For those interested the the future of Virtual Reality and Augmented reality, here is a delightful Ganesha done by 3D artist Francesco Coldesina. You can click and drag this model to move around or scroll to zoom. If you have a VR headset you can click the little headset icon in the bottom-right to view in VR. Models like this can be scanned from real objects and projected into 3D space. Currently this method is being employed to reconstruct and archive some of the world’s most precious works of historical art and architecture in 3D.

Kauai's Hindu Monastery has as a principal mission bringing seekers onto the Great Path, guiding them as they unfold and providing the tools for continuing evolution as life looms, to be faced.

The website is the instrumental cause of this mission, and its reach is significant. We Googled the single word Hinduism this morning, to find our site #2 in the world, just behind Wikipedia. Not bad, especially with such giant challengers!

In New Delhi last year we learned that india is one of the world's most active online communities, more than a million on Facebook and 20 million tweeting. Since that nation has one of the youngest populations (average age is 29), there is immense potential for young Hindus to begin discovering their faith and their traditions online. It's already happening.

With that, today we take joy in announcing the beginning of our 2016 Digital Dharma Drive, which will last for 60 days. Wish us luck! Or better yet.....

Here is the editors' appeal in full that all may understand the need and the goal.

November, 2016

For nearly thirty years Gurudeva and a small team of monks met each day between 3 and 6 or 7pm. He called it "the editing team" and loved to work near the ocean with the whales and green turtles just offshore. They would drive down each afternoon, park a little Rialto recreational vehicle (specially outfitted for editing with computers) near the water's edge and work on what was to become his life's legacy of writings. It was a self-imposed appointment he rarely missed, and one he gave full focus to, going over every word, every phrase of every publication himself, often dozens of times before he would say to the monks. "That's good."

Though raised in an era of chemically processed film, hand-set type and sheet-fed presses, Gurudeva easily embraced technological changes. One afternoon in 1984, though he had never seen or even heard of a Macintosh, he encountered one in a small Apple store in Kapaa. After playing with MacPaint and MacWrite for fifteen minutes, he walked out with a Macintosh 128K under his arm. Later, when the Internet swept up on Kauai's shores in 1997, he urged the monks to begin a daily blog of monastery events, and "Today at Kauai Aadheenam" was born (issued almost daily since that day).

Gurudeva would love where we have come today. He would love the ease with which the books are available, at no cost, to everyone who owns a mobile device anywhere in the world. He would love the lack of massive investment costs that were traditionally required for major books to be put on the presses, tens of thousands of dollars. Then there are the inventory costs, the shipping, the returns. All of that has been rendered unnecessary in the age of digital publishing. In our case, we are doing both, printed editions of the magazine, for instance, and then digital editions based on the elegantly designed PDF pages. The best of both worlds. And he would often say, with smile, "Get the best and forget the rest."

Gurudeva would love that we don't have to charge struggling Hindu students for the spiritual teachings, but can make them available for free. In the last decade our resource-building efforts have shifted massively toward the web, following the fast-evolving world of communications and publishing. It takes a deft team to gather and sculpt the needed tools and stories for Hinduism Today and our Web resources. Creating and sharing an articulate and graphically elegant repository of Hinduism is neither easy nor without costs. Hindu youth are learning their spiritual ABCs online, and millions of seekers are discovering Hinduism digitally. What they encounter should be thoughtful, lucid, elegant and authentic. That's what compels our annual fundraising campaign. It's a chance for you to help us to help explain and share Hinduism globally.

Yes, we could meet our costs by charging for the online books and magazine, but we are determined not to do that. We ourselves are seldom motivated to pay for online information. We like it when needed information is available without cost. But free to the world is not free to us. We have significant costs in running our websites. The needs are modest, but they are real.

Among those needs has been a work space conducive to creative thinking and collaboration. For four decades the publishing team worked in a dim space, not exactly a hovel, but not much to inspire, either. The marvelous renovation of the Media Studio has changed the team's environment dramatically, and part of this year's contributions will help pay for this costly transformation into a "temple of the mind" worthy to be the headquarters of Hinduism Today and Himalayan Academy Publications.

In order to provide information without charging for downloads, without showing advertisements on our sites, without commercializing our mission, we turn to you for help.

The goal for this year is the same as last: $70,000. Our two-month-long Digital Dharma Drive will end with the year, at midnight on December 31. We hope you will join in helping us meet our goal. In the right hands, and leveraged by the unsalaried work of the monks, these funds will have a profound impact on the future of Hinduism around the world. Please make a donation today.
With much aloha and warm greetings during the holiday season,

The Editors
Kauai's Hindu Monastery
Himalayan Academy Publications
Click here to donate

For many years the Golden Gate Mission members have been making clay Ganesha's and selling them at Ganesha Chaturthi time to raise funds for the Iraivan Temple. They have facilitated the "Paint Ganesha" satsangs events for families in the area. This year the event was also celebrated in 3 other states. Kulamata Sundara Katir sends us this album of images collected by devotees who celebrated Ganesha Chathurti in the Palaniswami Sivan Temple in Concord California and in Oregon, Texas and Arizona.

Jai Ganesha!

For Lord Muruga, with His undeniable smile, who said so sweetly: "What about a poem for me?"
 
With His teardrop of strength
piercing through the 
thin and fierce walls, 
spilling for unfathomable love,
we praise the sagacious whispers
hummed from those crimson lips, 
lifting the humble from strife. 
 
Concealed by the companionship 
of teal feathers, He has a smile
like none other, softly crumbling
the bounds assembled by perfection.
As the lotus emerges from the tranquil pools
and limes grow tart on the unpicked greens,
the ambience of His grace lives thick 
in the eyes of those who make leaps
for the Prince of the radiant heavens. 

From a loving Devotee

Here is our Mauritius Natchintanai Bhajan Satsang group gathered at the Saiva Siddhanta Church Dharmasala in Mauritius.

We present to you images of some rather impressive bridges from around the world. Gurudeva often spoke of "bridging East and West" in terms of his decades of minstry around the world - bringing the best of Asian culture to souls incarnated in Western bodies.

After many hours of travel Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami arrived in London, UK. After a warm welcome by about 20 devotees and a little rest they attended a satsang at the Veeragathiyar family's home.

Today is the Ardra Nakshatra, a time each month when Siva's star comes into alignment and His divine energies are easily felt. It is on this day each month that the monks perform an abhishekam to Nataraja in Kadavul's inner sanctum.

He is the God of forms infinite in whose glory all things are—smaller than the smallest atom, and yet the Creator of all, ever living in the mystery of His creation. In the vision of this God of love there is everlasting peace. He is the Lord of all who, hidden in the heart of things, watches over the world of time. The Gods and seers of Brahman are one with Him, and when a man knows Him, he cuts the bonds of death. Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, Śvetāśvatara Upanishad 4.14-15. UPM, 91-92

From Dancing With Siva: What Is the Symbolism of Śiva’s Dance?
SLOKA 15 The symbolism of Śiva Naṭarāja is religion, art and science merged as one. In God’s endless dance of creation, preservation, destruction and paired graces is hidden a deep understanding of our universe. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya. BHĀSHYA Naṭarāja, the King of Dance, has four arms. The upper right hand holds the drum from which creation is­sues forth. The lower right hand is raised in blessing, betokening preservation. The upper left hand holds a flame, which is destruction, the dissolution of form. The right leg, representing obscuring grace, stands upon Apasmārapurusha, a soul temporarily Earthbound by its own sloth, confusion and forgetfulness. The up­lifted left leg is revealing grace, which re­leases the ma­ture soul from bondage. The lower left hand gestures toward that holy foot in assurance that Śiva’s grace is the refuge for everyone, the way to liberation. The circle of fire rep­re­sents the cosmos and especially consciousness. The all-de­vouring form looming above is Ma­hā­kāla, “Great Time.” The cobra around Naṭarāja’s waist is kuṇḍalinī śakti, the soul-impelling cosmic power resident within all. Naṭarā­ja’s dance is not just a symbol. It is taking place within each of us, at the atomic level, this very mo­ment. The Āgamas proclaim, “The birth of the world, its maintenance, its destruction, the soul’s obscuration and liberation are the five acts of His dance.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

The April 17th Natchintani Workshop was well attended with over 20 participants. All happily learning Yogaswami's songs and going over the meanings so that we all know what we are singing.

Singing the songs of Yogaswami while at the same time understanding the meaning and imbibing his spiritually exalting message is a powerful sadhana.

"Andatthil pindatthil, aandavanai kaannum"
In the macrocosm, in the microcosm, God is what we see

"Naam athuvena arivathu Kavasam!"
We Are That! Knowing this is our protection!


Click here to listen to Natchintanai online

Kadavul Kodimaram

The Kadavul kodimaram shines majestically while the moon rests under its sails. All is well in paradise.