A soft rain pummeled the ashram this morning,

giving our ten thousand species of plants a

good, needed soaking. After the morning meditation

Gurudeva sat with the Saiva Swami Sangam, his

initiated renunciates, and together they called

the two swamis of our order who are living in

the country of Mauritius where we have a second

monastery. In this way, each week on Sun 4 the entire

Order sits together, Gurudeva and his 14 swamis.

A second spirit of the day is service to others, and this is given many expressions today. First, it's our weekly Guest Day, and visitors came at 9 for a two-hour tour of the temple and grounds. Second, the monks are doing an unusual amount of work for the people of our Garden Island. Gurudeva and Sannyasin Arumugaswami went to the salt-making demonstration sponsored by the Mayor's office and the Kauai Museum. [Photo is of Sadhaka Thondunatha and Sannyasi Skandanathaswami getting ready to go to the Coconut Festival this morning]


In just the past few hours we designed some new bumper stickers that promote the vision of a one shared future here, we designed a three by six foot banner for the Future Fair on October 10th, we did some special color work for the county's application to Washington DC for $40 million in special funds to empower the island to be its best... the color work was an adaptation of some wonderful photos we prepared for the magazine, and will be the only splash of beauty in a long, detailed government-style application, showing some of the charms of Kauai. [Photo is of Sadhaka Thondunatha, Yogi Yuganatha and Tyagi Saravananathaswami, also working on the Coconut Festival details. they are in the kitchen, where the monks just made three varieties of chutney to let island people enjoy a taste of India and Sri Lanka.]
Thirdly, we participated today in a once a year Coconut Festival! Yes, a whole day given just to coconuts, their use and care and such. The monks of course know a lot about coconuts, derived from years in Sri Lanka and India, so we are taking chutneys, showing how to weave the fronds, how to husk and crack, and more. WeÕll probably have stories of this later in the day for TAKA. [That's our Managing editor at his desk this morning, with our three kittens taking a nap after a few hours of energetic explorations]