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Sun Six End of Phase

Valluvan, Thilagarani and daughter Kayshana are here on pilgrimage from Malaysia. They are enrolled Master Course students, looking forward to become formal sishyas of Bodhinatha and Kailasa Parampara.

We come to the end of a long, productive six-day phase. Here Kulapati Deva and Kulamata Gayatri Rajan have darshan with Bodhinatha. Deva has been working on the roof structures for the new art display to be installed on San Marga. Gayatri has been coming and helping out at the temple. They return home tomorrow and Deva will return again in a week to continue his seva.

We are heading into a very powerful three-day full moon retreat with the Maha Ardra Abhishekam for Lord Nataraj on Tuesday, winter solstice, the first day of Pancha Ganapati all converging.

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Chaturthi Tithi, Sun One, Friday, December 23th.

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara Thondu

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara is with us and will be here until he takes this group of silpis back to India on the 28th.

Today he is assisting Sannyasin Saravananathaswami with the annual mailing to all our sishya. He is laminating the 2011 membership cards.

Some Mauritius members’ cards.

Roof Work for San Marga Visions Display

Here is what Deva Rajan has been working on along with Acharya Kumarswami and Kannan…

There are three of these which will cover structures with some beautiful artwork showing Gurudeva’s visions.

Holiday Guests

This family, originally from Tamil Nadu and now from Phoenix, is one of this morning’s group of guests. The December holiday season is the busiest in the year.

Light refreshing showers fall as they trek out to see Iraivan temple.

Bountiful Harvest

Our citrus orchards are super productive and this year is no exception with tons of oranges and grapefruit.

Our Siddhidata Kulam provides the monastery with an ever steady stream of fresh fruit and vegetables. Harvesting and picking is a never-ending task on their weekly roster.

Over they years they have been experimenting with many varieties of Papayas, and now we have some really huge ones coming in.

Thank you to the SK Team!

Subramuniya Kottam 30th Anniversary

Photos: Recently, the Kottam school in Jaffna celebrated the Teachers’ Day. The children garlanded the teachers and thanked them for their service. Also, the children gave speeches honoring their teachers, and read poems.

Thondunathan writes:

Vanakkam,

This year our Sri Subramuniya Kottam celebrated its 30th anniversary. As you know, the Kottam School offers an After-School program with tuition-free classes for underprivileged children. We teach traditional school subjects as well as music, pannisai and computer classes.

Children who attend the Kottam School also learn about religion and celebrate the holy days. Currently the school has four teachers, not including my mother, who — for many years — has single-handedly ran the School.

Also, the Kottam offers scholarships to the most needy children. Currently we are providing monthly financial aid to ten students effected by the war. Starting in January, we are planning to add eight more students to that scholarship program.

Personally, I always believed that this kind of school in every single village, educating the needy children, will make a difference. I am happy to tell you that recently a retired elder from Toronto, Canada, returned to Jaffna; right now he is renovating the war-torn home in his village in Jaffna. He told me he want to create a free school modelled after our Kottam School, and he is going to offer tuition-free classes to the needy children.

I hope and pray more and more elders will return to Sri Lanka and provide these grass-route services in their own villages. By educating the younger generations, we can build a brighter future for our community.

Aum Shanthi,

Rishi Thondunathan

Mauritius Improvements

Kulapati Manon Mardemootoo send picture of work in Mauritius.

The river front access and safety platform will be finished by the end of the month.

A new entry sign.

It says:

Saiva Siddhanta Church of Mauritius
Spiritual Park and Hindu Monastery

An Appeal from our Editors

As you might imagine, creating and sharing an articulate and graphically elegant repository of Hinduism is neither easy nor without costs. Yet there has never been a greater need, with youth learning their spiritual ABCs online and millions discovering Hinduism digitally. That’s what our annual fundraising campaign is all about. It’s a chance for you to help us to help Hinduism globally.

Those of us who create it know the challenges. And one of the challenges is funding. A few astute donors to our new Digital Dharma Drive have brought to our attention that it may appear to many who see fund-raising reports throughout the year for our other projects that we are bringing in plenty of money and that we could just as well spend some of it on our websites and online initiatives rather than having a separate fund-raising drive. We can’t simply reallocate funds given to us for a different project to this one without taking away from those projects, and from our promise to the donors who gave for them.

Activities at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery operate on a donation basis, and when we need money for a project, we raise funds for it. We are strict in the usage of those funds; contributions are only used for the projects they are given for. Some projects, such as Hinduism Today magazine and our various books, are self-funding, and because volume is low (we are in a niche market!), there is little (or nothing!) left over when all of the costs of producing those projects are taken care of.

For many years, we have operated under the guiding principle that our many Hindu resources will all be available digitally for free. Yes, we could charge for them, but many who might find them inspiring or needed would simply not pay. But free to them is not free to us. We have significant costs in running some of Hinduism’s leading websites. Plus we want to grow a little, provide Gurudeva’s teachings in the ever-growing list of new formats, maintain and upgrade the websites, engage some professional help, support the computer systems we use to produce and provide all of these vast resources. These goals all come with a price tag. It’s a small one, but it is there.

We are committed to providing it all without charging for downloads, without showing advertisements on our sites, without commercializing our mission. Without these revenue sources, we turn to you to help.

This year’s drive ends on December 31. Many have given but our goal is still not quite in sight. We hope you will join in helping us meet our $50,000 goal. It’s not a lot of money, but in the right hands it will have a profound impact on the future of Hinduism around the world. Please make a donation today to keep our sites strong today and well into 2011.

Warm greetings this holiday season,

The Editors
Kauai’s Hindu Monastery
Himalayan Academy Publications

Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.

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