All is peaceful and serene here. While the monks are quietly focused on various projects, lots of guests are coming and going outside.

While we sit stationed in the middle of Hawaii, from here many small mission dramas are unfolded and directed in distant places. Bodhinatha continues in Gurudeva’s footsteps on the path of supporting groups far and wide, even when he is not traveling.

The Pillaiyar Kulam gave their news today and Sadhaka Jothinatha has this story along these lines of “remote support.”

Following the tradition begun by Gurudeva, Bodhinatha gives Ganesha murthis to temples and societies that are just establishing themselves. “Begin the worship of Ganesha immediately and He will make the way smooth for you,” Gurudeva would say. He gave such murthies to dozens of temples, each of which has subsequently come up and thrived. When a group of Hindu students at the University of Arkansas established a chapter of the Hindu Student Council a couple of weeks ago, they communicated with Bodhinatha and requested a murthi for that very purpose. Bodhinatha immediately sent them this sweet, gentle and loving 16.5-inch, 48 lb. granite Ganesha, shown here just as he arrived at his new home.

Even while the murthi was still in transit, blessings already began to pour. Jiger Patel, center, sent us this note. “We might call it a miracle of Lord Ganesha! The Lord Ganesha Murthi has still not arrived and some students are seriously talking about building a Mandir for Him. Some went as far as saying that even if it takes few years or we are just able to rent a apartment for a year, we need to give our Murthi a permanent place. News of Ganesha’s coming has already inspired us to the point of having these wild thoughts…” Jiger and his friends, Anu Aggrawal and Sandeep Goyal, thought they should worship Ganesha as soon as they unpacked him. Jiger is a resident of the USA and Anu and Sandeep are residents of India.

Ganesha is temporarily installed.

And Anu offers the first Arathi. “We chanted few basic mantras of Hindu Dharma, then Ganesha Aarti and then chanted Lord Ganesha’s 108 names… It was a great experience, and I will like to sincerely say thank you to Satguru Bodhinatha and all the monks of Kauai Monastery. I wish to personally meet and touch the divine feet of the monks of your monastery. In the future, I look forward to working with your monastery to protect our great Dharma.” Looks as though Ganesha did his magic and they are off to a wonderful start.

(right) Norm and Lois Sims (who are the parents of a well known local Veterinarian, Dr. Scott Sims) and two family friends, Diana and Kirt from Utah. All making their first trip to the Kauai Aadheenam and the Iraivan Temple.

Norm said that he was “so very happy we came. This has been a truly wonderful experience for us all.”

On a slightly different but similar note. The Tamil community invited Bodhinatha to the 11th Saiva Conference in Switzerland. Though he was unable to attend personally, Bodhinatha prepared a video that will be presented on screen as a Keynote Address to the group.

It is called:

Saivism: Unity in Diversity

A rich presentation with his voice over and translations into Tamil by Sivayogapathy, dubbed in, it will be a powerful
digital presence at the conference.

Our lull in visitor flow only lasted for a day or so. All morning visitors have been coming and going. Thanks to Brahmacharini Shama Kumaran for taking care of everyone, taking these pictures and sending us the captions.

Also arriving for the morning Abishekam and a tour of the Iraivan Temple were a group of fourteen enthusiastic joyful souls who comprised of the Shahs, Patels, and Shuklas all from Chicago Also present (far right) is Gyaneshwaram Aruna Pillay and his wife. Mr. Pillay is the ex-General Secretary of the Sri Siva Subramanium Kovil in Nadi Fiji. He and his wife now reside in Washington State.

Following the tour Mr. Patel remarked in wonder “This has been a great experience. Who would have imagined such a wonderful place existed in Hawaii!”

A few more photos of the seminar with Paramacharya Palaniswami at Quatre Bornes. Each participant on introduction received a rudraksha seed that has been harvested at Kauai Aadheenam.

Later during the day Paramacharya Palaniswami explained with the support of a slide show the Saivite mystical importance of these blue marble seeds…

A table with our few youngest participants at the seminar ……

Sonja Schneider (left) from Austria has read Loving Ganesha and is learning more about Hinduism from the seminar today…

From left Mithun, Ananda and Anandee have been helping with setting up the conference hall early morning for the seminar….

From our membership (left), Gayavatee, Arulmani and and Ariadassy

Earlier before the first break Paramacharya Palaniswami talked about an experience of Gurudeva’s previous birth in Vienna when explaining the concept of reincarnation…..

Paramacharya Palaniswami also referred to the concept of Positive Discipline to answer one of the questions regarding raising children. Parents are to be generous with their praise and appreciation, making children know that they are loved and valued, that who they are makes a difference and life is full of promise.

The Rungapen sisters from the north …… Selna and Selvi have enrolled in the Master Course study….

Returning from the seminar Paramacharya Palaniswami and Yogi went directly to the north at the Siva Soopramaniar Temple at Cap Malheureux where Palaniswami was invited to give a talk. The event was coordinated by Kulapati Manon. Young girls greet our Spiritual guests with a kolattum dance.

After welcoming our Swami and Yogi inside the temple for an arati to Lord Ganesha, Muruga and Siva, Paramacharya Palaniswami was invited to meet a few local archagars. Swami said that archagars are divine workers and they are to get everyone’s respect and esteem for the divine job they are doing at the temple.

After the meeting, Paramacharya Palaniswami gave a talk in the open air to the members of the temple and their families. Paramacharya Palaniswami paid homage to the Tamils who have been spreading Saivism all over the world.

Paramacharya Palaniswami and Yogi and everyone present were invited to dinner at the temple.

Built in 1985, the Cap Malheureux Aroul Migou Siva Soopramaniar Kovil was completely renovated in 2006 at the cost of some one million rupees. A new sanctum has been added for the navagraha or nine planets. This temple was built at a time when Mauritius was undergoing a Saivite renaissance in the 80’s when the local Tamil community was claiming its original religious identity.

A beautiful gopuram with sculptured images of Ganesha, Siva and Muruga….

A beautiful Ganesha jetting out at the back wall of the temple.