A strong, tropical rainstorm swept the island last night, and this morning the Wailua River is running high, and has turned color, changing from its usual emerald green to a cafe latte chocolate color.

The morning Sun One homa was powerful as all the island members sat around the fire with Gurudeva and the monks, worshipping for the benefit of humanity. Gurudeva gave a rousing Upadesha after the ceremony. He spoke of the "kutumba," the family unit, and of the sacrifice that is needed to set aside our own wants and to think of others, to think of serving the whole, of making the whole stronger by our contributions, active and intelligent. He wants the families to continue to grow closer and closer each day.

This morning a wonderful, bright-eyed, deep-souled couple from Houston, Texas, appeared at the temple doors. That's their photo at the top of this page. He is Renga Ray Rajan and his wife is Komul. We wish you a safe journey back to the Lone Star State and hope you will both come back to Kauai when you have more time to see the many hidden corners of the monastery.

Each day, from around the globe, we receive LOTS of e-mail, far more than we can ever respond to. Yesterday, one sivathondar who assists with our site mentioned that of the over 4,000 email announcements sent out regarding "Today at Kauai Aadheenam" about a thousand had "bounced", meaning could not get through, but 3,000 more did get through, and this had brought a surge of responses. There have been about 1,700 accesses to these pages so far and the team is working hard to cope with the flood of digital visitors. Here is a typical letter, received from South India today:

"Dear Brothers and Sisters at Hinduism Today Online,
In a surge of bhakthi, I decided to do a yahoo search today on "Hinduism". I found a plethora of wonderful material, especially at your wonderful site. My family used to subscribe to Hinduism Today in the U.S., till I left for college. Some of my spirtitually devout Hindu friends also mentioned that they also received, and continue to receive Hinduism Today. My parents recently aided me in my initiation into my second birth by performing my Upanayana ceremony. Since it is my dharma to learn the Vedas, support my community, learn as much as I can and do good for the world, I figure reading Hinduism Today Online will tremenodously help. Currently, I am finishing my degree in medicine (MBBS) in Chennai, (formerly known as Madras) India. Is there a major difference between Hinduism Today the paper publication and the online journal? If I subscribed, could you send it to my address in Chennai? What are the associated costs of doing so? Is it enough to As soon as I return to the U.S. (which is my home), I would like to subscribe to the paper edition, regardless. Though I do not have time now, in the next one year I will have time to write articles based on firm research here. Would you accept an article for publication provided that it was well researched, unbiased, and cogent in as related to other articles in Hinduism Today?? I look forward to seeing a response."

Today a shipment of plants arrived in California from Bangalore India. Jiva Rajasankara has worked hard to collect some very special fruit trees, and medicinal trees, and some ornamentals from around India, and they are being picked up today by the Deva Rajan family to be forwarded to Kauai soon. We hope they pass the tough Hawaii agricultural inspectors.

This morning as the Hinduism Today editorial team met and coordinated the six days left to complete the November issue of the magazine, we found out that the mailman failed yesterday to open our second mailbox, leaving a VERY IMPORTANT package that was destined for New York to be scanned. What to do? Today is Sunday, no mail! Panic? Never. We thought for a moment and realized that we now have a publication-quality mega-pixel digital camera. So we took it, and it will be the first large digital photo in our magazine. Saved this time by Dr. Sundar's strategic vision of the tools that are needed to produce a world-class publication.