists, dancers and
intellectuals who are unabashedly Hindu, HT has pinpointed role models for a whole new generation to follow.
There are stories of entrepreneurs, writers and artisans who have achieved success but kept their core values of
Hinduism, a beacon in the storms of life.
Through the Internet it's reaching millions of Hindus, and millions of others who are intrigued by Hindu culture,
spirituality and literature. Elastic as Hinduism is, it's never tried to convert people, but opened its treasures from
the past to whoever wants to partake.
Into the Future of Futures: There are numerous historians and intellectuals, like Arnold Toynbee, who genuinely
believe that the next century is going to be the Asian Century. Observes Editor-in-Chief Palaniswami: "I think we
are a harbinger of that fact, that whether it's religious content or artistic content or even cultural or literary content,
Asia is going to dominate the world scene. But in terms of means of dissemination, tools of communicating that
content-those tools all belong to the West and will continue to belong to the West. What Hindus need to do is take
their rich, precious and incomparable content and use the tools of dissemination that have been so masterfully
crafted in the West. I think that's where a marriage of Asian philosophy and culture and Western technology can
do something very special for India in the century ahead. But if we take the Western content and the Western
tools-like television has done-we are ruined. We have to be very discriminating in that regard."
Hinduism Today reaches many homes in many countries. It lands upon the desks of physicians, scientists, artists,
politicians, religious leaders and entrepreneurs. The expansion continues to many countries-expansion not of
might but of mighty ideas. Hinduism Today keeps to the high writing and production standards its readers expect
from it, and while providing the news in an entertaining way, it never lets the entertainment sink to triviality. As
publisher Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami explained to me: "We want to inspire leaders who can go out and
inspire others, not write to the lowest common denominator. We feel Hinduism is a religion of love. Hinduism is
love of the one energy which comes from God and flows through all our bodies. Our motto in dealing with all the
differences and distinctions is : 'One world. One God.' " It is this enlightened concept of Sanatana Dharma that
Hinduism Today--the colorful, computerized messenger of Indian paths and experiences--takes to homes on every
continent. Humanity could use a lot more of this profound and tolerant view of our deepest urge--the spiritual one
we all share, however quietly.
They're based in Hawaii, so of course you can surf their great web site and catch some Big Waves!
Our Global Mission
Hinduism Today was founded January 5, 1979, by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. It
is a nonprofit educational activity of Himalayan Academy with the following purposes:

1. To foster Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity among all sects and lineages;
2. To inform and inspire Hindus worldwide and people interested in Hinduism;
3. To dispel myths, illusions and misinformation about Hinduism;
4. To protect, preserve and promote the sacred Vedas and the Hindu religion;
5. To nurture and monitor the ongoing spiritual Hindu renaissance;
6. To publish a resource for Hindu leaders and educators who promote Sanatana Dharma.

Join this seva by sending letters, clippings, reports on events and encouraging others to subscribe. Find out who
are the people behind the magazine and read more about our effort from one of USA's top correspondents of
Indian affairs in the US and a frequent contributor to Hinduism Today, Lavina Melwani in her