INSPIRED BY GURUDEVA'S PUBLICATIONS!
This message is really for Gurudeva and all of you at Kauai Aadheenam. I was absolutely thrilled to discover your new site. I do not have a PC at home, so my use of the Internet is restricted to what time I can spare at work (the library at the University of Connecticut). This is fine because I can begin my work day with you--and it really really does put me in a better frame of mind after having darshan and the lesson of day--even though I usually commute in a van pool and spend the time reading (just finishing the LEMURIAN SCROLLS now--wonderful document!) and trying to meditate. Thank you so very much for your efforts to keep Hinduism a living meaningful way of life to those who strive to follow its paths to our true Selves. I have been a reader of your publications since first coming in contact with them in 1995, a time when I was desperately searching for a new, more comprehensive philosophy. My letter to you should be in your files. I have also been studying related works on Hinduism by other authors-- mostly contacts through HINDUISM TODAY. I am currently trying to finish up Dr. Frawley's course in Vedic astrology, and I have used your online resources link to enroll in a correspondence course in Sanskrit (or Samskrit, as they spell it). Additionally, I am a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship and am studying the works of Paramahansa Yogananda. The postcards at the back of the LEMURIAN SCROLLS invite one to request an invitation to study THE MASTER COURSE by correspondence with Gurudeva --may I please request this invitation now? Thank you ever so much again and congratulations on many jobs well done!

ENCYCLOPEDIA ON CD BANNED
Copyright 1998 United Press International.
NEW DELHI, India, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Indian authorities have banned imports and sale of the CD version of Encyclopedia Britannica, saying its map of the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir is incorrect. However, the ban will not affect the printed version of the encyclopedia. The disputed Kashmir state is divided between India and Pakistan after they became independent 51 years ago. Both nations claim the region and have fought two wars because of the dispute.

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
Most of us do not know that our genetic ancestors i.e. the ancestors of the people of modern day countries like India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh had made spectacular advances in many fields of science and technology. We have forgotten that But in antiquity when with the exception of Greece and Rome, the west constituted the under-developed world, India had attained a high level of material culture which was contemporaneous with the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Up to the end of the first millennium CE (Common Era), ancient India was way ahead of the developed countries of today. In this series of posting we shall examine the evidence to support the claim of the advances made in the past to spur the us the genetic descendants of the countries of South-Asia to equal and excel the advances made by their genetic ancestors. We continue our discussion with the field of Chemistry and one application area of the making of dyes and pigments.
The making of dyes and pigments was one area where the knowledge of chemistry was applied in India since ancient times This legacy finds proof in the names for some dyes which are derived from the word India, like 'Indigo' and the Sankrit roots of some other dyes like Aniline from the Arabic term Al-nil which is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit word 'Neelam'. Even the term lac comes from the Sanskirt term 'Laksham'.
For more detailed information on various ancient dyes and pigments go to:
http://india.CoolAtlanta.com/GreatPages/sudheer

TITANIC STAR AND BINDIS
KATE Winslet has fallen in love with the bindi - the 'third eye' religious mark worn by Hindu women. The star of Titanic displayed the jewelled blue head spot - pasted on with eyelash glue - after arriving back from India where she was preparing for her latest film, Holy Smoke, in which she plays a girl who falls in love with a cult leader. But whereas in India the bindi signifies marriage, Kate, 22, insists she and her boyfriend, assistant film director Jim Threapleton, 24 , have no plans to tie the knot. 'It really is just because I like bindis,' she said. 'They look so pretty.'

MED SCHOOLS TEACH ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
By The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- Driven by changing attitudes among patients, nearly two-thirds of U.S. medical schools now teach future doctors about alternative therapies, including chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal remedies and mind-body medicine, a survey found. The survey of the nation's 125 medical schools found that 75 of the 117 responding schools offered elective courses in alternative medicine or included those topics in required courses. Less than two years before, an American Medical Association poll of the same schools found that only 46 were teaching such topics. "There has been sort of a sea change," said Dr. David Spiegel, medical director of the Complementary Medicine Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center. "Traditional doctors are seeing that people are voting with their feet and with their pocketbooks." The survey, conducted last fall, was published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. With millions of Americans visiting alternative practitioners yearly, educators whose job is to prepare doctors of the future have no choice but to "respond to this relentless challenge to evolve," researchers said. "That's an extraordinary rise for a very traditional and conservative area," said lead author Miriam S. Wetzel, a curriculum coordinator at Harvard Medical School. "Now, these things are being taught in Western medical schools, not necessarily the techniques of how to do them, but certainly about them." A 1993 survey suggested that Americans spent $14 billion yearly on alternative care, much of it out of their own pockets. Health insurers in the past have refused to pay for alternative therapies, but that also is changing as insurers realize they can save money. For example, unconventional treatment might call for exercise or chiropractic or acupuncture for back pain, while the traditional approach might be surgery.

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