Gurudeva brings us news of the returning monks from a two month trip and a new temple to be built in New Zealand. Gurudeva talks today about the deficits of Halloween being taught to children and how we can work with young people in the New Age by being an example, making a difference in our own communities rather than teaching such negative behaviors.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. November 1st. Today is JAZ day. Why do we call it JAZ day? It is because Hinduism Today, our international magazine is put on a JAZ disk, Macintosh computer JAZ disk and sent to the Midwest of the United States to be electronically put on a big press, and Mac-boom-done! The magazine is printed.

It is a happy day here because Bodhinathaswami and Sivanadiyar Nilakantha have returned from a two-month tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius and India. They had a wonderful time. We greeted them warmly, with drums rolling, bringing them right into the core of our monastery, which is our Kadavul Hindu Temple.

A lot of visitors have been coming lately, almost every day. We see beautiful families from India, who live in the United States. Doctors, financiers, many very important people on temple management boards. We have another nice e-mail from New Zealand.

In New Zealand, we formed a group about four years ago to build a Hindu Temple. Well now, four years later they say in their e-mail, "Yes, we are ready to build a Hindu Temple and you promised to send us Lord Ganesha to install". I wrote to them today again on e-mail and said, "We are ready to send you Lord Ganesha," and we ordered it from India. Five-hundred pound, beautifully carved icon of the deity, Ganesha, the Lord of Dharma.

A nice interview today with Kauai Television, who tell me they want to interview me in a talk show. I said, "Yes".

They said, "Well, we will write down all the questions and you can figure out all of your answers."

I said, "I'm used to doing TV interviews, just give me the questions. Whatever they are, I'll give you the answers".

So we had a nice talk. Showed them the beautiful 51-acre monastery.

Well now, Halloween has come and gone. Did you get your windows broken? Did those little devils do something to you that they shouldn't have? Why are we training the children to be criminals? Extortionists? Plunderers?

Give it some thought, talk to your friends. Be a missionary for righteousness. This is outside of religion. You don't have to be religious or even know of a religion to know what is right and what is wrong. Is it right for children to be taught to destroy people's property? To extort money or candy from them at such a young age? It is not.

All of you who are out there, of the 'New Age', you have some work to do with the young people. You have to be an example for the young people. Otherwise, there is no New Age. Everything will go on in the old age until you make a difference. You can make a difference. You are beautiful souls. Many New Age people are not Hindu people, not Buddhist people. But they take a little bit from each of the religions of the world. Many have come to visit us to see our 700- hundred pound, perfectly formed, multi-million year old crystal. They look at it in awe, but that's not enough.

You must return and make a difference in your community. Make a difference in your community. Talk to everyone about Halloween and what it teaches the children. Make observations and carry forward what is right. Don't carry what's wrong, forward.

I don't know how I got on that subject again! We have been editing, word after word after word, of the new entries of 'Merging With Siva', the new book that is coming out the early part of 1999. It is 'Merging with Siva', 1400 pages. We have been going over all of the new entries of the Glossary, meticulously. So, I really didn't plan what to say to each and every one of you. But again, I don't think we can be too lenient in our thoughts of how children are trained in today's world, if we are going to expect a better world tomorrow.

Well, I'll be seeing you tomorrow, and the next day. We have a retreat for two days to reflect on what we did and what we are going to do. Love and blessings to each and every one of you in Cyberspace. We are very happy you visited the Ashram today.