Sun One today, begins a new phase.

Many of you likely have heard about the failure of a dam on Kauai. It caused a flood in Kilauea about ten miles from here which washed away several homes at daybreak Tuesday. Two people are confirmed dead and five are missing and likely dead. The one road around our island was heavily damaged by the flood and will be just one lane in that section for several months. The failure was the result of days of torrential rain which have yet to let up.

Fortunately, the Aadheenam sits on high ground, and while we are experiencing streams of water flowing through the grounds, this is all manageable. For a full report on our unusual weather, see this article in the Honolulu Advertiser.

Beginnings belong to Lord Ganesha, so we turn to him on this first day of our new phase. He has been bedecked by visitors to the monastery.

A small bell announces our arrivals and departures, as we mentally touch His feet each time we leave and enter the sacred space of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery.

During the retreat we captured Bodhinatha doing just that, heading toward a special meeting with the senior monastics.

Walking past Nepali Ganesha, there with the copper roof between the two palms. Today the heavy rain turned this area into a river and filled the Puakenikeni Mandapam at left with mud.

Then past the information Center.

Past the coleus garden.

Along the path.

We captured him as he prepared the agenda for the 4-hour meeting.

All the Macintosh computers here are connected on an Airport network, and we can share files, even have the same document appear on all four screens. Each one can see the work of the others, make edits and collaborate in amazing ways. We use a program called Timbuktu to do this.

Meetings are over for the day, and Bodhinatha returns. Thank you, Bodhinatha, for your thoughtful and insightful guidance.

ISLAND DAM BREAKS:

A QUICK NOTE IS ADDED TO TAKA TO REASSURE EVERYONE THAT THE RECENT BREAK IN A RESERVOIR THAT CAUSED DAMAGE AND LOST LIVES DID NOT AFFECT THE MONASTERY. THE DAM WAS ABOUT 20 MILES AWAY FROM THE MONASTERY. BUT WE ARE PRAYING FOR THOSE WHOSE HOMES WERE LOST AND WHOSE FAMILIES HAVE DISSAPPEARED WHEN 500 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER, A 50-FOOT-HIGH WALL, SWEPT THEM OUT TO SEA. PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAYING FOR ALL THE MAHADEVAS AND DEVAS TO LOOK AFTER THESE ISLAND FOLKS WHO HAVE SUFFERED. AND WE SEND OUR GRATITUDE TO ALL OF YOU WHO WROTE AND CALLED TO SHARE YOUR LOVE AND WORRY. WE ARE DEEPLY TOUCHED BY YOUR AFFECTION.

It is the last day of our phase. The Ganapati Kulam shared their news today. Palaniswami has been working on What is Hinduism and also this phase engineered his kulam’s work on the archives. He was happy to announce that he had completed the digitization of all old style video cassette tapes and is now digitizing the small DVD tapes. Kumarswami has been working on the next insight section for Hinduism Today. Arumugaswami shared news on the Saivite Hindu Children’s course and we passed around Book 4 with it’s marvelous line drawings by A. Manivel. Natarajnathaswami is deep into his feature story work on the next issue of Hinduism Today. Sivakatirswami has been working on the Hinduism Today Digital Edition, Yogi Japendranatha is at work on an article on the Pondicherry Institute for the next issue…

We bring you two videos today, starting with this one of Bodhinatha being greeted in the traditional way by the priests of the Murugan Temple in Sydney,Australia during the January Innersearch. He then joins other spiritual leaders to raise the Nandi flag, a ceremony which begins the 3-day-long 10th Annual Saiva Conference for which Bodhinatha was a keynote speaker.

Nutanaya Sivaceyon from Malaysia

He has really been having a great time here and is a great help to all the monks.

This phase he has been serving in the Ganapati kulam. He mastered some basic sound editing work and today completed an important project which was to review, process, edit and prepare the Ganesha puja chants sent from Dr. Tyagarajan in India, for the web. You can see the result of his work here.

Ganesha Home Puja... the text for these chants is in the April issue Insight section of Hinduism Today. It’s all part of the new Hinduism Today digital initiatives.

We leave the Publications building now, pass by a beautiful plant and take a trip to Iraivan.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Thursday, March 16th.

Gurudeva’s photo sits in the doorway of the main sanctum and everyday the silpis offer flowers. He is watching over all the work.

Yoginathaswami consults with Chellaiya and Vellaisami on the work the silpis are doing today.

Some indentations are needed … and watch the video below to see it in real time! (Click the control to go past the Clear White Light beginning frame.)

We will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

Once again: this is a three-day retreat, so you will not get an update until the 16th. Have a wonderful full moon meditation!

Nanjappa Siddalingaiah and wife are visiting from Chicago. They are devotees of Sri Balagangadaranathaswami of Bangalore, India. In fact it was swami that told them they had to go visit the temple in Hawaii.

Rupa and her father are on pilgrimage to Kauai. Yesterday they toured the grounds and visited Iraivan Temple despite the rains. Today they attended the 9am Siva puja then met with Bodhinatha. Rupa had some wonderful questions on how to have a spiritual life in the world. You can read Bodhinatha’s answers in the latest issue of Hinduism Today in his Publishers Desk section.

Sannyasin Muruganathaswami is one of our senior swamis. He has shouldered quietly through the years a lot of the heavy responsibilities for travel arrangements and financial matters in the Pillaiyar Kulam, especially in the area of book distribution.

Announcing the March, 2006 Iraivan Temple Benefit Concert, Davis, California! Don’t miss it!

For information on the concert, contact:
Sundari Katir: 530-753-2695 (home);
530-635-3462 (cell)
sundarikatir@yahoo.com
Devi Param: 925-939-8354
Punita Ajaya: 408-252-1986

Today was Sun Four… the Wailua River continues to be swollen as Mount Waialeale sheds the rains.

Meanwhile the Siddhidata Kulam gave a report today:

• We are soon to replace our aged fleet of utility vehicles with Kawasaki Mule brand. This will be a much needed upgrade. Some of our aged carts are nearly 20 years old and are taking the team a inordinate amount of time to maintain.
• Shanmugam Sthapati has returned to India, having been here since the beginning of the stone jointing in 2001, and completing his 5 year visa. Plans are in the works for a replacement sthapati to Kauai in the near future.
• But our team of silpis here are very competent and doing an excellent job on their own and are very inspired. They had a some meetings with Yoginathaswami to take the next steps in the North East corner of the temple construction and also called to India for a phone consultation with Chidambaram Sthapati at the Bangalore work site.
• Yoginathaswami says the current team is very productive. The “mighty Rajendran” recently finished the rough cut across the entire surface of a roof beam in one day! If you go to the temple you hear the tap, tap, tap of chisels at a high pace, and there are bright smiles on the silpis faces. They are proud to be working on their own steam for a few months and have a “Don’t worry, we can do it!” spirit. Silpis Chellaiya and Velaisamy are acting as a lead team, keeping things going until the next sthapati arrives.
• The Siddhidata Kulam of course provides all the important back up and shared details of the constant work they do with scaffolding and safety railings.

Bodhinatha is here with the Madurai Aadheenam Kartar who is a real tapasvin and spiritual leader for Saivism.

Today’s short movie is Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami speaking at the 10th Annual Saiva Conference in Sydney, Australia in late January. On his left is the head of the Nallai Aadheenam in Nallur, Sri Lanka, and on his right is the head of the Perur Aadheenam in South India. Both men knew Gurudeva well and were delighted to be among Gurudeva’s monks again after many years.

Heavy rains came again last night. We will let the Wailua river tell the story of what’s happening at Kauai Aadheenam today.

Dr. Narayana Rao and wife, Sarojini met with Bodhinatha today.

Here’s Dr. Rao taking Bodhinatha through a power point presentation that he put together.

The first presentation is a photo tour of the entrance to the aadheenam from the Nepali Ganesha shrine all the way to Kadavul temple with nice descriptions.

He actually prepared three presentations which he had taken with him on his recent trip to India and shared it with many students, lecturers and dignitaries. His mission is to share with the world the wonderful place called Kauai Aadheenam that our Gurudeva created.

He also updated Bodhinatha on the plans the Hindu community in Champaign, Illinois, have on wanting to build a temple there.

Dr. Narayana Rao and wife Sarojini visited the publications office and shared their plans to produce more Powerpoint presentations on Kauai Aadheenam, on Hinduism Today and other educational topics. They are great pilgrims, always full of light and creative ideas. They fly back to Illinois tomorrow.

This week the Ganapati Kulam has the special joy of the presence of young Nutanaya from Malaysia. He is helping us with some old Gurudeva recordings and a variety of other tasks. Nutanaya is going home soon and we hope he returns many times.

We received from England pages and pages of AUM NAMASIVAYA.

These mantrams were painstakingly hand-written during Sivaratri last month.

About a 80 or so 6th grade children from the Kappa Middle School came here today on their “Hindu Temple field trip”. Despite the rain they were in joyful spirits and were fascinated with the stone carving out at Iraivan Temple. Each left with a small piece of granite stone.

Bodhinatha give his upadesha in the temple today after Sun One morning homa.

Yogi Japendranatha does the home.

Dr. Narayana Rao and his wife, Sarojini, are here on pilgrimage.

It’s their 4th visit to Kauai Aadheenam and he hopes to make an auspicious total of at least 12 (since there are 12 jyotirlingas).

They were our guests at this morning’s homa which they sponsored for the well-being of their family.

Bodhinatha continued with his discourses on The Soul and it maturation processes today…

“Let s turn now to the Hindu concept of the goal of life. As we know, the Hindu perspective is that the ultimate purpose of life is to make spiritual progress. This is also described as evolving, maturing or unfolding spiritually. All of these terms refer to having deeper and deeper realizations of God which eventually result in moksha, liberation from rebirth on planet Earth.”

Kulapati Deva Seyon and Kulamata Amala chatting with Paramacharya Palaniswami after the ceremonies.

This silpis arrive for their morning darshan at Kadavul before they to work on Iraivan.

The Rao’s are both strong supporters of Iraivan Temple and were delighted to see the progress that has taken place since their last visit here.

Here they are standing next to the crocodile water spout.

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.

Sun Four… very quiet at the Aadheenam. Everyone focused on their work… The Ganapati Kulam shared news today.

• Much work going on in advance for the production of a special book early next year: “What is Hinduism” comprising a collection of all the educational center sections of Hinduism Today, in full color.
• Intensive work on the Digital Edition of Hinduism Today by our team here and associated IT creatives, Andre Garzia in Brazil and Sadhunathan Nadesan.
• On going work on the article of Hinduism Today for the next issue.
• New web initiatives on several fronts: movies, podcasts (see the link on the right) etc.

We leave you today with just these two photos and the words of Siva Yogaswami:

SANMARGA. I-III

We are the servitors of Siva. No harm will befall us, if without forgetting we meditate on the holy mantram that we have neither beginning nor end, neither birth or death, neither day nor night, neither happiness nor sorrow.

What you contemplate, that you become.

Persistent spiritual effort is necessary. Do not become discouraged. Those who fail to toil will not reap any reward. No pains, no gains is a familiar saying in the world. persevere until you succeed. Why do you constantly ponder on unworthy pursuits? Banish these futile intents and worship God with a full heart. Accept joyfully and carry out whatever is dispensed to you. In the end everything will lead you to success. Perform cheerfully whatever work and duties are assigned to you, and be convinced that everything that happens is for the best. It is so. You may even ignore these things altogether. Both courses are acceptable. Your liberation does not depend on action or inaction. Do not desire to be free of action. Do not become attached to action. Devote yourself to that which naturally befalls you, whether it involves action or inaction.

–Natchintanai. 368.

II.

Greater than life itself is good conduct. Those who conduct themselves with rectitude possess everything that is worthwhile. Non-killing, non-stealing, non-vituperation, non-covertness, truthfulness and humility–these are useful assets for virtuous living.

In whatever pursuits you are engaged, you should train yourself to work with zeal, keennesss and delight. Such a discipline will lead you to acquire steadfastness of the mind. It is then that the mind develops the power of one pointedness, which in turn will lead you to enjoy an abundance of anma-sakti. Thenceforth everything will be bright, and you will not be disturbed by the agitations caused by seeing the difference in objects, as friends and foes, light and darkness.

“Everything originates in me; everything finds permanency in me; in me everything revolves in dissolution.”–So must we become suffused with such pure thoughts. Further, we must frequently meditate as follows: “Nothing do I lack; everyone loves me and I too love all.”–Meditating thus, one should endeavor to live up to this ideal. If one can practice spiritual sadhana in this way, the capacity to know everything and the power to do anything will develop spontaneously.

–Natchintanai. 369.

Aum Tat Sat Aum

III.

We are the servitors of Lord Siva. We lack nothing. Our duty is to serve the Lord. It is the fundamental goal of our life in this world.

The moon fulfills the will of Siva. The sun and other planets also carry out His bidding.

The gods and demons, and all other beings are also engaged in the performance of the Lord’s work.

In everything do we see the will of Siva at work. Not an atom moves but by His will–nothing gained and nothing lost. We continue to be ever the same.

There is no one above us or superior to us; good and evil cannot affect us. There is no beginning and no end for us. We have no likes or dislikes; we have no desire for material goods. The specter of the mind does not haunt us; neither are we bound by the limitations of place, time or causation. We simply bear witness to everything around us.

Aum! Tat Sat Aum !

Today Bodhinatha went to a short meeting of the Kauai Action and Planning Alliance…

The Ekadanta Kulam gave news at lunch.

Saravananathaswami shared the progress of two young men who will be coming to the Aadheenam later this year.

Sadhaka Dandapani has been working on Innersearch follow up. Our new resident Aspirant Satya Subramaniam, is serving this phase in the Ekadanta Kulam and has been helping with data entry, editing audio files for sending out to the Innersearchers, sorting a backlog of mail and generally helping the team of two catch up….

Today our island resident (originally from Tuticorin, India) Vaidehi Ganeshan came to help with the Tamil in one of our books.

Arumugaswami and she are making corrections to the Book 3 Saivite Hinduism Children’s Course, following some proofing that was done in Malaysia recently.

The new edition, in full color this time, is nearing completion. Thank you, Vaidehi! And thanks to Kulapati Appasamy Kuppusamy (Tamil translator) and his daughter Usha Rani (for the Malay translation) for all the original translation work.

After many a long day of tropical rains, the skies were gentle today and we even saw some blue above our extinct volcano.

The silpis are working inside the smaller gopurams today.

This is a still photo, but in the video below you can see this craftsman at work and hear the dulcet tones of his bamboo-handled mallot as it strikes the steel chisel. You can see this process in the short video below. Notice how he works the flattened chisel back and forth as he taps with the mallot, slowly reducing the rough surface to an almost polished one. Click the controller to start the video. The first frame is pure white light (smile, we are working on that one.) On this video you will also be taken on an extraordinary, first-time-ever adventure, as our intrepid photographer, camera in one hand and steering wheel in the other, dangerously circumnavigates the Iraivan Temple. You see Iraivan from all sides in this video, which may also be seen on the upcoming Academy Awards for Documentary: Best Hawaiian Short Film-Navigation of Iraivan Temple. Just click on the obscure navigation bar below.

The cloth protects him from the Hawaiian sun.

Nearby three carvers work on small stones that are “keys” tying the roof beams to the tower.

Measuring for the next chipping session.

Silpi Chelliah works with the special chisels that smooth the stone. They are like the sandpaper one uses to give a finish to woodwork.

Nandi is enjoying a beautiful fern garland in a photo taken a few days back by Deva Seyon.

He also captured Gurudeva’s golden murti on Sivaratri Night.

Sri Shanthi Lingam Temple

The Shanthi Lingam Temple is an outgrowth of the Sri Subramuniya Kottam. It was established over 23 years ago through the efforts of the youth who were studying at the Kottam with Gurudeva’s blessings. The temple’s main structure,the sanctum that houses the Siva Lingam, was built out of the dedication, love and sweat of the youth of this community. In fact, it was erected almost entirely by the young students at the Kottam. Only one professional mason was hired. He oversaw the work of the youth as they cemented the temple brick by brick with their young hands. So impressed was Gurudeva, by the dedication of the youth that on January 5th 1983, Gurudeva’s 56th birthday, he personally came to place the Shanthi Lingam (the temple deity) in the temple with his own hands. Since the temple’s founding, it has been continuously serving the devotees in Jaffna through all of the trials and tribulations that the island has gone through. Through Gurudeva’s grace, the temple continues to exist and be of service to this day. People who come and worship there are constantly reminded of Gurudeva, by the very fact that he brought the Siva Lingam from Kauai Aadheenam and ceremoniously placed it in the sanctum. The Shanthi Lingam Temple provides daily prayers for devotees. Yearly festivals such as Sivaratri, Thaipusam, Thaiponggal, Tamil New Year, Thiruvembavai, Sivalayadeepam are held at the Temple.

Last year the Shanthi Lingam Temple Building Fund was created to repair some damage that the temple sustained during the war and to replace an aging roof structure over the main hall of the temple. A professional construction firm in Jaffna, Manoharan and Vettivel, was hired to replace the roof over the temple mandapam and repair other damages. With the first donation toward the fund provided by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, the reconstruction commenced with the stone-laying ceremony on April 10, 2005.

Currently, the new temple mandapam or main hall has been successfully completed. The Sri Subramuniya Kottam would like to thank the Kottam’s world-wide supporters for their kind and generous contribution that has brought the Shanthi Lingam Temple to its current, majestic state. These are pictures of the new structures and look of the temple. For your information, the original Sanctum structure put up by the youth of the Kottam 23 years ago still remains as it is. However, it does have a new coat of paint.

We take you now to Gurudeva’s Spiritual Park in the country of Mauritius, off the coast of South Aftica. The February 2006 Ganesha homa may have been, according to many observers, the largest Ganesha Homa in terms of attendance since homas were begun at the Spiritual Park. Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati looked splendid and deeply inspiring on that Sunday morning.

The ceremony starts with the usual devotional songs dedicated to Lord Ganesha.

Four kulapaties sat around the Homa. As stewards of the Spiritual Park, the kulapaties met at a Council of Ministers meeting earlier that day to submit their ideas and plans regarding the Spiritual Park to Satguru Bodhinatha.

Kulapati Siven Koothan officiates at the Homa ceremony.

As the inside of the Mandapam was packed to capacity with the lucky devotees who came earlier to find a seat, most of the devotees were accommodated in the shady areas outside.

Others were in the mango grove…..

Every month hundreds of chairs are rented to accommodate comfortably the devotees attending the Ganesha Homa. The Spiritual Park is working on a fund raising project to purchase its own chairs in the future.

Another group seated close to the Mandapam…

Several devotees came forward to give spontaneous, uplifting testimonies. Here is one lady explaining how Lord Ganapati helped her elderly sick mother recover ,despite the fact that doctors had little hope about her getting cured.

After the testimony session, coordinated by kulapati Manick, it is time for some spiritual explanation on some specific topic, usually a message from Bodhinatha. Here Kulapati Siven Koothan is explaining about anger management, taking his discourse from the insight section in Hinduism Today.

A large framed photo of Satguru Bodhinatha is nicely placed on one of the pillars of the Mandapam.

Every month volunteers from among the general public attending the Homa sponsor lunch after the ceremony. All enjoy a free, veggie meal as part of their morning spiritual outing.

Here is Nishi, an enrolled MC student (centre) just arrived from Canada, now newly engaged to a barrister in Mauritius. Earlier she gave a testimony about how she had been burning prayers to find the right young man to share her life.

Kulapati SK Moorghen is counting the donations from the Hundi. Every Sunday after the ceremomy and after the clean up, all donations from the Hundi and donation plate are carefully counted and deposited at the bank. These gifts are decicated to helping maintain the Spiritual Park in good condition.

Kumaren Mooroven, our dedicated sound system operator who, every month, with the help of Paramasiven Canagasaby and Somandiren Peruman sets up the sound system at the Ganesha Mandapam. Thank you, Kumaren.

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.