During the first weekend in March, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami held a Senior Leadership Spiritual Weekend with the board of directors and national officers of the Hindu Students Association. The leaders of the HSA came from New York, Boston, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas to be a part of this special retreat.

Bodhinatha led classes on topics the HSA leaders themselves proposed: Hinduism and spiritual unfoldment, Hindu scriptures, God, Gods and the soul. In these sessions, our young leaders strove to gain a better understanding of their religion for their own personal spiritual unfoldment and to pass on to up and coming leaders in their branches at universities around the country.

Senthilnathaswami guided morning hatha yoga and meditation sessions and led classes on a variety of leadership topics proposed by the group: improving focus, clarity, direction and motivation; staying motivated when the going gets tough; effective communication on organizational and personal levels; listening and feedback; trust in a group dynamic; imparting leadership skills to new leaders; and more.

Thanks to this dedicated group, many Hindu college students in the US, many of whom have not learned much about Hinduism in their lives so far, are being educated about their religion and encouraged to put it into practice in their lives in practical, concrete ways that are sustainable. Bodhinatha's hope, and that of the Hindu Students Association senior leadership, is that Hindu students will grow up proud of their tradition and have the resources available to them to learn more as they progress through life.

(Thanks to Jiger Patel and Kushal Mehta for additional artistic photos.)

• Bodhinatha is meeting with the committee of the new Fort Worth temple. They have come to seek his advice. http://t.co/sFuam0PH #
• This just in: On Saturday evening Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami will speak at the Hanuman Temple in Frisco, TX (Plano) http://t.co/nOha1c9l #
• West Texas hosts second interfaith panel - Odessa American Online http://t.co/EGFZBEJC #
• This morning Bodhinatha and Senthilnathaswami drive up to Fort Worth for five days of activities there. #

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One day while Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami were in Austin, our hosts Ravi and Kumaridevi, and their little daughter Bhuma, took us nature sightseeing. First was a beautiful forest trail by the Colorado River, rich with green grasses, mustards, ferns, the first few flowers of the season and butterflies. Next we went to Mayfield Park, near Mount Bonnell (Texas's only… well… mountain), to see the beautiful gardens, but most of all the gorgeous peacocks. The males' tale feathers were bright and fresh. There were about a dozen peacocks hanging out in the trees and wandering the park paths. It was a real treat.

On Wednesday, Bodhinatha and Senthilnathaswami drove from Midland to Austin, Texas. In the evening, Bodhinatha gave a presentation on The Guru Chronicles, our latest book, sharing stories from the book about the lives of the spiritual masters of our Kailasa Parampara, including Gurudeva, Yogaswami and the Rishi from the Himalayas. The beautiful presentation was met with rapt attention by the 15 or so people who attended at Casa de Luz, a macrobiotic vegetarian restaurant and book shop with event rooms that are frequently used for yoga classes, spiritual teachers, healers and others. At the end of the presentation, Bodhinatha took questions and signed books.

Tropical storms are amazing, wet, powerful, sustained. One is hitting our island the last few days, full of thunder that sends cats scurrying and lightening that makes the night like midday for a tenth of a second. Did you know that thunder is caused when lightening turns the channel through which it travels to a 36,000 degree furnace? The resulting shockwave hits the denser and colder surrounding air, and creates the sonic boom. (OK, scientists now think there may be an electromagnetic component to all this) Rains of this intensity usually come in November and December, so this is unusual. We have had some 5-12 inches of rain each day, flooding our ponds, drowning our plants, reshaping our roads and giving us waterfalls never seen before. the little Nani Kaua Falls on the pond below has 30,000 gallons of water flowing over it EVERY SECOND! So, we wondered, how much rain is falling on our 363 acres. Taking 10 inches as the rainfall, we calculate 101,000,000 gallons, A DAY! How much is that? Enough to fill 6,700 tanker trucks OK, we collect up one days' rainfall and, using our Idea Factory employees, put it in 12-ounce bottles. Then we sell Kauai Pure Rainwater for 1 cent a bottle (with the bottles donated this can work). At these prices, we corner the bottled water market for a few days and sell every single bottle. We clear $10,800,000. A Day! Enjoy the slideshow and know we are still knowing this is Siva's Perfect Universe.

The 97-year median for the discharge of SF (south fork) Wailua is 49 cubic feet per second; today it was 20,000 cubic feet per second

On Saturday we had a special tour for a wonderful group of probably 75-100 bright souls, brought to the monastery by Laurie Reyon of California (http://www.lauriereyon.com).  As the group's interests include the akashic record, ancient Lemuria, crystals and the essential divine unity of all existence, Yogi Jothinatha gave an enthusiastically received talk on Lemurian Scrolls, the book that Gurudeva read from the akashic record in the early 1970s.  Laurie stood up at one point, almost in tears of joy, to share her delight at findlng this confirmation and elaboration of her own inner experiences.  Although the rains had been torrential, they let up after Yogi's talk and we had good weather throughout our tour out to Iraivan Temple.  Many came into the MiniMela afterwards to buy books and crystals.  Satguru Bodhinatha is presently in Texas, but Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami graciously signed their books and spoke with each who approached.