The silpi craftsmen spent the last few months working on refining the detail carvings on the 64 pieces of stone that comprise the front steps at the temple’s main entrance. In May the completed stones were set in place atop the existing stair-shaped concrete foundation that was poured in February. The first four steps were completed. Not too many left to go before the temple’s 30 -foot-wide grand stairway is complete. In Mid-May the governmental COVID restrictions on the construction industry began loosening in our state. So Umut and his team of rock layers from Innov8 Construction were back on the job of installing the lava rock facing on the temple’s four foot high foundation. All along the east side they have set have two layers of stone in place and work has begun on the western side as well. The team have arranged the stones that are to be used on mats all around the temple. They are carefully sorting out each stone, much like working on a giant jigsaw puzzle, to determine which ones will be placed next. The angles this rock wall requires are complex, yet they will present a natural simplicity.

The temple entry steps have great momentum these days, and the effect of these 33-foot-wide granite stones is amazing

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s weekly talks given in May, based on lessons from Gurudeva’s Merging with Siva and Living with Siva have been uploaded to our website for your enjoyment. The latest talks include: Finish What You Start, The Power of Observation, The Story of Awareness, The Differences Between Awareness and Consciousness, and The Importance of Steadfastness in Living a Spiritual Life. Also, here is the link to his new Guru’s Wisdom audiobook.

Natalie Levin, of Tucson, Arizona (yes the same Natalie who sculpted the bronze Sadasiva murti that sits in the Aadheenam Sacred Garden), spent the last couple of winter months making extraordinary sketches of our Gurudeva. She wanted to give expression to his profundity, his clarity, his various moods, the richness of his inner being. When she sent the last few to Sadasivanathaswami, she included some commentary. Paramacharya found her words so revealing he asked her to do the same for the whole series of 20 sketches. The result was a video of Natalie sharing what each one means to her. If you knew Gurudeva personally then seeing her art will be magical and her words will be especially meaningful. Click here to see the video

The July-August-September 2020 issue of our Hinduism Today magazine has been uploaded to our website. See below for details. The production continues on the music videos on the History of Hindu India which are designed to be shown in 6th grade classrooms. This project is being funded by the Uberoi Foundation. The songs and the documentaries they are based on neatly supplement the study of India and the Hindu religion in North American middle schools. In May our team in Hawaii, California and Europe finished two more videos. Swami Vivekananda" is the tenth song in the Music Video series. It complements Chapter Four of the History of Hindu India documentary, "Hindu India: 1850 to 1947." This video covers, in brief, the life of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), a key figure in the ultimate independence of India and resurgence of the Hindu religion.

Happy young students at the Art of Living’s Veda Agama Patashala in Bengaluru

Hinduism Today’s July/August/September, 2020 issue, has gone to press and is now available online free of charge at www.hinduismtoday.com. You can also download our free Hinduism Today app and get the entire magazine in a mobile-friendly format for your device.

Health is on the mind of nearly everyone these days. There is even a new greeting in the COVID-19 era, “Namastay healthy and safe.” We didn’t plan it this way, but the article in this issue on the healing science of ayurveda takes on special meaning.

Our publisher, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, explores another sensitive topic, discussing whether parents of the future will cease sharing their religion with kids. No kidding, it’s a real conversation out there, with young parents asking, “Do we have the right to expect children to follow our faith? Shouldn’t we let them find their own path?”

Music is a potent force in the world, and India excels in both sophisticated Carnatic music devotional songs and energetic Bollywood lyrics loved around the globe. Join us for the Chennai Music Festival showcasing India’s traditions.

Come with our writer Anuradha Goyal as she visits the newly built and instantly popular Sivapoomi Palace in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It is a granite tribute to the masterful and sacred Tamil-language works of Saint Manikkavasagar.

Ah, India! How to describe her? We teamed up an aerial photographer and one of India’s greatest travel bloggers to give it a try. The author’s love of Bharat Mata is revealed in a poem to India and her unique gifts, to which we added stunning photography from high above.

Our charming feature story by Choodie Shivaram highlights the priest training school located on the campus of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Ashram in Karnataka state. Boys ten to eighteen are being schooled in the sacred temple arts as they prepare to serve God and Gods in Hindu temples now spread throughout the world.

“The Magical Realm of Our Sleep” deals with one of the most rapidly evolving sciences in medicine. Panshula Ganeshan brings in a wide range of voices from ayurveda, Harvard medical experts, epigeneticists and satgurus, giving a rich and rare picture of the nature and purpose (and, yes, the mysteries) of sleep.

There is more, of course, with something for everyone.

“We encourage your readers to check with the company they work for,” urges Anil, “see if they have such a program and take full advantage of it if they do.” The practice is more widespread than one might imagine. Sixty-five percent of Fortune 500 companies offer matching gifts. At doublethedonation.com/matching-gifts/intel-corporation, you can download a list of the 20 companies best known for their matching gifts and get a lot of other useful information. Or you can search “matching gifts“ on your own company’s website.

“Many companies such as ours, Intel, state that they will not match gifts made to religious organizations. At first, we were thrown. But looking deeper, we were overjoyed to find that Himalayan Academy was already registered as eligible with the company; therefore so was Hinduism Today, the journal it publishes.”

Himalayan Academy was founded in 1957 as an educational institution dedicated to sharing the teachings of Sanatana Dharma as a public service. Your company may already have it registered as a qualified recipient. If not, ask them to do so. You can then donate to Himalayan Academy, have your company do the same, then send a note to books@hindu.org to direct the gifts to Hinduism Today, to other Academy publications or—most helpful of all­­—to the Hinduism Today Production Fund.

Devajyothi and Anil, who live in Portland, Oregon, have generously supported Hinduism Today since they discovered it ten years ago. “It has reawakened in us the philosophy of our heritage. The world needs a sound philosophy, today perhaps more than ever. Support our magazine and have your company join in­­­­—they, too, want to give and uplift the world. Don’t deny them the opportunity.”

It is wise to consult with your tax professionals if you are contemplating a charitable gift under the extended law. Start your estate plan by downloading the pdf file at www.hheonline.org/tool-kit.shtml.

Give to the Feed the Monks at www.hheonline.org/feedthemonks.

For information on establishing a fund at Hindu Heritage Endowment, contact Shanmuganathaswami at 808-822-3012, ext. 6, or e-mail hhe@hindu.org.

Much of Iraivan’s visual power comes from the 23-karat gold leaf on its five towers and—in the future—the kodimaram. These glimmer in the tropical sun, contrasting strongly against the white granite. Getting thin gold leaf to endure in the tropical sun and rain has been a challenge, but our team near Washington DC (yes, the same team that does the gold cupolas on our capital buildings) has worked it out. They will be redoing all of our towers, and that is costly, so we turn to you to sponsor all or part of the project.

SPECIAL ITEM: Gold Leaf & Installation The gilders who are coming to re-gild Iraivan’s towers have determined that a thicker leaf is needed in the tropics than is normal in the US. Three times thicker! And they have identified and tested superior adhesives. Now we need to buy the gold and fly them to Kauai for the installation. To the right are the costs.

Sponsorships
✔ (Already Sponsored) Kodimaram: $23,000
✔ (Already Sponsored) East Chinna Gopuram: $33,000
_ West Chinna Gopuram: $33,000
_ North Chinna Gopuram: $33,000
_ Stupi Capstone: $70,000
_ Rajagopuram: $95,000

AUSTRALIA Marie & R. Bhanugopan US$108.00; Nagaratnam Jeyasreedharan 20.00; D. Karthigesu Family 100.00; Rama Krishnan 30.00; Vimala Muniandy 32.00; Luckshmi & Logan Siva Nirmalananda 35.00; Gunavinthan Siva Thirumalai 100.00; Thanavinthan Siva T. Thirumalai 100.00; BELARUS Tatsiana Mezhennaya 50.00; BRAZIL Leonidas Coutinho 608.00; CANADA Anonymous 45.37; Bill Brown 33.00; Peter Christian 25.00; Frederik Jan Elbers 100.00; Rathinappillai Logeswaran 50.00; Ioana-Gabriela Manoliu 66.00; Changam & Kamachi Naidu 50.00; Vanesh Naidu 27.00; Mr. & Mrs. Pranavan 25.00; Lakshmi Ramanan 135.00; Sandrasegaram Sabapathipillai 500.00; Vijaya & Thiru Satkunendran 25.00; Sivakumaran Sivalingam 21.00; Sayanthan & Anupama Sivanathan 11.00; Riorita Tkatchenko 150.00; Isaac Vamatheva 100.00; FIJI ISLANDS Anonymous 25.00; GERMANY Tharsika Chelvarajah Vasanthan 20.00; Jeeva Velusaami 21.00; INDIA Karuppaiya Magali 200.00; Gnanavel Marimuthu 200.00; Lakshmanan Nellaiappan 10.00; Maragatham Nellaiappan 10.00; Sankula Prasad 5.00; Jiva Rajasankara 30.00; Vikram Santurkar 51.00; Adaikkalam Udaiyappan 200.00; Manikandan Udaiyappan 200.00; Murugesan Veerappan 200.00; INDONESIA Mahadevan Gengadaram 75.00; ITALY Cristina Ma Puja Canducci 20.00; JAPAN Chiharu Hayakawa 101.00; MALAYSIA Malaysia Mission 74.48; Arulmani Devi Arumugam 135.82; Devinasree Balasegaran 11.49; Om Krittik Balasegaran 11.49; P. Barathi Balasegaran 11.49; Balamurali Balasupramaniam 11.49; Hemakheshaa Naatha Batumallah 11.49; Mekaladeva Batumallah 11.49; Rathidevi & Veerasamy Batumallah 22.98; Arulmani Chandra Kumar & Sujith Arulmani 90.53; Theevhiyaa Chandrasekaram 22.98; Umaabati Chandrasekaram 11.49; Gunasegaran Chitravelloo 11.15; Sasikumar Darmalingam 11.49; Sai Sheeny, Sai Janany, Sai Hamsiny, Chandran Ramamurthy & Kalpana Devasagayam 56.40; Omaya Devasagayam 11.28; Yoga Rubini & Chandra Ganth Family 11.49; R. Jayakumar & Yoga Bhavani Family 68.94; Uma Dewi& Dinesh Kumar Jayaram 6.65; Muthukumar Jeyapalan 2,500.00; M. Shanmuganathan & A. Kamalambikai 22.98; Anbu Kandasamy 28.00; Nagulendran Kangayatkarasu 51.00; Amaraysh, Kumutha & Jarry Lai 22.64; Kavin Kirav, Shreiyaa, Leena Lakshmi Devasagayam & Anand Kumar Letchumana 45.10; Nameegri Marimuthu 45.28; Logadasan Murugesu 22.98; Puvana Murugesu 22.64; Gowri Nadason 45.28; Kamalaharan Nadason 45.28; Ponnamah Nadason & Family 22.64; Rasiah Vallipuram & Pathumanithi Nagalingam 22.72; Mohanavilashiny Murugesu & Navukarasu 45.10; Yehanthini & Siva Taranee Navukarasu 22.55; M. Suranthiran Naidu 40.60; Nalakini Niranjana 45.28; Palanisamy & Vasande 11.49; A. Paranthaman 4.45; Eesan Pasupathi 139.00; Jayaram Rajaletchumi 11.10; Mogan Raju 69.00; Sai Ram 22.64; Supramaniam Ramoo & In Memory of Neelavathy Thangavelu 45.28; Jayaraj Kantharaj & Saranraj S-O Jayabalathilagam 13.53; Sanjana Saravan 11.28; Lachmi Savoo 11.28; Doraisami & Mohanasundari Selvaraj 24.00; Parimala Selvaraj 30.00; Ambikabathi Shanmugam Pillay 22.98; Indrani Shanmugasundram 11.10; Raja Singam Raja Ratnam & Shreema Rasiah 22.72; Nutanaya Sivaceyon 10.00; Saraswathy & Ramesh Sivanathan 11.46; Mohana Sundari & Sivasekaran 45.28; Girish Skanda 45.96; A. Sockalingam & Chandrasekari 45.28; Devi & the late Selvadurai Subramaniam 22.64; Vasanta Tanggavelu 34.47; Remalah & A. Thinathayalan 22.61; Saroja Vasudevan 11.49; Vikneswaran A. Vinsent 22.72; Yuvanes Waran 20.00; Darrshan Letchumanan & Yuvan Letchumanan 90.53; MAURITIUS Anonymous 2,399.05; Soondiren Arnasalon 12.21; Soundarajen Arnasalon 9.77; Meeravadee Koothan 4.89; Sooreshen Koothan 24.43; Sivakumaren & Kavita Mardemootoo 1,008.00; Kulagan Moonesawmy 2.44; Seedha Lutchmee Moonesawmy 2.44; Jayaluxmi Mooroogen 4.89; Revathi Mootoosamy 1.22; Siven Barlen Mootoosamy 4.89; Karoumee Pareatumbee 6.11; Kirtideva Peruman 30.00; Naden Seeneevasen Pillay 2.44; NETHERLANDS Prekash & Sabita Baladien 15.00; NORWAY Anil Ananda Badhwar 60.00; Anuradha Badhwar 10.00; Meetu Badhwar-Hansen 10.00; RUSSIA Dinanatha Borzunov 80.00; Oksana Kitaeva 20.00; SINGAPORE Vasaant Krishnan 15.00; Bijamati Pareatumbee 30.00; Easan, Lavanya & Sivakumar Saravan 508.00; Kavitha Darshini & Amitpal Singh 70.54; Kamala Devi Vaiyapuri 50.00; SINT MAARTEN Gary & Radica Asha Yee-Fong 25.00; UNITED KINGDOM Anonymous 11.00; Estate of Rajan Kumar Khurana 180,690.00; Punitha Ganeshwaran 30.00; Georgiana Lukshmi Dorothy Barnes & Theeba Ragunathan 100.00; Clive & Puvaneswary Roberts 175.00; Sharavanan Selvadurai 200.00; The late Shree Vishna Rasiah & Sharmila Harry 22.72; USA Anonymous 2,769.00; PayPal Giving Fund 260.00; Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund / Chintalapudi Rao 1,000.00; Abhijit Adhye 50.00; Vel & Valli Alahan 25.00; Gurdial Chadha 21.00; Mallik Chaganti 20.00; Asha Chaku 51.00; Naren Chelian 51.00; Sharath Chigurupati 123.00; Charles Close 108.00; Shyamadeva & Peshanidevi Dandapani 54.00; Janakbhai R. Dave 50.00; Chellappa Deva 25.00; Amarnath & Latha Devarmanai 101.00; Venkat Devraj 108.00; Gayathri Dhanasegaran 25.00; Purushottam Dixit 51.00; Aiyasawmy Dorairajan 25.00; Jessyca Dunaway 450.00; Ramya Subramani & Rajesh Ekambaram 211.00; Barry Paul Finlay 150.00; Jim & Margie Fischer 25.00; Panshula Ganeshan 25.00; Rajendra Giri 20.00; Toshadeva & Kamala Guhan 18.00; Kriya & Sharyn Haran 125.00; Usharani Iswaran Magaña 220.00; David Jaffe 108.00; Chandrashekhar Jairaman 51.00; Ramana Jandhyala 108.00; Praveen Krishna Jangareddy 11.00; Annieleshwari Jawahar 15.00; S. Jeyendran 101.00; Haran Kandadas 51.00; Srinivas & Shanthi Karri 90.00; Sundari Katir 20.00; Kavya Kaza 11.00; Richard Kennedy 10.00; Andrzej Kraja 101.00; Kosalram Krishnan 200.00; Rajagopal Krishnan 108.00; Supriya Kulkarni 51.00; Karthikeyan & Uma Lakshmanan 25.00; Gregg Lien 50.00; Abha Lokhande 32.00; Chandra S. Malladi 25.00; Mallikarjuna Rao Mamidipaka 25.00; Laura Devi Marks 108.00; Ditlev & Sivabakiam Monrad 101.00; Palani & Selvarany Nadarajah 15.00; Nitya & Becky Nadesan 150.00; Manish M. Naidu 11.11; Rama Chandran & Rema Nair 11,001.00; Sanjaya K. Nath 11.00; Emma & Narendra Nemivant 50.00; Neelam Oberoi 21.00; Gurudas Pai 101.00; Satya & Savitri Palani 21.00; Sriram Panchagnula 30.00; Cassan Pancham 2,016.00; Pankayatselvan Family 25.00; Easvan & Devi Param 101.00; Janaka & Bhavani Param 10.00; Jothi Param 51.00; Dhiru C. Patel 51.00; Vinay & Hansa R. Patel 101.00; Salik & Sanjia Pathak 51.00; Venkat Pichairaman 11.00; Jonathan Pieslak 126.50; Indrathan Pillay 150.00; Senthamarai Prabhakar 101.00; Tara Prabhu 25.00; Parthasarathy Rajagopalan 50.00; Deva & Gayatri Rajan 1,001.00; Mohan Deepak Ram 11.00; Janevi Ramaji 101.00; Ravi & Vaishnavi Ramakrishnan 101.00; Jeyashree & Venkat Ramakrishnan 50.00; Eswar Raman 20.00; Rajesh & Yatra Raman 11.00; Kasi Ramanathan 51.00; Partab & Chandra Ramsinghani 27.00; Pritha Ranganathan 535.00; Sudharsanam Rathinam 101.00; Cliff & Kathy Runge 50.00; Chamundi Sabanathan 130.00; Aran Sambandar 108.00; In memory of Manonmani Sangarapillai 100.00; Chandra Sankara 108.00; Illur G. Sathy 201.00; Aran & Valli Sendan 25.00; Deva & Amala Seyon 51.00; Gouri Shanker 50.00; Rajinder Sharma 501.00; Salil Shibad 21.00; Terrill Silke 100.00; Iraja & Nilani Sivadas 108.00; Dharshi & Sivasothy Sivakumar 150.00; Jai Sivakumara 200.00; Jnana Sivananda 100.00; Lakshana Chetana Sivananda 51.00; Nathan & Sulena Sivananda 108.00; Tandu & Uma Sivanathan 200.00; B. Sivaraja 20.00; Kandiah Sivarajah 51.00; Kiran Srinivasan 20.00; Padmapriya Srinivasan 25.00; Joseph W. Steelman 50.00; Yasotha & Thevarajah Subarajan 51.00; Nandi Deva Sundaram 50.00; Savithri Sundaresan 51.00; Phani Kumar Sureddi 7.00; Karthik Suresh 108.00; Shanthi Suresh 1,200.00; Siva U. Thillaikanthan 30.00; Ramesh Thimmappa 21.00; Rama Vangala 21.00; Vayudeva Varadan 102.00; N.M. Varadarajan 50.00; Rajiv Verma 108.00; Mahesh Viswanathan 25.00; Rama Narayanan & Narayanan Viswanathan 251.00; Shoba Devi & Premananda Vittal 51.00; Keith Wallach 54.00; Michael Wasylkiw 108.00; Richard Bosworth & Kerri Watts 101.00; Scott Wiberg 108.00; S. Wijayaratnam 50.00; Shelah Young 51.00; Total Building Fund $222,515.00; Iraivan Temple Endowment Anonymous 11.00; Frank Burkhardt 10.00; Amey Surendra & Amruta Gangal 21.00; Anonymous 54.00; Terrill Silke 100.00; Total Endowment Funds $196.00; Special Project Donations (Gold Leaf, etc.) Jim & Nancy Barnhart 108.00; Fenulla Jiwani & Rahim Hirji 33.00; Valliammah Kandasamy 22.64; Saroj Kumar 51.00; Silvarajoo Muniandy 34.47; Gowri Nadason 226.37; Adi Srikantha 70.00; Total Special Project Donations $545.48
Grand Total $223,256.48