Sun Five today, the last day of this phase. The Ganapati Kulam reported on their work. They are very focused on the closing of the next issue of Hinduism Today and many other side projects: work on the future “What is Hinduism” book; setting up our new web server; researching video codecs, polishing web pages, digitizing old video tapes, and more.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dvitya Tithi, Sun One, Saturday, April 22nd.

Today’s big news is another stone lift at Iraivan.

It’s always exciting when our crane arrives at the temple site, seen there as a blue beam behind the flag of dharma.

They are working on the West side of the temple, lifting stones that will for a parapet above the “naga” course, which represents the kundali.

Two teams are required for each lift, one above to receive and place the stones as they arrive and..

A second team on the ground to prepare them, strap on the slings and keep the flow going.

Today Satya, our newest monastic candidate from Brazil, is training in the arcane arts of stone lifting.
Watch the team in action in our video today.

The teams all wear hard hats as it is a construction zone.

Elsewhere, Sadhaka Dandapani and Yogi Japendranatha are at work in the publications building.

Sadhaka is designing the printed materials for the next Indian Odyssey, our 2008 Innersearch. Lots of creative design and logistic details are coming together under his careful eye.

Nearby Yogi is working on Hinduism Today,

Specifically on the two-page “Quotes & Quips” feature which he engineers each issue, along with other pages.

Yogi loves the page, as it is full of wisdom, humor, insights and great wisdom quotes from good souls.

Inside the Aadheenam we have a room adjacent to the Kitchen. It is a dining area that Gurudeva himself dubbed as “Java Cafe.” Acharya Kumarswami has been working on this area for several years. One of the feature Gurudeva wanted to see was a fish aquarium. We have had a salt water aquarium in the past. It was a bit of a challenge to maintain, so now Paramacharya Ceyonswami has spearheaded

Sadhaka Jothinatha sends us these pictures today from St. Charles near Chicago. He and his team of sevaks in different locations do marvelous outreach work through booths at events.

Here are Kailash Dhaksinamurthi and Ashish Suresh Chitnis, manning the booth at the Heritage of India Festival.

They always have a good time meeting lots of wonderful people and sharing Gurudeva’s work.

We have a complete display of all our literature, which is avidly read by many.

A bright Hindu elder poses for our camera.

Those who are interested sign our request form with their name and address.

Later the Pillaiyar Kulam sends them a free packet of literature and a sample copy of Hinduism Today.

At the booth they walk away with our WWW flyer, which has all the web contacts. Later they receive their packet of booklets in the mail: Ten Questions, Home Shrine, Hindu Parenting and more.

This is turning out to be a marvelous and very effective outreach program. In fact, last year we printed 80,000 copies of Ten Questions and we sold almost all of them through our web store already. Plans to reprint 100,000 more are underway. Now *that* is what we call Hindu Outreach! Congratulations to Sadhaka Jothinatha and all the diligent sevaks who have been managing these booths.

Check out the available offerings yourself. These make great gifts and class handouts.