On Tuesday, August 18th, Yelena Okhman came to the Media Studio to begin a massive undertaking, the translation of the Guru Chronicles into the Russian language. Together she and Sadasivanathaswami worked out a plan forward (this will take years) and then Yelena translated the cover as a ceremonial beginning of the project.

Gurudeva's books are popular in Russia and have been widely distributed in the Russian language. Some aver that Saivism is the original and most ancient religion of Russia. To have the stories of our Nandinatha lineage available to 155 million Russian-language speakers is golden. Jai Gurudeva!

News Flash! HT App on Google Play!

August 28, 2015: This is an update to our previous announcement. The Hinduism Today app is now available for all Android smart phones. You can get it on Google Play: Click here and install!

Apple iOS users: go here:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hinduism-today/id1023295974?mt=8

Today, August 12th, with fireworks and the annual Perseid meteor shower in the sky above, we triumphantly make known the launching of Hinduism Today's mobile app. For many months now the monks have been working among themselves and with experts to create an internet application worthy of Hinduism's flagship magazine and today Apple has put it on the App Store for all to download. For free! The Android version is coming soon to Google Play.

Around the globe there are millions who have no access to the Internet, and whose go-to device is an iPhone or Android. A recent poll claims that 70% of India's digitally-connected population have only a mobile device, without a computer at home. This app is designed to give access to our rich resources for students in Fiji, housewives in Mauritius, yogis in Rishikesh, seekers in Kuala Lumpur and Indophiles everywhere and provide them with a mobile-friendly reading experience of the magazine's one-of-a-kind stories and elegant graphics each quarter.

We hope you will not only download and test-drive it, but share the link with family and friends to enrich their lives and bring the Hindu community even closer. You can download it here (be sure to register so we can tell you when the next issue is available for downloading): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hinduism-today/id1023295974?mt=8

We offer today a short visual tutorial on its use. Follow the slideshow and captions for a quick introduction and overview.

There are (wouldn't you know) a couple of glitches that apparently took place in the deep catacombs of binary download, and they are being sorted out. We welcome your feedback and questions which can be sent to: studyhall@hindu.org.

Offered at the pristine holy feet of our founder, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, who loved to quip, "Get the best and forget the rest."

Scott Rossi and his wife Jonna and sons Sam and Jack came to Kauai for a vacation and were hosted, yesterday by Brahmanathaswami for a full tour of Iraivan and the media studio. Scott is a top UX/UI software designer who has been building amazing interfaces and software since 1989. Check out his site Tactile Media.

Scott uses the same tools (Livecode) that Brahmanathaswami uses for building software for the Ganapati Kulam media production processes and this web site. For example, every post here on TAKA is built using a Livecode application that allows the monks to write captions and auto generate the javascript for these slideshows.

Scott and swami have been in touch for years through the technical email lists. Scott has always been very generous to the whole community with his expertise and guidance. Thank you Scott! This was a chance for Scott and his family to meet the monks face-to-face to find out more about the monastery, Hinduism and our way of life.

All our websites have been running on a CentOS 6.2 web dedicated server in San Fransisco. We have moved all of these to Linode Cloud Servers in Fremont, California, running on the latest Ubuntu 14.04 LTS system on SSD drives. For the non-nerds amongst us, the web sites are going to get much faster! This transition requires that we not add any new content for several days while DNS propagates globally and the worlds domain system shifts to call the websites from the new service. If are seeing this you are already getting TAKA from the new server....The Big Bird has arrived. Stay tuned for updates.

Gurudeva tried to keep the monks on the leading edge of digital content development. In the early days of the web ( 1998) he recorded 117 chapters of Merging with Siva. We release these on TAKA every day and also had a podcast. Now we are bringing these back to life in our digital media library. Go to the complete talks index, click on Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, choose 1998 and scroll down to August 15 to see the whole list. Or go here for a catalog view.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new International Day of Yoga web site was officially launched in Paris on August 10th. The monks were contacted to contribute and you will find Himalayan Academy Publication's contribution in the "About --> Roots of Yoga" section where the Yamas and Niyamas are in focus with a link to our book Yoga's Forgotten Foundation.

PARIS, FRANCE, April 10, 2015 (Business Standard): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a portal for the International Day of Yoga here, describing the ancient Indian spiritual practice as capable of awakening a sense of oneness. Flanked by UNESCO Director General Irena Bukova, Modi officially launched the http://www.Idayofyoga.Org website after addressing a gathering at the UNESCO headquarters that included a large number of NRIs.

In his UNESCO address, Modi called for a change in lifestyle "because the emission reduction that we seek will be the natural outcome of how we live. It is with this vision that I had called the United Nations General Assembly last September to declare June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. Yoga awakens a sense of oneness and harmony with self, society and nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change and create a more balanced world," Modi said. Check it out at www.IDayOfYoga.org/About/Roots of Yoga