It's Sun Five at Kauai Aadheenam, which is our last day of the lunar phase, something akin to Friday in the larger world. Tomorrow is a retreat. But tune in tomorrow and Gurudeva will have a wonderful audio message, he promises.

Today is visitor's day. Once each week from 9am to noon the gates of the monastery are open to any and all visitors. After a light dawn rainfall the sun came out with rainbows in the sky. We know you are all feeing very sorry for us! Among our visitors was our own Hanapepe family, Iraja and Nalani Sivadas, and Iraja's mother (that's them in the photo just leaving after seeing Gurudeva). They met with Gurudeva and spoke with him about their plans for going to California in the next few days. They are working there to settle affairs enough to bring mom to live on Kauai. A noble team, they are. Mom told us that after she reads Hinduism Today eavh month "cover to cover," she sends it to Hollywood where a 92-year old widow of a famed film director gets to do the same!

Each Sun Five members gather for the morning puja at 6am, and one of the four acharyas speaks in the temple of spiritual things. This August 20th morning Acharya Kumarswami spoke of the inner life, and how magical and wonderful it is. Here is Deva Seyon's summary of the talk "He explained how our very existence is a precious gift and miracle. The opportunities of life surround us, and if we listen and attend to them we will see the blessing and direction of our existence. Identifying with the soul within instead of with the body and its circumstances gives strength and perspective. People can actually live in these higher states and need not get stuck in the emotion or the intellect, need not get into habits of up and down, of not feeling well on certain days, of being uninspired and off center. Living inside, deep within, we experience life in its natural and pure state, the real us, the perfect soul that is so loving, so obvious and simple. By making a little extra effort when we are not feeling well or something comes up to disturb us, we can control the pranas and the karmas and live our real purpose, to be in touch with the divine soul within that is us."

The cow we told you was born two days back is well, and his mother is getting some special care for her udder. She is the most beautiful brown Jersey, with a picture perfect udder that portends years of fresh milk, cream and ghee and yogurt for the monks. She's a bit unusual. Most cows are ardently indifferent to people unless you have a bucket of grain. But she keeps running up to Gurudeva's van as he drives through the pasture, like a puppy dog. He rolls down the window, strokes her nose and ears and says a few sweet words encouraging her. Ingteresting, no?

Elsewhere on our little island (a mere 555 square miles of tropical lushness) Joanne Yukimura, the former mayor of Kauai, called to thank Gurudeva and the Aadheenam for having Jnanadeva Shanmuganatha share his experiences with her and the superintend of schools about the remarkable schooling system he is helping implement in his community in Napa California, developed by Susan Kovalik. Joanne, a member of Vision Kauai, is getting a group together to see how they can bring the system to Kauai.

We got an interesting fax from a movie maker, who reads Hinduism Today. they are asking if we know any Indian or Hindu inventors that are doing unusual things with their life. In particular, they are looking for strange and quirky men and women. It's for a PBS and Discovery Channel documentary. Anyone out there know someone they could interview?

An abundance of mathavasi (that's Sanskrit for resident monastic) travels are being happening. Yogi Tapodhana just arrived at our 7-acre monastery in Mauritius last night after spending a few weeks at home with his family in Malaysia (his first visit home in seven years or so!). He along with Sannyasin Murugaswami will be visiting all of the Kualapati, missionary families in Mauritius during his three week stay. Paramacharya Bodhinathaswami and Sannyasin Shanmuganthaswami are arranging a visit to Northern California to visit personally with Gurudeva's sishya in the area September 3 - 6.

A big project of sending 75 pre-publication copies of Gurudeva's newest book, Merging with Siva, ended today under the able direction of Sadhaka Japendranatha.The galleys were printed in middle America and shipped to both famous and ordinary Hindus and non-Hindus around the world. We hope to get a lot of insightful comments back on this remarkable book about the yoga of oneness.

Our Hinduism Today correspondent Julie Rajan (who lives in Bangalore) has arrived in Madras after a twelve-week summer course at Oxford University in communications. She'll be visiting Salem Jayalakshmi, one of India's great singers and a long-time friend of Gurudeva, and do a story on her work. Our magazine staff is working on the November issue, the feature story of which is astrology. Rajiv Malik in New Delhi just completed an interview with KN Rao, one of India's great astrologer, and a second interview being conducted by email from Hawaii is in progress with BV Raman, India's most renowned astrologer.

Two mathavasis focused their energies on completing a new stretch of fence to strengthen the border of the pasture that extends from the rudraksha forest along the neem tree grove down to the banyan "abyss." Good progress was made as what looked to be a scorching hot day ended up being cooled by a constant cover of clouds. Thank you, weather devas! It's the best fence we have ever made. Makes our other miles of fencing look a little hokey.

Book orders were processed, including more for Lemurian Scrolls. Quite remarkable how many were sold before anyone even saw the book! It is now in the hands of people from Hawaii to Florida and up in Canada.