"To have real eyes, that's what it means to realize."

Gurudeva

Some wonderful guests from Fairfax, Vvirginia joined Gurudeva in the Mahogany Room this morning. That’s Mr. and Mrs. Ravi Sathyanarayana and son Shankar. Welcome to Kauai!

Sun 2 today, and it's JAZ WEEK. Not that we are playing piano. We're not. Jaz is the name of a data storage technology we use for the magazine, and the last week of each month the publications team is scurrying to complete the magazine. Photos, text, editing, layout, design, ads, editorials and all, coming together from around the globe. So if you call in the next four days or soand our phone is busy, that's probably the reason.

Today Gurudeva's audio talk today focuses on drugs, the last of a series he has done on TAKA to try to help us all understand the Hindu traditional view. Some questions have been coming in and he invites you to submit your own questions for him to address. Send any and all questions you want him to speak about to: kumar@hindu.org

Yogi Taopdhana and Natyam Thondunatha, our dynamic duo, left about eight this morning for California. They will be seeking support for the building of the Iraivan Temple from good souls in California. Thanks to Deva Katir for helping them to the airport.

The magazine team interviewed the writer of the new movie starring robin Williams, What Dreams May Come. It's about life after death, and it takes a very Hindu point of view. it speaks of the naraka loka (not by name of course), and it carefully discusses how our consciousness at the time of death determines the experiences following death, and also our next birth. Yes, it shows reincarnation. So, we are doing an article on the movie and it was great talking with Mr. Richard Matheson. He is quite a mystic and it was amazing to see a movie with so much talent, money and actor horsepower speaking the ancient views to the world, so beautifully too. See it if you can. End of today's movie review.

Thondunatha buttoning up for California.

It came! Yes, an 8-man outrigger canoe came ashore on Kauai today, carrying the new ISLAND TEMPLE magazines, and the December issue of Hinduism Today. Both are drop-dead beautiful. for many years we have wanted to tell the story of the building of Iraivan Temple and finally we did it. We will send a free copy to anyone who visits the TAKA page today and asks for it. Just send your address to hara@hindu.org. You will love it, lots of images of the village we built in India, timeline of the progress of the temple over the years, and Wonderments! We thank all the good friends and supporters on the island who advertised generously in the magazine to make it possible to produce.

The second printing of Dancing with Siva arrived today. Here Palaniswami holds up the old one on his left, and the new one on his rigth. There are some really nice improvements to the cover and quality of the hundreds of graphics inside the world’s best hindu Catechism.

Gurudeva was asked about how we should relate to the parents when they are of another religion. He urged everyone to honor our parents as the first Gurus, and to show them this by attending their synagogue or church for special celebrations, saying this is proper and fully in the spirit of tolerance Hinduism proclaims. Of course, we don't want to go weekly, saving that for the temples.

The monks placed the new book next to some classic texts on Indian spirituality and noticed there was a difference. Hmmm! Hinduism’s modern voice has all the great profundity, and color in the bargain!

We said aloha to Nitya and amala Nadesan today. They are returning to Northern California after a week on Kauai. Safe journey......Gurudeva spoke a bit of how the new age folks, and those teaching yogas are fully embracing Sanatana Dharma more and more now, making the faith a deep part of their life.