Valli Alahan and her husband Vel are to his left. Today they announced they will sponsor the purchase of a much-needed modular building for the Ganapati Kulam, the publications team that is running out of space. The $12,000 gift will transform our life. The building measures 30 feet by 30 feet, so it will add an abundant space for our printers and computers, desks and light-tables, photo archives and more.

Vel and Valli fly back tomorrow to their home in the Colorado mountains. Safe flight to you both!

Vel, Vel, vetrivel!

It seems these lamps are one of the oldest offerings on the Earth made for the Gods. Let us explain.

Oh, yes. There is a connection to the Pleides. The ancient and first peoples to inhabit Sri Lanka are called the Vedas (a people much like the tribals of Australia, the aborigines). Their stories tell of coming to the Earth from the Pleides, brought here by none other than Lord Murugan Himself, whom they call Katiragama. They say that the place with the same name was the first place Murugan landed when He came to the planet. The Veda peoples still live there in the Lanka jungles today, and are still, after thousands of years, the hereditary priests of this shrine. Villagers say that the six lamps represent the famed star cluster from which human life is said to have its orgins on the Earth.

After the Puja is finished, and assuming God Himself has not eaten the whole thing, the little lamps are offered to worshippers as prasadam, food made holy by the act of offering it to the Lord of All.

Devotees break up the crusty millet with their hands, and eat the lamps. Really! They are delicious. The monks all enjoyed eating these six lamps today at lunch. This is the first time we have ever seen this form of offering. Sweet. Light-giving. Simple. Pure. Delicious.

The couple in the middle from Texas are in financial consultancy, working with corporations to guide their acquisitions and mergers..

David in the middle is a long-time devotee of the great Ammachi from kerals (who we hear is in San Ramon today). David lifes on a farm in Oregon with several other family devotees of the Guru, and they make a most wonderful Chai to support themselves. It's marketed all over America, mixed here too from spices and teas imported from India.

This is a photo of S. Rajam. He is one of India's greatest living artists. Actually, he is even more renowned for his musical compositions, but his art is absolutely marvelous, rare, graceful, and so very INDIAN. He is the man who has illustrated the covers of all of Gurudeva's recent books. Dancing with Siva, Merging with Siva, Weaver's Wisdom, etc. In fact, 165 of his paintings grace the inside of Dancing. He is working for Gurudeva almost full time, still enormously productive at age 87! What an example. He recently told us that only Gurudeva is working effectively to capture the heart of Indian life and spirituality, and he feels the last part of his life has become fulfilled by teaming up with Gurudeva's swamis on the many art projects. Today he is painting new covers for future editions of Tirumantiram, Yogaswami's life, Lemurian Scrolls and more.

Abhinav's edition should be out in about 3 months. Stay tuned. If you speak Tamil, you will love to know that this edition contains not only the best American English translation, but a modern Tamil translation that ANYBODY can understand.

This is a small statue being carved in India. Our goal is to have a large one done, and this is the first step, make some small ones, change them, refine them.

Within a year we should have a large marble statue of the Great Sage on Kauai, plus the sculptor plans to make many reasonably-priced ones for devotees to have in their own home shrines.

This is Mayilvaganam from Kopay, Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He is nearing 90 years of age (and climbed coconut trees to harvest nuts until he was 85!).

Oxford-educated, Tamil literate, he taught the leaders of Lanka their language. He also was present on that noble day in May of 1949 when Gurudeva and he visited Yogaswami's hut and Gurudeva first met Yogaswami!. Yes, he was there, and he speaks of it as though it were yesterday.

We want to acknowledge the amazing work Mayilvaganam has done for Gurudeva and for all lovers of the Tirukural. During the war, he sat in his room on a simple mat, day after day as the bombs roared outside, translating our American English verses back into modern Tamil. Only a man of such skill could have achieved this. Only a man who was told by Yogaswami to study the Kural every day could have achieved this. And achieve it he did.

How can we thank you Mayilvaganam? Perhaps a quote from the Kural will suffice:

We will depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 25th and return to Fort Lauderdale on April 4th and be traveling on Holland America's spectacular, brand new cruise ship, the MS/Volendam. For information contact our wonderful tour agent who will be conducting the Innersearch: Kailash and Indra Dhaksinamurthi of Search Beyond Adventures, Inc. ASAP at
search11@mail.idt.net

Very Important!:
Be sure to include your mailing address and phone number in the body of your message! Kailash will be mailing you information, but if you don't send an address there is nothing he can do.