Aum namah Sivaya! Love from Kauai Aadheenam.

It is Ashram Sadhana day today, when all the monks spend the morning making our monastery clean and actinic. Energy flows better when it is not stuck in the odic force fields that naturally accumulate in objects, places and people. In a clean environment, our superconscious, creative forces can manifest fully and clearly.

As we looked at Bodhinatha’s photo for today’s TAKA, one of his 108 names came to mind:

“Aum Sri Drishthi Jvaline namah”
(Prostrations to him whose eyes radiate darshan)

Arumugaswam and Sivakatirswami returned today from Washington, D.C.! It was a very successful trip and it is great to have our two swamis back home.

Arumugswami spearheaded the discussions and presentations at the visits with our congressmen and senators, regarding visas for our silpis and the religious worker visa issue in general for all Hindu organizations.

Sivakatirswami coordinated the Swadhyay Pariwar connection side of the trip in preparation for an article in Hinduism Today. There were 20,000 youth at the convention on Saturday night! More detailed news in the days ahead.

From right to left, Ranna Jani, and her husband, Dr. Rajni Jani who is a Scientist in Ophthalmology. Next is his son, Alap who is now in Medical School and also plans to be an Ophthalmologist, and Dr. Jani’s daughter, Ami. All from Patan, Gujarat, they now reside in Fort Worth, Texas.

Their first visit to the Aadheenam included a wonderful 9:00 a.m. Abishekam in the Kadavul Siva Temple, a tour of the Iraivan Temple, and an audience with Satguru Bodhinatha.

Smiling and happy, as they left, Dr. Rajni Jani reassured me “we’ll be back tomorrow.”

Chelliah, one of our skilled silpis, was found hard at work creating a Hawaiian figure handcarved out of white granite. It is a Menehune, a hawaiian counterpart to Hindu bhutas.

What an Artist! All of the carvers at Iraivan Temple are very good.

Selvanathan Sthapati, one of our dearest and most knowleadgeable collaborators in India, sends information about the carving of the four Siva murtis that will go on top of Iraivan Temple, one for each direction:

“I am happy to attach herewith the progress pictures on the four Siva murtis. The carving work is progressing well.

“The vigraha carvers are strictly informed that this should be carved manually and should not engage any machines.”

“The work is being carried out smoothly and very carefully with manual tools.

“The white stones are of hard variety and the carvers are doing it with special care as per my instructions.

With our humble namaskarams to Satguru Bodhinatha Swamy and to all the Acharyas and Swamis,

yours sincerely,

Sthapati Selvanathan”

Thank you Selvanathan! These beautiful carvings will indeed be worthy of standing on Iraivan’s golden crown.

A Pada Puja to Gurudeva’s holy feet.

How wonderful it is to have a being such as Gurudeva among us, still so active in the inner worlds, to inspire and guide. How much we all love him!

We offer these photos for all of his devotees to find the inner form of the guru by looking at historic photos of Gurudeva’s outer form.

Jai Gurudeva! Jai Bodhinatha!

Aum namah Sivaya.