Bodhinatha arrived on Kauai this morning after 22 hours in transit from Singapore. He went straight for lunch, then to the monthly Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai, meeting in Lihue, home for a short nap and then off this afternoon for an editing session.

Meanwhile at home we had many guests.

Arumugaswami hosted Kalyani Giri and her family today, taking them on a guided tour of the Iraivan Temple. Here he shares some important and interesting aspects of the Iraivan Temple with them using a glass encased model of the temple in the Banyan Mandapam.

Kalyani is a correspondent for Hinduism Today. She and her husband live in Houston, Texas, where he is a professional photographer.

The group, numbering 15, thoroughly enjoyed their tour of the grounds, Iraivan Temple and the press shop before heading to Maui for a big wedding in the family. Palaniswami introduced What Is Hinduism to the group.

Our other guests included three families in one, the Tata’s from Atlanta, Georgia, the Dommeti’s from San Jose, CA, and the Peeta’s from Layfayette, Indiana. The two senior members of the family, Koteswara Rao Peeta and his wife came all the way from their home in Chennai, India for a family reunion and a pilgrimage to Kauai.

In 1983 Koteswara Rao Peeta was the Chief Engineer and Director representing India, through the Atomic Energy Commission, to place the telescope for India at the multi-national observatory on top of Mt. Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.

A beautiful large pale yellow lotus flower greeted us at the lotus ponds this morning.

During a tour of the Iraivan Temple, Srinivas holds the handcarved blue black granite chain in amazement as so many have done before him.

A group family photo between the Tara pillars with the sanctum in the background. Since there is no electricity in the temple, the sanctum will be illuminated utilizing optic fiber using the natural sun rays

This wonderful family will be joining Bodhinatha on the upcoming 2008 Asian Odyssey. Marianne and Oisin were also very blessed to have been on that historic 2001 Europe Innersearch with Gurudeva.

Giles, Marianne and Oisin Thompson from Kansas. It’s Giles first visit but his wife and son were here a few years back.

Also with us are Mr. and Mrs. Kaika and Nilufer Clubwala…

and their two daughters.

For many years, Acharya Kumarswami has been working on the finishing of Java Cave on retreats and in his spare time. Most of the wood you see here was originally harvested from logs that would otherwise have been discarded on Kauai.

Beautiful hand made frames.

In our wood shop, he has a drawing for his next project

Lumber from logs that we had milled last year which was allowed to sit and dry out now goes into use.

For many years we used to sand everything with sandpaper. Kumarswami has over time developed the art of planing wood to get an even more beautiful smooth surface.

We also have a lot of Japanese tools that are perfect for the job.