Acharya Arumuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jayanatha On the Road

Our California team arrived Los Angles a few days ago. The plane landed in the late evening, and they quickly proceeded to a place to stay the night in the giant city. As many know, the weather has brought rain, wind and even a small tornado (fairly close to where our monks were staying) to this usually dusty, concrete jungle. The next day our monk drove along the 70mph freeways for hours, darting in and out of traffic, blinded by the constant mist which sprayed from beneath every vehicle on the flooded speedways. They had several meetings with university professors to discuss the text book issue which we now face, and to get some insight for the upcoming structural quality commission which the monks will be attending, and where our list of recommended edits to the California textbook narrative will come up for review. You can view the proposed document here. That evening the team met with several parents and school children to discuss the issue and get some firsthand accounts of the 6th and 7th grade presentation of Hinduism. That was followed by a short Satsang at the home of Mayuran and Amanda Muttulingam.

Our monks left LA the following morning at 6am and made their way up the interstate to Fremont, California. The two worked their way up the the grapevine, experiencing miles and miles of flatland, replete with, you guessed it, grapevines, but also citrus fruits, almonds, and many other fields of trees which would actually be producing fruit if they had water with which to do it. in an odd juxtaposition to the dead, brown trees, the ground had received a few days of heavy rain allowing for the grass throughout the fields to glow bright green in the morning sun. A thick fog played over most of i-5 as the morning sun evaporated the plentiful groundwater.

The two travelers had been invited to attend the Chinmaya Mission events in Fremont, San Jose and San Ramon. Acharya Aramuganathaswami gave his talk to parents at each group, explaining the issue with the current texts book standards, giving ideas as to how parents can participate, and getting feedback and personal testimony from parents about their child's education. Today is the final of these three events in San Jose.

Arumuganathaswami gives his presentation to parents and young students in LA

He explained the current textbook issues, including how they are structured and how their presentation of Hinduism is inaccurate

Swami then asked for testimony from about personal experiences related to the current books being used in classes

There was some interesting and also slight unsettling stories from students about how Hinduism was presented in their classes

Jayanatha snaps this quick image of the recent burnt down construction project in LA which recently made headlines as it melted nearby street signs

The monk got up before dawn to drive out of LA, just missing the intense traffic

on to the open road, goodbye Los Angeles!

fields and fields of crops

These trees looks like they could use some more water

A tumbleweed!

monks in a car! it was a long drive up to the Bay Area

The first Chinmaya Mission event in Fremont. This was the monk\

s first stop off the freeway'

Tushar of Chinmaya Mission, introduces the monks, their reason for coming, and also the Hindu History textbook

Swami gives a similar talk as the one he gave in LA.

The parents were very receptive and gave some good feedback about their own experiences

One woman explained that years ago, when her son came home from class, he said that he wanted to convert to Buddhism. In the textbooks the presentation of religions is very unbalanced.

At the second Chinmaya event in San Ramon

After the children left for their other classes, Swami gave his presentation to the parents.

Again, it was very well received, and many parents felt inspired to help in anyway they could, to effect change in the teaching of Hinduism in public schools

Some more good testimony from students. This young man had objected to what his teacher was teaching, so the teacher asked him to teach the section about Hinduism himself

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