And what a great environment for a young person to grow up in, so pure and close to nature. Their son, young Tiru was born into Saiva Siddhanta Church and grew up in North Dakokta, home schooled by his own mother. Thanks to the internet he and his family are as close to us as any of the devotees in California or Malaysian urban centers.

Tiru has become quite a computer wizard at the young age of twelve.

His mother, Nilima, has been doing seva for Hinduism Today for many years now, acting as an "intelligent" filter for the thousands of emails that are sent to the letters@hindu.org to the editors of Hinduism Today, answering questions, pointing people to resources and trashing the inevitable junk mail and spam mail. Nilima! Thank you!

Tiru has joined his mother in this cyberseva recently by listening to Gurudeva's Upadesha's categorizing the talks and helping to build the index of SatGuru Speaks talks that you now find at Cybertalks Thank you Tiru! And so do all the people out there around the world who are listening to the talks!

Nilima also sews clothes for Gurudeva and socks for the monks. They have a great garden and send us super, wonderful and some super hot, chili peppers that we can't grow here.

And thanks to Dad, Kulapati Adi Srikantha, the head of the house who has made all this possible for his family! Adi was a student of Gurudeva's when he was young and a professional marathon runner and amazed people as a vegetarian who raced with the best. Later he joined the navy and after serving there for sometime came over to civilian life by coming first to Gurudeva's monasteries to serve on Task Force from time to time. Adi was amazing. . .we remember when he would make pancakes for the whole monastery, prepare lunch and have the entire kitchen totally cleaned, spotless by 11:00 AM, with an hour to spare! Adi finally got married to Nilima, another one of Gurudeva's devotees who had also been with Gurudeva since her teenage years and together they decided to "rough it," and built a Saivite Hindu home for themselves in the lovely spaces of North Dakota. . .an amazing tale.

Dr. Shanmugasundaram, 87 years of age, passed away at 4:35 a.m. on Saturday morning January 28th. He had arisen to perform his daily morning puja, and felt chest pains, and died quickly and peacefully in his son's home.

Dr Shan, as he was affectionately known, was a retired minister of Saiva Siddhanta Church, and had devoted all of his life to Sivathondu, first under Yogaswami's direction, and later under Gurudeva's direction.

In 1956 Singhalese ethnic riots he collected clothes and supplies for distribution to affected citizens. In Baticaloa, Tiruketeswaran Temple was in disrepair, in 1962 he was instrumental in raising money to rebuild the temple.

In the late 1950's he helped his brother, Senator Nadesan, build the Hindu College, which is the only Hindu school for boys in Colombo. Earlier in his life, he was a devotee of Yogaswami of Jaffna. Every month during his professional life he took the 9-hour train ride from Colombo to Jaffna to see Yogaswami.

In the last few days of Yogaswami's life, he wouldn't allow anyone to see him. But he allowed Shanmugasundaram to stay all night at his bedside, and he always said later that was the most important day in his life, taking care of Yogaswami in 1964.

In the 1983 ethnic riots in Colombo his house was burned down by Singhalese mobs, and his mother died during the riots. Since that time he lived with his son, Ranjan, in Colombo. Young men in the Tamil community came to him whenever they wanted blessings for school final exam, or needed help with an English speech or assignment.

In the early 1980's he published a magazine, Sivaneri, promulgating Yogaswami's life and work. Starting in the 70's he gave talks about Hinduism on Radio Ceylon each week.

In the late 70's Gurudeva sent Dr Shan to Mauritius to inspire the Tamils there. He was a trustee of the Alaveddy Ashram. He is survived by his wife, five children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandhildren. * * *

Pundit says: "I get my mathematical abilities from Lord Ganesha and my spiritual insights for helping my clients from Lord Muruga." He likes to stand and have long conversations with the Deities in the temple.

"If you want to get to know me you first have to get to know my friends, Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga. On the path of spiritual unfoldment, bhakti, devotion, love of God, is basic, fundamental. So, at the beginning you first need to establish a personal relationship with Lord Ganesha, only then can you proceed on the path."

Pictured here is a poster made by Pundit Navaratnam, featuring his beloved Lord Muruga, Yogaswmai and Satguru Sivaya Subramuniayswami, inviting interested persions to call him.

Click here to sign the Guestbook and we will send you a free issue of our global full-color bi-monthly magazine, Hinduism Today.

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.