Hinduism Today Magazine

One Island, Many Peoples, All Kauaians

For five years in the late 1990s, Gurudeva met monthly with leaders of the island: mayors past and present, business leaders, agriculturalists, real estate managers, university administrators and more. He was the only spiritual leader invited to the table and he ended up being the primary motivator of the group. Their work was to informally create a vision for the island’s future. The Sunday evening gatherings were called “Vision Kauai 2020.”

One of Gurudeva’s important contributions was to push for a shared identity for the diverse groups: Native Hawaiians, Chinese, Filipinos, Haoles and more. They did not have a shared tribe name, like Californians or Texans. So he proposed using “Kauaians,” and that started a slew of projects to get the word out. And it did get out, with his help in printing and in making granite signs for the county, carved in India.

This led to many expressions of the idea of our oneness. Natalie and Jim Levin took his idea, and while he was fasting in October 2001, they made a “Thank you, Gurudeva” poster which the monks presented to him during his final days. Gurudeva saw the art and, with a smile, lifted his hand and traced the rainbow with his finger, first left to right and then right to left. Then he smiled and asked the monks, “How do they know which way a rainbow goes?”

The Levins later produced posters and cards to spread the idea to all corners of our small island. Recently, ten of the larger framed posters were passed around the island by a local leader, Paradise. She sent us photos of two of the small businesses she gave the posters to: an animal shelter and a clothing shop. Gurudeva’s idea of our unity and shared identity lives on!