Bodhinatha giving his wonderful Sun One talk yesterday on a section from Merging with Siva. Don’t miss it… It’s on line today.

High above the Wailua River with Mt. Waialeale off in the distance and the sacred Iraivan Temple visible in the background, a visiting family from Seattle poses for a photo.

Somasundaram Ramanathan, his wife Vijaya, and their son, Arun (age 14) and daughter Soundaraya (age 11). All are originally from Chennai, India.

The Somasundaram family in front of the very beautiful Dakshinamurthy seated under a banyan tree.

Arun holds the blue-black granite chain, hand-carved by our silpis in Bangalore, which has visitors from all over the world wondering in amazement . . .

. . . and in front of the future entrance of the Iraivan Temple with Yoginathaswami and four of our very fine stone artisans.

Iraivan is looking really marvelous these days. With the roof top scaffolding one has a sense of the temple in it’s finished form.

Roof beams being worked on, down on the foundation

A walk around the sanctum…

up the stairs…

and inside the future home of the Crystal Siva Lingam….

The sanctum doorway.

Bodhinatha usually has darshan with pilgrims the day of or the day before their departure. Here is Kulapati Balu Devado, Kulamata Parimala Balu and son Hiranyavaha “Hiranya” Balu and Hiranya served with the Siddhidata Kulam during their stay. It was a joy to have our Malaysian devotees with us. Come again soon!

Thilagarani and Parimala Selvaraj sister pilgrimaged from Sungai Petani, Malaysia, to be here for Skanda Shasthi. It is their first visit to Kauai Aadheenam, a long time coming since they have been studying our late Gurudeva’s teaching for over 17 years.

Kulamata Kavita Mardemootoo popped in from Mauritius for a short visit, on her way to visit relatives in California

Subbarao, Swarnalatha, and Amarnath Ravva from San Francisco, originally from Andra Pradesh, India. On the left is Subbarao’s mother, Ramadevi, who is visiting from Hydrabad, India. “It is unbelievable that such a beautiful handcarved stone temple is being constructed here on Kauai” commented Swarnalatha. “We definitely want to return for the Mahakumbha Abhishekam.”

Another very happy couple, Amir and Ami Chima, on their first visit to the Iraivan temple. They are both financial consultants from the Bay Area and are originally from Gujarat and Punjab. Friends who had previously visited the Aadheenam strongly recommended that they pilgrimage here. They both agreed they feel “so blessed to be here.”

Visitors today included three devout Tamil families here on pilgrimage.

R/L. Sivashanmugan Chandrasekar from Milpitas, CA; Venkataraman Geetha and wife from Phoenix, AZ; and Karthikeyan B. from Mylapore, Chennai. All enjoyed the puja and powerful darshan of the Kadavul Temple. They then toured the Iraivan Temple, chatted with the silpis, and marveled at the beautiful Chola architecture and wonderments of the Iraivan Temple.

Here is some photos from Discover India 2007

Jnanideva Cevvel came to visit and helped us run the
table.

One picture is with Jnani and I with the Ambassador of Mauritius to the US.

These event promotions are an important way to bring Gurudeva’s teachings to the world.

Chellappadeva and Banudevi have developed a lovely display…

Today was the holy day of Skanda Shashti. We had a very powerful homa and puja in the temple this morning. The pictures tell the story, as does the video below (high bandwidth, 92 megabyte, 16 minutes)

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Monday, November 19th.

Lord Muruga in the early morning, awaiting his bath…

Monks chanting Sri Rudram.

The Holy Vel has been taken out of the shrine and place by the yagna altar.

After the puja, Senthilnathaswami, our homa priest for the day, is paraded with the Kumbha pot on his head, out of the temple around Nandi and back to Lord Muruga’s shrine.

The abhishekam begins….

The murthi of Lord Muruga in Kadavul is consider one of the most beautiful of stone images.

The awesome moment of the milk abhishekam.

We have devotees from all over America

Vetri Vel Muruganukku!

A space just opened up on our 2008 Asian Odyssey for 1 person (a male to share a double occupancy room with another male). Here’s your chance to join Bodhinatha on this exotic adventure. A journey through ancient temples in Cambodia, mystical classes on meditation in Langkawi and Kerala, a devotionally drenched Thaipusam festival that is out of this world and a journey through south India to some of the most sacred temples in the world, joining in some of their grand sacred pujas.

If you are ready to go, please email Sadhaka Dandapani (danda@hindu.org) or call him on 808-822-3012, Ext 239. It’s on a first come first serve basis so don’t hesitate.

Please see our Innersearch website (LINK) for more info.

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On other interesting digital fronts, Robert Dakota who produces videos for WorldViewZ came to visit with Leilani Petranek last week and his visit is already up on you tube. Click here for more about his visit and You Tube videos on Iraivan and Kauai’s Hindu Temple. Note the slide show uses screen shots and you cannot actually click on the links in the slides. Go to the link below to view one of Robert’s videos.

Rudi Tanzi and his wife Dora Kovac meet with Bodhinatha today before departing tomorrow.

Archana and sister, Sarena Apte, and friends met with Bodhinatha today. Archana had been here last year with her family but her sister was not with them so she was keen to have her sister meet Bodhinatha on this trip.

Gurudeva Mahasamadhi ceremony was humbly performed this month in the quiet atmosphere of the Spiritual Park. It was an early evening pada puja. An auspicious moment for all those who attended.

It was a silent pada puja…..

One could feel the divine energies pervading the whole place…

Offering the traditional items to the sacred Tiruvadi.

The Spiritual Park was created after Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami had a divine vision of Lord Ganapati walking over that very place.

The 108 names of Gurudeva are about to be chanted by all the sishyas.

Arati to the Holy sandals while everyone chants the Guru Mantra…

Feeling Gurudeva’s darshan at that peak moment ….

The arati is followed by a silent meditation.

Then everyone was entertained by a video projection on Gurudeva, a nice movie from Kauai.

The place was suddenly filled with the voice of Gurudeva, while everyone watched in silence Gurudeva’s vision of Iraivan Temple on the Garden Island of Kauai, Hawaii.

Kulapati Siven Koothan read a message on affirmation from Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami for that special occasion. Kulapati asked all the sishays present to read aloud one affirmation Satguru Bodhinatha recommends the whole family to read together every morning in the home shrine.

The youth helping with the sacred offerings from the pada puja.

From left, Yudananda Munian, Paramasiven Canagasaby and Appa, one of our most senior MC students.

Suganda Caramben and his little brother…..

Kulapati Kulagan distributing paper plates…

Kulapati Mougam has been offering a meal for that occasion. It was Divali eve. The sishyas had a wonderful time that evening at the Spiritual Park enjoying Gurudeva’s darshan.

Bodhinatha attended the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai meeting today. Thought the group is small, participants are committed to holding high the flag of tolerance and interfaith harmony on our small island.

It was tour day today… lots of visitors. The front of the temple looks marvelous!

Kartikeya and his wife are originally from Tamil Nadu but now live in California. This is their 2nd visit up to the monastery in the last few days and they plan to be back for our Skanda Shashti homa.

Uday Dave, his wife, Aruna, and son Nish are visiting us today from Kentucky. They are long time subscribers to Hinduism Today and have always wanted to visit the monastery. After their tour of the grounds they had a nice meeting with Arumugaswami sharing with him their thoughts on the magazine.

Bodhinatha arrived home late this afternoon from California.

Everyone goes to greet him

Saravananathaswami was his traveling companion

Sandee Cohen is here for some morning training sessions in our main publications’ software, Adobe InDesign.

Monks are learning the intricacies of XML and using Grep inside of InDesign to find and replace text.

Sandee has a bright spirit and clear, simple way of conveying concepts, which is why she is such a great presenter and trainer.

After an intense session, a break to visit the temple.

A few shots from another crane lift this morning.

Sun Two at the Aadheenam. Bodhinatha is still in California and will return tomorrow. More news after he returns.

Many wonderful guests have visited the Temple during Gurudeva’s Mahasamadhi Ceremonies and now the Skanda Shasthi festival.

left to right: Annapur and Anusuya Sivakumar who is a microbiologist. Their daughter, Deepti and son-in-law, both physicians, all originally from outside Bangalore and now living in Libertyville, IL. All attend the Chicago temple. The whole family made the pilgrimage to celebrate Annapur’s 60th birthday. On the far right is Satya and Nanda Dornadula from Fremont, CA where there is a large Hindu community.

All our guests enjoyed a wonderful morning attending the puja and touring the Iraivan Temple and grounds.

More guests arrived today and were blessed to see the Jalakam stone windows in place each side of the Yallis. Here they pose for a photo with our very dedicated and gifted silpis.

R/L Newlyweds, Michael and Sara from Florida. Michael is somewhat familiar with Hindu temple architecture and has helped sculpt Kalashas and capstones while also studying Stapatyaveda. Next is Sulochana and Deepal Mohan on their second visit since 2004; and Nancy Gardner who studied with Gurudeva back in 1972 in SF; and also Anupam Shah who heard about the temple through reading a friend’s HT magazine. He made his first pilgrimage in February 07 and is very happy to be here again today. A warm welcome to you all!

Stepping back to the last days of last phase and the stone lift during the retreat… pilgrims try their best to chip the stone.

This family arrived on Kauai to see the temple and unexpectedly joined in all the religious activities. They were overjoyed.

Larry Conklin, our crane operator, on the job.

On top of the roof, the jalakam is moving into place

Our ladies watching from the distance.

Here we go with a second jalakam….

It was another successful day at Iraivan…

Here is Bodhinatha with the young Swami Nithyananda at the opening of his new Siva temple in California. This is the first Hindu temple in the Montclair.

Here is Bodhinatha and Saravananathaswami seated next to a giant Sivalingam. Swami Nithyananada was raised and did much of his sadhana at Arunachala, in South India.

A local newspaper writes:

“The Montclair site originally was a six-theater United Artists cinema before housing the Rock of Life Community Church, which sold the building last month to the Duarte-based Life Bliss Foundation, a Hindu organization running the new temple.”

Swami follows the Smarta Vedanta tradition.

Back at home we had our homa this morning.

Mahasamadhi high-resolution photos online!

For those who missed it, we now have a simple catalog of the images in their original format. It’s a great opportunity to take a closer look into this joyous celebration of Gurudeva’s life. Click here.

Thinks are quiet now after the Maha Samadhi observances with most pilgrims having returned home. But Kadavul Temple is still scintillating with a high actinic energy, flooding out through time from the earlier ceremonies to today.

This morning’s homa witnessed the Karnaveda, ear-boring of Saroja Devi Manickam from Colorado.

She is a brave little lady and took the boring with equinimity.

First the left…

Then the right

Palaniswami gave a talk this morning in Bodhinatha’s absence. He spoke about the on-going research into Gurudeva’s time in Sri Lanka. He read parts of a letter from Gurudeva to a friend in America sent in March, 1947, in which Gurudeva describes how wonderful Sri Lanka is. The letter included a poem by Gurudeva which said, “boiling down the mind, boiling down the mind, boiling down the mind, until only the aum remains.”

He also quoted parts of a 1958 letter from Kandiah Chettiar whom Gurudeva spent a long time with in Alaveddy Sri Lanka. In it Kandiah describes how he met Gurudeva in Colombo and later how Gurudeva met Yogaswami.

Out at Iraivan, stones on top of the temple…raised up by yesterdays’ stone lift.

Another Jalakam was placed

Our team is doing a great job.

Rudi and Dora, Master Course students and innersearchers are here from Boston.

A visit to the cows. Little Veda is trying to see if he can extract some milk from Dora’s hands…

Rudi at for a few minutes with Palaniswami and Arumugaswami discussing how Hindus might augment Hindu studies in the academic world through grants, scholarships and funding of university chairs.

Today we the blessed annual puja to Gurudeva on the Chitra Nakshatra, the day before Deepavali. We were blessed with the presence of two Sivachariyas who performed a pada puja.

Here is Bodhinatha during the puja, deeply absorbed in the presence of Gurudeva who permeated the whole space with his infinite love.

Mahasamadhi high-resolution photos now online!

The monastery is offering a simple catalog of the images in their original format. It’s a great opportunity to take a closer look into this joyous celebration of Gurudeva’s life. Click here.

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dvitiya Tithi, Sun One, Saturday, November 10th.

Our two priests with the help of some of the monks perform the abhishekam to Gurudeva’s padukas.

Kandasamy Gurukkal from Canada.

Toronto’s Chandra Gurukal

Click here to view another slide show in remembrance of Gurudeva.
Once the index page is onscreen, click on the first small thumbnail to begin the slideshow. Then click on the NEXT button to navigate through all the slides.

The abhishekam begins…

We bring you the word of
Sivayogaswami in praise of the Guru…

“He is
the Sat-Guru, who is Self-luminous.
He is beyond the
plane of objective consciousness.”

“It is the Guru’s grace, his infinite grace, his ineffable, perennial fount of grace, that alone can endow man with a deep insight into the soul of things.”

“He illumines everyone to see by the light of grace radiating
within each being. His rays also lighten the universe which
is constructed of the five elemental powers. Who can see if
he Luminous One wills it not?”

“By the grace of my Teacher, subdued is my Ego.
By the grace of my Teacher, exhilarated is my self.
By the grace of my Teacher, intensified is my Love.
The grace of my Teacher betokens his veiling Power.”

“I see Him and yet I see Him not,
This is the annunciation of our Guru,
That wheresoever thou art, there I am–Siva, Siva.”

“By the grace of my Guru was overthrown my pride.
By the grace of my Guru, showers of grace were mine.
By the grace of my Guru, bliss infinite was mine.
By His grace myself and Guru commingled as One.”

Oh mother mine, he came on earth in human form.
He whom Brahma and Vishnu fail to perceive.
He assuaged my griefs and gave me his vision.

“Have you known my Jnana Guru? He is my beloved who has given me the support of the Mulamantra AUM, and in compassion he has taken his place in my heart.”

“Salutation to the Holy Feet of my Sat Guru!
He enlightened me with supra-mental consciousness,
Beyond the avenues of sense experiences.
He initiated me to know my inner self.
Look inward and realize, was his benediction.
He showered greater love than that of a mother,
And I consecrated my all at his Feet.
Salutation to the beauteous Feet of Grace!

“Have you known my Jnana Guru? He is my beloved who has given me the support of the Mulamantra AUM, and in compassion he has taken his place in my heart.”

Bodhinatha sits with our two priests after the puja…

Later in the morning Bodhinatha give his final seminar.

Each one attending receives a souvenir… a special picture of Gurudeva and a DVD of movie footage of Gurudeva from past years.

We have all been blessed to be together in the light of Gurudeva’s grace, brought together by the power of the Kailasa Parampara. It is sweet bliss to have the satsang of like-minded souls dedicated to God and Guru.

Thank you Gurudeva!

Bodhinatha meets with several families today.

This is Manickam Senthivel’s son from Vancouver who recently married a young lady in Sri Lanka just six months ago. Bodhinatha blesses the young couple.

Manickavel, (top left) his son, daughter-in-law and wife from Vancouver, Canada.

Mrunal, Padmaja and Pooja Patel family are here again from Texas. They are students of the Master Course.

Picking up the thread of activities… Yesterday afternoon everyone went to Poipu for a late afternoon outing. The location is called “Ship Wreck Beach” at the far end of the island. Recent storms have brought us heavy seas, and the site is spectacular after a walk to the top of the bluff.

Our goal was to watch the sunset from this side of the island… it is always a beautiful experience.

After intense pujas and classes, the devotees relax and enjoy satsang in the midst of Siva’s natural ocean wonder world.

A raffle was held, and everyone who had a ticket got a small prize which was given out by Bodhinatha.

The sweetness of being together with those in the shelter of Siva’s love… it is all Gurudeva’s gift to use and the gift of the Guru Parampara.

This morning’s homa was conducted by two Sivachariyas from Canada.

On the right is Chandrasekara Gurukkal, originally from Vellore, and the left is Kandasamy Gurukkal, both living in Toronto now.

It was also the most auspicious occasion of the Namakarana of Rajan Sankara, our newest premonastic monk.

Click here is a small slide show and more captions on this morning’s events.

Rajan Shankara, who had been with us on Task Force earlier this year, returned home and legally changed his name. He is having his Namakarana Samskara today.

He reads from his Namakarana Certificate his declaration before God, Gods and Guru:

Namakarana Samskara
Hindu Name-Giving Sacrament

“I, Rajan Shankara formerly known as , having declared of my own volition acceptance of the principles of the Sanatana Dharma, including a firm belief in all-pervasive Divinity and the Vedic revelations of karma, dharma and purvajanma, and having severed all previous non-Hindu religious affiliations, attachments and commitments, hereby humbly petition entrance into the Saivite sect of the Hindu religion through the traditional Namakarana Samskara.”

“I plead for recognition and acceptance of this irrevocable conversion to Saivite Hinduism by the community of devotees witnessing this sacred rite.”

Signature of devotee: Rajan Shankara

It is Hereby Certified that this devotee was at a namakarana samskara held at Kadavul Hindu Temple on the auspicious day of November 6, 2007, duly given a Hindu name in accordance with the traditions of Hinduism before God, Gods and devas.

This person is thus bound eternally and immutably to the Hindu religion as a member of this most ancient faith with full rights of access to all public Hindu temples, shrines and institutions throughout the world from this day onward.

Witnesses:

Officiating priest:
Kandasamy Gurukkal

Again, we have to thank Gurudeva for bringing us this wonderful traditional method of formally entering the Hindu religion. Read all about it in his book “How to Become (a Better) Hindu”