The past few weeks has been a bonanza Task-Force time for our monastery. Task Force is a program instituted by Gurudeva long ago, whereby close devotees may qualify to come work, live and meditate along with the monks. They volunteer to come work, usually at a specific task for a specified length of time. At one point, recently, we were delighted to have these five stalwart souls here, working along with us, all at the same time. Aditya Vinadhara came from Utah for three weeks and worked on finishing touches for the Media Studio, installing soffits under the eaves. Roshan Sivayogum of Malaysia here for three weeks worked mostly on landscaping projects. Jnanideva Cevvel of Edmonton, Canada here for three weeks also worked on the soffits along with Aditya (a task they are working hard to complete before their time is up in a few days). Adi Srikantha of Utah/Washington and other points in the Western USA joined us for three months. His skills were put to good use repairing, maintaining and upgrading our agricultural equipment, from tractors to … well, you name it. Dean Drulias of California stayed with us for the maximum six months, helping with just about everything from landscaping, noni production, managing our MiniMela gift shop and serving in the Media Studio generating publications and web posts. What a great crew! Spirituality, devotion, sadhana and yoga really do work.

In 1947 a bill was passed creating 16 conservation districts in Hawaii and outlining their powers and duties. to administer and conduct soil and water conservation activities within the State of Hawaii. These are legally constituted self-governing sub-units of the Hawaii state government and are controlled by a board consisting of a board of five directors, three elected by agricultural land-users or land-owners and two appointed by the SWCD directors.  

At their annual meeting of all the districts in the state, this year held on Kauai, they visited and were visibly impressed by the monastery's Koa plantation on our land across the river. Because of our efforts to develop a conservation plan to change degraded cane land into rich forests of mahogany and Koa and to use cover crops and other methods to enhance our plantings, Saiva Siddhanta Church was selected as the "Conservationist of the Year" for the second time.