Today, as we do each week on Sun 4, Gurudeva gathered in the Guru Peedam after the morning meditation with the Saiva Swami Sangam, and we called our two swamis at the monastery in the country of Mauritius, near South Africa. They are doing some amazing things there, which we will share in these pages in the weeks ahead. We heard news of Murugaswami's travels around to the several kulapati families on the island.

He is joined by Yogi Tapodhana, who just visited his native country of Malaaysia for a few weeks and is now visiting our property in mauritius for the first time. He will then go on to India, of which you will hear more soon.

Several visitors joined us today. Ram Arora brought his entire family. His sister, there in the photo in red, is visiting from India. They brought an armload of wonderful chutneys for the monastery, and a loving gift of a box of coins offered at Siva's feet in the temple. The coins are part of a small way the family supports Iraivan Temple. They keep a jar near the cash register in their Indian restaurant in Honolulu and encourage people to leave their small change. Then every few months they visit Kauai, have Satguru Darshan and offer their collected coins to Siva. Such a nice creative way to help Iraivan manifest. That you, Ram and family! We hope you will return often.

Also today three bright-eyed sisters visited. They are from San Diego, friends of Dhamara Shanmuga who works with the blind children near Bangalore where our temple is being carved. They visited briefly with Gurudeva, had a tour of the grounds and felt very sorry for us that we have to live in such a remote and enchanting spot! :)

The monks of the Ganapati Kulam held a small going away party for Yogi Yuganatha who spent a couple of years working with us, and is now moving on to serve in other areas of the monastery. We all acknowledged his many contributions with a few words of praise and good wishes. Thank you, yogi, for your great example of flexibility and capacity, your willingness to help anyone anytime do anything. We will never forget yogi's motto when faced with the many challenges that God and Guru give him: "Give me more!"

Today we received the WONDERFUL art for the gatefold of this month's magazine, shipped from Chennai. It is truly a stunning piece, measuring about 2.5 by 5 feet, it is the Hindu heavens, filled with the planets and their devic influences. Everyone will see it in the November issue, meantime we are scanning it today, in many parts since it's so hugh, and "stitching"it together on the computer.

Our plants from India just went through a wonderful adventure, and Ganesha has released the last of the obstacles. The USDA in Los Angeles opened the three boxes and refused to inspect them because they had no ID tags. Deva Rajan and Palaniswami went to work and after a few calls to Hawaiian USDA people we know, the LA inspectors agreed to do the work and now the plants are heading for a plane for Kauai. What are they, you are wondering? Well, here is the list, with special thanks to Jiva in Bangalore and Deva Rajan in California for making this addition to our collection possible:

NAME OF PLANT QUANTITY

GARDINIA ZANTHOCYMES...........................4
MYRISTICA DACTYLOIDES............................4
SANTHALUM ALBUM.....................................10
TERMINALIA BELLIRICA................................8
PEPPER NIGRAM..........................................10
PLUMERI CUTTINGS.....................................6
SAPOTA (CHIKU) - CRICKET BALL...................10
SAPOTA (CHIKU) - KALIPATTI.........................10
POLYATHIA LONGIFLORIA PENDULA.................60
BAHUNIA BLACKEANA..................................4
AMLA-BANARSI ...........................................150
TERMINALIA ARJUNA....................................10
TERMINALIA CHEBULA (BAHEDA)...................15
BELLARICA MYROBALAN (HARD)....................15
PTEROCARPUS DALBERGIODES.......................10
CHAKRSIA TABULARI....................................15
AGLE MARMALOS (BEL...................................10

As part of our research into astrology in America, we've learned that the first Indian astrologer to come to America was BV Raman in 1959. He was so concerned with maintaining his dietary disciplines that he resolved to live on fruits, raw vegetables, milk and corn flakes through out his stay of several months, rather than to risk taking non-vegetarian food, or even food cooked in the same pans as non-vegetarian items.

Hinduism deadline week is proceeding full spead ahead. Yesterday we working on two pages. One was the Parenting page, which has a very intriguing study showing that corporal punishment leads to a decline in cognitive ability of children. On the other page we have a controversy story regarding the ousting of anti-Hindu scholars from the Indian Council of Historical Research. Reading all about it in the November issue!