More News From Trinidad Himalayan Academy Booth
Here we have the President of the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) Mr. Deokienanan Sharam (left), his son Dr. Pravin Sharma, his grand sons Arvinda(back) and Akshay(front), sister Shanti(in saree) and daughter in law Rachael(extreme right). Mr. Sharma is responsible every year for choosing the theme for the Diwali Nagar. Diwali Nagar started in 1986 and since then has grown into a national event.
The festival is now over and Ashwinee shares this report with us. “In the final analysis, this was our most successful year at the Diwali Nagar. We shared knowledge of Hinduism through Himalayan Academy publications, we showed many what is available from the monastery’s website, we introduced people to Gurudeva and Bodhinatha, showed them the making of Iraivan temple, and distributed a lot of free literature. Visitors numbered between 200 – 500 each night and at least 1000 on the last night.” Here we have a family that isn’t Hindu, but was so impressed with the literature that they bought Dancing with Siva, What is Hinduism? Mystic Mouse, and were given various booklets. They were so enthusiastic, we are sure they will be back.
Here, dedicated volunteers Keith and his son, Dharma (in their Hinduism Today t-shirts), explain the contents of Himalayan Academy’s Mystic Mouse to some youth. “Our staff learned more than the visitors. It was a most successful project,” concluded Ashwinee.
Himalayan Academy Booth in Trinidad Big Success
Thousands of people came through our Divali Nagar booth in Trinidad and got to know of our monastery, temple, magazine and books. Here, a gentleman peruses the booklets on display while Dharma and his mother provide guidance. Helpers in the booth also learned a great deal during the week. Dharma’s parents are planning to have him and his brother come visit our monastery after they finish high school.
Ashwinee, in orange, spoke to many people. “interest was high,” she explains. “Many had heard about Hinduism Today or Iraivan or the monastery on Kauai and were surprised to find out they are all the same source. Others recognized Gurudeva’s picture but did not know who he was or what he had done.”
Balkaran Maharaj visits the booth with his four daughters. He was employed at the Port of Spain port in 2000 when Gurudeva came to Trinidad. He was the one responsible for giving the passengers clearance to leave the ship, and met Gurudeva at that time. Ashwinee asked him what was his impression of Gurudeva, and he said, “As I met him I could feel his divinity. I saw the saintliness in him. I knew I was in the presence of a great soul.”
Diwali Nagar is an important national event. And our booth was one of its highlights. Many dignitaries came for a visit. Here is the minister of Legal Affairs, his wife with the president of Pres. of the National Council of Indian Culture, Mr. Deokienanan Sharma.
Ashwinee welcomes the Anand Ramlogan, Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago(left), Deokienanan Sharma, and the president of the NCIC(center) and Joe Ramkissoon, Executive member of the NCIC (right)
They leave the Hinduism Today part of the booth after chatting with Ashwinee, in the background.
Gurudeva as Divine Dancer
One of the DVDs offered in the Mahasamadhi souvenir contains clips of Gurudeva dancing in Kokee, Kauai’s western mountain region.
A rare and precious vision
Day Two at the Diwali Nagar Himalayan Academy booth in Trinidad
Here we have on display, Living with Siva, Dancing with Siva, Weaver’s Wisdom, Know Thy Self and Monks Cookbook
Here we have the HT corner of the booth, with the video playing in the background
Raj Oma Maharaj, owner of the Chancellor Hotel, where Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami stayed while in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Minister of Local Government Chandresh Sharma, and Devesh Maharaj(lawyer) as they visited the booth tonight. All three are subscribers to HT.
Trinidad Booth is Gigantic
Our team in Trinidad is really putting on a big show!
This is a really big operation.
This seeker reads the Digital Edition of Hinduism Today.
Trinidad Himalayan Academy Publications Team At Work
Tomorrow is a big day in Trinidad and Ashwinee and her team are setting up a huge booth at Diwali Nagar.
Celebrations begin tomorrow.
Rainbow Waterfall
Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami returned today, diving into the completion of the January issue of Hinduism Today, the archway gate completion and more. They brought back this delightful painting. It is Siva and Gurudeva, Kauai and Wailua, complete with the most creative rainbow waterfall cascading down the face of Mount Waialeale. It is the work of Chudika Mahadevan, and in case you can't read the ribbons, they say "Life is meant to be lived joyously" and "Everything that is happening is good. Everything that is happening is meant to be."
Click here to download a large copy for your desk top (690K)
What Is Hinduism? Pilot Video Episode Now on YouTube
Some viewers had trouble with this video that was embedded from the Vimeo video sharing site. We now have it available on our HinduismTodayVideos YouTube channel:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQgcWYrCEDg
Hinduism Today: Modern Method Match-Making
Our Hinduism Today, October/November/December 2010 edition, Educational Insight this time explores a new trend in matchmaking. The two models that once clashed–arranged marriage and do-as-you-please dating–are merging into something that can be called “arranged dating.” Parents meet and approve a daughter’s suitor, and then the couple embarks on the Western dating path, with all its implications and hazards. Plus we take a look at online resources for finding a life partner.
Keeping and Growing Our Important Websites
Today we launched a three-month drive to support the costs of our websites. Our various websites have helped guide contemporary Hinduism around the world, informing individuals, empowering institutions and clarifying Hinduism for academics, journalists and politicians. Though the work of the monks is free, there are major costs incurred which need support. We are especially struggling to improve and expand our sites and so are reaching out during the last months of the year to ask for help. Between now and December 31st, you will see new banners at the top of our pages. Bodhinatha has written a wonderful appeal, which we include below. We have taken our campaign model from Wikipedia, which is free for all the world to use (like us) and raised $7.5 million last year to keep their resources online. Our needs are far more modest. We are trying to raise $50,000 for next year’s web efforts.
A Message from Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
To good souls using our websites:
Not long ago, before the now ubiquitous Internet, information was hard to come by. Sources were few but mostly authoritative, such as encyclopedias and books which had been carefully tooled by trained editors and fact checkers.
We quickly crossed the bridge to the other side, and now we find ourselves in the opposite situation. There is a monsoon of information from all kinds of sources. Every second, hundreds of millions of us around the globe are looking to the Internet for information on topics that interest us, including Hinduism. What we need now is organized knowledge that we can count on being authentic.
Our sites provide that—and they do it for free and without ads. Nowhere else will you find such a wealth of resources about our faith, carefully researched and compiled from across the globe. How important is it to you to have good resources on Hinduism online? How important is it that your friends and business associates, your children and their teachers, when doing a search about Hinduism, find a place that explains it from the inside, without academic biases or gross misconceptions?
Starting in 2010, to keep our free web resources online, we are reaching out during the last quarter of each year to ask for assistance from all of you around the world who value the spiritual and educational content on our sites.
There are two more reasons you might consider donating. One is that your donation will go straight to the enhancement of the sites and the content, not staff salaries or administrative overhead, since these sites are created and maintained by selfless monks who work for free and live simply in a verdant monastery on the island of Kauai.
The final reason to give is that a portion of your tax-deductible contribution goes into an endowment that will generate a steady income for decades to come, protecting the future of Hinduism, your religious heritage.
We are here for you today. With your help, we will be here for you for years to come, in the lives of your grandchildren—and perhaps in your next life.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheenam
Publisher of Hinduism Today
From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
