The online version of the July/August/September issue of Hinduism Today will go live in a day or so. Here is a sneak preview of the feature on Rishikesh. You may have heard about this fabled city on the banks of Mother Ganga but always wondered what went on there. Learn all about it in the July issue of Hinduism Today. You can also view the longer slideshow with captions by clicking here

The monks love to explore new words, introduce each other to a lost gem or dust off a seldom-used term. Today that word was xyst, and no one had ever heard the term.

On the web we found the meaning:  "Among the ancient Greeks, a long covered portico or court used for athletic exercises; among the ancient Romans, an open colonnade, or walk planted with trees, used for recreation and conversation; hence occas. allusively."

What a fun word, we thought. Then one among us (with a nod to Robert Browning) offered up a short poem to honor this new term among us.


Lest a xyst not subsist, would it ever be missed?
Might it sustain a cursory tryst?
Would it ever be longingly missed in a mist?
Can it right twist or left list?
If it meets a stone schist, can the two coexist?

We are very happy to announce the release of the German edition of Gurudeva's Toolbox, translated by Professor Devarajan Sankaran. PDF, Kindle, Nook, ePub and Web viewing versions are available here: Gurudevas Werkzeugkasten. Thanks to our Digital Dharma Donors for their support which sponsors the cost of these productions.

Gurudeva's Werkzeugkasten für ein spirituelles Leben wurde von den Mönchen des Kauai Hindu Klosters anlässlich Gurudeva's Todestages 2005 als Andenken und zu Ehren seines Vermächtnisses und seiner Lehren zusammengestellt. Bei dem europäischen „Innersearch " Treffen verkündete er: „Ich habe Ihnen alle Werkzeuge zur Verfügung gestellt und es liegt an Ihnen, ob Sie sie nutzen oder nicht." Seine wesentlichen Lehren beinhalten eine vollständige Sammlung von Werkzeugen (Hilfsmitteln) und Vorgehensweisen, die den Fortschritt auf unserer spirituellen Reise bewirken. Er hat diese Methoden ab 1949 über eine Periode von 52 Jahren Praxis als Guru entwickelt. Er hat immer betont, daß es keine Notwendigkeit für zusätzliche Werkzeuge und Methoden gibt – die vorhandenen Werkzeuge sollten wirklich genutzt werden.

CyberCadets know that the monks maintain a Fictionary: A lexicon of words that should be in the dictionary but are not. This grows from time to time as we stumble on the moment we have all known, those awkward (and fun) moments when we know the word but the world has not yet discovered it. Is this not how language has always evolved? Are Shakespeare and street kids the only ones who can make this stuff up? No, we cry out. Not now. Not ever. Which is precisely how the word "never" evolved.

So today we share the latest inclusions in the Fictionary, and again invite submissions in case you have a word or two that should be immortalized.

play-pretend: A Gurudevaism (sbaw);  describing when an adult is doing something serious in a frivolous or foolish way. "The swami was married, making his life mere play-pretend."

sbaw: Should be a word

dutious: Different from dutiful, parallel to study and studious. Doing something with a conscious sense that you are executing your duty, achieving a high standard in one's work.

emptillness: Describes the state of seeing all existence as simultaneously infinitely full and totally empty.

microtyaga: A small letting go, renunciation, surrender, such as letting someone else be right, or skipping that second helping at the dinner table, our accepting something that you don't like. As opposed to major sacrifices and acts of tyaga.

coolth: The missing noun for cool, as warm is to warmth.

nonbreviation (or nontraction):  Two words which would ordinarily be abbreviated or contracted, but which in their current context must remain separate.  Example:  You can not only see it, but touch it as well.  Here, "can not" is a nonbreviation, since "can" is being used in its positive sense and "not" relates to only.  Therefore, neither cannot nor can't is appropriate here.

biasist: One who is not neutral, and who holds a bias

casuality: an arrived state of being casual, mentally and physically. 
"His general casuality about life made him easy to get along with."

spectacularity (n) - the quality of being spectacular.  Usage:  The view of Iraivan Temple from the drinking fountain is unsurpassed for spectacularity.

Our fourth annual outreach to our thousands of web users is coming to a close. It ends January 31st.

Our goal of $70,000 is just over the $40,000 mark.

The truth is, we are going to forge ahead and create the best tools and resources we can no matter what happens with the goal. So, if you have given enough, we accept that with thankful hearts. But if we do make our goal, much more can be accomplished in 2014, since we will be able to reach out to those who are more expert than we, and apply their technical skills to our year's web goals.

Here in Hawaii there is a pidgin saying that applies: "If can, can. If no can, no can." That's the local way of saying, If you can do it, then do so. If you can't, it's all good. Aum Namasivaya!

Click here to visit our donation page.

Today the GK had two wonderful guests attend their morning meeting. Dr. Frank Neubert from Switzerland and Seiyonne Suriyakumar from California.

Dr. Frank Neubert is a professor at the University of Bern in Switzerland. He has been studying Saiva Siddhanta Church, Himalayan Academy and Hinduism Today for some years, writing articles on Gurudeva's work, including one for Brill Encyclopedia in Europe. He is studying the globalization of Hinduism for a long-term project to publish a book on that topic. He is traveling with his wife and 2-year-old son, staying near the monastery and learning how the monks produce the magazine and impact global Hinduism. 

Seiyonne Suriyakumar is a financial analyst for Deloit, one of America's four big financial advisors. Seiyonne, who lives in Los Angeles, is the son of Rushika and Suriyakumar and this is his third visit to the monastery.

Thanks to many tedious hours of work by Andre Garzia, our developer in Brasil, and to the Digital Dharma Drive donors whose donations pay for his time, we are happy to announce that TAKA archives are available for viewing. He had to go back in time and "scrape" the content out of obsolete web formats and move all this into our Word Press database. It was a huge project. Presently we have from 2001 through until today. We have yet to get the archives from 1998 to 2001, as the formats from those days is so old as to be unparseable. The content will have to be hand-picked for each day.

To use the archives, click "Archives" at the bottom of the page. You will be presented with the twelve months of 2013. If a date is greyed out, it means there were not posts on that day. You can click on the year to choose a year, such as 2006. It will take a moment to load. The click to view a specific date. Once you get back to that date you will need to choose "Archives" again to move to another day. We are working on having this show the current year that you are in (e.g. if you go to 2007, then when you choose a day and go back in time the archives will still be set to 2007 and we will have the date you are viewing show in another color. Please send feedback to studyhall@hindu.org

We want to thank our Digital Dharma Donors. Your donations allow us to continue developing our web services.

Divali Nagar (City of Lights) is an annual exposition of Hindu culture and celebrations of Diwali since 1986. It is staged at the permanent Divali Nagar site, located in the borough of Chaguanas. There is a great variety of religious and cultural displays and performances to be enjoyed. And it is a time of meeting the many celebrities and dignitaries who visit the site over the week it is active. The chief guest opening this year's festivities was Captain Pratima Dharm, the first Hindu chaplain of the US armed forces who was featured in the cover story, January-February-March 2012 issue of Hinduism Today. 

Ashwinee Ragoonanan, her daughter Kashika and her team of sevaks have, for the past 20 years, maintained a prominent booth at the Nagar that displays Hinduism Today and Himalayan Academy publications along with the annual Kashika Panchang for the island of Trinidad. Ashwinee has, during these same past 20 years, also managed a lively Hinduism Today distribution center from her home.

At the booth, Bodhinatha's upcoming visit to Trinidad in February, 2014, was broadly announced.

As you can see from the banners atop our pages, the monks have begun our 60-day Digital Dharma Drive to push forward on our web resources and presence. Like Wikipedia, we have decided to not advertise on our sites, and to not charge for our Hindu resources, art, videos, magazine, books and .... well, everything.

Still there are not-so-trivial costs involved if we are to keep Hinduism's flagship sites among the best in the world. We have over 100,000 visitors to our sites each month. And if you Google the single word "Hinduism," you will find (on most days) two of our sites in the top ten returns. A great accomplishment, yes, but to keep us there we need to not let up. So, we are turning to our CyberCadets (a Gurudevaism that we like) to help us evolve in the year ahead.

We present here a small slideshow of some of our pages. Also a before and after of the main room in the Media Studio, which will partially benefit from this drive. Please read Bodhinatha's and the editors' letters giving details of our DDD past and present, what we have done and what lies ahead. We urge you to consider the Digital Dharma Drive in your holiday giving plans.

Mahalo nui loa--that's our Hawaiian thank you!

At a public function held in Kottayam, known as the media capital of Kerala, on Nov 24th, Kerala State's Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan honoured G. K. Nair, the Hinduism Today correspondent for his contributions in the field of spiritual journalism, i.e. Hinduism Today, by wrapping a shawl around him. Others in the picture on are Prof Sreepadam Easwaran Nampoothiri, an academic poet and on the right, Prof Reghudev, Editor of Devaja, the publication which was recognizing Mr. Nair. Prof Reghudev dedicated the auspicious event in the premises of Sree Mahadeva Temple, at Thirunakkara, Kottayam, at "the lotus feet of Jagadguru Sivayasubramuniyaswami and all the Rishis of the Kailasa parampara." Mr. Nair explained that it was his first meeting with the Jagadguru that changed his and his family's life. "It was, indeed a watershed in our life. The continuous guidance of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylan Swamiji, the present Dharmacharya and Madhadhipathi has placed us on the right path of Saiva Dharma. Mr. Nair said it was their blessings that brought him here to be honored by us," stated Prof Reghudev.