Murugan Bhakti Newsletter No. 19
Kanda Sashti 2004
Issue
In this issue...
I. NEW ANNADANA MURUGAN WEB SITE: ANNADANAM.ORG
A new service designed especially for Muruga devotees living abroad, the Murugan Bhakti site www.Annadanam.org now makes it possible for devotees anywhere to sponsor an annadanam at famous Murugan temples in India and Sri Lanka.
The number of devotees fed will depend upon the size of your donation.
Questions? Contact Murugan Bhakti editor Patrick Harrigan editor@murugan.org.
II. NEW PUBLICATIONS ON MURUGAN BHAKTI SITES
Kathirkāmam the classic 1947 guide booklet Murugan Bhakti Publications also republishes popular out of print publications, starting with the classic 1947 Tamil guide and song booklet Kathirkāmam by Kula. Sabhapati. This booklet of 110 pages, for many years the standard guide booklet to Kathirkamam, gives an early 20th Century devotee's eye view of the powerful shrine's history, traditions and practices, together with 40 pages of Tamil stotras or songs in praise of Kataragama Skanda. NSK Print House in Chennai will print 1500 copies for release soon. For details contact: editor@kataragama.org.
III. INDIA NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MURUGAN 7-9 JAN 2005
The First All-India National Murukan Conference will take place 7-8-9 January 2005 at Arulmigu Sangameshwarar Temple, Bhavani, Tamil Nadu. Organized by Sathiyathin Sakthi Nilai Sangam & SSM College of Engineering in association with ICSMS.
Papers on any topic and activity relevant to the conference theme are invited. Multi-media presentations including video productions & slide presentations are also being accepted. The papers accepted will be published as part of the First National Conference proceedings, and authors will be invited to give their presentations when the Conference convenes.
For details and registration, contact:
IV. MURUGAN BHAKTI ANNUAL FUND DRIVE
Every day of the year, visitors to Murugan Bhakti sites are delighted to find hundreds of authoritative articles and high-quality graphics that are accessible nowhere else, without paying a subscription and without annoying pop-up ads. This is possible only because a few devotees work year-round to provide this service for others.
What most visitors do not know is that this expanding network of 11 web sites is being built and maintained by a small band of volunteers using a single computer based at the Kataragama Pilgrims Thondar Sabha madam in Colombo. There is no source of external funding for the network, except the donations of those who support Murugan Bhakti.
Those acquainted with Murugan Bhakti know that its annual budget is miniscule in relation to the resources it provides to devotees, researchers and others. The Editor and a few assistants work hundreds of hours annually to maintain and expand Murugan Bhakti websites. Based in Sri Lanka and India and subsisting on local budgets, they are in no position to meet the dollar costs associated with hosting an Internet network.
Again the time has come for us to renew domain registrations and pay for Internet server space for 2005. Our target is to raise US$ 420 ($99 for 11 annual domain registrations plus $320 for 300 MB of Internet server space for 2005).
If you are one who appreciates the value of Murugan Bhakti websites and are in a position to help it to continue to serve devotees and scholars around the world, then we urge you to show your support at this time. To donate directly to this fund using credit card, go to:
http://www.xlweb.com/pay/donate/
Or visit the Online Donations page or contact Murugan Bhakti Editor Patrick Harrigan.
V. MURUGAN BHAKTI NEEDS A NEW COMPUTER
Yes, the entire Murugan Bhakti publishing works, both printed and online, comes from a single overworked computer. Our computer, a Sony Vaio donated 3-1/2 years ago by a devotee in Atlanta, has logged uncounted thousands of hours but is now approaching the end of its useful life.
Murugan Bhakti has accumulated many hours of digital video documentation from which an documentary on Pada Yatra can be edited and produced. But our old Sony laptop cannot do it; we need a standard desktop PC with larger hard drive, CD-writer, more memory and faster processor. Lately our overworked computer has spent weeks in the repair shop. The diagnosis: it needs a new motherboard or, better, it should be replaced altogether.
Can you help by providing a newer used laptop? We can arrange for a devotee to hand carry it from North America to Sri Lanka or India. Or could you help us in the purchase of a brand new desktop PC? If so, contact the Editor, Patrick Harrigan at editor@murugan.org
VI. CHANGES COMING TO THE NEWSLETTER
The Murugan Bhakti Newsletter was launched in 1998 as an eGroups.com newsletter group, until eGroups.com was acquired by Yahoo.com two years ago.
Kindly note that we are considering changing to Ezine Director, a free service that offers greater flexibility and supports HTML newsletters (formatted with graphics, etc.), unlike Yahoo Groups. Hence, if we migrate to Ezine Director and you start getting email from www.ezinedirector.com, kindly accept and approve any changes so your Murugan Bhakti Newsletter subscription can continue unbroken as we aim to upgrade our service to you.
To read past issues, go to the Murugan Bhakti online archives.
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