Bodhinatha gives another delightful Sun One upadesha to begin our new phase at the Aadheenam. He gave a commentary on the Merging with Siva Chapter 21 on “Total Surrender” or prapatti. He explained the difference between emotion and devotion, with emotion having its ups and downs, and devotion being a more calm, even expression of love for the Deity. He explained the importance of devotion or bhakti to any higher practice such as meditation.

A new phase begins with the sacred fire.

The traditional golden insignia of the Saivite Aadheenam Kartar, hanging on a Rudraksha necklace.

From the eyes of our every attentive and tireless guest host, Brahmacharini Shama Kumaran:

Another beautiful lotus in full bloom. Visitors often remark about the exceptional health of these lovely plants.

Another little flower with a sweet smile: “Sachi”

Sachi and her mother Anjulina Desai are here visiting from San Francisco with Sachi’s grandmother, Jyoti Karachiwala from Dallas, Texas.

Sunil and Vasundhara Kakodkar on their last day of pilgrimage, were present for the 6:00 a.m. Sun One homa, followed by a powerful Ardra abhishekam to Siva Nataraja.

Sunil and Vasundhara felt that their visit here had been “truly wonderful!”

Only at Kauai Aadheenam! . . .

They were just about to leave for the airport when Sunil suddenly ran into an old high school friend from Mumbai from many, many, many years ago.

Sunil and his wife pose for a last minute photo with his long lost friend, Sharad Dandekar, and his wife Smita.

This month’s Iraivan morning was held at Kulamata Amala Seyon’s home. Here is Kulamata Isani Alahan, Anusha Samugam from Singapore and Kulamata Amala.

Ganesha meets us at the door!

Kulamata Nagavathy was a delightful addition to our Iraivan Morning Karma Yoga day. Her family is on pilgrimage to Kadavul, all the way from Singapore.

Here is Uma Sivanathan sorting the rudraksha beads into size and number. Beads naturally come in tiny, small, medium, and large sizes.

Uma is a master gardener and a wonderful cook, who knows all the native Hawaiian plants. She also does a lot of karma yoga at the temple gardens.

Here is “Oma”, Deva Seyon’s mother. She is a dedicated karma yogi and works everyday on the Rudraksha project making many malas for the “Mini Mela” at Kadavul Temple.

Nagavathy, her husband and daughter are here on pilgrimage for seven days, drinking deep from the wellspring of Kadavul and Kauai Aadheenam.

Isani showing Nagavathy some of the finer points in the art of mala making. Isani is a major leader of this enormous project. Last month sales topped $3,000.00 towards the Iraivan building fund!

Anusha is a student in Singapore. The last time she was on Kauai was for the girls’ youth retreat about 7 years ago. Anusha added a wonderful youthful spirit to our small mission and we enjoyed her company immensely.

Iraivan Morning is a very successful, consistent, and sustainable pattern the Wailua Mission started years ago. It is made especially wonderful when our brothers and sisters from the East come to visit.

Kulapati Dohadeva has a wonderful easy going nature. He has been attending meditation classes at the Aadheenam, along with the various pujas and meeting with each of the swamis. His family was so “full of shakti” after spending the whole day at the temple the day before, none of them could sleep that night.

Here is Tandu Sivanathan stringing the “racks.” The racks allow the beads to spin as they are power-washed under incredible water pressure to clean the tiny faces of the beads. A professional gardener, and bonsi master, many of his creations can be found around Kadavul Temple.

Kulapti Durvasa Alahan oversees the timing and all aspects of the Rudraksha project. A highly skilled construction foreman on the island of Kauai he is currently in charge of finishing a large government project at Kokee State Park.

Our wonderful Brahmachari Rajadeva drills every single bead that is produced by the Wailua Rudraksha Project. It is a huge job that keeps us all supplied with the necessary beads for all aspects of the project. We so appreciate his dedicated work.

The “racks” were built years ago by Brahmacharya Rajadeva while on task force at the Aadheenam. They are made from solid oak and have taken amazing punishment over the years from the constant powerwashing. The fresh blue berries from the tree are processed into clean beads, rather than using ones that have falled and dried out. The latter tend to break apart easily.

Here is “Prana” the village cat. She can never get enough love and loves mission functions. Incredibly intellegent we have “trained” her not to kill the birds that frequent our property.

Lord Ganesha presides over the gardens! (Soon to have a roof)

Working in the spirit of Sivasambandham . . .

Mission members all try and grow as much food as possible in their gardnens. Amala’s local pumpkin dish is in the foreground.

Nagavathy created this dish for us from the marungi leaves! We all love marungi but we didn’t know how wonderful the leaves are and full of vitamins.

Here is a beautiful and delicious local sweet potato soup that Tandu & Uma brought. Incredible!

The malas start to “rise” out of the pile of sorted beads.

Here we are in a group photo. One Guru . . . One mind . . . Anbe Sivamayam!