Holy man resigns over Sex scandal

A Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across India resigned as head of a religious organization on Tuesday after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal, officials said.

Video footage allegedly showing Nithyananda Swami, head of Dhyanapeetam, or "knowledge center," frolicking with two women angered hundreds of devotees who tried to ransack his center outside the southern city of Bangalore this month. Read More................Holy man resigns over sex scandal

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Priests offer holy offering through mouth-to-mouth contact

Coimbatore: Hundreds of devotees participated in the seven-day-long Karamadai Sri Ranganathar Temple Masi Magam Car Festival in Coimbatore.

Buzz up!The festival culminated with a temple procession in a village at Karamadai on Sunday, in which the priests offered prasadam (holy offering) to the devotees through mouth-to-mouth contact.

People in the outskirts of Coimbatore still practice this tradition and believe in the superstition that if the priest, who is considered as god's messenger, puts prasadam in their mouth through his mouth then the childless women conceive soon and all their family problems disappear. Read More................Coimbatore priests offer holy offering through mouth-to-mouth contact

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'Holy' pumpkins fetch Rs.100,000

Pumpkins grown in a mosque compound in a Bihar village were auctioned for Rs.100,000 with people frantically bidding for what they believed was a god's gift. Read more...........'Holy' pumpkins fetch Rs.100,000

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Tennis & Sathya Sai Baba

Tennis was not quite blessed in the land of the Sathya Sai Baba. The India-Philippines tennis test series at Puttaparthi — the home of the Sri Sathya Sai Baba — could not take place a couple of weeks ago because of bizarre circumstances.

According to sources, the first of the two ties — India won the second 3-0 at the DLTA facility here — did not happen because the Sai Baba could not turn up to inaugurate the tie and bless the players.

“We were ready to start the match, when suddenly, we were told that the matches would not take place,” a player told HT. “It was really frustrating that the matches could not place because Sathya Sai Baba did not turn up to bless us and inaugurate the event,” he added. Read more....................................................Tennis takes a backseat in holy land

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Men chop off holy man's 'magical' leg

Two men attacked a self-proclaimed holy man in southern India and chopped off his right leg, apparently believing it had magical powers, police said Thursday.

The 80-year-old Yanadi Kondaiah, who claimed that those who touched his leg would be cured of illness or have wishes granted, was in a hospital in serious condition after the attack Tuesday, said R. Ravindranath Reddy, a senior police officer.

"We are looking for the miscreants as well as the leg," Reddy told The Associated Press by telephone from the Chittoor district, a remote area some 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.

"This seems to be a case of superstition. The two people might have taken away the leg hoping to benefit from its magical powers," said Pendakanti Dastgiri, the police officer handling the case.

Superstitions, belief in magic and the occult remain widespread in much of rural India.

Indian police searching for attackers who chopped off holy man's 'magical' leg.

Kondaiah told police two men offered him a drink as thanks for previously helping them with his magical touch.

After he passed out drunk the men chopped off the leg below the knee with a sickle and left him to die, said Dastgiri, adding that passing villagers found him and took him to a local hospital.

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