Kulapati Easvan Param and Kulamata Devi Param are here on pilgrimage. They met with Bodhinatha this morning.

Today’s Kulam report by the Siddhidata Kulam detailed their on-going work to maintain all our vehicles, equipment, manage Iraivan temple, take care of silpis, communicate with India, grow food for our garden and more.

It is summer now and the team harvest 17 pounds of fresh vegetables yesterday. Anna Purna Garden is really doing well. The team has also been planting more and more papaya, looking the next year. The recent bout of long rains took their toll on the papayas, so the new plantings will help get our production back up.

Jiva Shanmuga had darshan today with Bodhinatha. He also visited the publications facility and met all the monks there who shared their work with him. He will be returning to UK soon.

Here are the Shilpis in front of the Sanctum doorway of the Iraivan Temple. Manikanda, Pandi, Rajendran, Velliswami, Karupaiah and Chellaiah. They are always cheerful and smiling. All beautiful souls performing God Siva’s work.

They are really enjoying summer weather now after all the rain.

Here is an excellent close up of ornamentation work in progress. Click on the arrow in the image below to play our short video of the day.

This morning Arumugam and Yohini Alavappillai arrived for the morning puja with their two sons, Arun age11 and Alvappillai age 8 . This lovely family originally came from Jaffna, Sri Lanka and now live in Corona Caifornia. Both children have been studying the children’s books the Saivite Hindu Religion which originated from the Saiva Neri of Sri Lanka. These books were translated into English and prepared by H.H. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. They are now written in English, Tamil and Hindi and are a wonderful gift to the world, especially for those families who migrated to the West and whose children now go to western schools.

Arun and Alvappillai, hug a rudraksha tree.

Next came visit a to the Narmada Lingam along the path of the Nayanar Saints where everyone bathed the lingam with fresh water from a mountain stream.

Krishna and Aruna Reddy from St. Charles, Illinois, (left) originally from Andhra Pradesh, accompanied the Alavappillai family on a tour of the Iraivan Temple site and surrounding grounds, which included a visit to the sacred site where in 1973 Gurudeva had a vision of God Siva indicating where the Iraivan Temple was to be built. Mr. Krishna Reddy said that this was the “most sacred place he had ever visited.”

Natalia Kouznetsova from Russia and her husband Alex Eishov, (middle) whose family also originally came from Russia and now live in San Francisco, came for a few days and want to visit the temple “every day” while they are here. Natalie bought Dancing with Siva in Russian and her husband bought a copy in English.