Our two traveling monks concluded their third day at the annual Hindu Mandir Executives Conference (HMEC), the seventh that the monastery has attended. This is certainly one of the most effective of all Hindu cooperative initiatives in America. They work to strengthen the mandirs (temples) and all who worship, study and participate. There were some 200 temples represented in the room.
 
Three other swamis were present and gave great presentations (we noticed that the swamis always spoke of higher-chakra matters): Swami Paramananda of New York's BSS center, Swami Aksharananda from Guyana, Swami Pratyagbodhananda of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Pennsylvania  and Swami Nikhilananda from the Radha Mahadev Dham in Austin, Texas.
 
The theme this year was youth and how best to serve and nurture them and keep them on the dharmic path. But lots of discussions around seva and communication, teacher training and community outreach programs. Many of the leaders present already use the Himalayan Academy educational resources and all present got a copy, thanks to Shankar Mallampallai and his family. Shankar drove six hours from Florida to spend the three days with us and help with needed coordination.
 
After the final group photo was taken, the rush began. One after another came up to the monks from Hawaii, with praise, questions, suggestions (down to editing changes on our history lessons!), requests for travel details to get to Kauai and more. A small group of Bhutanese came forward for photos and to ask how they might better integrate their community of 85,000 into the fabric of American life better, sharing stories of the conversion pressures they are facing as other faiths offer rent and food, provided they convert. It took us over an hour to get from the photo to our room. Off next to Tucson, Arizona....

The other day was Ashram Sadhana Day in the monastery. Conceived by Gurudeva decades ago, it's a monthly day during which the mathavasi spend their energies cleaning various parts of our home.

One of our resident guest task forcers, Dean Drulius, took some pictures of his cleaning efforts. Enjoy.

Aran Sendan conducted the tour today. Aside from this group of bright souls an enthusiastic boatload of Hindus also arrived from a Carnival Cruise shipped docked for a day on Kauai. They came for the puja, joyfully clapping North Indian style after the main arati. Later in the morning then the cruise ship crew of Tamil, Balinese and assorted young cruiseline employees from various Indian states also dropped by for darshan. Our center has a world-wide reputation now among the cruise ship crowd.