Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Mayil Kovil Visit

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  • Beginning the evening ascent up to the hillside temple
  • A view of the temple (in the background behind the hall) just before dusk
  • Shishaya wait at the base of the steps to warmly greet our swamis
  • Greeting Shivacharya at the top
  • The view of the town from the temple at night is quite lovely
  • Paramacharya is seated to give an upadesha to everyone
  • The temple’s hereditary manager introduces the monks
  • Aum Saravanabhavaya Namah

    • Vel Muruga!

    Recently while in Mauritius, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami traveled to Quatre Bornes for an evening event at the Mayil Kovil there, which resides upon the nearby Corps-de-Garde hillside. Arriving in the evening, our swamis led the march up the nearly 300 steps stairway to the temple. Several hundred people were in attendance. After being greeted by the resident Shivacharya, the group circumambulated the temple and then stepped inside for worship at the main shrines, concluding with an arati to Lord Murugan. Paramacharya was then asked to give an upadesha to everyone. He discussed many of the joys and strengths of Hinduism, as well as provided advice for handling the encroachment from other religions, while including some stories about the advice that Gurudeva had given many years ago to crowds in Sri Lanka. Aum.

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    The Joyous Devotee, Nandi

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  • A song-filled welcome to the swamis from Hawaii.
  • At the Sivalingam Mandapam
  • Rohit chants the mantras.
  • With the river behind, Nandi gets a bath of milk.
  • And sandalwood.
  • Then flower decorations and final arati.
  • Nandi’s importance is shared with a large crowd.
  • Shining from His oil bath, H seems happy with the special rudraksha mala brought from Kauai for the occasion.
  • We go back a month to the arrival and installation.
  • Hard working team makes it happen.
  • A stone is selected as the foundation.

    • Early in the Mauritius mission, Sadasivanathaswami and Tillainathaswami were enthusiastically paraded through the Spiritual Park to the Sivalingam Mandapam. The path became a river of devotion, alive with sweet chants, flower petals, and a palpable, loving welcome from all present.

    They were headed to a sacred consecration abhishekam for the newly arrived Nandi, recently brought from India. After an arati to the 9-foot-tall Panchaganapati who presides over the Park, the procession continued another 100 feet to the Sivalingam Mandapam.

    There, Paramacharya offered an arati to Lord Siva and was then invited to bathe the newly installed Nandi murti with milk, sandalwood paste, and other sacred offerings. He had brought with him a small vial of holy water preserved from the 2023 abhishekam of Mahalingeshvara in Kauai, which was affectionately poured over Nandi.

    A short talk followed, celebrating Nandi’s unwavering, joyous focus on God Siva and Gurudeva’s call to each of us to fill both our spiritual and daily life with the presence of Siva and the constant protection of the parampara. We also show a few installation photos at the end of the slideshow.

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    Darshan, Grace of the Guru, Part Four

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    Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

    “Still a certain darshan power goes out to him, but the guru no longer consciously inwardly works with him as an individual. He knows it is too dangerous to work with this fluctuating aspirant, for there is no telling how he might take and use the accumulating power that would later be awakened within him. The satguru makes such a one prove himself to himself time and time again and to the guru, too, through sādhana and tapas. Sādhana tests his loyalty, consistency and resolution. Tapas tests his loyalty as well as his personal will, for he does tapas alone, gaining help only from inside himself, and he has to be aware on the inside to receive it. A wise guru never hesitates to “put him through it,” so to speak.“

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    Conversing in Shum Language

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    • Easan Katir, a Saiva Siddhanta Church senior sishya, has been teaching the Shum language for decades, mostly recently through video conferences. He includes conversational Shum in the seminars. With the help of AI and a student devotee, Akash Katir, he has now created a website with primer lessons for learning conversational Shum. The first three lessons are complete and available here.

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    Darshan, Grace of the Guru, Part Three

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    Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

    “Everyone has some feelings radiating from within, but they are emanations that fluctuate. Because you feel these vibrations coming from them, you can intuit how they are feeling. They do not emanate a constant or a building flow. It is a fluctuating flow of emotional, or astral, energy. The darshan I am explaining is really the energies flowing from the deeper chakras, sahasrāra and ājñā, the seventh and sixth chakras, or psychic force centers, in the head, through the kuṇḍalinī force within the spine. These energy flows do not fluctuate as the emotional odic-force energies do. They go on day and night and night and day through the illumined soul. Those devotees who are in tune with the guru can feel his physical presence when he enters their town because the darshan gets stronger. And it feels to them more ethereal when he is farther away.“

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    Swamis in Mauritius

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  • Meeting with the kulapaatis & kulamatas
  • On day three we visited the nursery of Nadesh Krishnan who helps the Spiritual Park garden team in many ways (in blue shirt).
  • We visited his Murugan temple briefly. He is erecting a Murugan murti in the style of the 140′ tall Batu Caves statue, but three centimeters taller!
  • A morning with shishyas and students in the newly named Muruga Mandapam.
  • Swami takes all present through a guided meditation.
  • After a gathering with all of the sevaks (there are some 50 in all), lunch is served.
  • An amazing group of Sivathondars who guide the events and projects at the Spiritual Park, some for 40 years

    • Sadasivanathaswami and Tillainathaswami are in Mauritius the last few days as you saw earlier, spending more time than usual with members, both in groups and individually. As scripture says, nothing brings greater joy to a Sivabhaktar than being with other Sivabhaktars, and the devotees here are amazing. Amazing in their dedication, amazing in their service to others, amazing in their exemplary sadhanas and more than amazing in their rarified presence, a purity derived from decades of putting Gurudeva’s teachings into practice. They have done the work, and it shows. The last photo in the gallery captures the September 30 meeting of the kulapatis. Standing are the senior ones and seated are the newly installed younger leaders. The leadership has thus strengthened significantly, assuring the dynamic growth of the Spiritual Park continues long into the future.

    In one of the talks, Paramacharya gave a Gurudeva quote that is worth repeating here: “The Natha Sampradaya has revealed the search for the innermost divine Self, balanced by temple worship, fueled by kundalini yoga, charted by monistic theism, illumined by a potent guru-shishya system, guided by soul-stirring scriptures and awakened by sadhana and tapas.”

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