Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Satguru’s Publisher’s Editorial from the January/February/March, 2025 edition of Hinduism Today Magazine

A small portion of our large coconut. supply

Vel helps pick coconuts

Garlands are prepared at the new shop

Jai Ganesha!

Coming up on the 12th of January the monks will be celebrating Maha Ardra in Kadavul Temple! This festival is an important event for Nataraja, as it is the worshiping of Siva in form, as opposed to Mahsivaratri, which is for the Formless Absolute. For this, the mathavasi have been making garlands and preparing 108 coconuts, ten different types of prasadam, panchamirtham, 108 gallons of milk, yogurt, citrus juice and more, all for the abhishekam. Everything will be done on a grand scale. All the offerings will be prepared by the monks and taskforcers, apart from the prasadam which will be done by our Head Chef, Mani. Satguru will preside over the event while Yoginathaswami will be the head pujari and all the other mathavasi will help with the puja, the chanting and the abhishekam—especially the passing of 108 coconuts into the sanctum. Every year a great deal of planning and preparations goes into this event by the monks, as it’s one of the biggest pujas of the year. We won’t be able to do live streaming of the event since we can’t take video or photo of Kadavul Nataraja but we encourage you to connect in mind and spirit from your home shrine during the puja. We hope everyone has a great time on this auspicious day. Aum Namah Sivaya!

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.

“It is necessary for spiritual unfoldment on the path to enlightenment to live among others, be loyal, faithful, not promiscuous, to settle down and establish a cooperative routine of community life. Living among others—even having roommates who think, believe and have adopted the same spiritual, religious disciplines—grants the burden of good conduct, prompt resolution of problems and an abidance of sharing, giving and caring during the trials and happinesses that naturally arise in living with others.“

Jai Gurudeva!

Jai Gurudeva!

Today marks Gurudeva’s 98th jayanthi, meaning he would’ve been 98 years old today. To celebrate this auspicious event, in Alaveddy, Sri Lanka, devotees of our parampara performed a special puja for Gurudeva at the recently completed Paramparai Mandapam. They also recited the Thiruvasagam—one of the most sacred hymns for God Siva. This work was beautifully written by the Tamil Saint, Manickavasagar, as is full of spirituality and devotion. It contains 51 compositions and constitutes the eighth volume of the Tirumurai. It explains the connection of the soul to God Siva and how we should surrender ourselves to the feet of Lord Nataraja with purity and devotion, thus attaining moksha through His grace and divine power. Tiruvasagam holds within it core understandings of Saivism which few-other devotional songs provides. Below are words from our beloved Rishi Thondunathan about the event:

Today, we celebrated Gurudeva’s Jayanthi with the recitation of the entire Thiruvasagam hymns. The event began at 5:30 AM and concluded with a special puja at noon, followed by lunch for all attendees. Thanks to the Alaveddy Saivite Youth Organization for coordinating this meaningful event.

Love, Thondunathan 

Aum!

Jai Gurudeva!

We have this screen above Gurudeva’s samadhi shrine in Kadavul Temple which changes the image every hour or so. Gradually gathering the best vertical close-up photos of Gurudeva through the years, we recently added another batch and now rotate through 45 images. Here they are in this gallery.