It’s the last day of our phase… One of the marvelous things that Bodhinatha accomplished in earlier years was to help Gurudeva master mind the “Hindu Heritage Endowment” (HHE) Now he is slowly turning over all those administrative duties to the Pillaiyar Kulam, particularly Sadhaka Jivanandanatha. HHE has become a great success and we bring you more thoughts on that today to think about during our two day retreat.

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 Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Wednesday, March 8th.

The sun shines brightly on Iraivan today, and we took a moment to visit with the stone sculptors.

In fact, we took a small video of six of them. This may be the first time you are seeing the faces and hearing the voices of these enormously gifted craftsmen, the first stone silpis to ever leave India to produce a temple in stone abroad. We asked them to give their names and say a few words in their native Tamil language. Click below to enjoy getting to know Karuppiah, Vellaiasamy, Rajendran, Manikandan, Pandian and Chellaiya. Introductions by Sannyasin Yoginathaswami (You will need to click on the controller to start the movie and go beyond the clear white light initial frame…)

A few days back Bodhinatha guided our quarterly meeting for Hindu Heritage Endowment, and we thought it might be of interest to TAKA readers, since we seldom discuss this important part of our work, founded by Gurudeva in 1994. So here is a rare report on HHE.

Hindu Heritage Endowment is a public charitable trust recognized by the United States government, created by Gurudeva to maintain permanent endowments for Hindu projects and institutions worldwide. Its endowments benefit orphanages, children’s schools, ashrams and temples. They support priests and publish books; and they are designed to continue giving that financial support year after year, decade after decade, century after century. The endowments, now totalling $7,500,000, are overseen by the four stewards, standing here during an HHE meeting last year. Much of the real work is done by the Pillaiyar Kulam, represented here by Talaivar Shanmuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha who prepare all of the reports.

Funds are permanently invested with Halbert, Hargrove, Russell, an investment firm that specializes in multi-manager strategies for nonprofits, educational institutions and endowments like ours.

HHE now has about 65 different funds. The major ones support our own Saiva Siddhanta Church and the monastics. This was Gurudeva’s way to give stability to the monastery far into what he called “the future of futures.” HHE has doubled since 2001 under the able guidance of Bodhinatha.

HHE gave grants of $58,000 during the last three months.

Other funds support training for monks and monk candidates. Here’s one wandering this morning amid the gardens.

Several of the endowments include perpetuating Gurudeva’s trilogy of books and publishing and distributing Hinduism Today magazine.

Iraivan Temple is our largest single endowment fund. Half of all our building fund contributions go into this endowment to provide for the maintenance of Iraivan once it is built. Gurudeva was so far-sighted, to require all future needs to be provided as part of the construction of the temple itself.

Endowment funds provide for the grounds, for building maintenance.

For construction and repair projects.

And for care of the ponds and waterways

and landscaping of the grounds around the monastery and temple.

The endowments keep everything ship-shape at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery

There are also funds for ashrams and spiritual leaders, for temples around the world, for printing of religious literature and many other projects. Several orphanages benefit from grants from HHE. Here at the girls at the Sitthandy Girl’s Home in Sri Lanka.

Nearby is the Tirunavukarasu Boy’s Home which is also endowed. HHE helps orphanages in Malaysia, New Delhi, Kerala and elsewhere, and was a big help in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, when the boys’ home in Batticaloa was completely destroyed.

This ends our HHE report. A short one giving a glimpse into another way Kauai’s Hindu Monastery helps dharma around the world.