The monastery’s development iPad arrived at the Ganapati Kulam, a donation from one of our TAKA viewers who wanted to contribute to keeping our publications team on the leading edge of the digital revolution. Senthilnathaswami tests it out in a dock with a keyboard. Marvelous!

In the future you will be seeing our books and other Himalayan Academy applications running on this device.

The Hinduism Today editorial team wraps up the magazine today. We have a surprise for our members in Mauritius: an article on the evolution of Hinduism in Mauritius written by our own Brahmachari Vel Mahalingam is one of the feature stories and the gatefold or the magazine is a giant photo of homa at our Saiva Siddhanta Church branch there in Mauritius.

The feature story of this issue is about Rites of Passage, Nepal Style.

Here is our Sthapati's design for the future mandapam that will honor and memorizlize Gurudeva's 1975 visions of Lord Siva, with the Swayambhu Lingam he found at the center. On the ceiling we plan to have nine giant paintings which will be similar to such paintings you have all seen in the great temples of India.

For this series, we have been blessed to find and commission one of the great masters of India, a Kerala muralist who will do them all. He has been busy during 2009 with a giant exhibition in New Delhi, but he just wrote to say that is over and he is full-time on our paintings until they are done! To give you an inkling of just how remarkable a talent he is, take this drawing which we gave him describing Gurudeva's psychic conversation with a wild guava tree on that life-changing day in February of 1975. From that sketch. . . . .

he created this masterpiece. Notice the fiery mountain range above, and the Wailua River flowing across the page in the upper third, and the five lingam stones lying hidden in the jungle ready to be discovered. The guava tree dances in the windless air, a tree and yet more than a tree.
"Upon reentering earthly consciousness, I felt certain that the great stone was somewhere on our monastery land and set about to find it. Guided from within by my satguru, I hired a bulldozer and instructed the driver to follow me as I walked to the north edge of the property that was then a tangle of buffalo grass and wild guava." . . . . . Suresh produced this. Look at the mountains at the top, the Wailua River running across the upper third (with turtle and fish), the five stones hidden in the jungle and the talking tree, dancing in the windless air. Here is Gurudeva's description of the moment: "I hacked my way through the jungle southward as the bulldozer cut a path behind me. After almost half a mile, I sat down to rest near a small tree. Though there was no wind, suddenly the tree's leaves shimmered as if in the excitement of communication. I said to the tree, 'What is your message?'" "In reply, my attention was directed to a spot just to the right of where I was sitting. When I pulled back the tall grass, there was a large rock the self-created Linga on which Lord Siva had sat. A stunningly potent vibration was felt. "

In the back is Gurudeva’s picture, of him doing abhishekam to the Siva Lingam. It was in 1983 that he first order an Apple II computer, including one for the monks in San Francisco, who he told to go out and go to classes on how to use it. We have come a long way since then.

Senthilnathaswami is struck by how easy it was to go to the What Is Hinduism, web page, download the PDFs and how fabulous they look on the iPad.

Srinivas (“Sri”) and Padma Mandalaparthy who follow TAKA regularly noted the Ganapati’s Kulams work on digital publications and decided to make a gift of an iPad to the Aadheenam. Today they joined the Ganapati Kulam to make their presentation. Their two sons were already avid users! A wonderful and timely gift to the team that is working tirelessly to get Gurudeva lifelong legacy online, and the iPad is our next platform to conquer.

Thank you Sri and Padma!

They are working daily with the trilogy, and love to find moments in life which they describe (a paraphrase of Gurudeva) moments where Siva is in all and all is Siva.

While attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, last December, Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami interviewed Amma Sri Karunamayi of Penusila Ashram in Andhra Pradesh, South India. (At left is Swami Amarananda from the Ramakrishna Mission, Geneva, Switzerland, who was also interviewed.)

Amma had this to say about Hinduism Today: “It is a beautiful, beautiful magazine. It is a total mirror for Hindu Sanatana Dharma. We love the magazine so much. You introduce so many holy souls to the real souls through that magazine. You do a great job. I have been to Hawaii and seen all of you there, the beautiful gardens, a very sacred place, the Siva temple. Very beautiful, what you have done is so great, I have a lot of respect for your magazine. You mentioned Hinduism Today is not your life history, not your book. It is all of the saints, great teachings, their life and the essence of what they are giving through their meditations, through their life essence, their teachings are the essence of their life. So every holy person’s essence of their truth is in your Hinduism Today magazine. So, it is not just like any printed matter, it gives a sense of all the holy people, holy sages, great souls. That is why what you are doing is so great, the unbelievably great things you are doing through the magazine to share with all the people who love the Sanatana Dharma, the Hindu dharma, which is Sanatana Dharma. They love the magazine so much, they feel it belongs to their soul.”

Here is another snippet from our Hinduism Today interviews in Melbourne. One day, Swami Avdheshanand, the head of the Juna Akhara (an order of 500,000 sadhus) in North India, and a recipient of our Hindu of the Year award, invited Bodhinatha, Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami to lunch at the home of a devotee he was staying with in a Melbourne suburb.

Swamiji had this to say: “Hinduism Today magazine is a wonderful work. It’s a divine work, and I can say it is the work of God. That is the only work that can perpetuate our values, principles, parampara, sampradaya, all our traditions, cultures, customs. So, really, I am very happy. I appreciate all of you. I admire all of you. And I salute all of you because Hinduism Today is a wonderful work on this Earth. I have only word for Hinduism Today, that is a divine work. You are doing God’s work. Amazing, Swamiji, amazing. I admire this work because Hinduism Today is sustaining, promoting, emphasizing, preserving, cultivating ethics and values. Hinduism Today is the face of Hindu culture, tradition, Hindu values. This is not only a magazine, this is the face, this is the soul of Hindu values. Hinduism Today’s work is divine work.”

(And yes, the head of India’s largest order of sadhus carries a Blackberry. He felt quite comfortable with us, with our iPhones and all.)

Swami Mayatitananda was another one of our interviewees in Melbourne last December. She has written for Hinduism Today for over a decade and has always admired the magazine. It was truly a joy for us to meet up with her, talk to her about various issues facing Hinduism nowadays, and to hear her thoughts about the magazine. "It is the voice of reason for Hinduism. It's also an intelligent voice that deals with the issues straightforwardly, intelligently. We are so fortunate as a Hindu community, world community, to have Hinduism Today. So many of our Hindu erudite leaders are so busy that they're not able to put pen to paper or collect thought in a cohesive manner. You've covered the issues intelligently, well, in defense of Hinduism, for Hinduism, safeguarding and also explaining Hinduism to those who have a whole lot of ideas that are erroneous about the tradition.

"What you did in terms of the textbooks alone, that whole series you did on the protection of the textbooks in America–why can't Hindu erudite scholars oversee the formation of those manuscripts? Why must it be done by this chap from Harvard, whatever his name was, Witzel, who still lives in the Harappan civilization with some erroneous history? He still thinks that the Aryan civilization are the rishis, and those types of propaganda! Hinduism Today has been incredible as a very rational, reasonable voice backed by the Shastra, backed by Vedic wisdom and quotes and knowledge, to position itself in response to so many erroneous things about Hinduism. We are so fortunate to have Hinduism Today disseminating information–more education than information, I would say–in a really amazing manner."