Path to Siva

Work continues today (and every day) on the upgrade to San Marga, the Straight Path to God that Gurudeva created back in 1975. Once Iraivan was completed, we could turn our attention, and resources/funds/time, to the future visitor experience, which will be a ten-minute walk from the Rudraksha Forest to the now-functioning Iraivan Siva Temple.
The path is roughly 3,700 feet long and required hundreds of truckloads of materials to lift the height so rains would shed off and not create potholes and swampy areas. First came an 8" layer of 6-inch rock as a base; once that was compacted, we added a special compactable gravel and compacted that as well. Next, we laid down a special polyurethane grid, which we call Geo Grid, and filled that with sand, compacting the sand. The final step, just beginning, is sowing grass seed. When complete, the 8-foot-wide Pilgrims' Path will be flat and dry and soft so the most devout can walk barefoot to Siva's Feet. Check out progress in the slideshow.

This is about 20% of the entire path, with tropical foliage on both sides. Here the gravel has been compacted, and soon the Geo Grid will be laid down.

Today Doug is placing sand into the Geo Tiles.

Once it is compacted and the grass has taken root, it will be strong enough for vehicles and flat enough for walking on.

Out by the Third World Bell (left in the shadows) you can see that the entire path has been elevated about a foot, sometimes 15 inches.

Also today, Dennis Wong (in this bulldozer) is moving mountains of dirt out by the Rudraksha Forest, an important resource for our future landscaping and a generous gift from the contractors working on our island roads.

They are also letting us use their equipment gratis. Go Dennis!

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