The desktops for the new Media Studio are being made of a special mango wood. The tree, a giant one, was gifted to the monastery a few years back, and we recently milled the massive trunk for the new desks for the monks. Today they are receiving their finish, creating stunning contrast and bringing out their beautiful designs.

This ancient tree had such color inside, and after being planed and sanded, the wood looks more like some exotic art form. Check out the closeups in this slideshow. Notice one of them has a natural edge, so you can still see the shape of the tree.

Which one should we send off to MOMA?

Jiva Rajasankara sent us photos today, along with a story about the worksite neighborhood. When we moved into the area in 1990 it was out in a desolate, almost desert-like area. There was a highway half a mile away, but little else.

But Bengaluru is growing, and apartments have been built right on the other side of our temple worksite walls. As happens, the new neighbors are unhappy with the noises from the equipment. To assuage their discomfort, our team is building an 18-foot-tall wall, for which the photos here show the supporting steel structure. Plus, they have planted a hedge of bamboo, not just any bamboo, but Bheema Bamboo, one of the fastest growing in the world. Within two years there will be a wall of bamboo to further muffle the noise. Big job for our team.

CyberCadets know that the monks maintain a Fictionary: A lexicon of words that should be in the dictionary but are not. This grows from time to time as we stumble on the moment we have all known, those awkward (and fun) moments when we know the word but the world has not yet discovered it. Is this not how language has always evolved? Are Shakespeare and street kids the only ones who can make this stuff up? No, we cry out. Not now. Not ever. Which is precisely how the word "never" evolved.

So today we share the latest inclusions in the Fictionary, and again invite submissions in case you have a word or two that should be immortalized.

play-pretend: A Gurudevaism (sbaw);  describing when an adult is doing something serious in a frivolous or foolish way. "The swami was married, making his life mere play-pretend."

sbaw: Should be a word

dutious: Different from dutiful, parallel to study and studious. Doing something with a conscious sense that you are executing your duty, achieving a high standard in one's work.

emptillness: Describes the state of seeing all existence as simultaneously infinitely full and totally empty.

microtyaga: A small letting go, renunciation, surrender, such as letting someone else be right, or skipping that second helping at the dinner table, our accepting something that you don't like. As opposed to major sacrifices and acts of tyaga.

coolth: The missing noun for cool, as warm is to warmth.

nonbreviation (or nontraction):  Two words which would ordinarily be abbreviated or contracted, but which in their current context must remain separate.  Example:  You can not only see it, but touch it as well.  Here, "can not" is a nonbreviation, since "can" is being used in its positive sense and "not" relates to only.  Therefore, neither cannot nor can't is appropriate here.

biasist: One who is not neutral, and who holds a bias

casuality: an arrived state of being casual, mentally and physically. 
"His general casuality about life made him easy to get along with."

spectacularity (n) - the quality of being spectacular.  Usage:  The view of Iraivan Temple from the drinking fountain is unsurpassed for spectacularity.

K. Sivakumar family from Arizona and Sri Lanka (middle and left) were on a return visit after a year.
On the right, visiting from Pittsburgh, northern California, after many years, are Rajesh and Yatra Raman with their son and two daughters. They met our late Gurudeva back in Concord when we ran the temple there.

Today we received these photos from Bobby in Colorado. He has been the artist responsible for transforming Sculptor Holly Young's waxes, into beautiful bronze statues. This is the statue of the sipli at the forge. When completed it will join the statues of Gurudeva, Ganapati Stapati and the silpi sharpening a chisel, all of which are already at Kauai Aadheenam. The bronze is now ready to receive its patina, which will give it slight variations in colors.

Recently, the monks have been milling logs of monkeypod wood. The logs were gifted to the monastery by local tree trimmers. Monkeypod has long been prized as a quality carving wood and Nirvani Nilakanthanatha in particular, has recently been using it for turning beautiful wooden bowls.

These are a few families who had darshan with Satguru Bodhinatha this morning

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami reads his editorial from the Apr/May/Jun 2014 edition of Hinduism Today magazine. "A critical examination of secular humanism and Hindu humanism for youth immersed in the academic atheism of college" httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A21RaGjwrdM