Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Will Iraivan’s 35 Bronze Panels Last 1,000 Years?

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  • Celestial bronze from Central Europe
  • This panel summarizes the mission/purpose of the monastery.
  • It’s a simple detail but it took many years to create.
  • Local craftsmen install one of the panels.
  • The had to drill deep into the hard granite, so they brought Tiny to do it
  • Almost a decade to sculpt the perimeter wall and the frames for the inset panels.

Recent visitors have asked the monks, “Iraivan is designed to last a thousand years. Will the bronze panels have to be replaced before that?”

A great question since ordinary metal is seen to rust and disintegrate in a couple of centuries. We dove into it to respond meaningfully. What we found was that bronze works from ancient India (Mohenjodaro) are alive and well 4,500 years after they were created. Bronze works go back farther, 6,500 years back in Serbia. Above you are looking at the famed Nebra Sky Disc (c. 1800–1600 BCE) fabricated in present-day Germany. A flat bronze disc with gold inlays, sometimes considered the earliest “designed surface” bronze object. It shows celestial symbols—arguably the closest early example to a true decorated bronze panel.

Our Iraivan panels will survive as long as the temple, carrying forward the history and mysticism of the temple.

You can explore the art and text of any (or all) of the panels here:

himalayanacademy.com/iraivan-temple/bronze-panels-of-iraivan-temple

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Gifts of Wood

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We were able to get three straight logs from the recently felled rudraksha tree clump. They are around 13 feet long and will provide valuable milled boards over the next few weeks. Kumarnathaswami painted the ends right away to protect the logs from insect infestation.

Meanwhile, nearby the milling area is a hibiscus field where we gradually add more tree branch mulch around the trunks. Not only providing nutrients as it breaks down, the mulch also helps regulate ground temperature around the plant and of course suppresses grass and weeds that would compete for nutrients.

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Leaning Tower of Rudraksha (Tree)

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As we shared a week or so ago, recent strong winds were too much for a very tall rudraksha tree clump that has been growing in a low swampy area for decades soon after the Ganesha shrine on San Marga path. The clump was uprooted, but rather than falling all the way down, it got stuck at a 45-degree angle on more rudraksha trees on the other side of the path.

Cutting down a tree clump in this scenario is very dangerous because the weight distribution is difficult to predict. Fortunately we have professionals on the job. We got some photos of the beginning stages and thought we could come back later in the afternoon to capture some of the biggest pieces being felled, but they moved so quickly that the clump was all down by the time we came back mid afternoon!

  • They had to first remove some other tree branches that were in the way
  • A large piece in the midst of falling after being cut
  • Despite all the experience and best efforts, the chainsaw got stuck at least once. They had to attach rope to a section and pull the branch down with with a excavator arm
  • Another recent rainbow

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Our Newest Book Is Online at Amazon

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  • The book proof arrives from Amazon with a grey “Not for Sale” band across the cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Translator Dr. B. Natarajan hears Tayumanavar’s songs for the first time
  • The poet’s love of religious harmony, samarasam, is depicted
  • Ten of the works of art are by Kerala muralist, Suresh Muthukulam. Here he shows a Vedantist and a Siddhantist both receiving Siva’s blessings. Their love of Siva is feeding both traditions through the intertwined roots below.
  • The Muruga temple near Trichy where many of the songs were composed
  • Inside the Muruga temple, Tayumanavar composes on palm leaves
  • The itinerant mystic poet would often scold Siva
  • A typical page showing the songs in Tamil and English

We are celebrating the publishing of our latest book, The Songs of Tayumanavar. Most CyberCadets will have followed our long process (some four or five years in all) from Kerala art to Singapore audio recordings to design and typesetting and editing and more art by DALL*e, and now it is done. The proof arrived some days back. Finding no errors, we released it for sale. It is available here: nall.ai/tayu-book-amazon. It’s a full-color, 540-page tome, so it is a bit pricey, but it is full of some of the most amazing mystical/devotional poems ever composed. As with all of our books, it will be online in a couple of weeks in PDF format, free to the world. The PDF will make a great gift to all who love Siva. We think it will prove to be the most authentic English translation ever done. The remarkable work (all 1,452 songs) was personally gifted to Gurudeva in the 1980s by Dr. B. Natarajan, the translator.

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The Two Perfections of Our Soul, 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.

“The struggle with the mind is an easy struggle if you are constantly vigilant, all of the time, doing always what you know you should do, not allowing the mind to become instinctive, not excusing the mind when it does become instinctive, not allowing the mind to justify, rationalize, excuse, become combative, but making the mind always remain poised, like a hummingbird over a flower, so that you begin to live in the eternal now, constantly, permanently. And then the within becomes natural to you, not something you hear about, study about, talk about, sing about, for you become open, awakened within. “

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New Monastery Residents

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Several days ago we welcomed two young men who arrived here just in time to help prepare for and attend the Iraivan Temple annual Samvatsara Puja.

Nithya Shankaran Mogan arrived first from Singapore, on his very first visit to Kauai for a month. He is a longtime sishya in Saiva Siddhanta Church along with his late father, his mother, sister and brother. While he currently works in Singapore, his family is from Malaysia. He turned 31 yesterday; Happy Birthday!

About a day later, Arinien Mootoocurpen arrived from Mauritius to pursue the monastic path. It was the culmination of months of preparation, including a special visa application and entering the first stage of pre-monastic life which we call Aspirancy. He first flew to Kauai some years back to experience the monastic path for several months in order to be familiar with his life path options. Arinien comes from a family who are also longtime sishyas in Saiva Siddhanta Church. With plenty of joyful tears, family members and other sishyas in Mauritius wished him well for his chosen path.

  • Nithya Shankaran Mogan
  • Arinien Mootoocurpen
  • Putting infrastructure away after Iraivan Samvatsara Puja
  • Recent beginning of a rainbow after lots of rain

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