Digital Dharma Drive 2011 Begins Today
A Message from Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
November 1, 2011
To good souls using our websites, described as “where Hinduism meets the future:”
To keep our free web resources online, during the final quarter of 2010 we reached out for assistance from all of you around the world who value the spiritual and educational content on our sites. We followed the Wikipedia model, a world-class, free-resources site that raises funds once a year to keep their good work going. The response was overwhelming, truly a wind under our wings, with contributions exceeding our goal by 20 percent. In our How the Funds Are Used page we detail what we did with last year’s generous gifts and what we hope to accomplish next year. There was so much progress during the year, we’re back this November-December to ask again for your support to keep this momentum going.
Not long ago, before the now ubiquitous Internet, information was hard to come by. Sources were few but mostly authoritative, such as encyclopedias and books which had been carefully tooled by trained editors and fact checkers.
We quickly crossed the bridge to the other side, and now we find ourselves in the opposite situation. There is a monsoon of information from all kinds of sources. Every second, hundreds of millions of us around the globe are looking to the Internet for information on topics that interest us, including Hinduism. What we need now is organized knowledge that we can count on being authentic.
Our sites provide that--and they do it for free and without ads. Nowhere else will you find such a wealth of resources about our faith, carefully researched and compiled from across the globe. How important is it to you to have good resources on Hinduism online? How important is it that your friends and business associates, your children and their teachers, when doing a search about Hinduism, find a place that explains it from the inside, without academic biases or gross misconceptions?
There are two more reasons you might consider donating. One is that your donation will go straight to the enhancement of the sites and the content, not staff salaries or administrative overhead, since these sites are created and maintained by selfless monks who work for free and live simply in a verdant monastery on the island of Kauai.
The final reason to give is that a portion of your tax-deductible contribution goes into the Digital Dharma Drive Endowment that was begun last year. We put 10 percent, almost $6,000, of the 2010 contributions into this permanent fund. Each year we plan to add to that endowment, which will generate a steady income for decades to come, protecting the digital future of Hinduism, your religious heritage.
We are here, on the Internet, for you today. With your help, we will be here for you for years to come, in the lives of your grandchildren--and perhaps in your next life.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheenam
Publisher of Hinduism Today
Kulapati Easvan Param Takes Aadheenam Electrical to the Next Level
Kulapati Easvan Param has for years been helping the Aadheenam with it’s electrical needs. He has been so dedicated to this mission that he studied hard and took and passed the state exam to get his electrical contractor’s license for the state of Hawaii. He already has this for his business in California, Param Electric.
For the past year now he has been working very closely with Yoginathaswami on the planning, equipment acquisition and implementation logistics for our major all-aadheenam electrical infrastructure upgrade.
During these past two weeks while everyone else was enjoying the festival, Easvan has been quietly working with our SK team.
Here he is working on pulling wire through conduit from the distribution shed under the road and over to the Aadheenam.
He’s a real expert and knows how to get things done. The Siddhidata Kulam is learning from him.
He stands by and collaborates with Kauai Electric Utility company men who are here doing the final hook up of incoming power to the new intake panel recently built.
Success! These panels are all now hot! A fresh electrical feed for the whole Aadheenam… but from one point of view, this is just the beginning.
Inside the aadheenam we find thousands of feet of old wiring, going all the way back to the 1950′s! Easvan was generous enough to even provide for the cost and wages of two of his top employees to fly to Hawaii to work with him.
Here he is with Luke Diener in the “loft” over our back kitchen which was the old distribution center for most of the power coming in to the main monastery building. They had to remove 100′s of feet of old wires, locate and trace dozens of old circuits, re-install and re-connect them new electrical feeds. It has been a huge job!
This is Rama Pederson working on the same project.
Since all this is happening behind walls, so to speak, it is hard to convey the massive scope of this upgrade. It also means a big boost for the safety of both our monks and security of our buildings. Much of the old wire could have easily set fire to the infrastructure. Also when the monks don’t know what wiring is old, new, live or dead, there is always the chance of running into a live wire unknowingly and getting shocked. It was also all below code standards and impossible to do anything new. Now we have clean, safe accessible wiring.
Mahalo! Mikka Nandri! Easvan for this huge contribution!
And Yoginathaswami has this to say about Luke and Rama: “They were brought over by Easvan--a very much appreciated gift to the Aadheenam and Siddhidata Kulam in particular. These two men showed high standards of workmanship, were very polite and respectful of the monastery environment. Easvan is very lucky to have such employees. Siddhidata Kulam will be happy to have this crew anytime, any day!”
10th Mahasamadhi Anniversary Puja
Feel Gurudeva’s shakti, absorb the blessings, touch his feet as if you were there.
From Our Gurus' Teachings
- Gurudeva's Master Course Lesson of the Day
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Bodhinatha's Latest Upadesha: "Detachment from Experiences; Importance of Daily Vigil" (May 5, 2013)
All experiences are good experiences, necessary to get us here. Awareness of aspects of ourselves that are constantly changing is a liberating perception, breaking our chains to mundane areas, detaching from instinctive and intellectual to go into superconscious. The greatest challenge facing youth today is the lack of relating to the devotional side of Hinduism. Daily practice, daily vigil, moves us forward spiritually. Commentary on Merging with Siva, The Master Course, Lesson 21.
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