Maruthu Dharmalingam leaves tonight to return to Malaysia. This morning he met for a final darshan with Bodhinatha.

At lunch Maruthu expressed his appreciation for his stay here and all the varied experiences he had in all the kulams. He really made big contributions during his month stay in each kulam that he served in.

He said he was especially impressed about the way that “the monks approach a task… they focus on it and really stay concentrated until it comes to completion.” It was a lesson he will take home with him to Malaysia. He was also grateful for the loving humble attitude of all the monks and how open and easy it was to talk with any one off us in a way that he never experienced before at home.”

From our side all the monks want to thank Maruthu for his wonderful spirit of devotion, service and ever bright attitude. We feel we have another man on the team for sure, no matter where he may be.

We were honored today to meet with Swami Anubhavananda from Mumbai. Swami has been reading Hinduism Today in India and always wanted to visit.

He meets with Bodhinatha who presents him with a copy of the Trilogy.

Swami Anubhavananda radiates a peaceful humble presence, is a popular speaker, offers guided meditation tapes, is a prolific author and is also well known for his “management seminars.”

Swami is traveling with Prashant Kanhere.

Shama Kumaran captured Maruthu fulfilling his last assignment while here. From the high tech publishing world of Tamil and Malay in the Ganapati Kulam we sent him for a few days off to the high touch world of polishing the Navagrahas. Shama writes:

“Maruthu Pandian Dharmalingam is a 27 year old resident physician at a state hospital in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Maruthu is an exceptionally fine young man who came all the way from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to serve his Guru and the Swamis for one month on ‘task force’ here at the Kauai Aadheenam. He has served in three Kulums performing computer work, proof-reading and editing all of the Saivite Hindu Children’s Books, working on the grounds to include Himalayan Acres where a plantation of Noni bushes are being planted. Attending classes with Swamis and attending pujas in the temple. Maruthu states that he has totally enjoyed being in the presence of the Guru and amongst the swamis and learning from them. He confided that he most especially enjoyed the good food here!”

Here is Maruthu cleaning and scrubbing the Navagraha deities to resplendency.

These deities will soon be gold-leafed and eventually placed in a Navagraha Mandapam near the Iraivan Temple at a future time.

A bath of tamarind water is first used to soak the statues for many hours. They come up with most of the oxidized coat taken off, ready for polishing.

Gurudeva presides over his work. The final job is done by hand with a wire brush.

It’s another exciting few days at Iraivan as 5 containers have arrived from India.

Here we are this morning at the Iraivan Temple site before the morning rains fell.

The first of four containers arrived yesterday and has been opened.

About 85 such containers will take the 10,000-mile journey (Hmmm! That’s about a dollar a mile) from India to Kauai to bring all the sculpted stone to the island.

The containers are off loaded onto the foundation, since it happens to be exactly the height of the bed of the container and our forklift canroll inside to do the heavy lifting.

The carvers roll up their afternoon sun shade to let the morning light into their work space.

Later today the team will bring out all of the crates, efficiently packed as you can see.

Today the team is focused on the roof level, working around one of the six crocodile rain water spouts which you can see at the center of this photo.

They are working on a strong platform built by the resourceful Siddhidatta Kulam. This entire structure will move along the side of the temple in the months ahead.

Another tour day arrived today. The 9 am group numbered 63 bright souls.

We thought to share some “Quotes and Quips” from our visitors to lighten up the day. Notable testimonies and questions from guests are always good for a smile.

“Can you tell me about the chakras? I was a Mormon missionary and met some Hindus in Germany who told me about the chakras. Today I’m no longer a Morman.”

The truths of Hindu metaphysics have a way to speaking for themselves to anyone in a powerful way!

The second group was about 35. One young man happened to be passing by Kadavul after the main puja was done and Ceyonswami was doing abhishekam on Nandi outside. Later the young man asked:

“Why was that man with the long white beard throwing water on the hippopotomus?” (smile)

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Next we have a special series from the camera of recent pilgrim Suriyakumar who took these aerial shots from a helicopter. These are without question the best aerial shots of iraivan ever taken. He has a very good camera and was able to focus even with all the vibration. No one has ever done this before. Later when we get the hi-resolution photos we will put up some really big shots.