Kauai's Hindu Monastery

Namaste and Aloha!

Travel in early August included a weekend in Maryland to attend the Ilankai Nallur Festival. Special this year was the maiden run of the temple's new chariot. We also had satsang and individual meetings with East Coast devotees. Late August we went to Texas, spending two days in Midland and two in Houston, where I was the guest of honor at the well-attended and grand Krishna Janmashtami celebration. Our volunteers said a thousand individuals visited our publications booth. In September we flew West to see devotees in Singapore and Malaysia. My seminar in Singapore covered "Tirukural: Its Relevance to the Modern World" and the Malaysia keynote explored "Hindu Tools for Success." Two satsangs plus meetings with families were also included. In Kadavul Temple, in addition to our Ardra ahbishekams to Nataraja and Chitra pujas to Gurudeva, we celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi on August 23, when the temple was filled with devotees, many from Canada. General contributions for August totaled $40,265.14, compared to our goal of $60,000, and September totaled $52,718.74, which is less than our new minimum monthly goal of $54,000 (for the period September 2009 to August 2010). Special project contributions for the two months totaled an additional $3,986. We are grateful to our global family of temple builders for your continued and generous support.

Om Namasivaya,
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Our New Mini-Mela Opens!

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami cuts the ribbon to begin inauguration ceremonies for the monastery's new Mini-Mela Visitor Center

The 6-foot-tall Ganesha Deity was covered with sandalwood paste following the grand Ganesha Chaturthi puja in Kadavul Temple.

Recent Happenings

Left column, top to bottom: Clockwise from top left: We raise the copper colored flag to begin the Jivana Ritau, which emphasizes Living with Siva; our five silpis on Kauai receive gifts from Bodhinatha during their annual tool-blessing ceremony, Ayudha Puja; Bodhinatha and island sishyas pose on opening day for newly built Mini-Mela; a group of tour-day visitors; close-up of hand-crafted ornamentation work on the five-metal base created by artisans in South India to hold Iraivan Temple's crystal Sivalingam; the rose-colored granite floor in the temple is progressing swiftly; Kandaswamy Gurukkal, Bhanu Prakash and Surya Prakash, priests from Canada, meet with Arumugaswami to discuss preservation of the Saiva Agamas.

From the top: Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami in Lanham, Maryland, at the height of the Murugan festival; the new Mini-Mela near the monastery entrance; Sri Sundaramurthy Sivam, head of the Bangalore Gurukulam, meets with Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha with youth group in Toronto, Canada

Good Answers to Vital Questions from Hindu Youth

Kalyani Giri, cultural/community news journalist for Indo-American News in Houston, Texas, asked Hindu youth ages 8-22 (including her 17-year-old daughter Anushka) to voice their everyday concerns, which she in turn relayed to Bodhinatha. For his full response, see http://bit.ly/18v99Q. Excerpts follow:

What do you find most compelling about being Hindu?

Bodhinatha: Hinduism has a strong mystical tradition. Mysticism is the personal experience of God. In Hinduism, mysticism is part of the mainstream of the religion, not off on the side and looked at with skepticism or disdain by many within the religion. Hinduism not only gives you the high-minded teaching that man is God, as found in the Upanishads; it also gives you a multitude of practices, such as meditation, whereby you can personally experience the high-minded philosophy.

All my friends are American Caucasian, Hispanic and African American. How do I help them understand Hindu values?

Do some research on the conservative values within the world's many cultures to have a better sense of what are considered traditional values in them and see what you find out. You will probably be surprised, for example, in how many cultures arranged marriage exists and unchaperoned dating is considered improper. Culture has to do with carrying forward values from one generation to the next. The more this is considered crucial, the more conservative a culture tends to be.

How do you explain death to kids under ten years of age in the Hindu context?

Death is definitely a major challenge to deal with. It has a human, compassionate side, and a philosophical, mystical side. The human side needs to be emphasized first, expressing compassion and helping those involved to deal with grief. This can take some time, after which those involved naturally become concerned with the philosophical, mystical side. The core concept here is that Hindus believe we experience many lives on Earth and many lives in the inner, heavenly worlds between births. Some of our lives on Earth are long and others are short. The measure of a life is not its length, rather it is its contents--how an individual lived.

How is it that Hindus are being converted to Christianity so easily in India, when my parents are always preaching about how great our religion is?

The percentage of Hindus in India that are being converted to Christianity has always been small. Quite often this conversion takes place among the poorest of society, and material benefits are part of what is being promised for converting. If the material benefits are not forthcoming, many convert back to Hinduism. Lack of knowledge about Hindu traditions is also a cause of conversion. Thus, the best protection against conversion is to help needy Hindus and provide more knowledge about Hindu traditions.

How do you feel about the many Gods? My mom tells me they are aspects of ONE God. How do I explain this to friends who are not of the Hindu faith?

Your mom has stressed the key point, which is that Hindus all believe in one Supreme Being. Of course, they differ on the name of that Supreme Being and its nature. To some the Supreme Being is Vishnu, to others Siva and so forth. Hinduism is a composite of various religious traditions which have different concepts. The fact that these different traditions generally get along well shows how tolerant Hindus are and explains why they are so tolerant of the world's other religions as well.

What is your advice to young Hindus about religion and its significance in one's life?

This is a key question and deserves a much longer answer than can be given here. A materialistic life has no religious goal. Only what we achieve in the world is valued. All religions add to that a religious goal of one kind or another. The Hindu's ultimate religious goal is moksha. Stated simply, we are born on Earth for the purpose of coming closer to God. After many lifetimes on Earth, our experience of God is profound enough that we are no longer born on Earth.

Is Hinduism more complicated than other world religions?

Yes. Let's look at two ways in which Hinduism is definitely complicated. The first is that it contains a number of different denominations such as Saivism, Shaktism, Smartism and Vaishnavism, each with a different concept and name for the Supreme Being. Then, each of these denominations has a number of different philosophies. Once this denominational/philosophical diversity of Hinduism is understood, this aspect of being complicated is no longer a source of confusion. Hinduism is also complicated in that it offers advanced practices such as meditation, as described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. For a comparison, in religion we have moral behavior versus meditation, which can be compared in mathematics to arithmetic versus calculus. Just because calculus is complicated doesn't mean it is not quite valuable for certain tasks. Likewise, a complicated religious practice such as meditation is also quite valuable when pursuing certain mystical goals.

Since the inner intent of all religions is to bind man back to God, Saivite Hindus seek not to interfere with anyone's faith or practice. We believe that there is no exclusive path, no one way for all. Saivites profoundly know that God Siva is the same Supreme Being in whom peoples of all faiths find solace, peace and liberation. Nonetheless, we realize that all religions are not the same. Each has its unique beliefs, practices, goals and paths of attainment, and the doctrines of one often conflict with those of another. Even this should never be cause for religious tension or intolerance. Saivites respect all religious traditions and the people within them. They know that good citizens and stable societies are created from groups of religious people. Saivite leaders support and participate in ecumenical gatherings with all religions. Still, Saivites defend their faith, proceed contentedly with their practices and avoid the enchantment of other ways, be they ancient or modern. Aum Namasivaya.

Planned Giving Guidance

An Estate Planning Toolkit to Benefit
You and Iraivan Temple Endowment

If your estate plan is out-of-date or nonexistent, the Hindu Heritage Endowment (HHE) wants to help. "We're happy to send our complimentary estate planning toolkit to anyone on request," says Shanmuganathaswami, Charitable Funds Manager for HHE. Phil Murphy, Estate Planning Advisor for HHE, adds, "We want supporters and their families to avoid the unnecessary legal fees, taxes, family dissension and delay that result from dying intestate (without a will). It can be costly to your family and leaves you no say over who gets your assets."

Though not a substitute for legal advice, the kit prepares people to meet with an attorney, he said. "It also addresses important nonlegal questions regarding final ceremonies, obituary preparation and the whereabouts of legal documents, such as insurance policies and wills."

An elderly couple are working together on a will that assigns their assets to family and to their favorite charity, in their case the Iraivan Temple Endowment in Hawaii

When asked who should order the toolkit, he offered, "Anyone who reads this article. Facing our mortality is a subject we usually avoid. Our estate planning toolkit can help anyone come up with a plan they are happy with."

There are more than legal issues at stake, Phil adds. "The Hindu faith is family centered. Uncertainty about the disposition of a parent's assets can create severe tension among children while parents are alive and conflict among them if parents die with no plan or a flawed plan."

He cites four common estate-planning errors and shortcomings:

1. Having no written will, living trust, or plan to avoid conservatorship.

2. Vagueness regarding the distribution of personal property, such as art, books, jewelry and furnishings, that may have both sentimental and monetary value.

3. Conflicting instructions, especially in second marriages, where a parent wants property to pass to a child but holds it in joint tenancy with a spouse.

4. Outdated or incorrect beneficiary designations on financial and brokerage accounts.

He also encourages supporters to get instant estate planning information from the planned giving section of HHE's website. "Visitors can review the basics of wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney and health-care wishes," he notes. The website also provides a glossary of commonly used planned giving and estate planning terms.

"Good causes like HHE benefit when their supporters have estate plans," Phil observes. "For example, only six percent of US citizens leave cash gifts to charity at death. That's probably because so many have no written plans."

To learn more about setting up your own estate and life income plan to provide immediate tax and income benefits to you and your family, while also providing a future gift to the temple, please visit www.hheonline.org. For an estate planning toolkit write to hhe@hindu.org.

To download your toolkit, visit http://www.hheonline.org/tool-kit.shtml.

Who and What Is HHE?

The staff of HHE are monks of Kauai's Hindu Monastery. HHE is a US-based, public charitable trust created by Hindus for Hindus. It is not another institution asking for donations; it provides a way to empower your own projects. HHE maintains permanent endowments for Hindu initiatives and institutions worldwide. Its individual funds, now over 70, benefit temples, ashrams, monasteries, orphanages, homes for the elderly and distribution of Hindu books and literature. The assets are professionally overseen by Halbert, Hargrove/Russell LLC of Long Beach, California. New funds at HHE are easy to set up. There are no fees. Just go to www.hheonline.org/

There are five reasons why Hindu Heritage Endowment is your best choice for giving to support Hinduism worldwide:

1. Global Reach: HHE holds endowments that benefit Hindu institutions and activities worldwide.
2. Life Income Plans: HHE offers charitable gift annuities and pooled income funds. The beneficiary institution can be located in any country.
3. An Alternative to Direct Donations to Foreign Hindu Charities: You can support a foreign Hindu charity and receive the same tax advantages as when supporting a US charity.
4. True Endowment Versus Quasi (board designated) Endowment: Temples and other institutions can create a true endowment at HHE. Principal invested this way cannot be spent by future boards of trustees and is protected from any lawsuit that might be brought against the temple.
5. Greater Investment Opportunities: HHE's investments are not limited to a single country or currency. Its portfolio is global in nature, with investments in equities and fixed income in a number of developed and emerging markets.

You can sponsor the rose-granite floor stones

Everyone knows how important a floor is to define a space and the purpose and feeling of that space. Temples are no different. The floor is all-important. The bare feet of untold numbers of future pilgrims to Iraivan Temple will touch the floor, soften the floor, shape the floor. You may have walked on temple floors in India that are thousands of years old, with all of the rough edges abraded by billions of footfalls that have made their edges are soft and round. The Iraivan floor is one of the main works for 2009, and the entire silpi team is now focused on it. But funds are needed. Three sizes of floor stones are in need of sponsorship, along with sections of the Pradakshina Path and the Second Prakaram Perimeter Wall.

• Main Mandapam Primary Floor Stones: $800
• Main Mandapam Edge Floor Stone: $1,001
• Main Mandapam Bay Divider Floor Stones: $1,200
• 1008-foot Pilgrims' Circumambulation Path sections: $3,001
• Second Prakaram Perimeter Wall Segments: $5,001

Building Fund Donations

SUMMARY

12-MONTH SUMMARY For the twelve months of September 2008 through August 2009 our minimum monthly building fund goal was $720,000. Excluding contributions directed toward special project expenses, we received actual contributions of $651,056.46.

THIS MONTH'S SUMMARY For September 2009 our minimum monthly building fund goal was $54,000. Excluding contributions directed toward special project expenses, we received actual contributions of $52,634.74

Many Thanks to Our August/September Donors
From 15 Countries

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