Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Nithya Shankaran’s Final Days

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As Nithya Shankaran Mogan comes toward the end of his taskforce stay, he is spending about a week helping out the Minimela staff in the mornings. Here he is at the cashier desk, being efficient with time by making more bracelets in between visitor purchase inquiries. He also shared a couple of the photos he took over the last few weeks.

Thank you Nithya for your tireless service for a month.

  • Finished bracelets and other items on display
  • Nithya took this photo during the Iraivan Samvatsara Puja
  • Nithya took this sunrise photo from the back porch of our taskforce residence
  • A clear day this morning before heavy rains are forecast starting this afternoon through tomorrow

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Monks in New York

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  • A family photo with the Nataraj Family at the Natural History Museum
  • Our monks landed in New York on a sunny spring day
  • While waiting to check into their hotel, they take a Sunday morning coffee-walk in Central Park.
  • The next Day, Gajanan leads everyone through the Natural History Museum
  • Dinosaurs!
  • The 3rd and final day was the conference
  • In the evening, some time to explore the city a bit. Times Square was only a few blocks away.
  • The next morning, our monks flew home with the sunrise in tow.

Jai Ganesha!

Last week, Sannyasin Tillainathaswami and Sadhaka Sabanatha made a quick trip to New York City and back. While there they enjoyed spending time with the Nataraj family, as well as exploring around Manhattan. Our monks were in the city for a conference that focused on AI tools in digital media creation and workflows. There were many high-level presenters and executives there, including creative leaders from LucasFilm, Paramount, Nvidia, Runway Ai, Adobe, and a variety of film companies, who are all finding the best way to implement ai into their creations, without sacrificing the heart of their work—human creativity. Many of the media producers there emphasized that they always start with human ideas, artwork, character design, story, etc. and only use ai to supplement the workflows that follow. Nvidia presented info about their new supercomputers and gave a glimpse into where video-creation ai tools are going, as far as their power and speed. Our monks are working to implement some of the ideas presented, particularly from companies that outlined their creative workflow for their short films and tv shows. Hopefully this will help reduce the friction and time in creating our educational content.

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Monk’s Visit to the Mainland

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Jai Ganesha!

Recently, Sannyasin Yoginathaswami and Sannyasin Mayilnathaswami visited Portland, Oregon. Below are their words:

“Yesterday, we went to Kondapi’s place for breakfast, and then they took us to the Japanese Garden at Washington Park. Namrata and her husband, Jagadish, met us there. It was a beautiful place with many camellias, magnolias, and cherry blossoms in bloom, along with serene Zen gardens. There was also a rose garden right next to the Japanese Garden, but the roses had not started blooming yet.

After that, Jagadish took us to a holy arboretum trail with beautiful cedar, redwood, and spruce trees. It was about a one-hour trail with wonderful trees to see. Then we were taken to a Chinese garden in downtown Chinatown. It was a small place, but very beautiful and interesting, with much to see.

We then returned to Kondapi’s place for lunch. After that, we went back to the hotel to rest. In the evening, we had a short Ganesha puja, and Yoginathaswami gave a talk about Kauai Aadheenam, personal sadhanas, and karma. There were many wonderful questions. Afterward, we had dinner and returned to the hotel.”

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Will Iraivan’s 35 Bronze Panels Last 1,000 Years?

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  • Celestial bronze from Central Europe
  • This panel summarizes the mission/purpose of the monastery.
  • It’s a simple detail but it took many years to create.
  • Local craftsmen install one of the panels.
  • The had to drill deep into the hard granite, so they brought Tiny to do it
  • Almost a decade to sculpt the perimeter wall and the frames for the inset panels.

Recent visitors have asked the monks, “Iraivan is designed to last a thousand years. Will the bronze panels have to be replaced before that?”

A great question since ordinary metal is seen to rust and disintegrate in a couple of centuries. We dove into it to respond meaningfully. What we found was that bronze works from ancient India (Mohenjodaro) are alive and well 4,500 years after they were created. Bronze works go back farther, 6,500 years back in Serbia. Above you are looking at the famed Nebra Sky Disc (c. 1800–1600 BCE) fabricated in present-day Germany. A flat bronze disc with gold inlays, sometimes considered the earliest “designed surface” bronze object. It shows celestial symbols—arguably the closest early example to a true decorated bronze panel.

Our Iraivan panels will survive as long as the temple, carrying forward the history and mysticism of the temple.

You can explore the art and text of any (or all) of the panels here:

himalayanacademy.com/iraivan-temple/bronze-panels-of-iraivan-temple

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Gifts of Wood

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We were able to get three straight logs from the recently felled rudraksha tree clump. They are around 13 feet long and will provide valuable milled boards over the next few weeks. Kumarnathaswami painted the ends right away to protect the logs from insect infestation.

Meanwhile, nearby the milling area is a hibiscus field where we gradually add more tree branch mulch around the trunks. Not only providing nutrients as it breaks down, the mulch also helps regulate ground temperature around the plant and of course suppresses grass and weeds that would compete for nutrients.

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Leaning Tower of Rudraksha (Tree)

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As we shared a week or so ago, recent strong winds were too much for a very tall rudraksha tree clump that has been growing in a low swampy area for decades soon after the Ganesha shrine on San Marga path. The clump was uprooted, but rather than falling all the way down, it got stuck at a 45-degree angle on more rudraksha trees on the other side of the path.

Cutting down a tree clump in this scenario is very dangerous because the weight distribution is difficult to predict. Fortunately we have professionals on the job. We got some photos of the beginning stages and thought we could come back later in the afternoon to capture some of the biggest pieces being felled, but they moved so quickly that the clump was all down by the time we came back mid afternoon!

  • They had to first remove some other tree branches that were in the way
  • A large piece in the midst of falling after being cut
  • Despite all the experience and best efforts, the chainsaw got stuck at least once. They had to attach rope to a section and pull the branch down with with a excavator arm
  • Another recent rainbow

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