Sadhu Paksha Day Ten

Another quiet Sadhu Paksha day at Kauai Aadheenam.

Bodhinatha sends a brief report on his day today.

“Om Sivaya, everyone,

Jai Ganapati.

Today was the Nallur Katirgama Festival at the Maryland Murugan Temple. A good crowd, maybe 300-400. We went in the late morning for the end of the homa, all of the abhishekam, gave a talk, then the puja continued with dhupa, dheepa, etc.

In the afternoon we returned for the procession around the temple which stops at a table representing each of the six Tamil Nadu temples, one for Batu caves and one for Iraivan, meaning to them God.

The talk was well received with many postive comments afterwards from all age groups. Many were extremely pleased we came. Lots of literature was distributed.

Om Namasivaya,
Bodhinatha”

Out at Iraivan some major “logistics” works were underway today. There is a massive scaffolding used to support the stoneworkers at the roof level where they are working now.

Previously, it was taken apart and reassembled to move it.

But this time the team was able to move the whole thing intact.

Using small pipes as rollers…

the team worked for about an hour to move it across the foundation to the Eastern side.

They started, as you saw above, with the forklift pulling it.

But it turned out the tea could actually move it faster by hand with their iron rods! Watch the movie of the action below.

Over the retreat we were able to take the silpis on a rare outing, giving them a break from their arduous and painstaking carving.

They had not been on a boat before!

Nor had they ever seen a dolphin or giant turtles, and we ran into lots of both.

We took them completely around the island in one day, something few people ever do.

They loved every minute. “We have never seen so much beauty or so much of nature before.”

Satya was along for the ride and other young monks as well.

Lots of photographs to share with family at home.

The island cliffs go on and on. The entire journey took from 7am to 5pm, and covered about 108 miles!

There were sea caves to be explored.

Looking out to the ocean from deep inside one of them.

At day’s end the silpis pose for a photo with our captain, Joe, and his boat.

Meanwhile we have a series of photos “hot off the camera” that arrived this morning from the San Marga Temple Iraivan carving site in Bangalore, India.

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara writes:

The yalli pillar was carved overlooking the wall where you can notice the side and front elevation drawings . Beside it was a cement model to capture the exact shape and style. Each pillar weighs over 3500 kilos. The crane is lifting the pillar away to be erected on a special platform to check if there are any corrections before dispatching them to Kauai.

The Yalli Pillar are two special pillars that will be placed at the Raja Gopuram , the entrance to the Iraivan temple. The pillar is carefully lashed using a nylon sling rope.

The Yalli pillars is placed upright with the use of the crane.

The panel in grey granite is the ceiling for the namaskaram mandapam. This comprises of 3 stones with very rich ornamental carvings. The centre portion has 6 parrots carved at a depth of 12 inches. Here, Selvanathan is drawing to show how the parrot will look like.

Selvanathan was very happy on the quality of the carvings achieved by normal stone carvers.

Selvanathan Sthapati who has been working on Iraivan from the start came from Chennai to our worksite to check on the final drawings that need to be carved and etched on blackstone for the Namaskaram Mandapam flooring. Present are Chidambaram, our resident sthapati and manager, Jiva Rajasankara.

Discussions are in progress to finalize the flooring concept where the red stone flooring meets the black stone panel.

Before I forget, This namaskaram Mandapam is in the centre of the main mandapam of Iraivan Temple, a very special place where our Satguru , Bodhinatha Veylanswami will prostrate. It is a restricted place only for the Satguru.

A silpi is busy carving a manikattai , a small knob like to be placed
on the hand rails.

Selvanathan is discussing with Thangavelu our chief ornamental carver on some carving details.

Discussions on the red stone flooring in progress.

Both pillars were erected taking into account the actual space that will be available. Three devotees can easily pass through. Here is the main supervising team responsible to bring Iraivan to reality. Standing from left are Chidambaram Pillai our resident sthapati, Thangavelu our chief ornamental carver , Selvanathan Sthapati and Jiva Rajasankara.

We were searching for over 4 months for suitable land to shift Iraivan worksite, as the current site will soon no longer be available. Some land was too far away, some were too expensive and some had some legal complications in the land documents. Finally, Jiva decided to pull out his 2 acre vanilla farm which is just next to the present worksite. It was an tough decision to take, to write off over US$35,000. He made a great sacrifice for a good cause- to continue carving Iraivan . Most important is the silpis will be happy to continue work in the same village. What you see is the small Ganesha shrine at the back where we plan to conduct the morning puja for the silpis. We will be creating a shrine to place the photos and tiruvadi of Gurudeva and Bodhinatha.

Shanmugavelan, brother of Selvanathan was deputed to draw a master plan according to Vaastu so that the worksheds, office, silpis quarters and mess are located at the right locations.

Selvanathan making some changes it the master plan, giving
his reasons for the change.

Kanmani was also present for the meeting.

Shanmugavelan sharings his thoughts. At the back ground you can see the high wall measuring about 10 feet which goes around the 2 acre land. It will be totally protected from intruders and will have a lot of privacy to carve our Iraivan Temple to completion. More photos will follow once the work commences.