On Friday and Saturday, Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami attended the 7th Hindu Mandir Executives' Conference in San Jose, California. Our swamis have attended most of these conferences and have become some of the most sought-after speakers. Sadasivanathaswami gave a beautiful presentation about our latest Educational Insight section from Hinduism Today, "Visiting a Hindu Temple," which we constructed for the conference itself. Copies were distributed to all who attended, along with the feature article from the Oct/Nov/Dec 2012 issue, "Hindu Temples in the West," about how the many temples in North America and the Caribbean adjust and adapt to serve the unique needs of the Hindu diaspora here. Both articles were warmly received. Senthilnathaswami presented on "Spiritualizing Temple Leadership," conveying Gurudeva's thoughts on the sensitivity of the vibration of a temple and how trustees' fighting in the board room invokes asuras in the temple and discourages volunteers and youth attendance. We then gave five tools from Gurudeva's teachings that can be used to improve how we lead and interact with each other in the mandir: 1) professional behavior, 2) ahimsa, 3) the spirit of karma yoga, 4) zero tolerance for disharmony and 5) consensualocracy. See the presentation here.

August is one of the busiest months of the year for Kauai Aadheenam as universities are on break and we are filled and thrilled with visitors.

Ragade Family: Though they only very recently came to know of our monastery and its work, Mr. and Mrs. Ragade are already Master Course students, frequent pilgrims, dedicated devotees and generous supporters of Hinduism Today through donations to the Production Fund http://www.hheonline.org/funds/fund_20.html. As donors to that fund, they will be featured on page 13 of our upcoming January-February-March 2013 issue. Dr. Namrata works only part-time to be able to spend more time with her daughters.

On Thursday morning our traveling swamis took the opportunity to do a little perusing at the culinary shops in the San Francisco Ferry Building.

We decided to take the scenic route from the City to the South Bay, driving down Skyline Boulevard from Crystal Springs to Saratoga. Along the way, we found an open space preserve and took a short but beautiful, relaxing hike among the redwoods.

It was Gurudeva's play, a two-day drama in San Jose, well-written and executed by a seasoned cast. Our two swamis from Hawaii each gave a presentation. Sadasivanathaswami spoke on Visiting a Hindu Temple and presented to the group the 16-page Beginner's Guide that had been specially designed and printed for this annual event. Senthilnathaswami spoke on how managers and leaders can spiritualize their work and keep a dharmic attitude and energy in all the temples do. He spoke of Gurudeva's tools for harmony and one-mindedness.

Both of these presentations kept the group on the edge of their seat as they were alive and creative and engaging. Each year at this event our swamis from Hawaii are much appreciated. After the presentations everyone came forward with comments on the talks that then moved immediately to a common theme: "We were just on Kauai last month (fill in the date), we love the ashram. More, we love Hinduism Today and read every issue, every word of every article. No one is doing this but you in Hawaii. The magazine is my absolute favorite, it's so (fill in the highest accolades, strung in sets of two or three)."

Sadasivanathaswami writes: "We would have to plan fifteen minutes to move through the crowd, cards, sweet words, lots of feet touching and prostrations, lots of "Here's my new book, swami. Can you read it? Can you bless it? Can you publish it?"

"We brought the main organizers (Abhaya Ashtana and Sant Gupta) together and presented a gift from all the monks in Hawaii for their strategic work. They took it, looked at each other and asked if we could present it on stage during the final closing plenary. We were called to the front and presented the envelop, explaining how all the monks admire what HMEC is accomplishing, and that these were "monk dollars," worth more than regular dollars as monks have so little. Then we invited others to help the cause, and in the minutes afterwards notes kept going to the podium to be announced:
"
Kalya Sharma pledges $1000. Nikil Krishnadas pledges $1000" Definitely they made the right choice having us to do it publically!"

"Our Hinduism Today interviews went unexpectedly well. We interviewed four of the spiritual men and women there, each for about 20 minutes and each one is a gem. We asked four questions, about mixed marriages, elderly neglect in the Indian community, avoidance of the H-word and the biggest challenge facing Hindus in North America. Sadhvi Bhagavati of Parmath Niketan was one of the interviewees, along with Swami Mukundananda and Swami Parameshananda of BSS. Swamini Svatmavidyananda gave a most precious set of responses. Terse, apt, understanding of human nature and dharma. What a bright mind and gifted voice that soul has. She shared something I did not know. "You must know I am one of the Hawaii ashram's biggest fans. Everything you do or touch is golden and the monks are always so kind, so humble, so (I need to stop here with the humble.)"

"The booth was run masterfully by the Golden Gate Mission families and lots of traffic went through there. Again, comments on our books, our magazine, our history lessons and all were common. The head of the SV Temple in Pittsburgh met me there and mentioned he wants to get the new Visiting a Hindu Temple in bulk (they have 3000 visitors a day!) He also wants us to take the 16 pages and distill it down to two pages, front and back of one sheet."

"In all, a great two days. The monastery definitely brings an energy and style and technical savvy to this annual event and is so appreciated. Gurudeva was masterful in setting up our work in the way he did. Jai to you, Gurudeva! Texas radio interview coming in. More later."

On Friday, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami had a day of meetings in San Francisco. In the evening was a formal project meeting and then dinner with our members from the Golden Gate Mission who are helping with the Ganapati Kulam's Media Studio renovation project. Tremendous progress has been made in preparation for the project, including nearly finished plans and budget analysis, thanks primarily to the great work of professional architect Thamby Kumaran and experienced project manager Satya Palani, all under the guidance of retired master contractor Deva Rajan. Everyone you see in the group photo here will be coming to Kauai to help with the project in person at some point.

Earlier in the day we had two meetings at the offices Rocket Science Consulting in The Mission. In one meeting, Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami reviewed the past year's work on our IT systems that are all managed by Rocket Science, and discussed future projects. In another meeting, we got to know the new Rocket Science Creative team and kicked off a software development project together. The Ganapati Kulam has used Extensis Portfolio Server for years to manage and search its archives of nearly half a million image files for the monastery's publications and websites. The software has become too expensive to maintain and doesn't serve our purposes perfectly, so Rocket Science Creative is going to write an all-new custom software package to do the job just right for us. If all goes right, they'll be able to use it themselves for their own work and offer it to other clients as well. We have fit perfectly with this youthful team of professional nerds and creative geniuses since adopting their services three years ago, so we're confident this project is going to be a success.

Today marks the beginning of a new season. Gurudeva advised this time be spent in action utilizing our willpower to carry out our plans.

Sadhu Paksha is over and the Monks return to their routine.