All is quiet at the Aadheenam today. No photos have come in from Bodhinatha stay in Toronto. He writes of his day yesterday:

“Morning Siva homa 9:30 – 12:30 with some 200-300 in attendance, afternoon darshan session with devotees at the hotel, evening keynote presentation on some what is Hinduism topics, about 30 in attendance. A successful day.”

~~~~~~~~~~~
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 Dvitiya Tithi, Sun One, Wednesday, June 4th.

Today is Andre Garzia’s last full day on Kauai. He has been working closely with Sivakatirswami and other monks on a variety of IT projects: migrating our websites to a new web server, extracting 30 years of Hinduism Today HTML article archives into a consistent XML format for re-deployment into a new archives on a future Hinduism Today web site redesign, getting our ecommerce engines on the web server updated and a number of other important projects.

While here he’s had a good exposure to Hinduism and today he spent the whole day with the mission members, getting some cooking lessons and joining everyone for their monthly “Rudraksha Satsang” (pictures of which will come next phase.)

We would to thank Andre for his dedicated spirit, humble, cooperative presence and his intuitive code brain! Without him we would have been completely lost in the face of many challenges we faced in the past three weeks.

This TAKA is coming to you from a new web server, host name:

Sat.Gurudeva.Org

We found these picture from Vaikasi Vishakam on our camera… the powerful and uplifting abhishekam to Lord Muruga on these highly auspicious days must be personally experience to be understood.

Vetri Vel Muruganukku!

Here is Bodhinatha after a big homa at the Sri Nagapooshani Temple in Toronto, blessing the devotees

It is May 31 and the main event is a Siva homa at the Sri Nagapooshani Temple. Sri Kandasamy Kurukkal, owner of the temple, set up this homa particularly to help raise funds for Iraivan Temple.

In this photo some students are preparing to chant the famous Sri Rudram.

A priest goes through the preparatory stage before lighting the homa fire

The homa fire is going strong

At the end of the homa, a Sivalingam is bathed with milk

Devotees make offerings in the homa fire and then touch Bodhinatha’s feet

Sri Kandasamy Kurukkal

Taking Bodhinatha’s blessings

Continuing the milk abhishekam

After the homa was over, Bodhinatha moved to the back of the hall so devotees could come up to receive vibhuti holy ash blessing on their forehead

Bodhinatha honors prime members of the temple by placing a shawl around them

In the evening, Bodhinatha gave a slideshow presentation to the community about Hindus needing to observe the principle of unity in diversity

Yesterday, four container carrying Iraivan stones arrived in Honolulu port. Our US Customs and Border Patrol decided to do a “Intensified Inspection” on these containers. Which means the container need to be unloaded in “bonded” warehouse. Two monks arrrived at Pier 42 to assist with unloading at this site and also the reloading process. There are so many delicate stones that need to be handle properly. One wrong move with a forklift could damage these highly carved stones.

The officer (didn’t want his photo to be taken) wanted two out of four containers to be unloaded. The local trucking company–Island Movers’ staff did the unloading. Here Sadhaka Adinatha removing the board nailed to crate so that crates can be unloaded.

Forklift operator begin to unload the crates

Unloaded crates are arranged in proper order so that we can put them back in the containers as they were.

This is crate of flooring stone

This crate is too heavy!! This operation was performed by trained operator. Do not attempt to do this in your warehouse.

A piece of wood was found by the inspector with a lot of bug holes. Fortunately it was sterile and no bugs were found!

Fumigation stamp. Each crate are required to carry a stamp to proof that it was fumigated. We were told by the Island Movers’ staff several containers are sent back to country of origin when they arrive without this stamp. We say, “Thank you” to our team at the Bangalore worksite for making sure that each crate was stamped.

The inspection was complete. The inspector moves to another shipment.

A special long forks are used to remove some of the crates that tucked far inside the container.

We secured the crates as the Island Mowers’ staff reloaded the crates.

Several special stones arrived in the shipment. One of them is the Jalokam. We have been waiting for this stone for almost two years. The arrival of this stone will allow us to complete the entire perimeter jointing work of Iraivan roof.

Another speical stone is the “cobra head” stone that goes in front of the Raja Gopuram–Iraivan temples front entrance tower.

Satisfied with the inspection of the two containers. The officer released all four containers. These containers are scheduled to arrive in Kauai in the next few days. Our local trucking company Kauai Commercial already has several trucks and drivers reserved to haul the containers to Iraivan temple site.

Bodhinatha short reports:

Thursday
Morning short tour of university and visit to temple land, 40 acres
Afternoon one hour radio interview “keeping the faith” University station
Evening temple event at hotel my talk about half an hour well received

Here at the University of Illinois radio and TV station affiliated to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting system, Mr. Shoemacher interviewed Bodhinatha for a one-hour weekly Sunday radio program called “Keeping the Faith.” They discussed a range of questions about Hinduism.

In the evening the Hindu Temple Society of South Central Illinois (HTSSCI) met at the Park Inn to formally launch fundraising for construction of the Ganesha-Saraswati-Durga temple. Dr. Narayana Rao, pictured, gave a Powerpoint overview of the project including the history of association with Kauai Aadheenam. Pictured here is the Ganesha murti gifted by Kauai Aadheenam, when it was still in Bangalore waiting to be shipped.

A beautiful artist’s rendering of the new temple which will have both south Indian and north Indian style towers.

Bodhinatha is garlanded by a young member of the community before giving his talk entitled “Insights into Hindu Temple Worship.” Unfortunately the photo came out a bit dark.

Bodhinatha give his talk “Insights on Hindu Temple Worship”

Listening to other presentations.

A look thru temple plans.

After the banquet dinner, many families and individuals came up for Bodhinatha’s darshan and to ask questions. During his talk, Bodhinatha announced that he was skipping the last part due to lack of time, so afterwards the man in the middle of this photo came up to ask Bodhinatha what the last part was about! It was about how parents need to be prepared for their children to ask tough questions when they reach the teenage years.
The man on the right is from Malaysia originally, the son of a longtime devotee from Taiping, Malaysia whose home Bodhinatha visited years ago. He is a practitioner of family medicine and very eager to see the US use more wholistic approaches.

Departing for Toronto.

Below, a slide show from the California retreat.

Prof. Vijay Gupta and his wife, Indira are here visiting from Boulder, CO.
Dr. Gupta is a Professor of Hydrology and is also a trustee for the Vedathri Maharishi Kundalini Yoga and Kaya Kalpa Research Foundation in Aliyar, Tamil Nadu, S. India.

Dr. Gupta stated that he was very impressed with the quality, fairness, accuracy and pure spiritual content of the Aadheenam’s magazine “Hinduism Today” and, during his stay, he was fortunate enough to have a meeting with Paramacharya Palaniswami, Editor in Chief of “Hinduism Today.”

Sabapathipillai with his wife Satyaradah and cousin Seetha Devi Subramaniam pose with Iraivan’s silpis, Pandi, Manikandan, and Chelliah. Both Sabapathipillai and Satyaradah are originally from Sri Lanka, and Seetha Devi is from Malaysia, they now all reside in Toronto, Canada.

Outside the Kadavul Siva Temple in front of the beautiful Ganesha shrine.

K. S. Krishnamurthy arrived a little later with his wife and daughter. They have been to Kauai on previous occasions and love this sacred place. He is a longtime subscriber to Hinduism Today and is also a steady donor of the Iraivan Temple building project.

The weather is becoming increasing warm now as the Hawaiian summer approaches and Prof. Vijay Gupta and his wife Indira pause for a shady rest in the Banyan Mandapam area before returning to their hotel.

Here is Bodhinatha at Satsang in Illinois.

Saravananathaswami writes:

“We visited the home of Gaurav and Ripla Malhotra for satsang with their family and friends. Bodhinatha holds their newborn son, Aran.”

More of the story below…

We began a new phase with Sun One Homa….

Monks doing japa during the ceremony.

Paramacharya Ceyonswami presiding…

Ceyonswami gives a short talk on the meaning of the temple kodimaram. We are just now trying to ship the kodimaram for Iraivan temple from India, and questions have come up because it is longer than the standard shipping container. As we look into it, all kinds of information is coming out about the mystical design and meaning of the temple flagpole, how it represents the three worlds, the seven chakras, and how it is part of the energy generated by the temple.

Bodhinatha talks to the assembled group about various topics related to passing on the religion to young Hindus growing up in the US.

more of the assembled group

Vibhuti blessing for Aran.

Blessing Gaurav

Feeding first solid food to Aran

We flew half an hour from Chicago to Urbana. A welcome at the residence of Narayana and Sarojini Rao, founding members of the new Ganesha/Saraswati temple project.

Kauai Aadheenam gifted this Ganesha for the new temple project. Land has been acquired and fundraising is about to begin for construction.

The Rao’s large shrine room

Professor Rao presents a new book to Bodhinatha.

Family and friends get seated as Prof. Rao introduces Bodhinatha and Kauai Aadheenam

Vibhuti blessing at the end of the satsanga

Prof. Rao takes us on a short tour of the large University of Illinois campus where he is an engineering professor.

An old tower on the campus

The 40-acre plot of land where the temple will be built. It is the field of yellow flowers behind the green lawn. The surrounding area is all agricultural, miles of flat fields.

Arrival on campus at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Sadhaka Dandapani conducts the tour today.

He’s pointing out the blue jade vine which is in flower.

Our lotus pond is blooming after a winter in hibernation.

We had about 30 people in each of the two tours.

Silpi’s demonstration.

Guests give it a try.

Over the retreat there was a silpi outing to the beach.

Silpi helper Kumar will be finishing is “tour of duty” having served well for about 5 years.

A refreshing swim for our dedicated team.

It is another beautiful and profoundly peaceful day a the Aadheenam. Inside the various kulams the monks are busy as bees but the atmosphere is still.

Bodhinatha finished is California retreat today and will be flying off to Chicago tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Thursday, March 24th.
5/29/08 Sun 1, Thursday

Deva Rajan and his wife Gayathri, have been on the island for the past week. Deva owns Canyon Construction in California. Here he is doing some minor repair work on the Pilliyar Kulam office that was damages by termites. Thank you Deva for all of your Seva!

The story continues today of Palaniswami’s and Senthilnathaswami’s trip.

“Then we were off to the home and studio of Ben Patrick Johnson, Hollywood’s foremost voice-over actor/narrator, as well as author, activist and commentator. We got connected with Ben when we saw en episode of his webcast, Life from the Left Coast, about religious fundamentalism. He made such a clear and concise summary of the phenomenon in many of the world’s religions, we had to compliment him on it. We also loved the webcast’s motion graphics so much, we wanted to find out who did them so we could get similar graphics made for our online videos (which we are now doing). Senthilnathaswami, Ben and Palaniswami pose for what Ben likes to call “our MySpace photo.”

All throughout our travels, Palaniswami was evangelizing a great tool he has found for taking quick notes by phone while on the go. Jott (go to Jott.com to register, and it’s free) allows you to make a free call from your cell phone, say whatever you need to say, and then within a few minutes their system transcribes your voice message and e-mails or texts it to you. It’s fast, easy, and often far more convenient than writing on paper. Plus, when you get back to your computer, your note is right there in your e-mail, and you can copy and paste it into a calendar or a to do list. As we had a delicious lunch at a vegan restaurant on the border of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Palaniswami demonstrated Jott to Ben. Later, back in his studio, we had fun writing a spoof advertisement voice-over for Jott. Have a listen:

Right from a professional sound studio in his Hollywood Hills home, Ben works live, via a special high-quality-audio-over-ISDN connection, throughout the day for such networks as CBS and Fox doing voice-overs for television show promos, ads, and for movie studios as the voice on many movie trailers.

While we were there, we watched Ben as he skillfully went back and forth from conversations with us to performing in the sound booth within seconds. Ben will do 4-12 of these sessions in a typical day (once he did 23), sitting before the mic as he reads, re-reads and re-reads little sound bytes, slightly varying inflection and tone of voice until the producers in the production houses on the other end of the connection feel they have just the sound they want. Thank you, Ben. AUM NAMA SIVAYA AUM!

Very quiet at the Aadheenam. Bodhinatha writes from California:

“Saturday: Second day of retreat Classes appreciated by everyone. Ended the day with an indoor Siva homa with everyone participating offering grains.”

Iraivan today.

Same shot, Iraivan on this day one year ago.

Friday was a very full day that had us up just after 3:00am for a 6:00 am from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Coach seats on airplanes these days aren’t very conducive to computer work, so as soon as we arrived and got on the 405 toward Century City, Palaniswami was off to work on his MacBook Pro captioning photos from our last few days in New York and San Francisco for TAKA. This whole trip was in the mode of “Go! Go! Go!” from the very beginning, and our day in LA was no exception.

We were in LA to meet with two remarkably gifted human beings. This is Douglas Thompson, filmaker and documentarian whohas help us in the last year with ideas about our own film making efforts at the monastery.

The year-old crystal-and-marble palace at 2000 Avenue of the Stars is the home of The Annenberg Foundation, our first stop, as well as the notorious Creative Artists Agency (the largest in LA) and other Hollywood firms.

It’s like nothing we have ever seen before. We learned that the elaborate marble stairway (not the one pictured) leading from the street level up to CAA’s offices cost $8,000,000 alone. Certainly nothing like this exists on Kauai!

The lobby at The Annenberg Foundation is a beautiful representation of the enormous amount of resources this great organization has to do their charitable work. On their website, they define their mission: “Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania and offices in Los Angeles, California. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.”

Douglas Thompson is head of production for the amazing documentaries of the foundation’s Explore project, an initiative of trustee Charles Annenberg Weingarten. Douglas is an accomplished video documentary producer at the top of his field. His work is simply amazing. We came to know him through a Kauai journalist, formerly working in LA, who also has a love for making documentaries and hopes to continue her work on our tropical island. Palaniswami begins with a gift of chutney he made at the monstery, Raisen-Ginger.

The Explore project is taking Charlie all around the world looking deeply into how compassion and giving manifests in various cultures. They have done documentaries about Africa, China, India, Bali, several regions of the US and Costa Rica. Now, Douglas is working on post production for a very involved piece about the Middle East. This is his studio. There are ten working on the Explore initiatives.

We were the first to watch his draft cut of a powerful, moving section of the documentary about a community theater for Palestinian children run by a Jewish man.

Douglas is happy when with our rousing response to his work, many months of effort no one else has seen.

The film is powerful, showing dramatically the humanness of people on both sides of this historic divide. It is also elegant and emotionally compelling.

Douglas was a great host. He’s been to Kauai several times, and plans to come again.

Next, Douglas took us to the conference room to watch part of their documentary about India (available in its entirety on their website, here) on a big screen. After the showing, Douglas was abundantly generous with his time as we discussed with him our next major video documentary initiative: transforming the 47 chapters of our book, “What Is Hinduism?” into videos. This is a momentous project for which we need great assistance on many levels, and Douglas was full of insights, answers and expertise about all aspects of documentary making. It was a glorious and productive meeting.

The lights were turned down as he showed us his other film, “Spiritual India, River of Compassion.” Thank you, Douglas. AUM NAMA SIVAYA AUM!

Here is Bodhinatha at his first seminar session at the Las Alas Lodge at the Sequoia Retreat Center in California.

Shanmuganathswami and Yogi’s Jivanandanatha and Jothinatha meet with the Subramaniam family to discuss matter relating to the Hindu Heritage Endowment funds that they have started for the Murugan Temple in Maryland.

Originally from Bangaluru and now residing in Tampa, Florida, here the Lokesh family poses with our ‘Six Super Siplis.’ Swarna noted that his family had been contributing to the Iraivan Temple construction for some time; however, this was their first actual visit here. He further commented that “It was truly amazing to see this wonderful Siva temple manifesting on Kauai in this sacred and beautiful setting and we all hope to return for the Mahakumbhabhishekam.”

In front of the Kadavul Temple pool is Swarna Lokesh and his wife, Haravu, and daughter and son, Sneha and Ashimanyu.

Two more families arrived for a tour of the Iraivan Temple following the morning puja.

On the left is Eswar Vemulapalli, his wife Chitra, and their young daughter, Sharannaya from Foster City, California. Similarly to the Lokesh family, they had initially heard about the Iraivan Temple from friends who had previously pilgrimaged here.

On the right is Arnab and Vasudha Paul with their two year old daughter, Meghna, from San Jose, California.

After two days of mind-boggling, high-end, thought-provoking, future-altering sessions at the multi-media seminar, Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami packed their bags and left New York on Thursday, flying all day to San Francisco. We took the subway from Midtown all the way out to Queens to JFK airport for our flight back to San Francisco.

Arriving mid-day, we drove to the headquarters of Adobe in San Jose, the company that designs all of the software the monks use in our publications mission: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dream Weaver, Flash and more.

Their tools are a major part of our work and service.

We were able to meet with the heads of Adobe’s globalization teams in a video conference that tied together the Seattle InDesign team, the global languages team and two consultants for a rambling 2-hour discussion.

The buildings are under a major security umbrella, and the swamis had to sign non-disclosure agreements just to enter for the meeting. So, if we don’t say anything important or technical about our conference, you will understand.

The lobby showcases their products.

The Globalization, type and InDesign groups at Adobe Systems, Inc. are brilliant engineers working with many languages of the world. InDesign and Adobe type
technology are at the core of our communications ministry, and the
opportunity to meet with the publication software giant’s engineers
and managers to discuss some of the ways we use and look forward to
using their fine publishing software was a fantastic opportunity. They
thought it was a great chance to meet with some experienced and
sophisticated users and appreciated our visit as well.
An exciting part of the conclave, which included video conferencing
with some team members at Adobe’s offices in Seattle, as well as a few
by telephone, was introducing them to an olai, or palmyra palm leaf
page of an ancient Sanskrit manuscript from South India. Jaws dropped
and eyes widened as one of humanity’s first forms of type and
publication made its way around the table. We shared the story of our efforts to preserve the hundreds of thousands of texts for future generations. Great meeting!

Next we drove to Burlingame for a long meeting with Joe Russell. Joe is a Mac expert and consultant based in San Francisco. We are conversing with him about ways he can help the publications team on Kauai with our high-tech tools and their care and feeding.

A nighttime photo of the Earth, showing how the human race lights up the darkness. Notice how bright India is compared to China to the north. AUM NAMA SIVAYA!

Bodhinatha arrived safely in California.

The retreat lodge is located in a marvelous forest.

Don’t go walking at night unless you know how to talk to the brown bears!

Here’s the last series of photos from the Maha Ganapati Temple kumbhabhishegam in Arizona.

The priests parade the kumbha around the temple then enter the temple complex.

Maha Ganapati in the sanctum of the temple.

Priests performing arati to Maha Ganapati.

Siva Lingam shrine.

Abhishegam to Maha Ganapati.

Rajarathina Bhattar from Texas to Bodhinatha’s right and Vengatesan Kurukkal from Chicago Rama temple were among the priests performing the kumbhabhishegam ceremony. They and the rest of the priests did an absolutely amazing job.

Bodhinatha, Muruganathaswami, Saravananathaswami and Sadhaka Satyanatha left for San Franscisco today for the Retreat Study Program.

Bodhinatha and Saravanathaswami will continue on later to Chicago and Toronto and be back to the Aadheenam on June 3rd.

We continue with our coverage of the Arizona Maha Ganapati temple kumbhabhishegam. It was estimated that nearly 3,000 people showed up.

Many beautiful garlands were weaved.

And the temple decorated beautifully.

The navagrahas installed at the rear end of the temple.

Priests performing homa right before the kumbha abhishegam.

Once the homa was completed, the kumbhas were paraded around the temple by priests.

One for each of the main shrines – Ganapati, Siva, Vishnu and Navagrahas.

On our Three-day retreats, the monks sometimes go on outings. This past retreat we decided to do the “West Side Tourist Run” and go to Salt Pond for a swim then up to Kokee, Waimea Canyon and back down to Poipu for a swim in the waves. When you reach Elieli, you get a marvelous view of the Hanapepe valley.

Outside of Hanapepe is a small beach called “Salt Pond” because here are some low mud flats where sea water collects and sea salt can be captured. Sivakatirswami gather some to take home.

Hanapepe marks the beginning of the dry section of Kauai which extend from here westward to Polehale beach where rainfall is very low throughout the year. This is because all the rain falls down along the North and east coast lines. And clouds are bereft of water as the reach the western shores.

After a swim we drive up and up and up toward Kokee. Meanwhile some fog and rain are making there way toward the hill tops. We stop at the Waimea Canyon look out.

It’s very hard to do justice to the beauty of this view. It was extra special with the fog moving through the valley. Though we have seen it many times, the incredible work of nature that has taken millions of years to create is always an uplifting experience.

Andre Garzia now has seen all three of Kauai’s climates, each one a unique and self-contained ecosystem: the wet jungle world of Kapaa side where the Aadheenam is, the dry low lands of the west and the completely different world at the top of the mountain.

Hmm. the fog is getting really thick as we keep going up and up.

Here we are at the top. From this location you can look over to the north and see the Kalalau Valley all the way to the Ocean. It is also an amazing sight. With us today: Brahmachari Rajan, Saravanathanswami, Sivakatirswami, Andre and Yogi Jivanandanatha behind the camera.

Amazing.

Look Kalalau Valley!

Ha! Sorry, not today… it’s the vision of the misty white light. But the silence of the spaces and the prana wafting up from the rising mists carry their own special blessings.

An unusual fern unfolds in the mountain air.

Today was a very auspicious day at Kauai Aadheenam. Sadhaka Jothinatha became Yogi Jothinatha. Having reached the age of 70 he moves on from the sadhaka path to the path of tapas as a yogi tapasvin.

Here he is taking his new vows this morning

Reading the vows…

Bodhinatha signs

Presentation of the yellow robes

Yogi Jothinatha with his danda and yellow robes.

Our new Yogi

The morning homa ceremony then proceeds.

It was also Sun One homa and Jothi and Vasuki Sendan’s baby girl, Shama, received his first solid food at the Anna Prasanna Samskara.

Bodhinatha give his Sun One talk explaining why it is important for Hindus to understand the relationship of the Saiva and Vaishnava traditions within Hinduism.

They, he explained, two different ways of looking at the Supreme God.

Nigel Siva Subramaniam and his wife Inpah and son Raghavan are here on a pilgrimage from Maryland.

Andre Garzia from Brazil is joining in all the ceremonies and pujas during his stay.

Bodhinatha is back home having arrived during the retreat. and he is off again tomorrow to California, Chicago and Toronto.

Meanwhile we bring you retrospectives on the events in Arizona from where he has just returned.

Sunday, 18th Jan: We continue with our coverage of Bodhinatha’s visit to the Maha Ganapati temple in Arizona. Morning of the kumbhabhishegam day. Sun rays coming into the yagasala.

The kumbha pot that will be poured over Ganesha.

A couple of Gurudeva’s devotees had a table displaying our publications.

Bodhinatha full of smiles.

In the Siva shrine.

Some of the wonderful plaster work around the sanctum.

The temple got so crowded at one point that some attendees had to stand outside.

Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Dandapani worshipping in the sanctum.

This is the GOOGLE headquarters in Mountain View. Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami, on their way to New York, made several important stops in the Bay Area, all part of their mission to bring new knowledge, skills and collaborations to Gurudeva’s teachings.

Senthilnathaswami is “blogging” the trip and you can get more here:

http://monkstravel.blogspot.com/

Rolf Schreiber was our host. He is an engineer who fell in love with Kauai and has also taken Bodhinatha through the Googleplex. Rolf works on the solar/electrical energy initiatives at Google, and also works on their charitable efforts to reduce poverty and disease around the world.

At the entry we find a scrolling display that has all kinds of interesting words and phrases running by. Searches at this moment included: wal-mart, MAPS, world holiday calender, poems, road rash, 2000 election for texas governor and something called annemieke nuijten.

Rolf took the monks, plus Easan Katir and son Karti, through the amazing offices. Behind is a real-life wind tunnel prototype of the Virgin Space Ship 1 vehicle that, in the next two years, will take people into weightless regions of the lower stratosphere.

The campus, which more like a college that a corporate office, is quiet today, as it’s Saturday and the 17 restaurants that serve free food are all closed.

Thank you, Rolf. We hope you and your family enjoyed the raisin-ginger chutney.

Lunch was a delightful session with two of the main forces at Hindu America Foundation, HAF, which has worked for years with the Hinduism Today team.

Mihir Meghani and his new wife Tanvi from Mumbai asked for blessings on their recent marriage, and in the tradition of Gurudeva received a shawl and simple blessings from the two swamis. They are planning a visit to Kauai.

We were introduced to Swaminathan Venkataraman, who has undertaken an important new initiative at HAF involving global interfaith progress, bringing the tolerance of Hinduism to wider audiences.

Mihir shared news of HAF’s growth and future aspirations. Under his leadership HAF has become, in a short five years, a major force for good for all Hindus in America.

After the HAF meeting, there followed a technical session in Berkeley with two brilliant software designers who are working to assist the monks in porting our InDesign files of books and magazines onto the web.

But it was day’s end that was the sweetest time. The two swamis were greeted by members and students at Easvan Param’s home in Walnut Creek. Wonderful dance and sacred songs, talks by the traveling swamis and a 10-course dinner in a tent in the back yard followed. Off the next dawn to New York. AUM NAMASIVAYA!

Click here for a slide show of their first day in New York.