Sun One Today begins a bright new six-day phase. Bodhinatha gave an excellent talk on shum today.

We bring you also a slide show and video from Paramacharya Palaniswami and Yogi Jivanandanatha today.

Prayers to the devas go into the homa and manifest in the astral world.

We bring you a series of the accoutrements of the homa.

Rudraksha wood

Ganapati

Varuna kumbha

Bell from Bali with a very distinct, clear tone

Sri Hanuman

Ghee offering spoons

Various sacred plants, spices and woods to be offered

Nine grains

In his talk, Bodhinatha elucidated two key Shum concepts: bihaiishum (contentment) and nalif (continuity of superconsciousness between meditations) which will be coming to you later this phase.

Silpis coming forward for blessings

Visitor news:

Sunil and Minu Shukla are on pilgrimage from Ann Arbor Michigan. Sunil’s parents were here last year and encouraged them to come. Sunil is an electrical engineer and Minu paints sacred art. She creates granite images of Lord Ganesha and other deities in her oil paintings.

They were thrilled to see the Iraivan Temple and expressed that this was the fulfillment of a dream.

In a sacred and tranquil setting. The beautiful white and pink lotus flowers open fully in the morning sun.

Before their departure, Sunil and Minu received the additional blessing of meeting with H.H. Bodhinatha Veylan Swami. They found to their delight that our beloved Guru will be visiting Flint, Michigan toward the end of April where their entire family can be present for the ceremony honoring His Holiness for the profound work he and the Aadheenam are performing for the entire Hindu World.

A wonderful Spiritual oasis!

A meditative and peaceful abode where pilgrims may perform their own abhishekam in worship and devotion to Siva beside a mountain stream as it spills into the lotus pond.

“Iraivan” is an ancient Dravidian Tamil name for God Siva.

This beautiful temple is in a very peaceful setting surrounded by acres of rich verdant, tropical, botanical gardens, waterfalls and lotus ponds.

Visitors from Bali and India came throughout the day today. The first visitors arrived early, attended the morning puja, and were then taken to the Iraivan Temple. The Balinese are noted for their devotion and love of God Siva. The energy in the temple was very high which caused Sadhaka Satyanatha to observe that the Balinese devas meeting our temple devas might have something to do with it.

Our visitors lauded the silpis for their magnificent work.

Each retreat on Siddhidata Day the monks all work on physical projects. One of these is a regular trip to Himalayan Acres, our land on the other side of the Wailua River dedicated to diversified agriculture projects. Here we see that the new noni field is doing very well.

It is a very peaceful, wide open expanse with mountains in the distance. Our parcel is 407 acres.

A small structure is being raised to protect our large farm equipment from the elements.

Sannyasin Arumugaswami manages the development of the land. Today he has Yogi Japendranatha and Sadhaka Satyanatha with him.

This lightweight frame is actually hurricane proof.

There are some really serious anchors digging deep into the ground and attached to the frame with chains and turnbuckles.

A hurricane might remove the tent covering, but this frame is here to stay.

The noni field…