Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Dandapani departed for Arizona this morning for a short 5 day mission.

At home today it was "Ashram Sadhana Day" at the Aadheenam.

The Patel family arrived from California today in absolute respect to the request of their 98 year old family Patriach, Chunibhai Patel. It was one of his greatest wishes to visit the Iraivan Temple before he left his physical body said his son Dr. Jitendra Patel. With him are his sons Viju, Jitendra, and Dhiresh and their wives, Shraddha, Sneh, Bharti, and Hardika.

Dr. Jitendra Patel and his wife had visited the Iraivan Temple just two years ago and plan to pilgrimage here again. They remarked upon the exquisite beauty and spirituality of this sacred place and also noted the remarkable progress of the temple building since their last visit.

Inspired by the release of Twelve Shum Meditations, and with blessings from Bodhinatha, Kulapati Easan Katir recently concluded a 12-week course based on the twelve meditations. Participants were ( clockwise ) Arutselvan Natarajan, Varadan Lien, Tandava Maheshwaran, Rajeshwaree Maheshwaran, Sabita Kondle, and Dr. Venu Kondle. Students requested further classes to learn more, and appreciated the purity of Shum.

Rishi Thondunathan and Dayavati Murugan send this report from Lake Tahoe, California:

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Photo: Gurudeva's childhood home in the forest (from birth until age 6)

One of my life-long dreams was to visit Gurudeva's childhood home at Fallen Leaf Lake, near Lake Tahoe, California.

On May 9, 2008 this dream was fulfilled when I flew to Sacramento, CA and was driven to Fallen Leaf Lake by Dayavati Murugan.

In recalling Gurudeva's stories about his childhood, and his parents involvement with Stanford University, we were guided to research the Fallen Leaf Lake property owned by the University. When we arrived at Fallen Leaf Lake Road, off Highway 89 in Lake Tahoe, we drove for about 30 minutes on a beautiful, narrow winding road until we reached the lake, then along the lake until reaching the current facility, Stanford Sierra Conference Center. We had called ahead the day before requesting permission to visit the property and were invited to tour the property and join the staff for lunch. The Conference Center Director, Mr. Dave Bennett, took time to talk with us and suggested that we contact Mr. Bill Cravens who's family owned the property before it was sold to Stanford University in 1958.

Photo: View from Gurudeva's home overlooking the lake

The next day we were able to contact Mr. Cravens, who graciously invited us to his home overlooking the lake, spending two hours "talking story" with us about his childhood memories knowing Gurudeva. Even at 80 years old, Mr. Cravens remembered dates, names and places like they happened yesterday. A very sweet story was a time when Mr. Cravens got really mad at Gurudeva and tried to have a fist-fight with him and Gurudeva just kept him at arms length gently talking him out of his anger.

Photo: Chatting with Mr. Bill Cravens

Mr. Cravens was able to show us the house that Gurudeva and his family lived in from the time of his birth until about 5 or 6 years old. This well maintained house is now a part of the Conference Center and called "Cherry House". When it was time for Gurudeva to attend school his family moved out of the lake property to a home on the main road about 5 miles from the lake. That house and school is now a shopping center parking lot. Mr. Cravens also remembered Gracie Burroughs, the woman who first introduced Gurudeva to dance and Indian culture. Her house and dance school was destroyed by an avalanche in the 1950's. Ms. Burroughs seemed to be well loved by all the children living at Fallen Leaf Lakeámany of them, including Gurudeva, taking dancing lessons at her Fallen Leaf Lake Dance School. A number of the girls who took dancing lessons at the same time as Gurudeva proudly followed his career with the San Francisco Ballet and New York musicals.

Photo: Chapel at Fallen Leaf Lake

Mr. Cravens showed us the little St. Francis Chapel that was used in the old days as a non-denominational church with visiting clergy from all over the world performing Sunday services while visiting the old Fallen Leaf Lodge (now the Stanford Sierra Conference Center). Many very famous artists (writers, painters, singers, poets) either worked for or visited the old Fallen Leaf Lodge when Gurudeva was a child. One of the most notable was author, John Steinbeck who as a young man, worked for a time with Gurudeva's father. There was quite a lot of eclectic and Eastern influence at the lodge during this period of time as all the kitchen staff were Asians, and in addition to Gracie Burroughs' Indian influence, there was another lake resident, Mrs. Quinn, who had also spent many years in Indiaáall of which possibly contributed to Gurudeva's interest in Eastern philosophy at an early age

Photo: Dayavati Murugan at Fallen Leaf Lake

After we departed Mr. Craven's home we went back and re-traced all the areas where Gurudeva lived and frolicked as a child. As peaceful vibrations bounced off the sweet smelling cedar trees and brisk lake breezeáwe felt Gurudeva's loving presence filling our hearts.

This journey has fulfilled my life-long dream of visiting Gurudeva's childhood home. My boundless gratitude to my beloved Gurudeva for inwardly guiding me to the right people and places to help me fulfill this dream, and a special thanks to Dayavati Murugan for patiently driving me around all the narrow roads and trying her best to abide by my challenging requests.

Jai Gurudeva! As you say, Gurudeva, life is meant to be lived joyously! It was truly a joy visiting your childhood home.

Amma Debora, from Brasil, took a walk through the monastery gardens this morning, and came upon our meditation cave.

Palaniswami was her guide through the jungle. Here is reveals "Siam," a rare Torch Ginger from Bangkok. A collector paid $10,000 for this plant, and gave the monastery a copy on his way back from Thailand in the 1980s. It has hundreds of red torch flowers each season.

Amma is in awe standing near the Alocasia robusta, the Giant Elephant Ear.

She had never seen the Heilani Torch Ginger.

It's a gem.

Back in the publications building, arrangements were made for Amma Debora to Skype with Amma Vicki in Seattle.

It was an animated conversation, two mothers with sons in the monastery talking story about what that means and sharing their experiences.

Amma Vicki has much wisdom to share.

They have been corresponding by e-mail, and this was their first video conference.

Down the long trail to the river.

Through the bananas, which she notes are also growing in her home in Brasil.

Amma loves the running water that is everywhere and asks if we have natural springs. We don't.

Nani Kaua Falls.

Palaniswami shows her a fresh cluster of Black Pepper, which grows on a vine. This will be dried and ground for the monk salads.

She grabs a handful of Rudraksha, the Blue Marbles sacred to Siva.

The tour ends at the Lotus Pond, where our first bud of the year has appeared.