Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fund for the Visually Impaired

January-February-March 2011 Newsletter

The Lutheran Braille Workers (LBW) has 200 work-centers throughout the United States and Canada that each year distribute 250,000 volumes of Braille Christian literature throughout the world. The Hindu community has Damara Shanmugan and the Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fund for the Visually Impaired at the Hindu Heritage Endowment that supports her work.

This 64-year-old retired phone-company worker produces Braille versions of the writings of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswam (Gurudeva) for blind children and adults. Her Braille venture has its roots in a 1995-1996 pilgrimage to Malaysia and South India where she spent two weeks volunteering at a school for the blind.

The life-long San Diego resident and mother of two has since transcribed Gurudeva's Master Course and other of his works into Braille. She uses a machine-gun-like sounding Romeo RB-25 portable embosser hooked up to a Braille computer program called Braille2000. Shanmugan lives and works out of her 91-year-old mother's 1,200 square foot home which is surrounded by fruit and walnut trees on a large San Diego lot. She uses a small workshop her mother built for her.

"I've had dyslexia all my life," Shanmugan said cheerfully. "That's why I need the computer program to do the work." Her Braille transcription of religious works evolved gradually, the seed planted as she was leaving India by a blind child who asked Shanmugan, "Auntie, send us some Braille books."

"They had so few resources," Shanmugan said, describing a tiny Braille library at the Karnataka school for the blind in South India where she volunteered for two weeks. The library had 100 Braille volumes. Because of their bulk, complete books require several 80-page volumes in Braille

Back in San Diego, she learned that the Braille Transcribers Guild of San Diego in Balboa Park was disposing of Braille books made obsolete by cassettes and other technology. She used her pickup truck to collect some 5,000 volumes---versions of Reader's Digest and other popular publications---and mailed them to South India. The Karnataka school built a small room to store them.

"You can mail material for the blind for free," she said, describing the one thing about her work that doesn't seem expensive, cumbersome or loud. Braille paper is four times the thickness of ordinary stock, the books held together with extra thick comb spines, and the embossing process a snail-like one-page a minute.

In 1996 she began thinking of producing Hindu religious works. "My Braille teacher told me that there were hardly any works from the Eastern world in Braille, much less sacred Eastern texts. There are thousands of Braille versions of the Christian Bible," she said. "There are none of the Vedas."

As she gained facility in Braille, she asked Gurudeva for permission to transcribe and distribute his writings to the blind. He immediately agreed. She began with some of his popular pamphlets, and since then has completed his Master Course which includes Dancing with Shiva, Living with Shiva and Merging with Shiva. About twenty 80-page Braille volumes are needed to transcribe one Master Course book. Once done, Braille works fit India better than electrically dependent cassettes or CDs. You can't depend on consistent power from the balky Indian grid, she said, adding that "electricity costs money."

"Besides, the blind are like the rest of us. They like to sit down with a good book."

To learn how you can support Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fund for the Visually Impaired through a Will, life insurance or other planned gifts, contact Shanmuganathaswami at 808-822-3012, extension 244 or hhe@hindu.org. Donate to the Saivite Hindu Scriptural Fund for the Visually Impaired (fund #43) at www.hheonline.org.

July to September Endowment Contributions

MISSION STATEMENT

Hindu Heritage Endowment is a publicly supported, charitable organization recognized as tax exempt by the IRS on April 22, 1994. Employer ID 99-0308924. Founded by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, its philanthropic mission is to provide secure, professionally managed financial support for institutions and religious leaders of all lineages of Sanatana Dharma.

PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS

Halbert/Hargrove, Investment Counsel; Sonoda & Isara, LLP, CPA. HHE is a member of the Council on Foundations, an association of more than 2,000 foundations which interprets relevant law and management and investment principles, and of the National Committee on Planned Giving, the voice and professional resource for the gift planning community.

I want to participate. Where should I Send My Donation?

You may send your gift to an existing fund, create a new Endowment or request information through the address below.

Donations may be made online at www.hheonline.org or use the HHE tear-out card in the HINDUISM TODAY magazine to join our family of benefactors who are Strengthening Hinduism Worldwide. Thank you.