Our monthly Ardra abhishekam to Lord Nataraja was held on June 4, followed by our monthly Chitra puja to Gurudeva on the 12th. On June 21 Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami left with me on a three-week trip to North America. During the balance of June, we held satsangs in Syracuse (New York), Chicago and Topeka (Kansas) plus a few visits to devotees’ homes in New Hampshire. I shared a keynote on “An Important Modern Trend,” which drew from the Publisher’s Desk “Five Suggestions for SBNR’s” and other articles from Hinduism Today. The keynote begins with the statement: “Modern Universities are molding the minds of our youth in ways parents might not expect. This is because reason and science dominate the learning at higher institutions, pushing religion to the side, an understandable but limiting academic strategy. And there is a strong trend that is an outcome of young adults studying at these universities for four, six or eight years. It is that at some point they reject the religion in which they were raised. This rejection takes a few forms, perhaps the most frequent of which is the idea of being ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ frequently abbreviated as SBNR. Two other common forms of rejection of religion are atheism and secular humanism.” Of those attending the satsangs, almost none was familiar with SBNR and thus the presentation was definitely helpful to them. General contributions for June totaled $44,411, which is less than our minimum monthly goal of $70,000. Special project contributions totaled an additional $170. We are grateful to our global family of temple builders for your continued and generous support. Om Namasivaya.
   — Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

Click here to see Bodhinatha's extended travel schedule. Bookmark the link and return for updates.

Founder of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, 1927–2001, arrives by ship in Trinidad and Tobago in 2000.

Desperate states of mind are disturbing many people these days. They are caught in emotional turmoil and entanglement, scarcely knowing how to get themselves out of it, or even fully realizing what state they are in. This condition, which often deteriorates as the years go by until nervous difficulties and mental illnesses set in, can be alleviated by the simple practice of meditation. Those who are content to live in a mesh of mental conflict, which is not only conscious but subconscious, will never get around to meditation or even the preliminary step: concentration. But a person who is wise enough to struggle with his own mind to try to gain the mastery of his mind will learn the vital practice of meditation. Just a few moments each morning or evening enables him to cut the entangled conditions that creep into the conscious mind during the day. The consistent practice of meditation allows him to live in higher states of consciousness with increasing awareness and perception as the years go by. There are surprises, many of them, for the beginning meditator, as well as for those who are advanced—unexpected consequences that are often more than either bargained for, because on the road to enlightenment every part of one’s nature has to be faced and reconciled. This can be difficult if the experiences of life have been unseemly, or relatively easy if the experiences have been mostly comfortable

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Adding Detail: Using our own design of a carbide-tipped chisel, a silpi adds detail to a round stone that will secure the base of the kodimaram

Paduka: The two granite holy sandals of the Satguru which are installed in Kadavul Hindu Temple and worshiped elaborately on Chitra nakshatra each month to honor Gurudeva on the day of his mahasamadhi

Top to bottom: Two silpis work on the massive handrails that will later flank the wide entry steps to Iraivan Temple; the stewards and staff of HHE after their quarterly meeting to review fund performance and distribution of grants; Mayuresh Visswanathan shows off two large squashes he harvested from our garden for the day’s lunch.

Iraivan Temple Progress
In June the silpi craftsmen focused on placing the stones of the 475-foot-long perimeter wall; the first of two layers is nearly complete. The silpis have almost completed the detail work on the ceiling carvings in the mukha mandapam. They are also working on major refining of the two large yallis that will frame the front steps from ground level up to the temple. They also continued the detail work on the base of the kodimaram. The monks have begun to research different options for the granite tile which will cover the 6,500 square feet of foundation in the prakaram space between the outer temple wall and the perimeter wall. Several samples were gathered for Satguru and senior swamis to choose from. Bids were sought to survey the area next to the statue of Hanuman and the Rudraksha Forest. One day this will be the location of a new Visitor Center.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s Activities
Satguru’s yearly journey to the chariot festival at the Murugan Temple near Washington DC was prefaced by visits to several other locations. His weekly talks, given at the beginning of June, have been uploaded to our website. He discussed many topics, including the Saivite Hindu view of Hell and how to create success in both outer life and inner striving by remolding the subconsious mind through vasana daha tantra (writing and burning of difficult memories) and precise affirmations. Satguru’s Publisher’s Desk editorial, A Mystical View of Sanatana Dharma, can now be seen at “HinduismTodayVideos” channel on YouTube. ¶Satguru and the senior monks are the stewards of the Hindu Heritage Endowment that benefits the monastery and Hindu orphanages, projects and temples around the world. On June 10th they and other monastic staff held their quarterly meeting to review and discuss the financial statements, comparing the investment returns with the traditional benchmarks and reviewing performance charts and financial strategies. The HHE principal is invested with Halbert Hargrove of Long Beach, California. At this meeting the stewards approved a new endowment called the Kauai Aadheenam Feed the Monks Fund which was was jointly created by Poumagal Pillay Mootoosamy of Montreal, Canada, and Padmini Samuthiran of Singapore. They both came up with the idea and the required funds to start the endowment, at just about the same time. We have created a new web page for this endowment. See it at http://hheonline.org .

New Teenage Taskforcers Arrive
In mid-June Mayuresh Visswanathan from Carlsbad, California, and Arinien Mootoocurpen from Mauritius arrived on Kauai to participate in our taskforce program. They come to the monastery each morning and spend the day worshiping, meditating and performing seva alongside the monks. Mayuresh will be here until August and Arinien will be visiting until mid-November. Mayuresh and Arinien are both starting out their stay at Kauai Aadheenam by helping in the Siddhidatta Kulam. That is the group of monks responsible for the care of our gardens, buildings, vehicles and more.

Publications and other Activities
The latest issue of our Hinduism Today magazine is now online. The Educational Insight section is called Hinduism in a Nutshell. It is now available as a stand-alone publication in PDF and ebook formats on our website. In June the monks of the Ganapati Kulam were busy working on the October-November-December issue of Hinduism Today. They were also developing a future story about the century-long project of rebuilding the Thiruketeeswara Temple of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka which was razed to the ground by the Portuguese invaders in the late 16th century and was rebuilt in 1903. Selvanathan Sthapati, the architect of our Iraivan Temple, is overseeing the current renovation project.

Globally: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami With the Rama Chandran & Rema Nair family in New Hampshire;

New Roofing In Mauritius: Members in Mauritius are working hard to complete three new mandapams to protect devotees from sun and rains. The next step is to clad the concrete pillars with wood. Plans are in place to hold the August Guru Puja here during Satguru’s visit.

Hindu Heritage Endowment, Estate Planning

Q & A: The Basics of Inheritance

Question: My wife contends that she can inherit my retirement plan assets tax-free upon my passing. I’m not so sure. Who’s right?

Answer: For the purposes of harmony in your home, you are both right. Your wife is correct in that she has the ability to defer taxes on your retirement-plan assets through, for example, a spousal rollover IRA. You are also right, in that whenever your wife makes a withdrawal from the spousal rollover, she will pay income tax on the amount.

Q. I plan to leave my 401(k) to my children after my lifetime. How much will they pay in taxes?

A. It depends. Because this type of inheritance is treated as ordinary income, the taxes your children owe will depend on the marginal tax rate in which they fall. One of the downsides of leaving a 401(k), IRA or other retirement plan asset to your children is that they may likely receive it during their peak wage-earning years—when they will lose the greatest percentage to taxes. If they don’t want it all in a lump sum, they can, in most cases, stretch out their distributions (and hence some taxation) over their lifetime, beginning the year after your passing.

Q. I would like to make a charitable donation from an IRA. What’s the first step?

A. You can designate a beneficiary, such as Hindu Heritage Endowment, to receive a percentage of your IRA assets. The full value of the funds given to HHE will then go to support our mission (income taxes will not erode their value). To make your gift, you simply need to complete a beneficiary designation form naming Hindu Heritage Endowment as beneficiary and specifying the percentage to go to it. This designation is completely revocable during your lifetime. Your estate will receive an estate tax charitable deduction for the HHE share. It is wise to consult with your tax professionals if you are contemplating a charitable gift under the extended law.

Contact us to learn more about these flexible ways to support Hindu Heritage Endowment. Strengthen your family’s future and continue your support of Hindu Heritage Endowment by downloading the toolkit pdf file at www.hheonline.org/tool-kit.shtml. Learn more about estate planning and planned giving at www.hheonline.org.

Help Finish Iraivan Forward

 

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Building Fund Donations

Thanks to Our June Temple Builders in 19 Countries

For the ten months of September to June, our minimum monthly goal was $700,000. Excluding contributions directed toward special projects, we received actual contributions of $756,177.88.

Your support is deeply appreciated!

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Click here to see Bodhinatha's extended travel schedule.

Iraivan Temple is a punya tirtha, a sacred destination for devout pilgrims. The vision of Lord Siva on San Marga that Gurudeva was blessed with in 1975 is sustained and made manifest by the daily sadhanas of 19 resident monastics from five nations. Kadavul Hindu Temple and the many sacred areas of San Marga are available to Hindus for worship, meditation, japa and quiet reflection. It is best, if you are planning to come to visit us, to email us in advance to make sure the days of your visit coincide with our open times. And, if you want to have darshan with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, to check if he is in residence and to make the necessary appointment. Please see our visitor information pages for more details.