Gurudeva announces the opening of the gurukula priest training school for young boys beginning tomorrow in Bangalore, India, under the oversight of Sri Sri Sri Tiruchimahaswamigal of Kailash Ashram. Six boys from Malayasia are the first class. He speaks to the silpis, the stone carvers, who have been working for several years at the Iraivan temple carving site in Bangalore and congratulates them on their expert artisanship, and expresses his hope that as a result of the Iraivan project, many all-stone temples will be built worldwide.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. This is Gurudeva. This is January 4th, the day before 'Happy Birthday to me' day.

Well, this is a very important day because this is an important message to our 75 silpis, expert stone carvers in Bangalore India, at our Iraivan Temple site there and very importantly, six young men from the age eight to twelve, who came from Singapore and Malaysia with their mothers and fathers to enrol in the Vedic-Agamic Gurukulam. This is a training school that has been going from ten to twelve years producing many, many priests who are now serving in temples throughout the world. These young men were dedicated at birth, or better still, at conception to helping me with this wonderful spiritual mission that so many others are helping with and they are going to be trained in this Gurukulam, a school for training priests in Bangalore.

Under the loving guidance and protection of Sri Sri Sri Tiruchiswami Maharaj and his entourage of Swamis, his other Swamis and many, many helpers, these boys are going to be well-trained in five languages. Karnataka language Kannada, Tamil language, Sanskrit, English of course, and Hindi. They will be trained to become a priest in any temple throughout the world but most importantly, they will be the priests of the beautiful Iraivan temple, the first ever stone temple brought from India to the United States of America and nestled in on this beautiful garden Island of Kauai. They will become the priests. Some will become ministers of the religion, known as Swamis and others will become married men, most probably and run a Gurukulam or priest training school right on this island to train priests, as we have been doing occasionally. Like, we trained the priests for Fiji temples and we trained another priest who is serving in Vancouver, Canada. They will train young men here on Kauai, say fifteen years from now. We plan ahead. We look way ahead. It is a five-year course of training and if they do very, very well, they will also get another certificate from Mysore University.

Also, 'Hinduism Today' is being interviewed today by our correspondent reporter, Choodie Sivaram. We are interviewing the Prime Minister of India who is visiting Bangalore today, and we are talking to him about backing up the proposal of teaching Hinduism in the schools throughout the entire country of India. Christianity is taught in schools. Islam is taught in schools. Hinduism is not, at this particular time when it is most needed.

Now my message to the silpis, the tireless stone-carvers who are creating this beautiful Iraivan Temple. Surely, you all will have a wonderful birth in your next life; for being so loyal, year after year after year after year. Some of us have been working together about five or six years, one stone after another. The temple is half-finished now and you are to be praised. You are running a training school for other young men to become professional artisans in this ancient art, which we are keeping alive by building this temple. We hope beyond hope, that there will be stone temples coming out of India in Europe, and Australia, New Zealand, many of the countries of the world, where art like this that you all are doing, has never been seen before. You are to be praised and we praise you on this most auspicious day, Gurudeva's seventy-third Jayanthi, which is his 'birthday'. We bless each and everyone of you and your families. Also Sri Sri Sri Balagangadaranathaswami Maharaj, who has so generously made available 11 acres of land for us to build a village, with water, electricity, a retirement program, medical benefits, religious services daily and a happy life for each and everyone of you.

If we can do more, please let us know. We are here to help you, each and every one of you silpis, expert stone-carvers, as you are helping the world by creating an edifice for Lord Siva, who is timeless, formless, spaceless, who is all-pervasive and pervades the Universe as energy, prana and also is a personal God, with a human-like form that has been seen in visions by mystics and depicted more than often by artists in paintings and sculpture.

So, carry on with your work under the skillful guidance of Jiva Rajashankara, his lovely wife and two sons. We praise you, we bless you, and we wish you well on your way. Let's finish up this temple and bring it to the Garden Island of Kauai. It will take over one hundred containers. Each container will be sponsored by an extended family in one country or another throughout the world.

Aum Namah Sivaya, everyone. Think of us tomorrow, and our Ashram doors are open again tomorrow and we will tell you what happened on this beautiful Jayanthi day.