Aum Namah Sivaya,

This evening marks the end of the monk's six-day phase and the beginning of a three-day retreat. Tonight we caught this lovely image of our sunset over Mount Waialeale.

"These days my sole desire is that our lives should be simple and straightforward, that all around us there should be peace and cheerfulness, that our way of life should be unostentatious and full of bounty, that our needs should be small and our aims high and our efforts unselfish and our work for others more important than our work for ourselves."

"The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence."

- Rabindranath Tagore

This week we've been graced by the presence of Amma Anna Morano. As one of the monks mothers, she has inherited the entire monastic order has her family.

From the works of Swami Vivekananda, Karma Yoga, Chapter: IV:
The position of the mother is the highest in the world, as it is the one place in which to learn and exercise the greatest unselfishness. The love of God is the only love that is higher than a mother's love; all others are lower. It is the duty of the mother to think of her children first and then of herself. Blessed, indeed, is the man who is able to look upon woman as the representative of the motherhood of God. Blessed, indeed, is the woman to whom man represents the fatherhood of God. Blessed are the children who look upon their parents as Divinity manifested on Earth.

Siddhanathaswami writes us from his travels in California with Shanmuganathaswami:

Aum!

We missed Kauai's jungles, so we took a scenic drive and stopped at the cliffs south of San Francisco. It was a beautiful day, sunny yet in mid 60s and cool. These photos show a bit of green, but as soon as you go inland everything is dry beyond belief. They are in a 3-year drought after all.

We then flew to LA and met up with Mayuran Muttulingam. He took us on a tour of SpaceX. They don't allow photos inside, just like Kadavul. SpaceX builds rockets to put satellites in space and resupply the international space station. They are close to being able to reuse some parts after a launch, so that they don't have to build everything from scratch each time. Over the next 24 months they plan to have 50 launches. That means building two rockets a month!!!

The huge building had rockets being built at all stages. When they are assembled they are about 140 feet tall. It was a super high tech machine shop.

Today we are visiting Mayuran's home and going with them on an outing.

Aum Shanti