Rajendra and Hema Bapana from Flint, Michigan are here today with their sons Mukul and Roumak.

They are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and their children planned this trip to Kauai for them.

We are enjoying lots and lots of water everywhere these past days as Mother nature is making up for a long dry spell with several days of rain. The Wailua river flows along powerfully.

Meanwhile inside all snug and warm work goes on. We have something new to announce:

Yogi Japendranatha put up the monastery’s first official podcast. The monastery has been doing another sort of podcast since August 1998 when we began TAKA, by posting regular audio files of Gurudeva’s and Bodhinatha’s inspired talks and question-answer sessions on the website here. But today we made our first foray into official podcasting as the newly coined term has come to be defined. Hinduism Today Publisher’s Desk is our first podcast, an audio recording of Bodhinatha reading his latest editorial from Hinduism Today, available for free on the iTunes Music Store. You can go there and subscribe to a podcast, and each new episode will be automatically downloaded into your iTunes library on your computer, as well as to your iPod if you have one, for offline listening whenever you choose. The Hinduism Today Publisher’s Desk podcast will come out quarterly, around the same time the magazine is mailed out. If you have a Mac, you already have iTunes in your Applications folder. If you are using a PC, you can download iTunes from Apple’s website. To subscribe, open iTunes, go into the Music Store, select Podcasts, then find it in the Religion & Spirituality category, Spirituality subcategory. Check back there once in a while for other podcasts from the monastery (we will also announce them on TAKA).

Satya Subramaniam is enjoying his new life at the monastery

And we all love to have a new man on the team!

The Story of Anuradha, the Calf

Today is Anuradha’s (we call her Anu) first birthday.

Here is Anu as a young calf:

We kept Anu and her younger, but much bigger sister Nandini by the clothes line for two months. They both loved to chew on the monks robes, blankets and work clothes, and the monks learned to fold up their clothes so the calves couldn’t reach them. Everyone enjoyed having these two sweet calves around. We built a new pen away from the clothes line, but the two of them out grew the pen and looked at us like “don’t you like us anymore” and insisted on coming back to the laundry area where they could be around the monks.

Here is Shanmuganathaswami today with Anu on his right and Nandini his left.

At two and 1/2 months we fenced a new pasture for them half way between the clothes line and the “big cow” pasture. They ate everything that was edible so we started letting them wander around and eat the grass nearby. Occasionally one or both would show up at the clothes line. Most of the time we felt like they were people in cow bodies.

At three months old we took a chance and put them into the “big cow” pasture. Hanna, the Holstein, (mother of Nandini), her daughter, Mimi and Anu’s mom, Chaturthi. Hanna, Mimi and Chaturthi immediately introduced themselves to the two newcomers, licking and sniffing and then pushing them 20 feet to show who was boss. They have a pecking order and regularly challenge each other for the top spot: Hanna, Chaturthi, Mimi is the order.

Fortunately the calves had been weaned from milk at two months. They weren’t interested in the cows’ udders. They only new the two legged beings dressed in green were the food providers.

The cows have a routine. Each part of the day has a schedule. Two times a day go to the milking barn. Drink some water and beg for some grain and hay cubes. Walk to the far pasture until it gets really hot, then laze under the tangerine trees until they get hungry again and wander back to the cow barn for more water and grain.

When we first put Anu with the big cows she still was not walking. She would spend a lot of time on her front knees eating the grass immediately in front of her. This went on for a couple of weeks. But she was a “big cow” now and had to stay up with the others on their daily walks to other pastures. All that walking, and seeing the other cows walking normally must have done something because one day she forgot about her leg problems and came running to the cow barn for her usual bucket of grain. So she grew out of the leg problems. She regularly romps about with Nandini, sparring with Nandini and her growing horns. One day Anu showed up with her right horn missing. Broke clean off!

So we thought you would like to hear about Anu’s progress on her first birthday. We thank all those who gave massages, healing touch, acupuncture, herbs and helpful advice.

Our birthday calf, Anuradha.