The Rahavendran family are here for the their last day of pilgrimage and had darshan with Bodhinatha today after having been with us for over a week.

Pillaiyar Kulam News

At lunch today the Pillaiyar Kulam share their news.

Shanmuganathaswami described all the work he’s been doing in the establishment of five new Hindu Heritage Endowments. Each one requires new database entries, folders to be made, certificates be set up fund accounts created, etc. Here are the five new endowments:

• Murugan Temple of North America Puja Fund: meant to ensure continuity of pujas through the decades to come the new Murugan temple outside Washington DC. It was started by Padmini Saravanapavan, Nigel Siva and Vayudeva Varadan
• Kodiswara Satguru Malaysia Travel Fund: Is dedicated to providing travel funds to bring our Satguru to Malaysia on a regular basis.
• Maha Ganapati Temple of Arizona Endowment
• Bharatiya Ekta Mandir of Arizona Endowment
• India Hindu Tribals Endowment

Swami has also been continuing the research on shipping publications back and forth between Malaysia and USA view Active Air freight forwarders.

Muruganathaswami has been communicating with libraries and library associations to find ways to expedite giving away books. Since libraries may not necessarily put a book on the shelves until after they are vetted, some way must be found to let librarians see what they are getting. A plan is in motion to simply contact librarians with the URL of the books on line saying that free copies of back editions are available, compliments of the book distribution fund established by the Hindu Businessmen’s Association.

He also handles all the incoming web traffic for donations and book orders and reports that there were 15 donations to HHE given on line this phase. Muruganathswami has also been preparing packets of educational literature. Our educational brochures are very popular at the web store.

Yogi Jivanandanatha detailed his accounting work, saying that he is closing the books on the Hindu Heritage Endowment for the month of December and doing more programming in our database.

He also developed an interesting calculation on how many vigils the monks have done since 1973… don’t miss it!

Sivanadiyar Dharmaraj has been busy packing up books to ship off to prisoners and libraries. The goal is to send away all old editions of Dancing with Siva, but get them into good hands.

We begin a new phase today… with a wonderful Sun One Homa. Bodhinatha read a discourse he had written on the four philosophic perspectives of the Shum language and then gave marvelous spontaneous “bhashya” on his own talk… watch for it in the days ahead.

It was the first feeding for, Adiyan, the new boy in the Sendan family.

His grand father Aran and brother Chidambaram are present for the ceremony. His father Nathan had to stay on the mainland to take care of business.

His mother Miravadi said that he just developed his first two teeth a few days ago–just in time for his first feeding.

The pledge for the ceremony is signed by grandpa and mom.

Bodhinatha signs the certificate.

Lakshmi Kanthareddy praying before the homa….

Bodhinatha gave a marvelous take about how to look at solutions to problems from the four different Shum perspectives.

He used the example of someone who is emotionally depressed. One way is to go to the temple and let God and Gods take care of the problem from with inner space.

Our monastic pilgrims in India send us this update…

Mr and Mrs. Shekar, long-time friend and supporters are here with their daughter and son. A short visit in the publications building with Paramacharya Palaniswami.

Sivakatirswami invites the kids in one afternoon to assist with the daily TAKA. Here he asks them to help him with the daily photo selection process, which photos we should use and which ones we should throw away.

Aarti, seven-years old was delighted to help saying “No, that’s one is no good, it’s crooked… yes, use that one!”

Swami was quite surprised how discriminating they were. Every time he deleted one that Aarti thought was no good, she would jump up and down and laugh with delight. Later she wrote some captions.

Chidambaram is more interested in that monk behind the camera taking his picture. Meanwhile 5-year old Mayuresh is very engaged in the picture selection process. A precious energetic and very articulate little boy, he would suddenly make these authoritative pronouncements: “Everyone should agree if we are having an agreement!”

We had another tour day today and Iraivan was looking great.

Guest try their hand at chipping…

“Well, I’ll give a try anyway.”

“It looks so easy, here let me try.”

Two little helpers sorting the shilpi’s tools.

almost done. . .

Another inspired little helper.

We had 60 people in the first group at 9 am… The rain did not deter them at all…

Eighty more braved the elements to visit the Aadheenam at 11 am and see the wonderful creation and architecture of this truly great Chola style Agamic Hindu temple, Lord Siva’s Iraivan temple.

Another record day of visitors.

It is Sun Six today…the last day of a long, productive and busy phase here with many activities, guests, pilgrims.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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 Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Friday, December 29th,

Murali and Anu Subramanian came on pilgrimage from Seattle and were “spiritually uplifted” by their experience here. Both are originally from Madras, South India.

Here they are with some of shilpis (stone carvers) whose Art has to be seen to believed.

In front of the Dakshinamurthy

This being the holiday season we scheduled two tour days this phase.

A large happy group arrived for the 9 a.m. tour. Here they are in front of the Yallis at the Iraivan Temple. Their first visit to a Hindu temple for most of them.

The second tour at 11 a.m. was slightly smaller, but just as enthusiastic about their visit to this paradise within a paradise. Just over 100 visitors today, included several families who are here on a dedicated pilgrimage.

Its the day after Pancha Ganapati Jutikidevi’s pictures of her pink quartz crystal Ganesha were a big hit and we bring you more from her home today….

She writes:

“Here is another 3 set of pictures, without flash, which gives a better representation, how it feels like in my living room, I feel like my apartment is floating somewhere!!”

Our three monastic pilgrims are in Chidambaram today. Meanwhile Yogi Japendranatha managed to send a few photos and captions…

Yoginathaswami sitting with Mr. Muthumanikam, our host in Palani, and one of the priests at Palani. Muthumanikam is the chairman of the endowment board for Palani temple and principal of the nagaswaram and tavil school connected to the temple. He is well respected by the temple staff and gave us unprecedented access to the temple, pujas, etc., bypassing throngs of devotees even at extremely busy times. The Ayyappan devotees are on their pilgrimage now, so the popular temples like Palani are packed with the black-clad, excited, uncontrollable yatris.

With the nagaswaram students at their school.

A coconut tree at the school that has branched out exactly like a trisula!

The nagaswaram students.

Two top nagaswaram students perform for us. They were amazingly good.

View of Palani from the rope car coming down from the hill.

Swamimalai temple as viewed from the second prakaram. Each prakaram at Swamimalai is on a different level, as in altitude.

Meditating in a mandapam in the second prakaram at Swamimalai. Swamimalai is mystically related to the fourth chakra.

That’s it for this phase from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Above is a Google photo from satellite, with the 15-mile-long Niihau Island just offshore at the top, called the Forbidden Island. The yellow check is where the monastery is located. We will be back on Friday evening.

Aum Namasivaya!

Happy Pancha Ganapati Day 5!

It is a joyous day. Everyone’s focus is on Lord Ganesha.

At lunch today the Ganapati Kulam shared news. Here is a short list of activities underway in the publications world.

• Palaniswami has been working with a writer who is helping with the editing of our new book on the Parampara to bring some color and culture into the raw manuscript.
• He has also been working with iMovie to find ways to do small video quickly and efficiently for TAKA.
• He says there have been a lot of communications recently regarding requests for permission to re-use our content on the internet for other sites.
• He also spend several hours proof-reading the final galleys of the new book What is Hinduism.
• Kumarswami completed the final work on What is Hinduism.
• Arumugaswami has been working on a major article about the flower industry in India.
• He is also working out the logistics for a huge feature story on Thai Pusam in Malaysia We will sending our correspondent, Rajiv Malik from New Delhi to Kuala Lumpur, engaging a number of photographers and videographers with the help of long time devotee Rohini Kumar in Malaysia.
• Natarajnathaswami has been focused on his next feature story on vegetarianism in various religions for the next issue of Hinduism Today.
• Sivakatirswami spent most of his time this phase on the production side for the What is Hinduism book.
• He’s continuing to work on the web technologies behind TAKA for slide shows, creation and deployment along with numerous other web tasks.
• Sivanadiyar Satya has been working primarily on the new DVD’s of Hindu Art and Ganesha images. He is also our host for tours and helps in the Ekadanta Kulam as well.
• Taskforcer Teja has been working on various projects, scanning and other small tasks to help the Ganapati Kulam.

That is a short list…

Below is small video for you today, giving you a sense of our happy morning on this auspicious Pancha Ganapati day at Kauai Aadheenam.

Thanks to Jutikadevi Sivaraja for sending these pictures of her Ganesha and this poem.. She says:

A most beautiful poem attesting the powers and shakti of Mahadeva Ganapathi, by Saint Auvaiyar Ma:
Cool, fragrant lotus feet
With anklets twinkling sweet,
Gold girdle, flower-soft garment
Setting of the comely hips
Pot belly and big heavy tusk,
Elephant face with the bright red mark,
Five hands, the goad, the noose,
Blue body dwelling in the heart,
Pendulous jaws, four mighty shoulders,
Three eyes and the three required marks,
Two ears, the gold crown gleaming,
The breast aglow with the triple thread,
O being, bright and beautiful!
Wish- yielding elephant born of the
Master of Mystery in Mount Kailasa
Mouse-rider fond of the three famed fruits;
Desiring to make me yours this instant
You, like a mother, have appeared before me
And cut the delusion of unending births
You have come and entered my heart
Imprinting clear the five prime letters;
Set foot in the world in the form of a guru,
Declared the final truth is this,
Gladly graciously shown the way
Of life unfading
With that unfailing weapon, Your glance,
You have put and end to my heinous sins,
Poured in my ear uncloying precepts;
Laid bare for me the clarity
Of ever-fresh awareness;

Sweetly given me your sweet grace
For firm control of the senses five;
Taught how to still the organs of action,
Snapped my two-fold karma and dispelled
My darkness; giving, out of grace,
A place for me in all four states;
Dissolved the illusion of triple filth;
Taught me how to shut the five
Sense gates of the nine door temple;
Fixed me firm in the six yogic centers;
Stilled my speech; taught me
The writ of ida and pingala,
Shown me at last the head of sushumna;
To the tongue of the serpent that sinks and soars
Have brought the force sustaining the three
Bright spheres of sun and moon and fire,
The mantra unspoken asleep in the snake,
And explicitly uttered it;
Imparted the skill of raising by breath
The raging flame of muladhara
Explained the secret of immortality,
The sun’s movement and the charm
Of the moon, the water lily’s friend,
The sixteen states of the prasada mantra;
Revealed to me in thoughtful wise
The six faced form and the meanings four;
Discovered to me the subtle body
And the eight separate modes of being;
The orifice of Brahman opened,
Giving me miraculous powers,
By your sweet grace, and mukti too;
Revealed my Self to me, and by Your grace
Swept away accumulated karma;
Stilled my mind in tranquil calm
Beyond speech and thought;
Clarified my intellect, plunged me
In bliss which is the common ground
Of light and darkness;
Boundless beatitude You have given me,
Ended all affliction, shown the way of grace,
Siva eternal at the core of sound,
Sivalinga within the heart,
Atom within atom, vast beyond all vastness!
Sweetness hid in the hardened node,
You have steadied me clear in human form
All besmeared in holy ashes;
Added me to the congregation
Of your servants true and trusty;
Made me experience in my heart
The inmost meaning of the five letters;
Restored my real state to me,
And rule me now, O Master of Wisdom,
Vinayaka; Your feet alone,
Your feet alone are my soul refuge, yes it truly is!!!
Happy Pancha Ganapati Mahadeva Vinayaka

If you don’t know about this Pancha Ganapati day Hindu festival, please read about it in the following articles on our web sites and listen to Gurudeva explain, in his own words, about this joyous celebration and make plans to celebrate it every year in your home and community:

• Read about it in Loving Ganesha…
• Hinduism Today, Oct-Dec 2004
• And most fun of all: listen to Gurudeva tell about it in his own voice.
• Download the PDF to print out as a guide to Pancha Ganapati.

Today the Rahavendran family went to San Marga to worship at the Narmada Lingam.

We also invited the children in to our offices today and Aarti and Mayuresh are sitting beside Sivakatirswami helping him with captions and photo decisions.

This is Aarti and her mother, Sheela…

Aarti pours water on the lingam.

Aarti is pouring milk on the Siva Lingam, chanting Aum Namasivaya.

Amma comes next

Another pilgrim, Lakshmi, joins them

[Aarti is sitting next to us helping with captions today…]

Aarti says: “Next we go to the water fall and take a picture with my brother Mayuresh posing for the camera.”

Aarti: “Next I almost slipped in the water…”

At lunch today in the courtyard all the monks observed a short arati to Pancha Ganapati…

After lunch Bodhinatha gave every one a gift box of sweets and some warm shawls.

Pancha Ganapati…this is a different style than the Kadavul Pancha Ganapati, with the fifth head on top.

Then in the afternoon everyone enjoyed a puja in the Kadavul temple to Ganesha at 3 PM.

Aarti says: “This is Mayuresh, my brother making faces at the camera.” He is an energetic ,bright spirited 5-year-old.

Chidambaran Sendan from California.

In the publications office today… the Ganapati Kulam is busy, with many projects.

Sivanadiyar Satya completed work on the Ganesha Images DVD… check out some of the images in the slide show below.

Acharya Kumarswami has just completed the final galleys of the new book What is Hinduism…

Sivakatirswami then got busy and is sending all the files over the internet to our printer in Kansas City, Missouri.

Arumugaswami is working on a story about the flower industry in India…

It has been another busy day full of guests at the Aadheenam. Before we share guest photos we bring you:

Siddhidata Kulam Phasely News

Sadhaka Adinatha, the acting Talaivar while Yoginathaswami is in India, told his many activities.

• The team has completed installation of the water faucets inside the Ganesha and Muruga sanctums of Kadavul.
• The garden project of digging out several years of dirt that develops from mulching
• Some repairs of the copper OM plate on the shrine of Nepali Ganesha at the front entrance.
• Work was done on our hot water pressure washer which is used to clean all the Aadheenam walks.
• Inventory of all plumbing parts.
• Continuing the process of measuring all our buildings which will be entered into a CAD program to maintain diagrams for all the land and buildings. It will show all the water lines, electrical lines and more.

Sadhaka Nilakantha shared his news

• Weeding and roto-tiling our ginger and tumeric garden.
• The on-going work of managing our vegetable garden.
• Chicken control measures, which consist of catching them and transporting them to more appropriate locations.
• Huge citrus harvest… lots of oranges coming in at this time of year.

Sadhaka Tejadevanatha

• showed us his welding work that he has done on some new grates being placed at a water tunnel under the sidewalk near the entrance of the monastery. When he was on his “Sojourn in the World” he was trained in welding and this has been a valuable asset now in his service.
• He told us about the “special water” that the silpis need for their blacksmith work. It seems that the stream water when used to prepare the chisels make the tips soft, so every three days he takes a tank of tap water which the silpis say results in harder chisels. One of the mysteries of temple building.
• He also does a lot of the office work for the kulam, accounting, etc

Task forcer Tandavan has been helping in the garden and harvests food, cleaned all utility vehicles, some office work and more.

Ravi and Sheela Rahavendran with their children Aarti and Mayuresh are here on pilgrimage for a week from San Diego in Southern California.

As you can see from their smiles, they are very happy to be here.

They are following the Master Course Correspondence Study Level One and intend to become formal sishyas of Bodhinatha.

They have been participating in satsangs with our small group of sishyas and devotees in San Diego, including helping to organize the recent donor appreciate reception in San Diego in October.

This is Ravi.

Sheela

Aarti

And Mayuresh.

The family enjoyed a tour of the property.

The Koi fish are always a fascination for everyone.

Some belated photos from yesterday. Guests hosted by Brahmacharini Shama Kumaran, who writes:

It is delightful to see so many Hindu families visiting the Aadheenam during this vacation time. Today Neel and Nandini Sundararesan arrived from California with their 2-year-old son, Saahil.

Additionally three families arrived from Oahu for their first visit to the “Hindu Temple on Kauai.” Srinivasa and Shobha Nalla and their 27 month old baby, Abhiram. Also Kiran and Suneetha Edukulla and their two children, Ashrith 10 months and Shreya, 4 years of age. They were accompanied by family members from Hyderabad, India, Mahadev and Vijaya Meela with and Vijaya’s brother, Sanjay who is attending the University in South Virginia.

Bharat Thakkar and his wife Hina arrived with their family Ram, Milan and Ami, all from Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. D Patel from the Mainland also joined the group.

All six families attended the Siva puja in Kadavul Temple and were then given a tour of the Iraivan Temple. Everyone agreed that their pilgrimage to the Aadheenam was absolutely the highlight of their visit to Kauai. One family felt that the Iraivan Temple was better than any they had ever seen, even in India.

All six families in front of the Iraivan Temple sanctum. . .

In front of Dakshinamurthy

Kiran and Suneetha with their children in front of the Kartikeya Shanmukha deity under the sacred Banyan tree.

Shreya and Ashrith receiving the darshan of the deity.

Dharmaraj captures the mountain in the early hours of the day.

It’s the dead of winter on Kauai. As you can see, the tropical sky is crystal clear, and the air is a body-numbing 65 degrees (full disclosure requires us to admit that’s the low, and a balmy 80 degrees is the high today).

We visit the temple, entering from the river. This will be a staircase in the future, and will be the way the temple first reveals itself to future pilgrims.

We approach the Maha Mandapam, partially standing.

Handrailing stones.

This is the pillared gathering space.

There are 40 pillars in all, of three different designs.

Gurudeva watches from his world of light. This photo sits in the sanctum, letting all who visit know that Iraivan is the vision of our Gurudeva.

You may have seen the 6-minute video of this ornate sculpting that is going on, posted a few days back.

If not, it’s worth a look: go to this day on TAKA December 18, 2006/

This is Rajkumar, working on the”muttu” detailing. It means pearl in the Tamil language. He is carving hundreds of marble-sized spheres into the narrow face of one course. The team has about 50 feet of this to do and have completed 33 feet as of today.

That’s Sadhaka Haranandinatha with well-known western-born Vedic astrologer Bill Levacy. His popular book “Beneath a Vedic Sky” is probably the best introduction to Vedic astrology available. You can order from our eStore here.

The stream of winter holiday visitors and pilgrims continues on….

Two families from Chicago and elsewhere meet with Bodhinatha.

They asked Bodhinatha to share how to experience love towards the Satguru and Siva. Bodhinatha suggested they read his talk on line: “I Want to See God! Suggestions on Where and How to Look”

Another pilgrim visitor, Ashwani Sagar from California…

Pillaiyar Kulam News

Today the Pillaiyar Kulam shared their news at lunch. The tradition is for each member to share what they are doing as everyone eats. Thus way we all keep in touch with the many, many activities happening on all fronts.

Shanmuganathaswami told of his work this phase. Here is a short list from him.

• Arranging for new shipping channels for books by Gurudeva printed in Malaysia to be flown in to the US instead of being shipped by sea.
• Getting all the honey bears ready for give away (each year the monstery gives Kauai honey to neighbors and island friends during the holiday season)
• Setting up three new Hindu Heritage Endowments, which involves new accounts, setting up bank wire numbers for the new fund creators to be able to wire funds to the new endowments.
• Working on the site map of our buildings in preparation for final submission to the building department for approval of our new visitor information building.
• Training Dharmaraj in the Hinduism Today subscription department and other areas.
• Finalizing phone scripts for our fund raisers to use when call people who have made inquiries about Hindu Heritage endowments and more.

Muruganathaswami told us about:

• Book distribution, which has been unusually high recently. “Loving Ganesha” continues to be popular at Amazon.com.
• Reactions to the “What Is Hinduism?” bound galleys by would-be reviewers and distributors.

Yogi Jivanandanatha described his work these past few days distributing honey bears to all our friends and associates on Kauai which was his main duty this phase. He has also been doing some database programming in the ever continuous quest for better and better information management in the accounting world.

Dharmaraj has been doing many, many small but essential chores, including handling our own Minimela gift counter which had a record day yesterday with 150 visitors all wanting to take sacred gifts back with them for friends and family. He also went out to give away honey bears on the island. Dharmaraj was impressed by how much everyone in the community appreciates and respects the monastery and how our annual gift giving is such a delight to everyone.

Happy Pancha Ganapati Day 3, December 23rd!

If you don’t know about this modern-day Hindu festival, please read about it in the following articles on our web sites and listen to Gurudeva explain, in his own words, about this joyous celebration and make plans to celebrate it every year in your home and community:

• Read about it in “Loving Ganesha”…
• Hinduism Today, Oct-Dec 2004
• And most fun of all: listen to Gurudeva tell about the festival in his own voice.
• Download the PDF to print out as a guide to Pancha Ganapati.

Amit and Krishna Mukerji from North Carolina having darshan with Bodhinatha while on pilgrimage. They visited two years ago and loved their time here, so are back again. They attended our 6am homa yesterday. They said that although their physical home is in North Carolina, their minds are here at Kauai Aadheenam all the time.

The Ekadanta Kulam gave their news today. That’s a one man team of Sannyasin Saravananathaswami who with the help of our task forcers and premonastics has completed a huge mailing to all the sishya include vibhuti, DVD’s, membership cards and more. Swami is also the acting secretary for the steward and has the responsibility for taking care of the official digital signatures we now use for all official documents. Each year there is a complicated renewal process…He’s taking the lead in making a a paperless office, including digitizing files and letters and master course exams sheets. His file cabinet now is a huge directory on our server.

He is also responsible for hosting and arranging activities for those who come on official pilgrimage and we have quite a few pilgrims with us during these holidays. He’s also responsible for the Master Course web site area… where he’s made some changes recently.

We don’t have a lot of photos today, but the Aadheenam was packed!

With over 150 visitors today, it was an all time record high guest day. Of course we were expecting this during the holidays, but when it happens its still a big surprise… Here is a picture of our 9am tour group.

The 11 AM tour group which does not include another group of 30 Gujaratis who went on their own tour…

By the way:

Happy Pancha Ganapati Day 2!

If you don’t know about this modern day Hindu festival, please read about it in the following articles on our web sites and listen to Gurudeva explain, in his own words, about this joyous celebration and make plans to celebrate it every year in your home and community:

• Read about it in Loving Ganesha…
• Hinduism Today, Oct-Dec 2004
• And most fun of all: listen to Gurudeva tell about it in his own voice.
• Download the PDF to print out as a guide to Pancha Ganapati.

We began a new phase today. Here is Bodhinatha give his Sun One Talk.

The Lambodhara Kulam gave their news today at lunch. Fund raising for the temple is going very well and Sadhaka Haranandinatha has been busy handling all the mail and communicating with donors who have remembered Iraivan at year’s end. Ceyonswami told about the efforts to get special warm shawls from India for all the monks as their Pancha Ganapati gift this season.

Saravananathaswami performs the homa today.

Bodhinatha gives his discourse for this phase. Keep your eyes on the right side bar for updates of his upadeshas coming available on line.

Meanwhile, far off in India our monks are on the Six-Muruga Temple pilgrimage. They stopped in Chennai two days back, long enough to send a few photos which you will enjoy in the slideshow below. Yogi Japandranatha is behind the camera, so we don’t see him in this series.

Happy Pancha Ganapati, Day 1…. We begin today the annual celebration of this new Hindu festival that Gurudeva created for Hindus to have festive period during this period. It’s a joyous time. The winter solstice day usual comes near the beginning and so Pancha Ganapati occurs during the first week of the Uttarayane half of the year when the Sun begins moving northward. This time of year was an ancient period of celebration for ages and ages inmany cultures on the Earth.

We have a small altar set up in Kadavul in front of Ganesha… many gifts and season goodies are arriving at His Feet.

A new sign out front which gives direction to the temple for visitors first stepping onto the property.

The Spiritual Park at Saiva Siddhanta Church in Mauritius has been a soothing pilgrimage site for 20 years since its creation in 1986. Today is the last monthly Ganesha Homa for 2006. As usual hundreds of devotees attended the ceremony.

A few devotees are seated inside. The men prefer to leave the sitting space for the women…..

Every month devotees come to worship Lord Pancha Ganapati with their loving offering…

Our sishyas lead the bhajan ….

At 10.30 AM the homa is lit ……

Devotees have been instructed how to write their prayers to the inner worlds as taught by Gurudeva by using a plain white sheet of paper and using black ink.

Kulamatas Sornambal Mardemootoo and Premila Manick have been busy welcoming and taking offerings from the devotees to be placed at Lord Ganapati’s Holy Feet.

Time for testimonies…. Rohit Jagessur told everyone how his years of training at Kauai Aadheenam has helped him in his life.

This gentleman originally from Chennai, South India has offered 1008 home made sweets to Lord Ganapati. He prayed that his uncle be elected MP in India and his prayers were answered….

The Talk of the day given by Kul. Manon Mardemootoo was on Niyamas as explained by Satguru Bodhinatha.

The practical examples provided in the talk kept everyone attentive…

Each month Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati is majestically garlanded…Thousands of flowers are being offered

The homa ceremony, devotees walk down the Park where lunch is being served

The lunch is usually sponsored by two or three families

A family of our membership, Sishya Tiru Siva Mahadevan Thungavelu with his wife and children…

Everyone gives a helping hand to clean the Mandapam…

Back to the ongoing projects of the Park. The Ganesha Bridge….

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, Thursday, December 21st.

This is the last day of Rishi Thondunatha’s visit. He was joined yesterday by an old friend, Kumar Sankara.

Lieutenant Kumar Sankara was born to Gurudeva’s Sishya, later he joined the Air Force and is now serving as a navigator on jet planes that come and go from air-craft carriers. He is stationed in Japan right now and this was his first time back to visit us in five years. Good to see you Kumar!

Thondunatha will return to his work in Florida. He’s been helping the swamis a lot with their work in Tamil and especially the new Natchintanai booklet that continues to be developed in the background here… more news on that in the months to come.

The big news today is the migration of Koi fish that were gifted by someone in the area whose ponds will be closed down. With the coordination of the whole thing by Kulapati Deva Seyon, we were assisted by the generous efforts of Jim and Tim Geis, of the “Kauai Koi Guys” company in the delicate transfer. We bring you the tale as a slide show today.

A new initiative to do more ornamental carving is underway at Iraivan. Paramacharya Palaniswami bring us the story by video and a few photos of the work.

Gurudeva always like to participate in interfaith activities and Bodhinatha is currently attending the monthly meetings of the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai. The monks of the Ganapati Kulam assisted with a small greeting card that the Roundtable is sending out to clergy around the island. It has a good message for us all…

By the way. That photo of a rainbow is *real” rainbow seen here at the Aadheenam and not done in Photoshop.

It was Sun Five today and the Ganapati Kulam shared the many projects. One is a giant DVD with Hindu clip art that Sivanadiyar Satya is working on. It will have 4,700 hundred images. 1008 of these will be pictures of Lord Ganesha!

A picture of the DVD label.

In addition we are preparing a brochure that describes the DVD and which will be a beautiful piece of work in itself, for sale in our minimela… we bring you some image from the brochure to close our TAKA for this phase… we will see you in a few days. Tomorrow is Iraivan day and all the monks will be hard at work on Iraivan temple projects.

It’s a quiet day at the Aadheenam. The Siddhidata Kulam detailed its activities this phase. They have been working with the silpis, bringing water lines into the Ganesha and Muruga sanctums of Kadavul temple and working on our gardens and grounds. Amazingly, even in the middle of December a vegetable garden continues to grow in the tropics.

But there are other issues. One of the challenges has been to grow any kind of squash at the Aadheenam, because they are usually bitten by fruit flies. Sadhaka Nilakantha is the lead man on the food growing and he tried growing zucchini squash… Success!

A new addition to our menu…

It is “all hands on deck” in the Ekadanta Kulam where our task forcers have been recruited to work on the year-end mailing, which includes membership cards for 2007, CDs and other “jewels” for all the sishya around the world. That’s Tandavan and Teja pushing the project forward this morning.