It is Sun Three, Ardra Abhishekam of Lord Nataraja for this month…

The exciting news of the day is the raising of Lord Shanmuga.. .Here we are under the banyan tree.

The silpis have prepared square indentation in the large cement slab…finishing touches are being made…

Yoginathaswami points to the chain hoist that he and his team have carefully installed on a metal girder cross beam about 14 feet above the ground…

Sweeping out the base area….

Next it’s time to bring in the white granite peedam especially prepared here by our team…

This piece of granite has a round indentation to accept the base of the statue of Murugan

The lift begins… the chain hoist slowly rising the murthi up… sand bags have been prepared to place in the back…

The strap is around Muruga’s chest, under the arms. He slides forward unexpectedly, just about 4 inches…

The hoist, beam and staging above appears strong and safe…

up… up… up…

Now the action begins… moving the base back ….

up… up .. up.. each pull on the chain only give about 1/4 inch of lift…. Two silpis in the back on the sides, hold ropes to prevent lateral swing…

Almost upright, the silpis rig up in front to pull him forward.

Working the statue backward into it’s opening on the white granite peedam.

Murugan’s center of gravity eases forward and the statue gently tips upright.

He is now standing on his own. The statue will be epoxied onto the white granite base and then the whole thing will be level on the slab…

Yoginathaswami changes the rigging, moving the straps underneath Murugan’s arms…

Now we have straight up lift… worked continued on through the morning… stay tuned…

Meanwhile Isani Alahan and Shaila Pushpa Sendan arrive at the Minimela for Sivathondu.

The Wailua Mission worked on Rudraksha beads on Family Home evening the other night and this morning Isani and Shaila will prepare some items for sale in the Minimela.

Shaila is growing up fast……

Today we bring you images from Innersearch by Dharmalingam Siddhan who offers a series of wide angle views….

Dharmalingam writes the captions today:

“A view from the back of our cabin at the Dooralong resort north of Sydney, Australia”

Flying off to New Zealand…

Here is another shot of the gorgeous mountain peaks of New Zealand from the airplane.

Even the views getting off of the airplane are jaw dropping and spectacular.

“Part of the rugged pass as we exit a long tunnel on the way to Milford Sound.”

A photo of one of the mountain glacier peaks on the way to Milford Sound.

A photo from the back of the boat cruise in Milford Sound.

Panoramic view from the Milford Sound boat trip.

A moving photo of the dramatic countryside from the bus ride to Lake Te Anu.

Another photo of a valley opening up during the bus ride.

Scenic view of the mountainside as we depart Queenstown in route to Lake Te Anu in New Zealand.

A calm photo of the reflection which managed to capture some nice detail of the mountain landscape.