Sun Four today… another quiet day at the Aadheenam.

Professional video producer and media productions project manager. He also has a deep background in audio. John hails from Texas and is now living on the Big Island of Hawaii and has come to do some consulting for the Ganapati Kulam future media initiatives.

John joined us for the morning staff meeting.

He talked to us about the intricacies of blue-green screen video production.

Chatting with Palaniswami about the various production scenarios.

Ashok and Nayana Vora came to Kauai from Massachusetts to visit the temple and were given a spontaneous tour. Ashok said that he and his wife felt that this was the highlight of their trip to the Islands.

Asha Rathina Pandi has been attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa for the past four years studying for her Ph.D in Sociology. Her mother, Mrs. Rathina Pandi, is visiting her from Malaysia. They came to Kauai to visit the temple. Asha periodically visits when her busy schedule allows her to do so.

This is the exquisite statue of Nataraja that now has found a home on the path of the Nayanars.

He lives right next to the lotus pond.

The God who was worshipped by the Saiva Saints.

A new addition to our monastery, a little calf.

It is Sun Three, a quiet day at the Aadheenam. All the monks are about their duties. Visitor traffic has some abated as everyone is gone back to school and work for the fall semester.

Meanwhile work on Gurudeva’s archives continues. One of the initiatives is the digitization of 80,000 plus photos in our archive. There’s a sampling in this
sweet slide show of Gurudeva in Europe, some time in the 1990’s.

That’s all for day.

Summa Iru: Be Still

It’s Sun 2 and we are posting Bodhinatha’s great upadesha the day after it was given. This is a “first” since Gurudeva’s Maha Samadhi. (Keeping current with our Satguru’s upadesha’s) Thanks to Hitesvara for his prompt transcription of the audio.

You will enjoy Bodhinatha’s insight and important insights on the prapatti, devotion vs emotion and importance of bhakti.

Tour day today… brings many bright souls

Our silpis arrived home on the retreat.. .It is great to have them back.

The Hawaiian Menehune holding up the water spout.

The newly renovated bridge to the shrine at the lotus pond which now holds a lovely statue of Lord Nataraja, signifying the form of God that inspired the saints at the beginning of the Path of the Saiva Saints.

“Umbrella Ganesha” on the way to Iraivan

Sadhaka Adinatha carefully watering more trees that will be planted on Himalayan Acres. His vision for 10,000 precious hard woods to be an endowment for the future is slowly but surely manifesting.

Silpi helper Kumar with Sadhaka Tejadevanathan

Acharya Kumarswami continues in the pursuit of fine woodworking on the retreats. Here is a small write table he made for one of the other monks.

Meanwhile Sivakatirswami is building custom bookshelves out of 100% Rudraksha wood. The wood comes Ffrom rough milled lumber harvested from our own property. The monastery plants thousands of trees each year and has the great privilege to take trees from our own land when needed. These have been joined and glued together into boards which are here being sanded.

Rudraksha wood has some remarkable properties for woodworking. It is light weight, but has a very tight grain and molecular integrity and strength. After you
work with it for a while you see why it was once used
for airplane propellers in days of yore.

Sannyasins Yoginathaswami and Senthilnathaswami have returned home also, but we have some retrospective stories from their last days in India

A visit to Bengaluru is not complete without going to Kailash Ashram. We had a wonderful darshan with Sri Jayendrapuriswami, the ashram head, who is the successor to Trichyswami. Having heard that Yoginathaswami was interested in learning how to make the big, fancy garlands offered by the millions in South Indian temples every day, Jayendrapuriswami arranged a lesson for us.

We also have another video from Swamimalai of the casting of the Avudiyar for Iraivan’s Maha Spatika Lingam below

It was Thursday night, so the highly skilled professional garland makers were set up to work through the night to make enough garlands for Friday worship at the ashram’s powerful and popular Rajarajeshwari Temple.

Garlands and flowers that would soon be garlands were piled everywhere.

This is a particularly beautiful style.

Our garland making teacher holds up a giant rose garland weighing about 15 kg.

The lesson begins. Wow, he’s fast! One half of a garland is completed in about a minute.

Next, it’s Yoginathaswami’s turn to try. The experts look on and give guidance.

When we returned to Chennai, we made a trip to nearby Mahabalipuram. This seaside town is a major source of black granite and is famous for carving. The six silpis who have been working on the temple on Kauai the past two years have been on vacation in India for a month. They have joined us for this visit and will return with us to Kauai. On the right in the red kurta is Gunalan Ponniah, a staunch devotee of Gurudeva and Bodhinatha originally from Malaysia and now living in Chennai.

Yoginathaswami stands with an almost-finished elephant who will stand on the steps approaching Iraivan Temple. He is holding a small globe up with his trunk.

This carving site has a giant stone cutting saw. It’s really, really big.

While walking around the facility, we noticed this collection of 54 Sivalingams.

Yoginathaswami and Jiva Rajasankara examine the cement model for the cow and calf elephants that will also be made three times this size, also for Iraivan Temple’s steps.

The design and execution on this model is exquisite.

Finally, the main reason we came to Mahabalipuram: Here is the Hanuman statue, almost finished and over nine feet tall, to be placed at Hanuman Landing, near Iraivan Temple. They were working on it when we arrived, but quickly engaged the crane so we could have a good look at it.

Hanuman will hold a small marble model of Iraivan Temple that is being carved up north in Rajasthan.

Bodhinatha gives another delightful Sun One upadesha to begin our new phase at the Aadheenam. He gave a commentary on the Merging with Siva Chapter 21 on “Total Surrender” or prapatti. He explained the difference between emotion and devotion, with emotion having its ups and downs, and devotion being a more calm, even expression of love for the Deity. He explained the importance of devotion or bhakti to any higher practice such as meditation.

A new phase begins with the sacred fire.

The traditional golden insignia of the Saivite Aadheenam Kartar, hanging on a Rudraksha necklace.

From the eyes of our every attentive and tireless guest host, Brahmacharini Shama Kumaran:

Another beautiful lotus in full bloom. Visitors often remark about the exceptional health of these lovely plants.

Another little flower with a sweet smile: “Sachi”

Sachi and her mother Anjulina Desai are here visiting from San Francisco with Sachi’s grandmother, Jyoti Karachiwala from Dallas, Texas.

Sunil and Vasundhara Kakodkar on their last day of pilgrimage, were present for the 6:00 a.m. Sun One homa, followed by a powerful Ardra abhishekam to Siva Nataraja.

Sunil and Vasundhara felt that their visit here had been “truly wonderful!”

Only at Kauai Aadheenam! . . .

They were just about to leave for the airport when Sunil suddenly ran into an old high school friend from Mumbai from many, many, many years ago.

Sunil and his wife pose for a last minute photo with his long lost friend, Sharad Dandekar, and his wife Smita.

This month’s Iraivan morning was held at Kulamata Amala Seyon’s home. Here is Kulamata Isani Alahan, Anusha Samugam from Singapore and Kulamata Amala.

Ganesha meets us at the door!

Kulamata Nagavathy was a delightful addition to our Iraivan Morning Karma Yoga day. Her family is on pilgrimage to Kadavul, all the way from Singapore.

Here is Uma Sivanathan sorting the rudraksha beads into size and number. Beads naturally come in tiny, small, medium, and large sizes.

Uma is a master gardener and a wonderful cook, who knows all the native Hawaiian plants. She also does a lot of karma yoga at the temple gardens.

Here is “Oma”, Deva Seyon’s mother. She is a dedicated karma yogi and works everyday on the Rudraksha project making many malas for the “Mini Mela” at Kadavul Temple.

Nagavathy, her husband and daughter are here on pilgrimage for seven days, drinking deep from the wellspring of Kadavul and Kauai Aadheenam.

Isani showing Nagavathy some of the finer points in the art of mala making. Isani is a major leader of this enormous project. Last month sales topped $3,000.00 towards the Iraivan building fund!

Anusha is a student in Singapore. The last time she was on Kauai was for the girls’ youth retreat about 7 years ago. Anusha added a wonderful youthful spirit to our small mission and we enjoyed her company immensely.

Iraivan Morning is a very successful, consistent, and sustainable pattern the Wailua Mission started years ago. It is made especially wonderful when our brothers and sisters from the East come to visit.

Kulapati Dohadeva has a wonderful easy going nature. He has been attending meditation classes at the Aadheenam, along with the various pujas and meeting with each of the swamis. His family was so “full of shakti” after spending the whole day at the temple the day before, none of them could sleep that night.

Here is Tandu Sivanathan stringing the “racks.” The racks allow the beads to spin as they are power-washed under incredible water pressure to clean the tiny faces of the beads. A professional gardener, and bonsi master, many of his creations can be found around Kadavul Temple.

Kulapti Durvasa Alahan oversees the timing and all aspects of the Rudraksha project. A highly skilled construction foreman on the island of Kauai he is currently in charge of finishing a large government project at Kokee State Park.

Our wonderful Brahmachari Rajadeva drills every single bead that is produced by the Wailua Rudraksha Project. It is a huge job that keeps us all supplied with the necessary beads for all aspects of the project. We so appreciate his dedicated work.

The “racks” were built years ago by Brahmacharya Rajadeva while on task force at the Aadheenam. They are made from solid oak and have taken amazing punishment over the years from the constant powerwashing. The fresh blue berries from the tree are processed into clean beads, rather than using ones that have falled and dried out. The latter tend to break apart easily.

Here is “Prana” the village cat. She can never get enough love and loves mission functions. Incredibly intellegent we have “trained” her not to kill the birds that frequent our property.

Lord Ganesha presides over the gardens! (Soon to have a roof)

Working in the spirit of Sivasambandham . . .

Mission members all try and grow as much food as possible in their gardnens. Amala’s local pumpkin dish is in the foreground.

Nagavathy created this dish for us from the marungi leaves! We all love marungi but we didn’t know how wonderful the leaves are and full of vitamins.

Here is a beautiful and delicious local sweet potato soup that Tandu & Uma brought. Incredible!

The malas start to “rise” out of the pile of sorted beads.

Here we are in a group photo. One Guru . . . One mind . . . Anbe Sivamayam!

Kulapati Dohadeva, Kulamata Nagavathy and daughter Anusha have been here at the Aadheenam on pilgrimage for several days. Today they had darshan with Bodhinatha.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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 Ekadasi Tithi, Sun One, Wednesday, September 7th.

Bodhinatha had a lot of darshan sessions this morning with everyone asking many interesting questions.

Meanwhile we again announce the release of the October issue of Hinduism Today Digital Edition
(HTDE)

If you are a subscriber and have already downloaded the HTDE software interface then simply make sure you are online and then boot the application. Early reports are that this is another amazing issue! If you have not subscribed to the digital edition, it is free and you can get it at the HT web site

This issue of Hinduism’s flagship spiritual magazine presents a feature that could be called Hindu Music 101. In it, the history and development of Indian classical music is explored, along with present-day fusion trends. There are articles on the bindi, the amazing youth movement at Swaydhyay Pariwar and their recent Washington DC parade. Our ayurvedic expert talks about teenage depression and drugless treatment options. The Insight Section takes you on a traditional pilgrimage in the South of India, to Lord Murugan’s six sacred encampments, complete with travel guide and tips. Our publisher, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, talks about how to keep the mind clear by resolving things that disturb us. Humor and cartoons fill our Quotes & Quips pages and there is a great analysis of how Hindus can deal positively with the media. And much more: book reviews, a global glimpse of our faith and some useful digital resources.

Sunil and Vasundhara Kakodka from Pennsylvania are here on a 5-day pilgrimage. Sunil studies the Master Course daily and is also a subscriber of Hinduism Today. It’s their 2nd visit to the aadheenam and they love being here.

Manikandan Rangaswamy also on pilgrimage here met with Bodhinatha as well.

Ekta and Amrita Doshi came back again today with their parents to spend more time here and with Bodhinatha. And their parents had some wonderful questions for Bodhinatha.

Dohadeva family on San Marga

And visiting our garden

Enjoy Bodhinath in Procession (a slide show, click on this link)

The Golden Gate Mission ladies hosting a get-together for Devika, who is visiting with her husband, mother-in-law and aunt from Malaysia.

Our traveling swamis are on their way home now. Here is another batch of photos they took on their journey.

(left to right) Selvanathan Sthapati and his son; Kuberan Sthapati, who is in charge of the avudaiyar casting; Senthilnathaswami; Yoginathaswami; and Karunanithi Sthapati, Kuberan’s father

The morning after the avudaiyar casting, we went to a metal product shop in Kumbakonam. We scoured the place for the highest quality items to be used in our temples at the Aadheenam. On the table is an assortment of things we purchased, as well as some fancy solid silver items that were custom-made for a temple in London.

Kuberan Sthapati’s wife, Chitra, brought us to this shop, which her family considers the best in the area. This shop is possibly the most well stocked, and it definitely has the highest quality work. If anyone is interested in stopping by there to shop when visiting India (Kumbakonam is between Thanjavur and Chidambaram), let us know, and we can give you their contact information.

Pots, dishes, cups, spoons, in styles for shrine use and kitchen use, in brass, copper, silver, silver-plated, gold-plated

Racks and racks of items

And more racks, some with kuttvilakkus and other lamps, trays, Deities

And more, and more, and more

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara’s home at the worksite has this beautiful shrine with a model of the Iraivan sphatika Lingam outside. All the silpis worship here every morning at 7:20am before beginning their temple carving work. Jiva performs a short puja, and the silpis chant the guru mantra and several Natchintanai songs by Siva Yogaswami. Then the arati, vibhuti, chandanam and kumkum are passed out to all present.

While we were there, several lorries dropped off rough stone from the quarry. Here are two blocks, each about 3.5 tons. To our surprise, the blocks were simply dropped on the ground using the lorry’s hydraulic dump. Imagine the small quake we felt when seven tons of solid granite suddenly hit the ground fifty feet in front of us.

Duraisingam and Senthilnathaswami observe the stone drop-off.

Here is the floor stone for the namaskara mandapam, the area of the temple where the guru prostrates. The design of the carving is like that of a fancy carpet. It’s almost finished. The drawing of the Tamil Aum in the middle is one possibility for the middle panel.

Here is the 45-foot solid teak kodimaram, or temple flagpole. Finding such a straight tree at just the right height was quite a feat.

Senthilnathaswami was quite impressed by the quality of the carving.

Here is one of the wood carvers. They do a fairly basic carving on the wood because the elaborate, decorative details will be done in the copper kavacham that will clad the wood.

The primary purpose of our visit to Bangalore was for Yoginathaswami to meet with the temple architects, or sthapatis, Selvanathan (right) and Chidambaram (middle). Meeting in person with the architects in India is proving to be essential to clarifying many complex construction issues.

One afternoon, Jiva took us on a tour of the gardens at the worksite.

The acres are littered with rough stones, ready for carving.

Here are small cement models of the statues of Yogaswami, Gurudeva and Bodhinatha that will be carved in black granite for Rishi Valley at Kauai Aadheenam. We will have similar statues of Chellappaswami, Kadaitswami, Rishi from the Himalayas, Tirumular and Maharishi Nandinatha.

This is the five-headed cobra that will stand directly in front of the rajagopuram.

Chidambaram Sthapati explains that the now-round Lingam in the center will be carved down to look just like the temple’s six-sided, single-pointed sphatika Lingam.

Hundreds of floor stones, in rose-colored granite, have been carved for the temple’s first prakaram. The silpis are currently making more of them.

Water drainage is important in a temple that will be exposed to a lot of rain. Here, Chidambaram Sthapati and some of the silpis do a trial assembly of one corner of the temple where the floor will slope in two directions to guide water to drains underneath the floor at the edges of the mandapam. We want to be absolutely clear how this dual sloping will work before bringing the stones to Kauai. If some need to be carved any differently than originally designed, it should be done in India before they are shipped.

Next was a tour of the new worksite, which is under construction. On the left is the compound wall, and on the right is a large building which will house the silpis.

A view of the center of the compound from the soon-to-be second floor of the silpi residence.

On the left are store rooms and a generator house, and on the left is a large workshed.

Here is a giant stone saw.

This is the beginning of Jiva’s new home in one corner of the compound.

Another quiet summer day at Kauai Aadheenam, with a steady stream of guests and pilgrims.

Sadhaka Nilakantha returns today from his Sojourn in the World…a discipline followed by all the young sadhaka 3 times during their first twelve years of monastic life. And our silpis and two swamis will be returning in four days time.

Bodhinatha’s latest talk is now on line.

Meanwhile we are happy to announce that the Hinduism Today Digital Edition, (HTDE) October 2007 is now available. Subscribers can simple boot our application and you will be prompted to get the new PDF’s. If you have not loaded HTDE recently, you will be prompted for a special upgrade. Please enter your email address and month of birth exactly as you did when you subscribed. This issue has some very interesting Rich media options, including Thiruppugal songs, and some fascinating audio interviews with Swadhyay youth and more.

Sunil Kakodka performs abhishekam at the Narmada lingam while Manikandan Rangaswamy chants Sri Rudram and Kalpana Patel reverently observes.

Vasundhara joins her husband, Sunil, performing abhishekam.

Sunil first met Gurudeva in 1997 and, after reading Loving Ganesha, he then began studying Gurudeva’s trilogy, Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva. He has found the trilogy to be the most deeply profound spiritual study of his life. Both he and Vasundhara continue to absorb these sacred teachings which have been of tremendous importance for them.

Harihar and Kalpana Patel are from New Jersey and are here on their first pilgrimage to the Kadavul Siva temple.

Sunil then bathes Nandi with milk and water.

Manikandan prays after placing a flower on the Siva Lingam which represents Parasivam, the formless aspect of God Siva.

Our foray into new slide show formats continues with the help of iView Software (now known as “Expressions”) that allows you to pull together photos, movies and captions into a mini-web site in “the blink of an eye.”

Enjoy today’s show that Paramacharya Palaniswami has assembled from pictures sent from India:The Carving of San Marga’s Hanuman!

Dr. Thangamma Appakutti receives the Hindu Renaissance Award.
Rishi Thondunathan handing over to Dr. Thangamma Appakutti the Hindu Renaissance Award plaque in front of the Sri Thurgai Amman Temple in Thellippalai, Jaffna on August 13th. The Award is presented by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswam from Hinduism Today and Kauai Aadheenam for her five decades of religious leadership to Sri Lankan Saivites. Also in the photo is Sri Aru Thirumurugan a well known Saivite leader in Sri Lanka.

The Hindu Renaissance Award plaque says:

“Presented by Hinduism Today to Dr. Thangamma Appakutti for her five decades of religious leadership of Sri Lankan Saivites. A brilliant speaker, her spiritual talks at the home and abroad have been instrumental in inspiring the community to maintain their Hindu heritage and identity. A visionary who trained many to follow in her footsteps, she has founded enduring institutions to help sustain Saiva dharma for generations to come.”

Our traveling swamis bring you another batch of photos from their trip.

Here we are at satsang at the home of Sheela Venkatakrishnan in Chennai, the day of our arrival in India.

On August 26, we visited Swamimalai where the middle course of the avudaiyar (base for the sphatika Lingam) for Iraivan Temple was to be cast. Here is a full scale model in cement, created by our temple sthapati, Selvanathan.

This is the mold for the middle course, set in the ground, ready to be heated up.

Here are some of the clay melting pots that are used for the metal. In the middle is a big fire pit that they will be placed into to heat up.

This is the mold for the top course of the avudaiyar. It’s upside down.

Kuberan Sthapati explains to Yoginathaswami and Selvanathan Sthapati exactly how the casting will work and how the three pieces will be put together.

The mold is heated up to 700° so that it does not crack when the 1,000° molten metal is poured in. This is done by placing hot coals, coconut husks and dried cow dung into the mold, which will burn for two hours.

Wire is tightened around the outside of the mold to reinforce it and make sure it will contain the molten metal.

(left to right) Ponni Selvanathan, Selvanathan Sthapati, one of the metal sthapatis, Yoginathaswami, Senthilnathaswami and Selvanathan’s son.

A metal sthapati shows us a wax mold that is being made for a Deity statue.

It’s 8:00pm, and the mold is hot. The embers are removed, and every trace of the embers is swept out of the mold. It should be completely clear of debris when the metal goes in.

A funnel is then put into place on top of the mold both to contain the heat so the metal doesn’t cool too fast and to contain splashes and flames that could hurt the workers.

Finally, the first ceremonial cup of metal is ready. Yoginathaswami places two gold coins into the red-hot and flaming cup of liquid, which disappear instantly. It is mixed for a moment and then carefully poured through a hole in the funnel.

Then began the process of packing the rest of the metal into the ceramic melting pots. They had gathered all of the metal previously, weighed it and sorted it so that each pot of molten metal would have the same ratio of brass to copper.

They had about 20 men there for this work. And it is very hard work. Everyone was running around busily, installing heat shields to protect the wood and tin roof above the outdoor, open-air forging pits, preparing hot coals, bringing in enormous amounts of metal, packing the pots, installing the funnel over the mold, installing a tent over the mold to block the rain that was coming (hmmm, another thunderstorm!).

Hot coals were placed in the bottom of the two forging fire pits. Finally the sixteen pots full of metal (a huge amount) were finished being packed, very tightly, and were lowered into the pits. Bags and bags of coal were poured in to surround the pots, and an overflow of old metal pots which would also be used in a second round were placed on top of each array of melting pots with a big sheet of metal to contain the heat. The blowers were started. Later, the fires were raging, quite colorfully because of all the different kinds of metal. At about 10:30pm we departed, having done our ceremonial part and witnessed most of the process.

The next morning we returned to check the progress, and we learned that it took up until 2:00am. Casting is always done at night because the whether is cooler then. As the process is a very hot one, it would be unbearable to do during a hot South Indian day any time of the year. Here is the funnel, now quite a different color. The red splotches on top are from turmeric water that was sprinkled on the funnel to purify the atmosphere during the casting. The heat turned the turmeric red. You can also see some metal on top of the hole that was used for pouring. We broke off a piece to bring home.

Tushar and Alka Doshi with their daughters Ekta and Amrita are here on pilgrimage. It’s their 3rd visit to Kauai and our monastery and they love it here. The Doshi’s have also been very instrumental in raising funds for our Hanuman statue project. Alka shared that she wants her future generations to make this their temple so she is starting the process by bringing her children here as often as she can and to help with the project.

We are having lots of visitors these days.

And yet another beautiful day in paradise, with a light mix of showers, sunshine and trade breezes.

Among our visitors today were Sunil and Vasundhara Kakodka from Pennsylvania. They are temple donors and longtime subscribers of Hinduism Today. Sunil met Gurudeva several years ago and was moved by his great spiritual presence. Today they were blessed to have a meeting with Paramacharya Palaniswami following the morning puja.

They were really surprised at how far the construction phase of the Iraivan Temple had advanced since they were last here several years ago.

Sunil noted that he and Vasundhara are on pilgrimage and “want to come here every day while we can to enjoy the beauty and peace of the gardens and the darshan of this beautiful Kadavul temple.”

On the far right is Nieve Shere who works for the New York Botanical Gardens. She is on Kauai visiting friends and family members, Tory O’Malley, Jacob DasMarais and Ana Mohamad.

Only here for one day, she was unable to meet with the creative botanical architect of the beautiful Aadheenam gardens and grounds, Paramacharya Palaniswami, but hopes to do so on her next visit if possible.

Everyone is “astounded” by Iraivan.

After a dynamic three day retreat, we begin a 4-day phase. Bodhinatha gave his talk today as usual. He spoke about the esoterics of worship, how Gurudeva was able to see into the subtle way the inner worlds worked. The temple ceremony strengthens the connection. We provide energy to the temple through the offerings, then blessings come back.

He said he was working on the Innersearch classes, trying to tailor them to fit the needs of the students. One of the areas that came up recently was channelling, hearing voices inside one’s head or communicating with second world beings. He explained how Gurudeva discouraged this practice in favor of going directly to the realization of the Self without distraction.

Yoginathaswami and Senthilnathaswami are still in India and have been meeting with the Sthapati’s there in Bangalore, getting organized for future Iraivan construction work. They will be back on September 4th, bring all the silpis back with them.

Meanwhile below you can enjoy a short video clip of Yoginathaswami giving and a talk on the Yamas and Niyamas in Tamil in Malaysia and a field trip to a rubber plantation.

It was tour day today and one of our guests was a Kashmir Pandit, Inder Mohan Kaw, who met Gurudeva years ago.

He met with Arumugaswami and talked about conditions in Kashmir. He said that a lot of people are thinking conditions have improved, but in reality, the Kashmir Pandits remain exiles from their homeland, spread in refugee camps and relocation centers around India.

Sivakatirswami shows Inder’s son, Eashan a little bit of what we do in our high-tech publications office as he has been working on getting the next digital edition of Hinduism Today out the door. Eashan is an avid Mac fan, has his own Macbook Pro and makes iMovies for school and listens to music on his iPod. He’s also a vegetarian by his own choice and Arumugaswami is recruiting him to write about that for Hinduism Today.

They will be back tomorrow…

A newly release book which sports the Iraivan temple painting on it’s cover.

It is the last day of the phase today. For Satguru Speaks fans you can find this week’s new upadesha by Bodhnatha online today.

At noon the Ganapati Kulam gave news on their activities. Highlights are:

1) Palaniswami and Kumarswami are working actually beginning assembly of the files for the new book on our Guru Parampara. It will be formatted like the Lemurian Scrolls book.

2) Hinduism Today, October, Digital Edition is reaching completion and should launch on time on Sept. 1

3) The January 2008 edition is in the works.

4) a great deal of work has been put into preparing art files that we have gathered through the years for inclusion in the “maha” library of Dinodia. The work involves entering a lot of metadata into the photos.

5) Lots of research on this area of “metadata” in photos. For the photographic technophiles among you, we are inserting the xmpdata directly into photos and also extract the same from photos. This add yet another streamlined work flow for projects. In particular, those who submit photos to TAKA who have the tools to add xmpdata to their photos can insert their captions right into the photo. This has the advantage of “living” with the photo for the duration of it’s life and we can see, even years later, such details.

Final installment of photos from our swamis’ last days in Malaysia:

Senthilnathaswami writes from the plane flight to India:

“From 36,000 feet above the Bay of Bengal, on our way now to Chennai, we are catching up on our reports from Malaysia. Here we are with Kulapati Silvarajoo and his family on our last night at their home.”

On Thursday morning, student Shanmugam took us sightseeing around Shah Alam. We went to the Taman Pertanian Malaysia (Malaysia Agriculture Park), a beautiful natural rain forest reserve at Bukit Cheraka. One of the features of the park is the Four Season Temperate Garden.

Inside this building they replicate each of the four seasons of the northern/western climate. It is now late summer. At 15-20 degrees centigrade, it’s quite a refreshing respite from the 33 degrees it is outside! Feels just like Canada or Northern Europe.

Here is a fully grown Gingko Biloba tree.

A diagram showing the building and how it works.

Outside in the park, monkeys swing from tree to tree.

Despite being neglected in recent years, the park is still a beautiful, quiet place for a nice nature walk.

What part of the park should we go to next? The animal garden, the orchid garden, the fruit orchards, the fishing hole…?

Shanmugam, our host for the day. He is an excellent navigator. He knows the roads all around Shah Alam very well.

Next stop was the park adjacent the big mosque in downtown Shah Alam. Not a soul was to be seen in this usually bustling area. Soon we found out why, when a huge thunderstorm suddenly appeared overhead. Lightning and thunder were less than a second apart, then simultaneous. It rained an unbelievable amount of water in the short period of about an hour. As we drove away, visibility was near zero as the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up at all. Traffic slowed due to visibility and near instant flooding, some places as high as a foot, maybe more.

That evening we had two temple stops. First was the Bukit Gasing Siva temple. This temple on a hill is under renovation after several decades.

Here a silpi shapes Ganesha out of cement.

Founded by a rishi whom Gurudeva respected highly, this is a powerful, special temple. When Yoginathaswami was an aspirant preparing to come to Kauai Aadheenam, Gurudeva sent him here to live with the rishi and help do the pujas in the temple. On the right is Bala, a temple committee member and friend of Kauai Aadheenam.

Somehow we feel right at home in a temple construction site.

The view from Bukit Gasing is 360 degrees, and from here one can see the entire greater Kuala Lumpur metropolitan and suburban area.

At a strategic point in the middle and high above the cities below, it is naturally home to a couple of giant telecommunications towers.

The ceiling of the temple’s entirely new structure has a beautiful lotus flower implanted in it.

Bala takes Yoginathaswami to the rudraksha tree from Kauai Aadheenam that he planted here years ago. There have been a couple of land slides at the top of the hill recently, one of them right next to the tree. Fortunately the tree was not affected.

On Friday we had a quiet, relaxed day at the Rubber Research Institute. On a walk around the plantation, we stopped and examined some freshly tapped trees. Here is a full cup of latex.

Yoginathaswami tells us that a certain type of bird builds nests hanging in the trees here, strategically positioned next to a marsh so they are undisturbed by humans. They implant fireflies in the ceilings of their nests to light them up.

On Friday night we went to the Maha Mariamman temple in Kalumpang, a sylvan village deep in the jungle an hour north of KL. We were met with grand ceremony, including flower showers, confetti bombs, a parade with nadaswaram, tavil, ending with more confetti bombs and fireworks as we ascended the stage. Five hundred people gathered to welcome Yoginathaswami. It was a tremendous outpouring of love and devotion. Many had tears in their eyes, they are so proud their village produced a sannyasin. It is rare in Malaysia. There are 1.8 million Hindus and maybe only 18 sannyasins.

Ladies on the left, all so attentive

There were so many people, they set up projectors and screens so everyone could see.

There were big posters announcing Swami’s visit, with his picture and a two-year-old picture of all the monks standing by Nandi in front of Kadavul Temple.

Swami’s talk was very well received. The community here is tight knit, disciplined, friendly.

The temple president presents Swami with a tray full of offerings. The event was so well coordinated. Everyone came forward to receive the blessings of the swamis

Five hundred people came forward for vibhuti prasadam, a small picture of Gurudeva and a flyer explaining the yamas and niyamas in Tamil. It was at least four times the number of people that came to any of the other temples we visited and gave our presentation at.

This was really a big celebration, like a festival. As people came forward, fun devotional music played loudly on a high quality sound system and everyone enjoyed a grand feast. It was definitely the high point, ending our Malaysia mission with a big bang.

Here is Bodhinatha in New Zealand. It won’t be long before the next Innersearch leaves for India. It’s going to be a great trip.

At home the Siddhidata Kulam of two, Sadhaka Adinatha and Sadhaka Tejadevanatha reported on their activities.

Sadhaka Adinatha explained about his 20 miles of Mahogony trees initiative. He’s not kidding. He has engineered the layout of 20 miles of plastic mulch through which Mahagony trees are being planted directly by seed. In the end there will be 10,000 trees growing! They will an endowment for the future monks.

Mrunal, Padmaja and Pooja Patel with Ceyonswami saying their farewell as they are about to leave for their home in Texas. This wonderful family has been coming daily to the Aadheenam and has truly made this a pilgrimage place.

Chatting with Palaniswami…

Arumugaswami and Silpi Kumar at the Kauai Farm Fair last night, Sadhaka Dandapani behind the camera.

This is one of Kauai’s biggest events of the year.

We are thinking we should enter one of our 50 pound Mauritius pumpkins in next year’s contest.

Many specialty fruits we don’t even know what they are.

Another report from our two swamis, who are now in Chennai, but today we bring you the next segment of photos from the Malaysia trip.

Here is Yoginathaswami speaking at the main Maha Mariamman temple in Ipoh on Monday night.

About 80 gathered for the talk there in a huge hall.

Standing with temple representatives

Group photo with representatives from the Malaysia Hindu Sangam Ipoh Branch at their office after dinner

Late Monday night we drove all the way back down to Kuala Lumpur. The next morning, we went to Batu Caves to worship Lord Murugan. They’ve done a wonderful job of renovating the temple recently. Each of the shrines is now clad with fresh polished granite tile on the inside, making them look like new. After visiting the temple, descending the steps and enjoying the giant Murugan statue out front, we went next door to the Divine Life Society ashram. Swami Guhabhaktananda, a long-time friend of Kauai Aadheenam, is the head of the ashram and the Society in Malaysia. As usual, he was in high spirits, and we had an animated conversation.

On Tuesday night we had satsang with Saiva Siddhanta Church members and Himalayan Academy students at Kulapati Gunasegaran’s home in Kepong.

Kulapati Dasan performed the pada puja for Bodhinatha, with Gunasegaran’s help. He did an excellent job.

Many members were there. To our surprise, they are quite the experts at chanting Bodhinatha’s 108 Sanskrit names! Anyone who has tried to chant these names knows how long and complex many of them are.

You can see the latex flowing from this tree into a little cup that is tied to the tree. When it is dry, it is really springy and stretchy. Feels and smells just like a latex medical glove! The little marks are a record of the tapping; white for a month, yellow for six months, red for a year.

Yoginathaswami and Senthilnathaswami spoke to the group about the mission in Malaysia. Everyone was so happy to see and talk to the two swamis from Kauai Aadheenam. It was like a big boost for them all for another… hopefully not too long… before some swamis come again to uplift, inspire and teach. The bonus of the night was that everyone had a chance to touch and put a little of their prana into a gold coin that is going to be placed in the avudaiyar (five-metal pitham, or base) for the big Crystal Lingam of Iraivan Temple. The two swamis will be attending the casting of a portion of the avudaiyar in India on August 26 evening.

On Wednesday, Kulapati Silvarajoo took us on a botanical outing. There is a strip of highway along which there are many nurseries. For our plant lovers at home and elsewhere, we took some photographs of some of the more special plants we saw.

This is one we think we may not have in Kauai.

Walking through these nurseries was just like walking through the Aadheenam. We felt so much at home.

Yoginathaswami liked these giant pots. They are quite high quality, and very inexpensive. We are considering purchasing some for our gardens at the Aadheenam.

This yellow lotus blossom has… hmm… I think there are 1,008 petals in there!

Here is a Buddha’s belly bamboo with very short segments, bulging out much, much more than the variety we have at the Aadheenam.

One of our stops was a shop specializing in water feature design, including all the pumps and filtration. Some really great ideas were stored away in our minds for future Aadheenam garden development.

Amongst a veritable sea of orchids, this tiny one with its rumpled petals caught our attention.

What on Earth is that?

Next, Silvarajoo took us across the street to the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia. This is a government research facility and plantation of 3,000 acres of rubber trees. It’s the largest single commodity institute of its kind in the world.

Silvarajoo works at the institute. His family has been involved in rubber for several generations. He took us up close and personal with a tree, showing us exactly how the bark is removed so that the latex flows in the optimum fashion, how not to break the cambian so as to not hurt the tree. He really knows a lot about this!

Kulapati Silvarajoo told us all about the rubber tapping process. This tree has been tapped for almost five years.

Gurudeva planted many seeds in his lifetime. Many of these were in the form of Ganesha murthies given out to communities here and there through the world to start their temple.

In Arizona, the temple society there has finally gotten their land and Chellappa Deva sends us these photos of their bhoomi puja.