Gurudeva spent the morning working with the team in Mauritius, where our monastic staff is changing (more about that in the days ahead). He is also overseeing the many little construction projects that are going on this week here, a glimpse of which lies below.

Gurudeva is also working on his newest book, "How to Become a Hindu," and signing some copies of "Merging with Siva" for some local seekers who came by yesterday and wanted autographed copies of this most mystical of all tomes.

Today we also told Gurudeva about a wonderful soul, Sheila Venkatakrishnan, who listens to Gurudeva's talks and is planning to transcribe them. He said:

"Maybe she can also ask questions. This is very helpful for me in giving concise talks that are meaningful."
So, we would like to encourage everyone who listens to Gurudeva's talks to submit questions..

Title: The Saiva Nayanars, Love of Siva (with Tamil translation)
Category: Good Conduct
Duration: 5 min 3 seconds

MP3 Streaming:

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A detailed index of past inspired talks is available here.

"There is a channel in Florida built for boats to come in where fishermen threw off their small and unwanted catch. The dolphins found this free buffet, a large group of them, now called "urban dolphins" began to hang out there because they loved so much to interact with humans. They really love children and go crazy when little kids get in the water with them, chirping and gathering around the child.

And if a pregnant woman gets in the water, look out, dolphins will come from Mexico! One day I asked a bus load of people about to enter the water if any of the ladies was with child. One young woman said, yes, but you couldn't tell as she was only three weeks pregnant.

But when she got in the water all the dolphins were overjoyed and rushed up to touch her belly to bless the second life within her. You see, with their sonar, they can tell there is second heart beating inside the woman. and to them it is something wonderful." Simply amazing.

For those who have not caught up with the logic of the surcharge (after all, it's only dirt), here is a hint from this month's Iraivan newsletter:

Why Surcharge?

In February the concrete foundation for Iraivan Temple was covered with more than 7,000,000 pounds of dirt! Two large earth-moving machines worked for a week moving on to the 117' by 56' concrete slab the mountain of excavated dirt that had been sitting next to the site since 1995. Now eight foot high mound of Hawaiian red dirt sits on the concrete slab to "surcharge" the foundation for a minimum of six months . This is to insure that no ground settlement occurs after the temple is erected. If even one-eighth of an inch of settlement occurred, the granite beams would crack. By surcharging beforehand, any settlement in the ground that is going to happen because of the weight of the temple will occur before the stones are placed on the foundation. There are nine monitoring poles attached to the concrete that rise above the dirt which are used as survey markers to allow the settlement to be accurately recorded on a weekly basis.

Today we also received a most wonderful offer from Sheela Venkatakrishnan, a TAKA visitor who loves the daily messages and offers to transcribe them each day for us! Here is Sheela's contribution to the cause of getting Gurudeva's talks into text form:

Feb 15, 2000 Title: Why all the Y2K Commotion? (with Tamil translation) Category: Change and Transformation Duration: 4min. 41 seconds A question came in about "the Millennium, the Y2K scare and what was it all about anyway? Nothing seems to have happened." Well at this time on the planet, everyone is expecting the worst. And, to have a scare gets everyone's adrenalin working really fast. And then, the big day came and what a relief .. nothing much happened! Lets count the benefits of this very expensive party. Money was distributed worldwide. People got their hopes up, for their savior to come. And, as we know the spirits of God and the Gods, and the great sages and prophets would catch that Spirit and we are sure that people of all religions had a spiritual experience in their own way.

Sadhaka Jivananda, Brahmachari Devasiva and Skandanathaswami.

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THANK YOU, GURUDEVA!

For those who have been touched spiritually by Gurudeva's work, his books, his guidance, his inspired life and example and even his website, the "Thank You, Gurudeva Fund" has been established within Hindu Heritage Endowment.

Proceeds from this fund are forever, not a one-time gift, so gifts to this fund have an eternal gratitude built into them. They live on, in perpetuity.

Each month Gurudeva receives the income from the fund, to be used at his own discretion to promote his work and mission around the globe. He loves this, for he knows that it comes from all the good souls who have met him and studied with him, or traveled or just talked with him, over the years. A contribution to this fund is tax-deductible.

GURUDEVA'S MANY CYBERTALKS ARE NOW ONLINE

All of Gurudeva's Cybertalks are now on this site at:

/audio/

You will find here over 200 Inspired Talks, thoughtfully organized, with thorough text descriptions (yes, they are searchable!) so you can find the subjects that are of deepest interest to you. We encourage everyone to go to the page, bookmark it and visit now and again to listed to the wisdom of our beloved Satguru. Wow! What a grand addition to our website this is! Thanks to the many talented hands that made this possible.

Some cancellations have happened and suddenly we have some space available on the ship! But not too much! So please do call us soon, if you have a yen to travel inside and outside you.

Also, there will be another Innersearch announced for later this year, tentatively scheduled for New Zealand (where, surprise, Hinduism is the fastest growing religion in the country!) or to Europe, where Gurudeva has started several important temple in the last two decades.