Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Leave a Comment /
  • The sun and the new season’s flag rise together
  • The morning begins with a 5:30am Siva Homa in Kadavul Temple
  • Many written prayers to the Devas and Mahadevas were submitted. Satguru adds them to the flame.
  • Afterwards, everyone sits to listen to a talk from Satguru
  • Today Satguru focused on a passage from Gurudeva about Nirvakalpa Samadhi
  • The previous season’s flag is ready to be replaced
  • Everyone parades along the cliffs edge towards the flagpole
  • Iraivan Temple always looks nice in the morning light
  • Everything does, actually.
  • Satguru detaches the old flag
  • The new orange flag of the Nartana Ritau is raised
  • Aum Namah Śivaya

Happy New Year of Parabhava!

This samvatsara (year) is commonly associated with a theme of dissolution and transformation.
Para (परा): “away,” “beyond,” “off,” “reversed” — a prefix indicating reversal, opposition, or loss; bhava (भव): “being,” “becoming,” “existence,” “state” (from the root bhū, “to be”).
Taken together it references a “reversal of the current state of being” often stated as a “downfall which leads to its opposite.” Sounds like a good time for spiritual growth!

Today our monks began the day with our seasonal homa and a parade out to our flagpole. They raised the new dvaja for this spring season and for the new year as the Sun enters Mesha (Aries).

Here follows the passage from Saiva Dharma Shatras about how we should approach this new season:

Nartana Ritau, the season of Dancing with Siva, begins on Hindu New Year. This is the period of creation, the warm season, from mid-April through mid-August. The key word of this season is planning. The colors are orange, yellow-gold and all shades of green–orange for renunciation, yellow-gold for action, and green for regeneration. High above, the main Hindu flag flies the color orange, heralding the Nartana Ritau throughout this season, symbolizing sadhana and self-control. The other colors adorn smaller flags. This is the season of giving special attention to those in the grihastha ashrama. It is a time of awakening, renewal, review. The emphasis is on seeing ahead, planning for future years. It is a time of planning retreats and other activities for youths and adults for the entire year. During this time of looking forward, the Church’s six-year plan is updated by the Guru Mahasannidhanam and stewards and another year added. The Saiva Dharma Shastras are studied; and any needed additions in supplementary manuals, representing new growth, are made.

The practical focus is completion of unfinished projects. Secular holidays to observe among the families include Mothers Day in May, Fathers Day in June and Grandparents Day in August. In the monastery intensive cleaning of buildings and grounds takes place. New clothing is issued and old garments mended.

This season of harvest and new growth is also the time to review and reestablish picking and planting routines for the gardens. It is a time for ordering seeds and plants for the year, of planting trees, fragrant vines and the annual crop. Review is made for scheduling the care of all realms of the Aadheenam. Kadavul temple and the Guru Temple are cleaned and renewed during this season, and the adjacent grounds receive special, abundant attention.

The daily sadhana is the Sivachaitanya Panchatantra: experiencing nada, jyoti, prana, shakti and darshana. In Sanskrit, it is a time of learning new shlokas and mantras. Shrine rooms are renewed and redecorated for the year, and the clothing of all is renewed in the Hindu style of the current fashion. It is a time of doing things for others, religious outreach. In the missions, Nartana Ritau is the time of bringing in new students and Church members. It is a time of hatha yoga and philosophical teaching.

The main festival of Nartana Ritau is Guru Purnima. The mathavasis hold special conclave on Vaikasi Vishakham, the full moon day of May.

Aum Namah Śivaya

Read More »

Our Greenhouse

2 Comments /

Jai Ganesha!

A few days ago, we visited our greenhouse, which is being managed by the Siddhidata Kulam’s mathavasi. During our visit, we were happy to see a fresh new batch of tomatoes and bell peppers growing beautifully.

While we were there, we also observed how Sadhaka Shankaranatha is attentively caring for the greenhouse, ensuring everything is nurtured with dedication and care.

Aum.

Our Greenhouse Read More »

Noni Powder for Health

1 Comment /
  • A 4-ounce bag ready to ship. Notice the see-through window. A typical daily use is to add a teaspoon to morning juice or a protein shake. It has a surprisingly sweet taste, unlike the juice which is quite medicinal (as most medicines are).
  • The Polynesians’ double hulled canoes traveled thousands of miles in open waters and storms.
  • Our two dehydrating chambers.
  • The chips ready for the milling machine which grinds them into a fine powder.
  • This is the powdering machine. It takes about an hour and a half to powder the chips from the dehydrators.
  • A bucket of finished powder. It’ll be about 6% moisture content.
  • The powder is also put in capsules, a preferred product for some people.

The first Polynesians reached Hawaiʻi around 300–800 CE. It was a time in India of the regional kingdoms of the Pallavas and Pandyas, a time of great bhakti movements and temple building. These first seafaring adventurers probably came from the Marquesas (south of Hawaii and East of Australia), with later waves from Tahiti. They sailed in double-hulled voyaging canoes using stars, currents and birds to navigate. The journey of roughly 2,000–2,500 miles took 3–6 weeks. It was hazardous—storms, starvation and dehydration posed real risks, and some voyages likely failed. They brought “canoe plants” and animals choosing things they needed for survival in the new land: taro, breadfruit, coconut, banana, sugarcane, pigs, dogs and chickens. Kauaʻi was among the earliest islands settled.

They brought the noni tree as their primary medicine, a fruit which strengthens the human immune system helping it to fight off all kinds of ailments. Fast forward to today, when the monks tend 10 acres of noni trees and ferment the fruit into a healing juice. They also make noni powder. It is a new product for us, and seems promising. One Swiss company imports it to add “organic Hawaiian noni” to their superfood products.

The process is simple but time-consuming. It begins with harvesting ripe, firm fruit from the tree. The fruit should be mature and mostly white, but not overripe or soft enough to fall apart. Next comes sorting and washing with water to remove dust and debris. 

After washing, the fruit is allowed to ripen further in 30-gallon food-grade containers for up to a week until it becomes uniformly soft. Once ready, it is processed through a pulping machine to remove seeds and create a smooth mash. This pulp is spread in thin layers on trays for drying.

Drying happens in two dehydrators until the mash becomes crisp. The dried product is then tested for moisture to ensure stability and shelf life.

The final step is breaking the large thin sheets into chips and pulverizing the hard, dried fruit into a fine powder.  The finished powder is packed into sealed bags, labeled and stored in a cool, dry place awaiting shipping.

Noni Powder for Health Read More »

Recent Book Reprints in Malaysia

Leave a Comment /

Our small book, Power of Affirmation, is just about out of stock, so we got it reprinted in Malaysia. It is a fancier print job than our other books because it has gold foil printing on the cover, is printed on thick card stock paper throughout, has a built-in bookstand and is wire coil bound. At the same time in Malaysia we also reprinted Path to Siva and Know Thyself for providing complimentary copies to youth in Malaysia and Singapore. Sample copies of the three reprinted books arrived on Kauai several days ago. One of the affirmations:

“I am the complete master of all my forces. My spiritual energies govern and control the force fields wherever I am for the highest good. Through understanding, being pure, full of spirited life, I am filled and thrilled with unlimited power, now and forever.”

In the last photos, enjoy spider lilies in the early morning.

Recent Book Reprints in Malaysia Read More »

Nitya Shankaran’s Final Days on Taskforce

1 Comment /

As Nitya 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 Nitya 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

Nitya Shankaran’s Final Days on Taskforce Read More »

Monks in New York

Leave a Comment /
  • 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.

Monks in New York Read More »

Scroll to Top