Sun One begins a new six-day phase. All is bright and upbeat at the Aadheenam. We had homa this morning and Bodhinatha gave a delightful talk on Lord Ganesha.

Meanwhile the excitement is building in the air as the concrete pour for the Nandi Mandapam foundation is only two days away, the day after tomorrow.

Ramesha and Sujata Sachdeva with their son Siva and daughter Simi are here on a pilgrimage. They joined us for the early morning Homa, when went to Iraivan and met with Bodhinatha later in the morning.

Sun one homa. The pictures tell the story. Everything begins with Lord Ganesha.

The Sachdeva family at Iraivan.

Siva and Simi are enjoy feeding the koi fish.

Then off to worship Lord Siva at the Narmada Lingam.

With less than 48 hours to go before the big pour, the team at Iraivan is hard at work. It will all begin at the batch plant at 2:30 AM on Saturday morning, when they begin mixing the concrete and loading the trucks one by one. The first trucks will be here at 4 AM to begin the pour.

Everyone is praying hard for dry weather, which is “mission critical” to the operation.

These are crew members of Craig Kawakami Builders — the general contractor responsible for building the forms and pouring the concrete.

Loran Gonsalves, Tyriss Manintin, Craig Kawakami (owner of the company), Jonathan Cruz-Kamanuwai, Micah Raposas.

We want to thank Craig and his the team for their hard work and excellent job!

Craig Kawakami

The main job today is the block out for the kodimaram. This will be in the middle of the foundation, creating an empty space down to the ground.

This six by six hole in the slab will eventually be filled with granite blocks as the base of the kodimaram, the temple flag pole. A smaller hole in the foundation is being created for the placement of two time capsules–one a modern stainless steel cylinder sealed with inert argon gas; the other a traditional set of copper plates detailing the temple’s origin.

Team consultation..

Today was also tour day. The first group at 9 am had about 60 forms of God, looking bright.

Gurudeva used to say on the mornings of tour day: “Lord Siva is coming in many forms this morning.”

Here is the second tour group at 11 am.