Nanjappa Siddalingaiah and wife are visiting from Chicago. They are devotees of Sri Balagangadaranathaswami of Bangalore, India. In fact it was swami that told them they had to go visit the temple in Hawaii.

Rupa and her father are on pilgrimage to Kauai. Yesterday they toured the grounds and visited Iraivan Temple despite the rains. Today they attended the 9am Siva puja then met with Bodhinatha. Rupa had some wonderful questions on how to have a spiritual life in the world. You can read Bodhinatha’s answers in the latest issue of Hinduism Today in his Publishers Desk section.

Sannyasin Muruganathaswami is one of our senior swamis. He has shouldered quietly through the years a lot of the heavy responsibilities for travel arrangements and financial matters in the Pillaiyar Kulam, especially in the area of book distribution.

Announcing the March, 2006 Iraivan Temple Benefit Concert, Davis, California! Don’t miss it!

For information on the concert, contact:
Sundari Katir: 530-753-2695 (home);
530-635-3462 (cell)
sundarikatir@yahoo.com
Devi Param: 925-939-8354
Punita Ajaya: 408-252-1986

Today was Sun Four… the Wailua River continues to be swollen as Mount Waialeale sheds the rains.

Meanwhile the Siddhidata Kulam gave a report today:

• We are soon to replace our aged fleet of utility vehicles with Kawasaki Mule brand. This will be a much needed upgrade. Some of our aged carts are nearly 20 years old and are taking the team a inordinate amount of time to maintain.
• Shanmugam Sthapati has returned to India, having been here since the beginning of the stone jointing in 2001, and completing his 5 year visa. Plans are in the works for a replacement sthapati to Kauai in the near future.
• But our team of silpis here are very competent and doing an excellent job on their own and are very inspired. They had a some meetings with Yoginathaswami to take the next steps in the North East corner of the temple construction and also called to India for a phone consultation with Chidambaram Sthapati at the Bangalore work site.
• Yoginathaswami says the current team is very productive. The “mighty Rajendran” recently finished the rough cut across the entire surface of a roof beam in one day! If you go to the temple you hear the tap, tap, tap of chisels at a high pace, and there are bright smiles on the silpis faces. They are proud to be working on their own steam for a few months and have a “Don’t worry, we can do it!” spirit. Silpis Chellaiya and Velaisamy are acting as a lead team, keeping things going until the next sthapati arrives.
• The Siddhidata Kulam of course provides all the important back up and shared details of the constant work they do with scaffolding and safety railings.