It is an exciting day at the Ganapati Kulam Media Studio. After years of work by our editorial and design team, “The Guru Chronicles” officially closed yesterday and today Sivakatirswami and Senthilnathaswami are preparing the files for the press as we head into the pre-press and printing phase of this important new book.

Senthilnathaswami is proofing the hi-resolution PDF’s that are prepared to go to the printer.

Sivakatirswami is processing files for Senthilnathaswami to proof at our “Mushika Workstation” which is a fast desktop machine which is all set up to process files and send them off to Kentucky where the book will be printed.

Senthilnathaswami who is also on the editing team of the book with Acharya Kumarswami and headed by Paramacharya Sadasivanathswami, is not even trying to control his bliss. He says, “It’s almost surreal; I can barely believe it is actually happening. We are going to print this book, finally!”

Meanwhile, the printer has sent us a “dummy” bound book, to help us make sure our cover file template is precisely designed to fit the book. It is 832 pages on Orion 60 pound matte text stock. It weighs 1.94kg or 4 pounds 4.5 ounces without ink.

The book will be printed by Quad Graphics, (http://www.qg.com) America’s second largest and one of the world’s “greenest” printing companies.

The plant that will produce the book is in Versailles, Kentucky, and also does work for Rand McNally, Encyclopedia Britanica and Time Warner Books.

Sivakatirswami asks, “Do they call it a dummy because there are no words inside it? This book seems to be all about the clear white light.”

But it won’t be long before these pages will be filled and thrilled with the remarkable story of the Kailasa Guru Parampara, written in a contemporary engaging style. From fabulous tales of ancient times all the way through to the 21st century with much of the narrative in Gurudeva’s own words, it fires the heart and mind with spiritual aspiration and will carry the story and message of our Paramapara to the world and coming generations.

You won’t be able to put it down.

In the upcoming October/November/December 2011 edition of Hinduism Today, we have an article by Pooja Patel of Midland, Texas, about how a sorely deficient diet burdens many young vegetarian Hindus attending college in the US and how some schools are responding to calls for change. Pooja thoroughly explores the problem, including frank testimonies from current students, such as the following from Rupak Dhoot, a student at Austin College: “A majority of my meals consisted of assorted boiled vegetables, bread, pasta and, in all seriousness, quite a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My meals were highly variable. One consistent thing I could count on eating was cereal. Overall, the school seemed to recognize that there were many vegetarian students they needed to cater to, so there was always an option. However, as a picky eater, the options were not always appetizing. One problem was finding a good source of protein. A staple that serves as a rich source of protein in Indian households, dal, was obviously not available. Finding lentils, beans, nuts, etc., to satisfy the nutritional need for protein was a daily challenge.”

It’s not all bad news, however. Dozens of schools throughout the country are beginning to recognize the need to provide more wholesome, nutritious options for vegetarians, who represent a growing percentage of dorm populations. Which are the top-ten vegetarian-friendly schools and what are they serving? What can students do to improve the diet on their own campuses? Stay tuned for the upcoming edition of Hinduism Today, in print, in PDF and on the web.

The Hinduism Today October issue is another great release of the world renowned one-and-only for-all-Hindus publication. Here on TAKA we like to give a few sneak peaks.

This issue’s Global Dharma has a story about a truly incredible event that is not well known but happens in Kerala every year. It is a chariot festival to top all chariot festivals. Read about it in the coming issue.

Acharya Arumugaswami has worked for several years preparing the five history lessons on India which you have all seen in Hinduism Today magazine. These have been reprinted as single booklets and now we are compiling them into a single book which will include a lot more photos. He consults today with Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami on the content of the new book.

The team has completed all the editorial work on the October issue of Hinduism Today. Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami does what we call “Eagle Eye Review” and looks through all the pages for any final adjustments needed. At this point the pages have been written, edited, read and proof-read at by six pairs of eyes, but there are alway small things that can be improved on.

Jai Ganesha, corpulent Remover of Obstacles. This art was a gift to Bodhinatha when he was in India in July. By the artist who does our children’s books, NT Rajeev.

The French Institute of Pondicherry’s staff photographer, Ramesh Kumar, posted more photos of the July 13th dinner in Pondicherry celebrating the completion of the digitization project. The photos are posted at picasweb:

https://picasaweb.google.com/rameshphotographer/AgamaDigitizationProjectOfSanMargaTrustAtAtithi

Below is the lamp lighting by Bodhinatha with our liaiason officer, L. Nellaiappan at right.

Our team has moved on and is now in Chennai and will be departing for home in a day or so. Stepping back in time we return to Pondicherry a few days ago.

After several years of work and amassing 818 Gigabytes of data, the digitization of manuscripts and ola leaves from the Indological Institute of Pondicherry and the French School of the Far East (over 800,000 images) in Pondicherry has been completed and the operations team closed up shop in India.

A special dinner was held in Pondicherry to commemorate the completion of this historic project that Bodhinatha set up to capture our scriptures for future generations.

Bodhinatha officially thanked everyone and emphasized the importance of the Agamas in our daily worship. He called them the Invisible Scriptures. The scripture that governs many areas of our life but no one knows what they are.

The evening begun with recital holy verses then lighting of lamps.

This followed by opening address by Acharya Arumuganathaswami. Then followed by short speeches by various scholars. Every single one were grateful to the San Marga Trust (India) aka Kauai Aadheenam. It seems this digitization process brought a new inspiration to digitize various scriptures stored in various libraries around India.

Dr. Jean-Luc Chevillard of the French School of the Far East gives a shawl to Bodhinatha, Arumuganathaswami

And Nellaiappan who helped coordination.

Watch Damara Shanmugan demonstrate her braille embosser in the YouTube video below. YouTube video below. Damara is the only braille transcriber in the world who exclusively transcribes Saivite Hindu practice and philosophy into braille. Using the award winning books and magazines of her guru, Satguru Shivaya Subramuniyaswami, she carefully transcribes the essence of the mystical Saivite Hindu tradition. In this video Damara talks about her project and demonstrates the braille embosser. Her work is supported by the Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fund for the Visually Impaired, fund #43 of Hindu Heritage Endowment. Read her story at www.hheonline.org/funds/fund_43.html.
If you want to help us distribute these books, a work which involves contacting libraries and special institutions, please contact us at contact@hindu.org

The long awaited artwork from the Kerala mural artist, Suresh Muthukulam, depicting Gurudeva’s San Marga visions of Siva arrived and were stretched onto proper painting frames but a professional shop in Lihue. Today Brahmachari Mayuran scanned all them. You can find out about the artist here: http://www.keralamurals.com/

The scanner had to be placed on the floor.

Each painting had to be scanned in pieces. Oh, wait! Look, the light is going right through the canvas. What to do?

Supports were made to the exact level of the scanner bed, and a dark cloth placed over the area being scanned to prevent light from escaping. Tape was placed on the floor to mark the offsets for each scan, indicating where to move the canvas next.

Photoshop wants to have at least a one inch over lap of adjacent sections to properly stitch them together.

Each canvas was scanned in 15 pieces, 5 X 3 adjacent areas.

Mayuran checks out the scans to be sure the over laps are good enough.

The scans were done at 600 DPI (dots per inch). Here he goes up very close to see how much detail we are getting.

At this resolution you can even see the texture of the canvas.

The resulting art is magnificent. Although the artist never met Gurudeva, he had done a marvelous job in depicting the other worldly, divine sight reality behind this mystical beginning of San Marga and Iraivan temple.

Although the facial features may be different, those who know Gurudeva well will attest that the expression of “this is a serious spiritual matter!” comes through very much as you would have experienced it in Gurudeva’s living presence.