Sun One today… After the homa Bodhinatha explained that even today, some very basic questions are being asked by, which he learned on his recent visit to the Dharma Summit in New Jersey. He wrote a trenchant three point answer to the two basic questions: “Who is a Hindu” and “What is Hinduism.” He read these for us today. Stay tuned to read these in the days ahead after the transcription and audio are posted.

Our new curtains from India arrived several weeks ago. Here we see the rich, royal curtains of Lord Siva Nataraja… with two Nandi’s facing each other…

Hanuman…

This couple from Texas has been here pilgrimage, worshipping and doing sadhana. Today, they joined us for homa and later had darshan with Bodhinatha.

There were very interesting to get Bodhinatha’s advice on passing Hinduism on to their child.

Congratulations to Yogi Japendranatha! After literally several months of challenges with our monastery’s main server storage system, as well as our backup system, he finally installed a very powerful Xserve RAID, which is now storing all our data. He says:

“This system is very expandable. We are only using the left-hand set of seven drives in the unit and are getting an effective capacity of 2.18TB (terabytes), and with our current amount of data we will have 980GB free space, which should last us a good long while. If we ever need more space, we can set up another array with more drives in the right-hand section. For RAID 5 a minimum of three drives is required, which would give a beginning capacity of 800GB. A minimum of two drives could be used to create an unprotected RAID, such as level 0. This system supports array volume expansion, so a new RAID 5 array in the right-hand section could be started with three drives and be added to one drive at a time as necessary, with all data preserved. This is an impressive new technology, a major upgrade from our previous system with its highly sophisticated controller and remote monitoring/management tools. It’s everything we would expect from Apple.”

We have had some spectacularly clear days, cool nights and hot mid-days… Kauai summer actually only gets into full-swing in September…

The ever-shining Iraivan…

and Mount Waialeale…

We are very happy to announce that as of today, someone in a wheel chair can arrive and go all the way to Iraivan without a facing a single step!

These pictures come from yesterdays cement pour… the cement truck has arrived and the small pump is connected all the way to Kadavul…

John Anderson and his team had yesterday completed all the forms and laid in the reinforcement wire…

The pour begins at the temple…

Concrete is an unrelenting task master… every minute it is curing, changing consistency… our team is focused..

Year ago the monks themselves did all the walks you have sees around the Aadheenam…. now we get to stand back and watch the pros do it…

Ok, this section is full, ready to move back…

Next the “screed” begins (a wide board that moves across the top of the forms to level the cement…and find low spots that need to be raised…)

Manning the screed is very hard work…

“Looking Good…”

Next, hand troweling the surface to drive down the aggregate (large gravel pieces) and bring up the “mud” (smooth cement) to make an even surface…

In order to use a pump the cement is quite “wet” …

But we can’t too long… time to lay in the flagstones.

Excellent work! These flagstones are a special, shiny quartzite that appears to have silver, gold, crystal flecks…

It’s an art and a puzzle at the same time… finding just the right pieces…

It’s beautiful!

The cement truck is loaded and ready to move to the next site…

the beginning of Tiruneri just after the Nepali Ganesha is next…

This is where the steps were before… the perspective is a bit deceiving.. it’s not at long as it appears.

We had a temperature reading or 105 degrees F in the sun… You have to keep you fluid intake up… Drink or end up with a splitting headache tonight.

The pour was a great success. We also did the steps down the end of the path over looking the river and made a nice new clean pad for our cow barn..

Our silpi team visited the Kauai County Farm Fair over the weekend. Here they pose with Kauai’s Mayor Brian Baptiste. The Farm Fair is the biggest event of the year on Kauai, with up to 40,000 visitors over three days. There are exhibits of agriculture, community service, businesses, games and rides, as well as nightly entertainment shows.

On display are a wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers, including a very fine set of mangos.

Here they talk about the bonsai display with Yogi Japendranatha. Kauai has a large Japanese population, some outstanding experts in these miniature trees.

With some cajoling, part of the group join Sivakatirswami on the ferris wheel. There are other rides, but not for the squeamish…

Round and round they go…

Having bees in your building is considered auspicious to the Hawaiians. But we are going to be doing termite treatment soon and we did not want all these honey bees who had taken up residence in the walls of the Guru Peedam to die… so Kumarswami, Sivakatirswami and Yoginathaswami went to work today for a major “bee extraction.”

We were fortunate that the colony perfectly situated between two studs. This made it relatively easy… But it was filled top to bottom 10 Feet hight by 2 feet wide…

It was a medium sized colony and the comb was perfectly organized.

As per normal behavior most of the honey was at the top and the brood was centered below…

It took our team about 5 hours of hard work… We harvested about 100 pounds of honey and two hives of bees which were place outside in the courtyard. (more about that tomorrow)

It was the last day of our phase and the Aadheenam was humming both dedicated pilgrims and casual end of phase visitors, in fact three monks were hosting all morning and still we did not catch everyone… Bodhinatha enjoyed some excellent darshan sessions with devotees from Canada, UK and other locations.

Ramalingam and his wife Hema are here from Vancouver. They knew Gurudeva and met him several times in Concord. He and his wife discussed with Bodhinatha and sought his advice on the Ganesha temple in Vancouver. Ramalingam occasionally helps with pujas there.

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, Sunday, August 28th.

Virendra Patel and family from southern California were among our many guests that came today. They had a wonderful meeting with Bodhinatha asking
many insightful questions.

Mr. Prasad with his wife, daughter son and their grandmother. The elder lady asked Bodhinatha many insightful questions.

She has some good insights on teaching very young children. For example, she suggests that they not be exposed to the Ramayana and Maha Bharata at too early an age as they are not able to interpret all the violence in those stories.

Ramalingam and Hema at the Narmada Lingam on the path of the Saiva Saints.

Off to worship Lord Siva at the Path of the Saivite Saints….

This is the Puvanendran family from London.

Sadhaka Dandapani is planning out the final details for the Innersearch. With only about 4 months to go many are beginning to sign up now. So, if you want to join Bodhinatha on this 2-week adventure don’t delay much longer.

Our Wailua Mission is getting ready for Ganesha Chaturthi by making small clay Ganeshas. Here is Shaila Pushpa Sendan with her grandmother, Valli Sendan…

Brahmachari Rajadeva Alahan concentrated on his murthi making…

With Hinduism Today going up in the world and with Bodhinatha’s initiatives to bring a “rich media” experience to its readers… we had the magazine reviewed by a professional.

We hired Andrew Chapman, a top professional graphic designer/typographer in the industry, who lectures on high-end software and advises publishing groups, to give us an objective view of how we are doing. We asked him to be brutal, and to give us ten specific improvements we could make in the magazine, to enhance its professionalism. Here is his summary.

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Aloha, Palaniswami!

My apologies for the lengthy time it’s taken for me to review your magazine. However, once you read what I have to say, hopefully you won’t mind the wait. Thank you for your patience.

Essentially, there is very little I can say with regard to improvements. Your magazine is fantastic! I’m very impressed with the level of quality and production that’s evident from page to page. It reminds me very much of US News & World Report and Newsweek in certain aspects of its look — I wouldn’t be surprised if you used those as models, and that was a good choice. It conveys top-notch professionalism and journalistic i
ntegrity. Here are my thoughts on the areas you requested feedback on in your cover letter:

1. Typography — Excellent choices. In my design seminars I always recommend a serif choice for body text and a sans serif choice for headlines and such. You’ve done both, and it makes for a very readable magazine. I have one typography comment below for your consideration. (I’ve consolidated my few critical comments below for easy reference.)

2. Layout — Very well organized and eye-pleasing, as well as eye-catching. The sections are very consistent within each issue, and from one issue to another. I know exactly where I am in the magazine, so the navigation is easy. I absolutely LOVE the contents being immediately on the inside fold — excellent choice. And then, the use of the three-page spread on the flip-side to further introduce the cover story is highly engaging and pulls me in. Great!

3. Photos — Again, fantastic choices. You’ve put together a beautiful collection of photography from issue to issue, with a very pleasant variety of sizes and colors and subjects. I have absolutely no critical comments regarding color correction, cropping, or choice. Also, the use of the stylized illustrations throughout, and especially in the cover-story sections, provides a nice textural balance to the photos.

4. Art — I just addressed the use of illustrations, but can continue that thought with regard to borders and other graphic elements. They tie the entire magazine together very well and support the theme perfectly. Your use of color does the same. While being a very colorful magazine, it doesn’t cross the fine line into looking like a “circus”. In my design seminars, I mention the potential for overusing color for color’s sake, and how it can take on the circus or carnival look if not applied properly. You’ve infused a generous dose of color throughout, without going too far. I also love the subtle textured background on all the pages, as opposed to the standard bright white look. Nice touch.

5. Branding comments — What you sent me ties together very well. It’s clear that each and every component or piece originated from the same organization. I have one minor comment below that falls into the realm of branding.

6. Ad layouts — Both the display and classified ads look good. I especially like that they’re all at the end of the magazine, and not interrupting the editorial content. I also like that you’ve got the display ads separated by alleys to allow the textured page background to show between the ads. And the use of the ragged border around some of them is a nice relief from the hard-edged ads. The “Custom Tours to India” ad on page 77 of the September 2004 issue is a perfect example of subtly breaking out of the inherent boxy nature of print layout, by using the ragged border and having the country’s eastern edge escape the ad.

7. Insight sections — My positive comments from above are simply echoed here in these sections. I like that they are oversized inserts/pull-outs, so they can function as stand-alone pieces. Well done. I only have one additional comment below.

8. Ten immediate improvements — Well, considering I couldn’t even come up with ten improvements in my comments below, I don’t have ten to offer! And my critical comments are hardly “must do” items. They’re simply for your consideration. There isn’t anything in your magazine that screams for instant fixing.

So, all that being said, here are the few things for you to think about. Again, these are very picky items (except perhaps the last one) that in no way detract greatly from an otherwise outstanding magazine.

* From a branding and readability standpoint, I’d think about using your serif body text choice from the magazine in the Insight sections as well. Generally speaking, sans serif typefaces are harder to read than serif in large amounts of text. The type choice is not bad, per se, but something to think about for these reasons. It could be argued, however, that you made this choice specifically to create a subtle uniqueness for the Insight sections vs. the magazine. If so, I can understand that.

* It’s far more common for the back cover of a magazine to be ad space as opposed to editorial space. Given the high level of professionalism otherwise, I assume this to be a conscious choice, but wanted to mention it nonetheless. The back cover brings in top advertising dollars, so if money is a concern, perhaps consider going with an ad here and move Digital Dharma inside. The fact that you use the bottom space for mailing (although that’s typically done on the front cover) would be a selling point to advertisers; i.e., people *will* see the back cover.

* On the front cover, the comma after the months and before the year seems distracting to me. While style guides disagree as to whether the comma is needed when no date is indicated, from a purely visual standpoint it seems intrusive here.

* I’ve saved my most significant comment for last. What I found most detracting from the overall excellent quality of your magazine is the “Today” on the cover. (I sure hope this isn’t a beloved choice of yours!) At first, I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much — then it hit me. The type choice and rainbow coloring of the word make me think of the late-1960s and 1970s! Look back to publications and posters and t-shirts of that era and you’ll see this look. Thus, what bothers me is that the word “Today” ironically looks outdated. So, if you see this as worthy of consideration (and there’s not some reason for this type choice that I’m overlooking), I’d change this font to something more contemporary and immediate. To find some worthy candidates, check into technology magazines and logos of technology companies. What you’ll find are simpler and clean fonts — they won’t create the stark contrast you now have (between “Hinduism” and “Today”) and that I assume you’re going for, but you’ll still have some contrast without the outdated look.

And there you have all I can say in the realm of “improvements”. As I predicated, they are mostly very minor, and certainly not crucial. Once again, the magazine is stellar — I hope you have, or will, submit it to design competitions. It’s certainly deserving of an award.

I hope my review will prove helpful. If nothing else, you have confirmation (at least in my opinion) that you’re doing just about everything “right”! Regarding your comment in the cover letter about being traditional but wanting to be interesting, I think that’s exactly what you’ve achieved.

Please confirm you’ve received this, and with your permission I’d like to donate the magazines you sent me to my local library instead of returning them. They don’t carry Hinduism Today, but hopefully they will after seeing it.

Sincerely,
Andrew Chapman
Publishing Consultant
www.achapman.com

We will close today with pictures of our weekly visitors’ tour

It has been a very quiet day at the Aadheenam.

Bodhinatha met with Ariel Lewin and her brother Michael who went on the last Innersearch. They brought gifts from a recent trip to Nepal and Mt. Kailash.

The Siddhidata Kulam reported on their activities… new tent has been raised over the West Chinna Gopuram up near the Vimanam as the new team of silpis will be going aloft soon to start leveling work for the capstone of the Chinna Gopuram.

Saravananathaswami has been very busy coordinating all the events in advance in remote locations. He will be traveling with Bodhinatha when on the coming trip to Asia…

Every day at 3 PM, Ganesha Arati is performed by the monk on vigil between 3 PM and 6 PM. Today Sannyasin Natarajnathaswami has that blessed duty…

The monks have been performing this daily nitya vrata (“eternal vow”) every three hours, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year since 1973…. 32 years!

Iraivan always looks magnificent in the distance… now we go out to see the local Cub Scouts who came for a visit yesterday. They are troop 305 attached to the Mormon Church in Kapaa.

They started off by watching the silpis make their own chisels — not a common sight to see a blacksmith in action these days.

Yoginathaswami passes out a few of the dozens of chisels they make.

Here they inspect the beam and pillar stones recently arrived. The troop included Austin Cook, Koa Machado, Miles Mendosa, Mason Mendosa, Griffin Allen, Drake Allen and Morgan Allen. They were accompanied by a contingent of parents — Tony Cook, Camas Machado, James Sarme and Greg Allen.

Here they are at the lion’s pillar getting to roll the loose ball around in the lion’s mouth.

Each took a turn at carving a stone with a hammer and chisel.

Here a silpi demonstrates how to cleanly cleave off a stone along a precise line.

With a solid whack a large piece of stone came off right along the sthapathi’s line. Scoutmaster Greg Allen said they wanted to expose the boys to different cultures, religions and traditions so they had a well-rounded upbringing.

Back at the Aadheenam, various concrete works are underway.

Here we are at the beginning of Tiruneri, on the walk up to Kadavul Temple. Steps are turning into ramps…

Special Announcement

The main murthi for Montreal Murugan Temple Kumbhabhishekam has not arrived on time. It is still enroute in a container. We have only just been informed today. Bodhinatha’s trip to Montreal has been cancelled!

He will depart for Singapore on September 3rd.

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Meanwhile at home the Pillaiyar Kulam shared news today. The new Mini-Mela project is underway… an upgrade information and library center for visitors just off the path to Kadavul Temple. The project will also see an upgrade to our walks. Many steps will be turned into ramps to comply with wheelchair access codes, and also make it easy for us to use hand trolleys to move things around.

Sadhaka Jothinatha informs us about Hindus in Guyana ordering more copies of Hinduism Today, and the popularity of our Parenting Pamphlet at various events.

Sadhaka Jivananandanatha announced that he managed to complete a monthly Hindu Heritage Endowment accounting reconciliation all on his own after 4 years of training by Bodhinatha.

Today, which is a quiet photo day for the Aadheenam.. we share one last installment, without captions, of Bodhinatha’s visit to Toronto: the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir.

Devotees here follow the north Indian tradition and many hail from the Caribbean…Waving the Arati flame on a tray…

Priya Alahan took these snaps today which we share with you…

Priya is a budding artist working from many “angles”..

Priya paints and has a deep creative side. Music, dance, art, singing and now photography, are part of her repertoire

Bodhinatha’s days have been full of meetings… guiding everything along in the space of a few days before he leaves for another month of travels.

Chandresekaran and wife, Shoba, along with daughter, Roshni, were among the pilgrims this morning. They are from Seattle and enjoyed spending the morning on Lord Siva’s island home.

Piyush and Ipashri Bharti were our guests this morning. They had heard about us from relatives and friends so they decided to visit us all the way from London. It’s their first visit to the monastery and they were quite fascinated with many things here especially this very unique crocodile water spout.

Hugging a rudraksha tree is also a must for all pilgrims ….

And so is a visit to the enchanting Bali Hai Falls.

We bring a photo review of Father’s Day celebrations in Malaysia, without captions. But the images show what a joyous day was had by all..

A new phase began today… early morning homa and then the Aadheenam “engine” started up again…

Bodhinatha only has 5 days with us before he is off on another journey.

Today he gave an important talk on “Patience and Forbearance” which will eventually be published here on TAKA and in the Vanakkam Newspaper in Mauritius. Stayed tuned.. meanwhile for all the Inspired Talks audio fans, see the side bar for a new talk we have linked today on TAKA.

A bright summer sun on the west Chinna Gopuram.

We anticipate that Iraivan will provide cool refreshing shade in the future. The temple will be a physical respite from the warm tropical weather, as well as a spiritual respite from the swirling karmas of life.

Our new, younger, silpi team is on the job.

The rate of the “clink, clink, clink” seems to be running faster than ever…

Silpi Rajendran sporting his new eye-wear.

We bring you something we have been missing for a long time: photos from the Iraivan temple work site in India… a visit by Sri-la-Sri Balagangadharanathaswami who has generously allowed Gurudeva to use this land where the carving site has been set up. Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara writes:

Gangaswami had come to see the rudraksha plants that I had recently brought from Kauai. Swami took a photo at our home.

This softstone Ganesha attracted the attention of swamiji and he liked the piece. He took a photo holding the Ganesha playing Tabla.

Here, Gangaswami saw the newly completed steps (Panchaksara steps) carved in blackstone which leads to the main sanctum to Iraivan. He really liked the fine workmanship.

Swamiji seeing the Yalli pillar.

Gangaswami looking at the 10-foot jalakam “window” which is being carved. There are 4 of such stones that comes between the pillars of the Rajagopuram tower and provide light into the entrance through a lattice of holes.

Chidambaram Sthapati showing the drawings to swamji. Standing beside him is Thangavelu Sthapati who is responsible for all the ornamental carvings in Iraivan temple.

Gangaswami wanted 108 rudraksha plants from kauai to be planted at his Adichunchanagiri Mutt headquarters. Jiva managed to bring some plants back home and planted them in the nursery. Here, Gangaswami is walking thru Jiva’s vanilla farm.

Gangaswami looking at the rudraksha plants.

Jiva presented the “Tabla Ganesha” to Gangaswami before he left the Iraivan worksite.

Rishi Thondunathan sends news from Sri Lanka:

New Pannisai Class Begins
in Sri Subramuniya Kottam
Sri Lanka

The Sri Subramuniya Kottam of Kopay, Sri Lanka was started by Gurudeva to uplift and provide many types of services to the Hindu community surrounding it. Since the beginning Gurudeva emphasized that the activities of the Kottam should center around the children and youth.

Most recently the Kottam has organized free weekly Pannisai Singing classes. Panninsai are devotional songs sang by the Saivite saints. The classes are conducted by Miss Girija Subramaniam. She is a graduate from Jaffna University’s Ramanathan Music Academy and is well versed in traditional singing arts and teaches the children the proper methods of singing each devotional song. Miss Girija herself used to attend the kindergarden classes conducted at the Kottam when she was a child.

The classes have proven to be quite successful, with over 40 children attending every week.

Here in this photo is the Kottam’s Pannisai teacher, Miss Girija Subramaniyam, singing at the Kottam’s
Sri Shanthi Lingam Temple last Maha Sivaratri.

Back at the Aadheenam… we take the opportunity to view some of the wonders of summer.. This palm tree is bearing a gigantic frond which is starting to flower…

The unopened flower is about 4 feet long!

A lotus emerging..

“The highly trained classical yoga adept intensifies, through techniques imparted to him from his guru, the clear white light to the brink of God Realization, the void. His entir
e body is faded into a sea of blue-white light, the akasha, where now, past and future are recorded in the linear depths or layers, sometimes seeing himself seated or standing on a lotus flower of shimmering light in an actinodic clear, transparent, neon, plastic-like-body outline as his consciousness touches, in tune with a heart’s beat, into the Self, God Realization.” –Gurudeva

A gentle rain bathes these beautiful flowers.

The lotus lasts for just a few days.

Today is the last day of our phase… tour day… and we had a huge crowd of guests.

Bodhinatha is back home and will be here for another week or so before traveling again.

Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sannyasin Arumugaswami are also back and have brought home glowing reports from the Dharma Conference (see below at the end of TAKA)….

Note: our transcribers and web team are continuing to push on catching up with Bodhinatha’s upadeshas. Inspired Talk and Satguru Speaks audio fans can check out the new talk which is linked today on the side bar and go to the main audio page to navigate to the index of all talks Bodhinatha has given this past year… we still have more to put up, but a number of new ones were added today.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of this short 4-day phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Sunday, August 21st.

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Hands on granite… a first time wonderment for our guests….

This little one is also amazed.

Getting blessed by a rudraksha tree…

Now we bring you news from New Jersey… You can also read more on today’s Hindu Press International posting

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Dharma Summit Report…

from Paramacharya Palaniswami

“It is Tuesday morning and Arumugaswami and I are having the only unscheduled hour of our entire journey, as we wait for the shuttle to take us to our plane and our all-day flight to Hawaii.

We were amazed to see how many there were readers of Hinduism Today and how important the magazine was to them. Also, nearly everyone there had been to Kauai Aadheenam at one time or another and they all look to the Aadheenam and our monastic order with great love and affection.

The final day dedicated to discussion on temple management was very useful. One lady lawyer from Denver spoke on the legal aspects of temple management, including financial and fiduciary responsibility, with a strong emphasis on liability, libel and defamation, even hate crimes. Her talk was quite professional and full of beautiful dharmic ideals, clearly urging temple managers to do what may not have been done in the past: be honest, don’t lie, don’t embezzle temple funds, etc.

We addressed the temple managers to share Gurudeva’s vision that temples and Hindu institutions should be churches for a number of legal and social reasons, which we summarized. We took the opportunity to correct the idea that Churches are Christian only, explaining that Chinmaya Mission USA, Sringiri Mutt in PA, Barsana Dham and Satchidananda’s IYI are all Churches. I think they were surprised to hear that Gurudeva had founded the first Hindu Church in America in 1957.

Later Arumugaswami addressed the group on the subject of Bodhinatha’s 6-point description of their temples, and handed out the illustrated pamphlets we brought for them. They all grabbed them up within two minutes.

When Bodhinatha held up the magazine during his evening keynote speech and said we had copies of Hinduism Today on the HSC table outside, the two boxes we brought we gone in three minutes!

We also had a chance to share with them a brief summary of Iraivan’s endowment and Gurudeva’s genius in creating a perpetual maintenance fund along with the temple, and to briefly caution them about quasi-endowments (more needs to be said about this). In fact, we plan an article based on the legal presentation mentioned above, with a sidebar on real and quasi- endowments as this is a bit technical.

We had told the coordinators before lunch we had to leave by 4pm, so they would not think we were walking out on them when the time came. So, at 4 we both stood up and quietly exited during a presentation. Seeing us leave, the entire room stood up, clapping for two minutes, shouting from across the room “Good-bye” “Aloha” “See you in Hawaii.” It was amazing.

The presenter left the stage and ran after us, to say he will be visiting us in Hawaii again soon. All in all it was startling to see how much the Hawaii monastery means to these people, and they are the leaders in their communities — each one a surgeon or engineer or other high-end professional, each one charmed by Gurudeva and everything he created.

Bodhinatha meets with Senthilathiban. Though just 29, Senthil has taken the family business “Artha Enterprises” in India to grand heights.

Here Senthil give Bodhinatha a gift… Having grown up the past decade side-by-side with his father Jiva Rajasankara, mother, Kanmani and brother, Thuraisingam, at the Iraivan temple carving site, Senthil really understands and knows about granite. Under his guidance Artha Enterprise has won first prize in two annual international STONA shows in India and is now actively sought after by leading builders, no only in India but in UK and elsewhere.

A small image of Lord Siva on a swing…

The Umakanthan family from California visited and met with Bodhinatha today. They have visited prior and one time the daughter, Janani, actually danced for Gurudeva. Today they asked thoughtful questions to Bodhinatha about the reasons for needing a satguru in one’s life, and whether it is okay to change from guru lineage to another. Bodhinatha explained that it is okay, if following certain protocols. Formal release must be obtained from one guru lineage before seeking out another.

Today is also a special day as it is the 18th anniversary of the Maha Spatika Lingam’s arrival on Kauai…

After our meditation this morning we were off to change the flag…

[More on the Jivana Ritau from the Saiva Dharma Shastras… ]

The Second Season: Jivana Ritau

During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December, Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture is the primary text. The key word of this season is work. The colors are rust, copper-maroon and all shades of red–rust for earthy preservation, copper-maroon for fulfillment and red for physical energy.

The Aadheenam’s 60-foot flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags.

This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life’s elder advisor stage. The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past.

Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world. Practicality is a word much used this season. In the monasteries and the missions, there is a big push on studying the sutras of Living with Siva and these Saiva Dharma Shastras.

The format of the mission satsanga changes into one that in fact helps everyone live and breathe with Lord Siva through personal adjustment to the aphorisms of Living with Siva, which define tradition, culture and protocol. Gurukulams are established or renewed to teach the 64 kalas for boys and girls.

All work hard to perfect and strengthen Saivite culture in the life of each member. Kulamatas, grihinis and their daughters should think ahead and make plans to send talented children to dancing, singing and art schools for special courses, and ponder ways to make this possible through scholarships and special funds.

It is a time of building and repairing and caring for what has been built, planted or created in any realm of life. It is a physical time, of exercise and exertion in the Bhuloka, a magnetic time for action and willpower, of finishing all jobs started since the first ritau. On the farm, there is harvesting of the land’s fruits as we celebrate abundance. In the missions during Jivana Ritau, the shishyas can form tirukuttams, and thereby visit students’ homes, see how they live and meet their families.

119 Festivals, Realms of the Second Season

Krittika Dipa is the major festival of Jivana Ritau. This grand event, conducted by the family missions, is open to members, Academy students and to special guests by invitation, including honored dignitaries of the island, neighbors and friends of the Church.

Ganesha Chaturthi and Skanda Shashti are also conducted by shishyas on the Island.

The Aadheenam Realms of this period are: 1) San Marga, the straight path to God, with its rudraksha, neem, konrai and bilva forests, and Agni Mandapam. 2) The Wailua River, with its Nani Kaua Waterfall and Pond, Bali Hai Falls and Ganga Sadhana Ghats. 3) Pihanakalani Trail–legendary Hawaiian path toward the volcano, beginning at the Aadheenam and continuing past the Orchid Pavilion of Religions to the Teak Tree Turnaround at the edge of Rainbow Amphitheater.

Securing a new flag for a new season…

Senthil leaves back for India tomorrow. During his stay here he has had numerous meetings to help with the Iraivan’s on-going construction and to take designs home for many new wonderful things in stone for Kauai Aadheenam.

We are all very proud of him and the whole family… who we know are watching TAKA from Bangalore… (smile)

Today we received some photos from Dr. Shirish Parekh of Bodhinatha’s visit to the Sri Venkateswar temple in Bridgewater, New Jersey on August 12th.

Temple trustees welcome Bodhinatha.

Saiva and Vaishnava priests greet Bodhinatha inside the temple.

Navagraha shrine.

Circumambulating the shrines.

With the temple priests. The temple has 10 full time priests.

Bodhinatha giving his talk.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami returned home today with Sadhaka Dandapani after a truly “victorious” mission.

Despite some very long and challenging transit schedules, Bodhinatha looks bright and strong.

Sadhaka Jivananandanatha performs the pada puja..

Jai Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami ki Jai!

After entering the temple, arati is performed before each of the deities…. Lord Muruga welcomes home our Satguru…

Sadhaka Dandapani did a great job planning and being Bodhinatha assistant on the journey…

And we all appreciate him for staying up late after long days of events, processing photos and writing captions for TAKA… Thank you Sadhaka!

And now he brings you another installment…

August 13th (New Jersey): Bodhinatha, Palaniswami, Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani at the Student Centre of Rutgers University for the Dharma Conference.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati whose idea was to have this conference addresses the group. He gave an inspiring talk about preserving and promoting Hinduism.

Dr. Ved Chaudhary organized and coordinated this 3 day conference.

Spiritual leaders, heads of Hindu institutions and scholars were among the attendees.

The first session in the morning included also a panel discussion on the future of Dharmic Traditions in North America.

Swami Chidananda (left) and Swami Dayananda Saraswati.

There were many inspired speakers.

Dr. Frank Morales who recently contributed the “All religions are not the same” article to Hinduism Today.

Swami Chidananda from Rishikesh, India, also addressed the congregation.

Dr. David Frawley.

Nilufer and Kaika Clubwala came over from New York to meet with Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha speaks with Swami Jyotirmayananda who is an ardent devotee of Swami Vivekananda.

The conference took place in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the weather was warm and humid over the 3 days.

Later that day we returned to the conference. Palaniswami being interviewed.

Here Palaniswami had a wonderful meeting with members of the Hindu Students Council (HSC) with Samir Rawal (president), Nikunj Trivedi and Bhakti Modi. To his immediate right is Kanchan Banerjee, one of the co-founders of HSC.

Arumugaswami talks with Dr. Seshagiri Rao who is one of the key people pulling the Encyclopedia of Hinduism together.

Palaniswami takes the opportunity to talk to the Hindu American Foundation board members, Aseem Shukla and Nikhil Joshi.

You can learn more about their organization at http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org

Bodhinatha has a quiet moment just before his keynote address to the group.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati talks to Bodhinatha and our monks.

Bodhinatha gives his talk using Apple’s Keynote software (similar to Power Point).

Everyone was inspired by his talk and most impressed with the presentation. Bodhinatha talked about how to raise children as good Hindus and the four denominations within Hinduism.

Bodhinatha attended the first day of the conference. On August 14th he left New Jersey leaving Palaniswami and Arumugaswami to attend the remaining two days of the conference.

Bodhinatha delivers the keynote speech at the 2005 Dharma Summit in New Jersey.

August 14th: A view of south San Francisco at night. Bodhinatha is on his way home.

Sadhu Paksha: Day Eleven

It’s very quiet at home. With Bodhinatha traveling with Sadhaka Dandapani and also Palaniswami and Arumugaswami… all four of whom are now in New Jersey… we are running on a “short crew” here at the Aadheenam. Though there are no tours… the August vacation season is bringing lots and lots of visitors to the temple in the morning.

Sadhaka Dandapani has sent these photos from New Jersey yesterday… catching up with events in Edmonton, Canada, and the first day in New Jersey where Bodhinatha joined the “Hindu Encyclopedia” working group to discuss that project, before continuing on the next day with the main event: the Dharma Conference… more about that below…

Senthilathiban is here from India, having brought over the latest silpis crew. He climb up to the roof of Iraivan and took these shots…

The full moon in the background… look up over the vimanam…

August 10th (Edmonton): Bodhinatha’s day started with meetings with devotees. First up was Jnanideva Cevvel who was on the 2004 Indian Odyssey Innersearch with Bodhinatha.

with Nitya Sivam.

Rajesh Bali and family. Rajesh was the one who organized the wonderful event with the Fijian Hindu community the previous night and invited Bodhinatha to return again next year.

Vaidya Bala meets with Bodhinatha.

He teaches the Tirukural to the young children in the Saiva Dharma class whom you all saw on TAKA a few days ago.

Sivajnanam and wife meets with Bodhinatha. They are long time devotees of Gurudeva and Sivajnanam is the one that maintains the Gurudeva shrine in the Maha Ganapati temple.

Saravan and Bhavani Veylan.

Later that evening Bodhinatha attended the abhishegam and puja at the Maha Ganapati temple. It is a beautiful and powerful temple with Maha Ganapati’s presence strongly felt.

Subramania Kurukkal presents Bodhinatha with a shawl after the puja.

The temple is really well maintained by a group of dedicated devotees who keep it spotlessly clean, grow flowers and vegetables in the temple garden and maintain firmly the temple traditions the traditional way. Congratulations to all of you for setting a wonderful example for everyone!

After the puja Bodhinatha headed downstairs to the cultural hall to give a talk titled “Work is Worship”.

On the northeast corner of the hall is a shrine dedicated to Gurudeva who presented the community with a Ganesha many years ago to begin the worship and guided the community in the establishing of the temple.

One of the temple trustees thanks Bodhinatha for coming to the temple.

Tara Veylan comes up for vibhuthi blessing.

Subramania Kurukkal is from Alaveddy, in northern Sri Lanka and we’ve known him for many, many years. He has been the priest here at the Maha Ganapati temple for 18 years now.

Sadhaka Dandapani takes a moment to talk to Sivajnanam’s sons.

Mr. Selvarajah, another long time devotee of Gurudeva, telling his son, Mayooran, that he should visit Kauai Aadheenam.

The photo on the right shows Gurudeva blessing the spot where Ganesha is right now. Here’s the story of that sacred event. About 20 years ago the community purchased a 5-acre plot of land. The parcel was undevelo
ped and covered with bush. They invited Gurudeva to come and bless the land. Gurudeva walked around the property among the shrub and came to a location which he identified to be the exact spot where Ganesha will be placed and worshipped when the temple construction is complete many years later. He then blessed the spot, did a small abhishekam (as seen on the photo on the wall), followed by arathi and then prostrated on the ground.

August 11th: After 12 continuous hours of being in cars, airport lounges and planes Bodhinatha made it from Edmonton to New Jersey.

August 12th (New Jersey): On this morning Bodhinatha attended the last day of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism Conference hosted by Swami Chidananda Saraswati.

Bodhinatha addressing the scholars present.

Swami Chidananda presents Bodhinatha with a shawl.

Later that evening just before Bodhinatha headed out to another temple visit he stopped briefly in the hotel restaurant to meet with some devotees. Among them are Mark and Lindsay Boyer who drove down from New York and Julie Rajan, who writes for Hinduism Today.

There is Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sannyasin Arumugaswami who have come to represent Hinduism Today at the Dharma Conference…

Then Bodhinatha was taken to the Sri Venkateswara temple in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Dr. Shirish Parekh leads Bodhinatha to the temple entrance. It is a beautiful, large traditional South Indian style temple set on a 10 acre parcel.

Sharad Trivedi who visited Kauai with his family last year welcomes Bodhinatha.

The gopuram is tall and spectacular making you feel like you are walking into a temple in south India.

The temple has 10 full time priests – some Vaishnava and some Saiva. The main Venkateswara deity in the sanctum is about 10 feet tall from base to top.

After the puja Bodhinatha was led to a classroom in the basement section of the temple to give a talk.

A small group of devotees, some traveling 3 hours from New York and Pennsylvania, came to spend some rare time with Bodhinatha and hear him talk.

Shirish and Daksha Parekh who did a wonderful job in organizing this evening’s events.

Tomorrow we will bring you photos from the first day of the Dharma Summit Conference. But just now… an email has arrived from Arumugaswami with the first installment of a report:

“There was a wide representation of Hindu leaders and institutions, including Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Chidananda Saraswati (Muniji), Swami Jyotirmayananda (our old friend from Tamil Nadu), Sudarshan, head of the RSS in India, BAPS, Hindu-American Foundation, Hindu Student Council, Barsana Dham, the Brahma Kumaris, and more, 80 institutions represented in all. There were 400 participants, which was more than capacity and they turned away more. The days were long throughout the sessions, 7:30am breakfast gathering, 9 am starting of the formal session which went on to 9:30 or 10 pm, with breakfast, lunch and dinner served at the conference venue at the Student Center at Rutgers College (one of the oldest colleges in America, founded by none other than Benjamin Franklin in 1766, a red brick college near a river, in a 350-year-old town.)

The main concern and stated purpose of the historic Dharma Summit was the transmission of Hinduism to the second generation of America-born Hindus, with a secondary goal of creating an assembly of noted and authoritative groups and individuals who can speak, in a one voice, to the peoples of America on behalf of the two plus million Hindus in the country. Special prominence was given to the role Hindu temples can play in this, the importance of the example of parents, various tools and methods for use with children’s classes. The attempts of Hindus to alter the text books now being taught in American schools and university with chapters on Hinduism was addressed several times. There is a major initiative to remove from those books the many misconceptions that still persist today when scholars discuss Hindu religion and culture. Progress is being made on this front and Hinduism Today plans to publish an article on this interesting and complex subject, with the help of young Hindus we met here.

Bodhinatha gave the first evening keynote speech, explaining how parents need to set the example and teach Hinduism in the home, especially by the worship in the home shrine. His information-and-art-rich presentation was well received and appreciated. As Bodhinatha left the stage one of the leaders of the Vishva Hindu Parishad eagerly came forward, asked if this Keynote tool could be sent to him digitally, which he wants to send out to a list of 4,000 VHP members across America. He loved it and saw the potential to help Hindus. Swami Jothirmayananda was excited about the possibility of putting his Swami Vivekananda biography into Keynote format. Bodhinatha’s talk was still being discussed in the days after his departure. One Hindu college student found the four sects map of Hinduism to be the clearest understanding she ever had of her faith.

More tomorrow on the New Jersey Dharma Summit and Hinduism Today’s participation and assessment.

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Below we share with you the preliminary pre-conference draft of objectives for the meetings to help give some background on the event.

Dharma Summit 2005
will be held on August 13,14,15
at Rutgers University, Student Center,
126 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ.

The objective of this conference is to bring together heads of all Devalayas, spiritual institutions, and Dh
armic intellectuals in North America to exchange thoughts and ideas, and share experiences on how to impart spiritual and cultural education to our next generation and remove misperceptions about our faith traditions from the society in order to maintain our Dharmic traditions with dignity.

This conference is being organized with the support, cooperation and involvement of all major Sampradayas and institutions. The summit will bring together on one platform heads of various Sampradayas: Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, PA; Swami Chidananda Saraswati (Muni ji) of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, India; Satguru Bodhinatha of Hindu Monastery of Kauai, Hawaii; Gurudev Chitrabhanu of Jain Ashram, NY; Dr Pranav Pandya of Gayatri Pariwar, Haridwar, India, Swami Jyotirmayananda of Vivekananda Center, Mangalore, and others. Also many intellectuals will speak in various sessions: Dr. Ved Nanda, Prof Bhudev Sharma, Dr David Frawley, Dr Piyush Agrawal, Sri Bawa Jain, Sri Kanchan Banerji, Dr Rakesh Shreedhar, Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, and many others.

All past, present and future presidents, founders, Board members, and youth program coordinators of all Hindu, Jain temples and Gurudwaras are invited. Some of our religious institutions have done an excellent job of training the young people. We can network, interact and learn from the successful experiences of one another in a mutually supportive environment in this conference.

These intellectuals will discuss the future of Dharma in North America. How can our young generation grow with the best values from both cultures? How can they learn the true meaning and concepts of Dharma and take pride in their heritage? Two sessions on Monday Aug 15 will present a workshop on Temple Management Administration for the benefit of the Temple Board members.

Our young generation does not have the opportunity to learn about our traditions from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older siblings, or festivals and neighborhood celebrations, as we did growing up in India. They learn distorted versions of our faith, culture and traditions from their teachers and textbooks in schools and colleges. Even highly reputed and world-class reference books like the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia have presented a distorted and maligned image of Hinduism.

They are influenced by TV and internet. Unfortunately, the media tends to present mostly the sensational and bizarre stories about Hinduism. As a result of negative stereotyping, our students feel embarrassed and ashamed with the classroom discussions on Hinduism; they feel alienated from their heritage (see “The Abuse Hinduism Receives In US Schools Is Intolerable” by Trisha Pasricha a 15-year old school girl from Houston, TX, about her experiences — scroll down the page to find her essay). Some of them develop resentment against Hinduism and Hindus, including their own parents and relatives. Some even find it necessary, or expedient, to convert to Christianity in order to succeed.

The accomplishments of our new generation in schools, colleges, and universities are commendable. However, most of them do not relate to the temples and gurudwaras we have so enthusiastically built. They tend to feel that these institutions hold no relevance in their lives.

Our religious institutions must focus on the needs of the new generation by organizing activities
for them and presenting the correct and positive aspects of our traditions; e.g., Yoga, meditation, religious tolerance, Ahimsa/non-violence, that continue to gain strong following and can play a major role in building a pluralistic and tolerant society in North America by virtue of our belief in “Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” and “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”.