It was an amazing day at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, with magical happenings from dawn to dusk.

The morning began with Chitra Pada puja for Gurudeva.

Chanting Sri Rudram

This magnificent trident was a gift to Gurudeva from a jeweler in Salem, India. He and his wife were without children for many years and after meeting Gurudeva and expressing their desire were blessed with a child.

In gratitude he crafted this pure silver Trisula, which now stands next to Gurudeva’s shrine as the traditional temple guardian location of Bhairava Siva, just inside the temple doors.

Following the Padapuja for Gurudeva this morning, the focus of the day shifted to Iraivan, where the monastics and silpis began working on the raising of eight new pillars.

Bodhinatha is on site for the ceremonious installation of the first Yalli pillar.

Our mighty team of Siddhidata Kulam monks have everything ready.

All set for the puja.

Special rigging has been prepared in advance.

Upright and blessed.

The base is consecrated…

Gold and silver coins, and the 9 gems are placed in a small hole.

Now… up….

and… down…

Bodhinatha breaks a coconut to mark the auspicious moment.

Bodhinatha passes out to the silpis the traditional dakshina: cash bonus.

These will be the formal entrance to Iraivan, with pilgrims of the future walking between the two giants.

Amazingly, Kauai’s most gifted photographer just happened by. Here the crew that placed them poses for a portrait. That’s Tim Dela Vega in the blue shirt and green cap with the camera. He arrived just in time.

In the center is our crane operator Larry Conklin, who is now an adept in handling the stones for Iraivan. He wanted his friend Vard in California to know how much he appreciated everything that Vard passed on to him in working through the years. The expertise that Vard gave him has helped immensely in this delicate work here in Hawaii.

The creatures on the pillar, called yalli, are said to be seven different animals in a single beast with a lion’s body and an elephant’s head.

The monks return to the Aadheenam as the crane lift continues. Beside the two Yalli Pillars, six smaller chitra pillars went up today.

Meanwhile, at the Aadheenam, many, many visitors were arriving. Kadavul temple was full. A wedding party from Canada, has come to Kauai. The daughter of a Sri Lankan family has come to have the wedding on the island and receive the blessings of the Aadheenam. Here is Subramania Gurukkal from Edmonton who will perform the wedding ceremony tomorrow in Anahola.

When Iyer was just a boy of 8 years old, he was playing with other boys near his village temple in Sri Lanka, when an old man lying on a cot nearby called for him.

In trepidation he approached the white hair beared man who then told him one day he would be a big Gurukkal of a Ganesha Temple in Canada. “For now go and play,” said Siva Yogaswami.

20 years later Subramania Gurukkal came to Gurudeva’s ashram in Alaveddy, where he met Paramacharya Ceyonswami and began teaching him the Parartha Sivapuja. Then not long after the war broke out, Gurudeva helped Iyer move with his family to Canada where he has lived ever since as the head priest of the Edmonton Ganesha Temple.

This is Tim Dela Vega’s cousin, Phil Atwood. Phil has worked for Apple Computer in Cupertino for the last 27 years. He is currently the head analyst in the support organization for the MacBook Pro. He has the unusual and important job of gathering data from support calls and repairs, as well as actual sample computers exhibiting problems, analyzing them and then suggesting to the engineers what changes need to be made in the physical design and firmware of the computer to make it operate better and last longer, focusing on getting those changes in to each next production batch. He’s full of smiles, happy to be here on this special day and to talk tech with the monks. He spend most of the morning watching stones being placed at the temple site.

Meanwhile, Robert Brown, now known as Tandava, helps in the archiving of the publication photos.

Then, back to the temple… another chitra pillar goes up.

The creatures on the pillar, called yalli, are said to be a congomerate of different animals all blending together at the time of the Pralaya or dissolution of all forms back into their essence.

Careful alignment of these pillars is mission critical. The goal is to get them perfectly centered in line with the pillars that were previously set by the architect from India.

It was a many splendored day at Kauai Aadheenam!

Bharat and Saroj Dave have wanted to visit us for over ten years and finally had the opportunity. They live in Massachusetts and are from Gujarat originally. They are friends of Bhairava Sundaram Sivacharya, who is the son-in-law of the late Sambamurthy Sivacharya. Both Sivacharyas came to Kauai Aadheenam in 1995 to perform the Pancha Silanyasa (first-stone-laying) ceremony for Iraivan Temple. Bhairava Sundaram will be performing puja in the Dave’s home next week.

They are overjoyed to be here and said they are “moved” by the vibrations here. They are lovers of Siva and really enjoyed visiting the various lingams on our property.

Standing by the uncrated Yalli pillar which will be raised up tomorrow.

This is one of the most ornate stones of the Iraivan temple, a roof, ceiling beam that will be above the Namaskaram Mandapam

The silpis are busy preparing the base stone for tomorrow’s crane lift.

There will be two Yalli stones, facing each other at the entrance of the temple.

It is ashram sadhana day for this month at the Aadheenam. A fuzzy photo of work being done in the publications building.

Indivar Sivanathan came for a visit. These large pieces of art are too big to scan. She is a professional photographer and we have her take some hi-resolution photos.

This is a new “chakra man”

We also have a marvelous series of yantra paintings.

A magnificent batik of Lord Siva as Dakshinamurthy.

Here are Devagharan and Krishnakumari Nair with their daughter Devina. They live in Texas and are originally from Malaysia.

They last visited in 1999 and are back again. They had darshan with Bodhinatha and got advice about raising their daughter in the US. Devina is homeschooled and Bodhinatha advised to carefully monitor her friendships as she grows up.

Worship at the Swayambhu Lingam.

This original site of Gurudeva’s vision will be preserved for the future. Plans for a mandapam to be built over it and a surrounding plinth are in development stages.

At the Iraivan Temple, temple stones continue to see the light of day after their long journey from within the earth to the Bangalore carving site, to container, across the ocean to their new home in Hawaii.

Three beams extracted all at once.

And, next! (drum rolls, nadaswaram playing loudly…) the Rajagopuram capstone…

Oops! It is so heavy the back of the forklift is going up!

Yoginathaswami drags the crate out very slowly….

This is one of the heaviest stones in the entire temple. our team places pipes underneath the crate so we can easily roll it out. This is how it was done in ancient days with elephants pulling stones on logs as rollers.

There it is! The Raja Gopuram

Meanwhile a magnificent Yalli pillar has had the base of it’s crate removed.

Work begins on the base, in preparation for standing the magnificent piece up in place.

A very kind guest, Garrett Scott, offered his camera yesterday during the tour and e-mailed us the photo today. The group was by the Rishi Valley lake, where there are shrines for
the gurus of our Parampara. Mahalo Garrett!

Sun One begins again with a bright homa and a joyful talk from Bodhinatha.

Today we will let the photos do the talking.

Bodhinatha read Gurudeva’s explanation of the origin of the Shum language. You can find this intriguing account in the April, 2002 edition of Hinduism today, scrolling part way down the page to the subhead, “The Story of Shum.”

It was Tour day today.. another big group….

Bodhinatha meets with pilgrims: Madan Chatterji and his wife Tanushree Chatterji, from Indiana, Rup Chatterji and Indira Chatterji, from Los Angeles. All were originally from Calcutta, India.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Tuesday, November 14th.

The big news was the arrival of containers. These pictures taken yesteraday afternoon. Yoginathaswami inspects the area. It looks like the ground is a bit too low and the edge of the container will not meet the edge of the concrete slab.

No problem. Sadhaka Tejadeva brings in more dirt to raise up the edge of the container.

Stones are packed in very tight! This is a section of the hand railing.

Almost there….

“OK, looking good, back it up!”

That’s it, perfect fit, edge to edge.

More pillars arriving, revealing their lovely carved symbols

Off to the side, one of the silpis keeps on with the chipping.

Now we are back to today.

One of our island’s orchid societies came today on a special visit. They brought with them some remarkable flowers, plus some jars of home-made jam.

After their temple visit, Palaniswami took them through the gardens. Amazingly, their questions were not about flowers and plants at all, but about the soul, about the differences between Hinduism and Buddhism, about the role of women in Hinduism.

They all stopped at the blossoming Bat Ears aroid, with its long whiskers. Many had never seen one. In fact, few people have. It’s quite uncommon.

At the Iraivan site our visitors were able to watch the unloading of our next containers, which arrived yesterday afternoon.

This shipment is four containers. This one is almost completely unloaded today.

In each one are massive stones, like this crate which holds two giant Stone Windows, called Jalokoms.

They are single stones, one foot thick and 11 feet long and seven feet wide. These will be installed in the walls at the entrance, windows you can see through.

Not shown here but to surprise you next phase: Yalli pillars which Yoginathaswami says are “the most beautiful stones we have seen here since the beginning of the temple.” Stay tuned…

We get a peek inside one crate, which holds the capstone for the Raja Gopuram entry gate. This series of photos is by Teja (Scott Falzone).

Another view of the jalokoms, with the temple tower behind.

Lots of handrail stones arrived too.

It take all day just to empty the containers.

Gurudeva supervises from the sanctum nearby.

More hand-railings which will surround the perimeter defining the first prakaram

Fortunately, the Nandi Mandapam foundation, built in August, provides plenty of space for stockpiling the stones until they are installed.

Pillars arrive as well. This one has a carving of the Simhasanam in the Guru Peedam, the spiritual seat of authority for the Kailasa Paramparai.

These pillars are being prepared for lifting.

A many-armed Lord Siva.

The Satguru’s rudraksha pendant.

Lions watch the jungle behind.

The pathways back to the monastery.

And the Rishi Valley Pond.

The giant jalokom stone.

Bodhinatha meets with Mageswary and her son Saktikanna, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are here on a pilgrimage.

At the Aadheenam it is quiet today. The Siddhidata Kulam detailed their recent activities for the weekly Sun Four kulam report at lunch today. Yoginathaswami has been working with stone logistics at Iraivan in preparation for a crane lift later this month. Six pillars will be raised up. The new large expanse of the Nandi Mandapam is really helping to provide needed space for stones. The scaffolding around the sanctum has come down again and the whole north end of the temple is free and clear to view.

The rest of the Siddhidata Kulam team has been working on their amazing list of maintenance task, food growing, vehicle and equipment repair.

That’s all for today!

Another one of Lord Murugan’s men moves forward today. Dharmaraj took his Supplicancy pledges today.

He reads aloud the three pledges of Celibacy, Humility and Obedience before Bodhinatha and the other monks.

Official booklets are signed and witnessed by those present.

It is always a great day in the monastic order when another soul makes new commitments to the path of service and Self-Realization. Sivanadiyar Dharmaraj!

Robin (on the right) a First Grade teacher from the Kula School brought seven students (age 6 and 7) to visit today. Here they are surrounding Lord Ganesha on the path to the Iraivan temple.

On the way they stopped to feed the fish in the ponds near the path of the Saiva Saints.

There was quite a feeding frenzy going on as the different species took advantage of the food offered.

Next we are off to visit the silpies.

Time to try carving… first, eye glasses for everyone.

Here is Kula putting her hand to the job.

Shannon applies his newly found skill of carving stone with great concentration .

These seven year olds showed great interest in the many wonders of Iraivan and asked many questions . As they left, they thanked the Shilpis and called out “Nandri” as they climbed aboard the ‘people-mover’ for their next adventure.

Off to see “Deepti.” Here she is — a loving, friendly eight-week old female calf. At first a little in awe of all the attention showered upon her, she soon began to nuzzle all the children and seemed to enjoy the stroking and petting as they plied her with alfalfa cubes.

Back at Kadavul, checking out the temple through the binoculars.

One last stop at the Kadavul Hindu Temple where they received the blessings of Paramacharya Ceyonswami. Swami explained a little about Gurudeva, the importance of meditation in a monk’s life, and the about the stars and planets on the jyotish display.

Puli is enjoying a nap under the hot air vent from our giant OSX server at the publications building.

Today at the Aadheenam we had a tour day and also
Bodhinatha started a new program meeting with the young pre-monastics and task forcers once each phase on Sun Two.

For those who are watching for new postings of Bodhinatha’s Upadeshas. We have uploaded a new talk today… check the Side Bar. And, for Real Player users, we have fixed the Real Audio link. Try it out. If you have troubles with the audio, choose the download link on the audio page, save the file to your hard drive and listen to it with your favorite media player.

Dharmaraj, Robert and Teja spent a full hour with our Satguru asking questions and drawing forth his wisdom for their spiritual lives.

Lunch news from the one-man Ekadanta Kulam–Sannyasin Saravananathaswami was very interesting. He’s been making contacts with people in Singapore, Malaysia and India by way of pre-arrangements to meet Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami on their up-and-coming journey. He sends out Satellite News to our members and students. He’s also researching venues for next year’s events in California and coordinating advance sadhanas for those coming on pilgrimage to Kauai.

As per our web site, pilgrims can call in advance to get instructions on how to prepare themselves and what sadhana’s they can do before and during their pilgrimage. Swami sent out the instructions for Preparation For Meditation, and the pilgrims will have a guided meditation daily in the temple when they come.

Meanwhile Sivanadiyar Satya and Yogi Japendranatha are still in Seattle so Sivakatirswami and Sadhaka Haranandinatha filled in has tour guides today. The first tour at 9 am had about 60 people. This is an elder Amma here with her daughter from Concord, California. They were originally from Mangalore, India.

Mr. and Mrs. Koray, from Detroit, originally from Bangalore area.

As always out guests were enthralled with the Aadheenam, the grounds and Iraivan Temple and the opportunity to get some questions answered.

It’s 10:30 and Paramacharya Ceyonswami is just completing the final rites of the morning daily Siva puja.

Food offerings and worship of Surya and elemental devas at the Bali peedam.

This is Eden who was quite articulate through the first tour and ready to ask questions. She wanted to know, “Why is elephant important?” Sivakatirswami started by saying the elephant was the world’s biggest animal. Eden promptly informed him, “No, that’s not true! Whales are the biggest mammals!” Quite right Eden (smile)

This is Eden’s 3-year old brother, Emerson, who calls himself “Emmy” who thought it was really cool to be able to stand on a coconut tree that was slanted sideways at the base. He is doing his best to comply to the request “Smile, Emmy.”

Eden was delighted to know she would on TAKA today and ran off calling to her mother “I’m gonna be online!”

She was a great stone carver and once she started chiseling at Iraivan she stayed working on that rock for 15 minutes….

The 11 am tour has arrived. Sadhaka Haranandinatha introduced them to the monastery, its history and mission work at the Banyan Mandapam before going out to Iraivan.

Working on the stone….

Another day full of happy visitors to Siva’s amazing sanctuary in the middle of the Pacific.

Speaking of Pacific, over the retreat we captured moon rise of the Coconut coast. The pictures will tell the story.

We began our new phase today with a Sun One Homa, as usual, after a wonderful 3-day retreat. No pictures to day from the temple…

Today at lunch the Lambodara Kulam detailed their activities. Paramacharya Ceyonswami has been in communications with India to find a few more silpi helpers. He’s also very active fulfilling astrology compatibility requests. Sadhaka Haranandinatha says the Iraivan fund-raising is going very will with more and more large donations pushing the project forward. In India a new carving site has been blessed as the old one will be closed down after all the stones are shipped. Future carving work will be handled at the new site.

Over the retreat, Sannyasin Yoginathaswami and Sadhaka Nilakantha flew to Honolulu because Home Land Security required the agricultural inspection of containers to be done at the port of entry.

Yogi Japendranatha and Sivanadiyar Satya are in Seattle attending an InDesign conference, meeting with top Adobe trainers and engineers on the key software tool we use here for all our publications work.

Over the retreat, Paramacharya Palaniswami took some of the young monks and task forcers on an outing. We bring you pictures of their adventures today with his captions. Remember as Gurudeva said: “Live is meant to be lived joyously.”

But first, the periodic maintenance of the coconut trees around the front of Kadavul temple was the “action” of the morning…

Here we are yesterday Honolulu.

Yoginathaswami and Sadhaka Nilakantha had quite a tale to give today about the challenges faced by the forklift drivers and inspectors in Honolulu who removed about 50% of the stones to check the wooded crates.

Because the containers were not at level with the ground, the forklift had to go up a ramp, then, to make the first forklift level enough to pick up crate of stones a second forklift hand to pick up the back end of the first one. Quite an unusual tactic from our point of view!

The presence of our monks there was mission critical to make sure stones were not damage in the unloading and reloading process for the last inter-island trip to Kauai. Previously inspectors had allowed the containers to come to Kauai first and flew here. But new regulations were enforced this time. Yoginathaswami once again offered them the option to let future containers come to Kauai, which would a lot easier for everyone..

Every 6-12 months we have to trim the coconut trees as falling coconuts from these tall trees are a hazard.

They surround the temple pool near the publication building.

Up goes the brave soul, Isidro, who will do the trimming today. His little company is called “Hana Hou.”

With his all-important safety harness.

And down come the coconuts, an occasional one hitting our roof top to give some added energy to those inside…

They are in all stages of growth, from flowers to seeds to full nuts.

The team loads the fronds and debris into their truck.

It’s a physically difficult task, but Isidro loves his work, hanging 50 feet above the earth, machette flying. Congratulations to the Siddhidatta Kulam for coordinating this maintenance of our lands. And thanks to the Hana Hou team for doing such a great job!

On the 3-day retreat the young monks and taskforcers went on a special excursion to find the source of all rainbows. It was discovered at Na Aina Kai, a Botanical Garcen and Sculptural Park on our island. Our guide was Marty Fernandez, posing here with Yogi Jivanandanatha, Dharmaraj, Robert and Teja.

This garden has been trading plants for over a decade with the monastery, and Palaniswami brought a trunk-load of gifts for them.

Marty showed us through their new children’s playground including this tree house.

There is a real covered wagon brought from the Wild West.

The creator of this 215-acre park is Joyce Doty, who dropped by to say good morning to her visitors. She is an amazingly creative lady and has gifted this entire facility to the island’s peoples.

Pulled by a life-size mule and horse, make of bronze! Harnessing the wild horses reminds us of Saint Tayumanivar’s poem:

“It is easy to tame the rogue elephant.
It is easy to tie the mouth of a bear.
It is easy to mount the back of a lion.
It is easy to charm poisonous snakes.
It is easy to conquer the celestial and the noncelestial realms.
It is easy to trek the worlds invisible.
It is easy to command the angelic heavens.
It is easy to retain youth eternally.
It is easy to enter the body of others.
It is easy to walk on water and sit in burning fire.
It is easy to attain all of the siddhis (yoga powers).
But to remain still is very, very difficult indeed.”

She recently created a Hawaiian village, complete with thatched huts, and an ocean.

Native plants grow, and the Hawaiian men and women are all in bronze.

Off to the fruit orchard, where our young ones discover Star Fruit.

“How do you eat these?”

Fresh off the tree.

Teja takes a bite.

Not far away we run into a Durian tree full of maturing fruits. That’s the “stinky face” one gets when smelling the famous and much-maligned fruit.

Above they hang ominously, spiked cannon balls ready to crash down on unsuspecting folks. The spines are so sharp they need to be handled with gloves.

Then off to the look out where Marty shows us their beach.

All seen from this pavilion.

Jivanandanatha and Dharmaraj take a ride on the self-propelled swing Joyce’s husband designed.

It was a grand visit, followed by other adventures. Here Dharmaraj hold a plant gifted to the monastery by our local Wellness Center. In exchange, they received a passel of healthy plants.

All is quiet at the Aadheenam… no special photos today. The Ganapati Kulam reported on their many endeavors. They have been very much focused on the final hours of production of the January 2007 issue of Hinduism Today, the wonderful new book, “What is Hinduism” and a special new booklet called “All About Kauai’s Hindu Monastery.”

We have just received the first bound galleys of the “What is Hinduism” book and we have this testimony from the printer who prepared it in Michigan:

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Aloha Sivakatirswami!

The books (What is Hinduism) went out yesterday via FedEx 2 Day.

I wanted to say that it has been a pleasure working with you on this project. The books are works of art, and I must say that I have learned a great deal about Hinduism by virtue of osmosis. What a beautiful gift to the people of the world.

I am a practicing Theravada Buddhist, but never really learned much about Hinduism. I hope you will not mind if I hang on to the low res PDF for my own personal perusal, so I can read the whole book at my leisure.

The layout is a masterpiece. Not very often do we get a job in here that makes me proud to see the output that we’ve done, and lets me appreciate the art of print for the sake of beauty.

Thanks again for allowing me the pleasure of working on this job. I eagerly look forward to the next.

From MJA Graphics…

Our light hearted weekly banner to encourage you to come with us to Cambodia, Malaysia and on to India.

Yes, you could make set up a travel program on your own, but consider the benefits of Innersearch: all accommodations and travel are pre-arranged, guides to take care of you, wonderful classes, monks to chat with about spiritual matters, visits with otherwise-impossible-to-approach people and places, open doors to communities and temples. Click here to find out more about the coming innersearch.

A devotee in Sri Lanka has a vision of Siva Yogaswami…

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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 Dvitiya Tithi, Sun One, Friday, Tuesday November 7th.