An old photo… Bodhinatha blesses one of the stones of the Iraivan Gopuram. And we are running our announcement again about Bodhinatha’s next trip to Asia.

For TAKA viewers tuning in from Malaysia and Singapore, you are cordially invited to take part in a rare opportunity. On September 2 in Malaysia, Bodhinatha will conduct a one-day seminar on the topic of “Key Hindu Practices” at the Hotel Singgahsana in Petaling Jaya. Please download this PDF of the program brochure by clicking here for details about the program and how to enroll.

On September 9-10 in Singapore, Bodhinatha will conduct a two-day seminar on the topic of “Spiritualizing Daily Life” at The Legends Fort Canning Country Club. Please click to download the Singapore brochure for details about the program and how to enroll.

We hope to see you there!

The crane is here again today, lifting more stones for Iraivan.

More concrete forms have been constructed. On either side of the main sanctum are small “winged” projections on the east and west gopurams.

Our team ever at work… sorting through the many crates of stones recently arrived from India.

The Iraivan Temple is moving along well. We welcome your help. Here’s a reminder of a creative and painless approach to fund-raising for iraivan:

Let eBay Sell Your Things, Help Build Iraivan!

Iraivan Temple is now a charity registered with iSold It, under the official name “Iraivan Hindu Temple.” Simply drop off something you want to sell at one of iSold It’s nationwide chain of eBay stores. They do the rest: photograph your item, write a description, list it on eBay, take care of payment collection, packing, shipping and customer service. You indicate the name of the charity to support as “Iraivan Hindu Temple.” When the item is sold, a check will be sent to Iraivan. To find out what kinds of things can be submitted, and for the store nearest you, visit their website, http:///www.i-soldit.com. The website indicates another store will open soon in Vancouver, Canada.

Yogaswami goes for a walk, passing the reclining Buddha statue in Annuradhapura, Sri Lanka..

We continue today with the final episode of Bodhinatha’s journey. Today’s episode continues with coverage of the main purpose of the trip: attending the August festival at Maryland Murugan temple. Here is Bodhinatha during the festival parade.

The morning activities ended with the main arati inside the temple. Prasadam was served downstairs for everyone to enjoy. In the afternoon the two swamis waited with the children outside for the start of the pradakshina around the temple.

Lord Muruga’s utsava Deity was brought out to bless the people of Maryland. Riding on His peacock Lord Muruga began His journey around the temple.

Bodhinatha is pointing something out to Vayudeva.

Vel Murugan! Vetri Vel Murugan!

Mayil is happy to give Lord Murugan a ride around the temple. Here he is keeping an eye on the camera.

The monks always feel right at home with the Sri Lankan community wherever they are. We relate to them as one family with a common spiritual lineage.

Lord Murugan looks very pleased with all His devotees who came to the festival. Pathmini Saravanapavan opened an endowment with HHE a couple of years ago for this festival. Every year the temple receives a grant to help fund this day’s activities.

The temple has been acquiring additional lands around the temple. Nearby is the “Beltway,” the main freeway coursing through the Washington DC area. They want to build a large gopuram which would be visible to all those driving by the temple.

Around the temple were tables representing the six temples of Lord Murugan in South India. At each table the priests would break a few coconuts. The final stop was a table representing “Iraivan.”

It was a very pleasant day outside the temple. Here Lord Murugan’s palanquin is unstrapped from His vahana’s palanquin.

The ladies really enjoyed breaking coconuts for Lord Murugan.

One of the temple priests with Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha met with Pathmini Saravanapavan’s son, Niranjan, posing here with Niaranjan’s wife.

Kaika and Nilufer Clubwalla drove for five hours from their home in New York. Nilufer opened an endowment for the Yogaswami Girls’ Home in Sri Lanka and has been instrumental in raising funds to send to the home. Currently the money is being used to build bathrooms for the girls. And recently the home was given several milk cows, courtesy of HHE patrons.

Dharmalingam came to see Bodhinatha with his mother Lee and daughter Dhara.

Roman Hunt is a Master Course student. He is studying Tamil and visits the Murugan Temple on a regular basis. Roman asked Bodhinatha for a Hindu name. He is the classic example of a Hindu reborn outside of India in a Western body.

Venkatt and Vinodhini Guhesan came to see Bodhinatha. Venkatt is the IT man for the Murugan Temple website. Both he and Vinodhini are interested in helping with HHE orphanage endowments.

Ashish Chitnis drove all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan to see Bodhinatha. Ashish is a recent arulshishya of Saiva Siddhanta Church. His most recent karma yoga activity was to pack up and ship the book “Gurudeva’s Toolbox” to members around the world. Ashish hosted us when we visited the Paschima Kasi Sri Viswanatha Temple in Flint, Michigan two years ago.

Bodhinatha met with the various members of the executive and board commitees of the Murugan Temple of North America. The main topic of discussion was whether it was timely for the temple to set up an endowment, and what were the options. We encouraged the group to consider the ease and advantages of opening an endowment for the temple with Hindu Heritage Endowment.

The next day we flew from Washington DC to Kansas City, Missouri. Our first stop was to visit our friends and business associates at Banta Publications where they print Hinduism Today. This is our Hinduism Today printing team. They divide themselves up into groups called “pods” which allows each team to handle hundreds of clients.

The following video includes three temple clips. First is Bodhinatha giving a talk at the Ganesha Temple in Nashville, then two clips from the Murugan temple festival and the final clip is from the printing plant where the printing of the October issue is underway, being shown to us by our lead customer service representative, Tracy Beck.

Next we are off to Mail Werx. Meet Rob Sloan. He warehouses our inventory of Hinduism Today magazines, booklets, flyers, pamphlets etc. His company, Mail Werx does our mailings of Innersearch brochures, Mini Mela catalogs, Hinduism Today subscription flyers plus the items listed above. Our second purpose of visiting Kansas City was to visit Rob and his plant.

Rob’s partner is Trenton McCrae. He is owner of the printing side of their plant. Together Rob and Trenton make a great team helping us with various printing and mailing tasks.

The next day Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami flew off to Denver for an overnight stop. Every opportunity was used to brainstorm and discuss various projects. Time was not wasted while waiting in airports, riding in shuttles, flying in airplanes or having meals.

On August 16th they both arrived back on Kauai, having visited 11 cities, taken 13 flights in 16 days. Jai Ganesha!

At the Aadheenam today the work continues at the Iraivan site with a stone lift today.

More roof stones are finding they final place on the top of the temple.

News from our center in Mauritius arrived recently.

Pancha Mukha Ganapati may be becoming the island’s most favourite deity for local worshippers. Since its consecration at the Spiritual Park, thousands of devotees have come to worship his Holy Feet. The Sunday Ganesha Homa offers everyone an opportunity to worship Him as a dedicated spiritual group.

It’s early morning on our last Sunday Ganesha Homa … Something new is about to greet everyone near the main entrance. A granite plate from Iraivan Temple carving site in Bangalore with the words that reminds everyone of the greatness of God Siva…

The pool in front of the Mandapam looks calm and beautiful…Later during the day devotees will sit all around it.

It’s too early…Even the big crowd that usually worship with fruits offerings at the small Pancha Mukha Ganapati Shrine is not yet there…allowing our TAKA photographer a nice shot!

The only brass kumbha on the roof of the small shrine is shining with the rays of the rising sun…

The Homa ceremony starts.. Lots of prayers are being brought by devotees. The youth are there to help the Kulapaties during the ceremony.

As usual the Mandapam is packed to capacity, leaving barely any sitting space for any latecomer. Most ladies are seated inside now. The air is filled with incense and devotional songs…Everyone participates with intense devotion, feeling so close to the deity at this moment.

Every month we observe that the amount of written prayers brought by devotees is increasing!

After the Homa, food sponsored by devotees themselves is served to all.

A view of the crowd outside….

Ganesha Homa is also a wonderful for the family to be spiritually together.

Some new development around the Mandapam.. . Now spot lights have been placed in the grounds and on the building that beautifully light up the whole place at night.

A new exterior switch box has now replaced the old one.

Mr. A. Ramasawmy is the electrician who lovingly did all the electrical works for free at the Mandapam. Thank you so much !

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami arrived back at the monastery on August 16th, and we continue now with their “Across America” journey report.

Here is Bodhinatha giving a talk in the evening at the Nashville, Tennessee, Ganesha Temple. It was his now very polished talk on the “Two Questions on the Minds of Youth.”

Stepping back in time to August 8th, arriving at the Stelter Company headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, they were met by customer service representative Tori Tracy. Tori introduced them to various members of the Stelter staff and toured their facilities. Here they visited the state-of-the-art offices of the pre-press department.

Stelter specializes in printing, web services and seminars specializing in planned giving. This is their print shop. Print shop manager, Russ Swanson, explains the workings of their cutting, collating, binding and shipping room. Production coordinator Erik Potter is on the right.

We met for a few hours with our talented Stelter team. To the left of Shanmuganathaswami is Suzanne Mineck, Tori Tracy, Christy Nelsen, Russ Swanson and Erik Potter. This team is helping to develop the planned giving program for Hindu Heritage Endowment.

We flew from Des Moines on August 10th with a short stop in Chicago and arrived in the Music City of Nashville, Tennessee. Long time associate and friend Dr. Hiranya Gowda met us at the airport, and we spent some time visiting at his home. He and his wife Saraswathi were our hosts while in Nashville, and here we are at their home in Forest Hills.

We also met with Dr. Babu and his wife Radha. She gives tours at the Nashville Ganesha Temple for school children in the community.

Dr. Gowda took us to the Parthenon, a full size replica built in the 1800’s to celebrate the centennial of independence day for the USA. Originally built of plaster, this building was renovated in concrete with a covering of small pebbles on the columns. We noticed a few cracks in the sidewalks. They could have really used fly-ash technology back then!

Inside is this huge statue of the Greek Goddess Athena. She has many symbols which are similar to Hinduism such as the snake and that huge spear or vel. We appreciated the amount of time and work which went into the gold leafing. Nashville is often referred to the “Athens of the South.”

Our next stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame. This is a huge museum of relics, musical instruments and music of the country music stars. The museum and displays gave us a lot of ideas for our Iraivan Temple reception center.

While in Nashville we met with Venkat Dhurjati. He has been helping us develop a new web store for www.minimela.com. He had planned to meet us at the Ganesha temple in the evening but could not come because of arriving guests from India. When Shanmuganathaswami called him about his schedule he was driving home from work. When he asked where we were we told him we were in the Holiday Inn by a Target store. He said “I’m driving right by there this very moment.” So a few minutes later he knocked on our door. Bodhinatha called this one of those “small miracles.”

We took this photo of the Ganesha temple at night. Read about the temple at http://www.ganeshatemple.org/

In the evening Bodhinatha gave a talk.

The next day we spent some extra time in the Nashville airport due to the plane’s mechanical problems. It gave us extra time to take care of some research, emails and other computer tasks. We arrived in Washington DC late at night and were met by Vayudeva Varadan. The next day Bodhinatha was greeted by the priests of the Murugan Temple of North America. You can visit the temple online at www.murugantemple.org.

One main purpose of this trip was to attend the festive activities of the Nallur and Katargama Festival held every year at the Murugan Temple of North America. We arrived at the temple as the kavadi parade was coming back into the temple.

Here we see the kavadi participants dancing in ecstatic devotion to Lord Muruga.

Some of the devotees are very intense with their worship and love for Lord Muruga.

Everyone was momentarily transported back to Sri Lanka with the sounds of the tavil and nadaswaram.

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami sat near the homa fire. There were too many people to count attending this special day’s events. We were told that many people came from New York and New Jersey.

Dharmalingam Siddhan drove from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his mother Lee and daughter Dhara. Dharmalingam was able to video most of Bodhinatha’s talk.

Bodhinatha’s group of devotees handed out free Hindu literature during the day. This group includes Nigel and Inpah Subramaniam, Vayudeva Varadan, Pathmini Saravanapavan and Master Course student Roman Hunt. They collected names and addresses to send the Ten Questions People Ask About Hinduism and Raising Children as Good Hindus booklets. They also pre-sold copies of the book “What is Hinduism?” of which the monastery is printing in January of 2007.

Two of the temple priests carry the kumbhas inside the Murugan shrine.

Devotees receive blessings from the kumbha water.

Bodhinatha’s talk was well received by young and old alike.

Many of the children attend Tamil classes at the temple. Here they are gathered to sing some bhajans for Lord Murugan.

The children enjoy talking with Bodhinatha as they relate well with his style of reaching out to the youth. The children have all kinds of questions, and Bodhinatha carefully answers each one.

The Mardemootoo family doing a wonderful job gold-leafing the Navagrahas.

They look stunning.

Work continued with great energy today on Iraivan Temple today.

Craig Kawakami’s team built the forms for the big pour of the Nandi Mandapam foundation next week.

They are making it STRONG!

The real action was out at Anna Purna gardens where a test concrete pour was taking place. The goal being to see how this concrete with a high percentage of Portland cement being replaced by coal fly ash would perform in the pumps.

Several teams arrived.

It is just a test pour for checking the new recipe of high-density, fly-ash mix. Just one truck today, then 70 more next week!

The test is putting two small flat foundations near the garden.

This is the testing engineer, with his slump tools.

The concrete truck pours into a massive concrete pump truck.

With long booms, they pump into the forms.

OK, here it comes!

Yoginathaswami, Talaivar of the Siddhidata Kulam along with his team of monks have been very, very busy coordinating all the activities. It’s always a refreshing moment when all the coordination and planning finally come together and you have nothing to do but stand back and watch for a few moments. Success!

Craig’s team at work. They are so skilled, they make a hard task look easy. Our garden shed will be built on this pad, and a compost system will be erected on the first one you saw.

Hard work in the hot sun, so the monastery offered to feed the crews. About 12 or 15 in all! You can watch our movie of the day which documents the entire process.

It is a bright sunny day at the Aadheenam. Lots of visitors are coming during these August summer days and the Iraivan Temple site is humming with activity

When visitors walk up the path to Kadavul they can find underneath the Banyan tree on the left the beautiful statue of Lord Murugan.

And offer a few flowers at His feet.

Opposite the Banyan tree is our Banyan mandapam and Mini-mela bookshop. On retreats the families help host guests and the Mardemootoo girls love to run the mini mela gift shop, wrapping items and entering sales in the computer. They are a familiar with the routine as they are also very busy with the Mini Mela shop at our center in Mauritius. Here is Basanti

Dipanjali standing by to greet visitors with a bright smile.

The Wailua mission gathers to work on Rudraksha beads. Here is Kulamata Kavita Mardemootoo happy to be here on Kauai with her mother and father for a while and to have some quality time on vacation with the whole family.

Kulamata Isani Alahan

her daughter Priya

even two year old Jayendra Mardeemootoo helps out

Kulapatis Sivakumaren Mardemootoo and Durvasa Alahan

A wild peacock has come to the back yard.

At the temple, construction of the forms for the concrete pour of the Nandi Mandapam is in full swing.

Deva Rajan arrived on the island, and came this morning to work with Yoginathaswami to oversee the Nandi Mandapam foundation project that is underway.

Craig Kawakami’s team (that’s Craig with the tape) is building the 4-foot-high box that will hold the cement for the foundation.

The pour will be made all in one day, and the cement from 65-70 trucks will be heavy, about 400,000 pounds. So the forms have to be supported by a concrete footing they poured yesterday.

In the next few days Craig’s team will erect a massive support structure tied to the 2″ by 6″s he is straddling.

A shot from inside the box, which is 44 feet by 50 feet and four feet high. You can watch today movie of the work, and you will hear a little Hawaiian music playing on the carpenters’ boombox.

Sadhu Paksha is over, Bodhinatha is back from his travels and the Aadheenam was in full swing today with Sun one homa, a change of the flag, new ritau, tour day, and Iraivan worksite busy with preparations for the Nandi Mandapam concrete pour.

Here is Bodhinatha giving his Sun One talk.

It’s early morning in Kadavul. The Tandava poses of Lord Siva’s dance glistening….

Saravananathaswami performs the homa today.

Kulapati Sivakumaren Mardemootoo watches the homa carefully and son Jayendra Manoharan poses for the camera

Bodhinatha was in bright form this morning for his morning talk.

The off we go to change flags and enter the Jivana Ritau. Here are excerpts from the Saiva Dharma Shastras on this season

117 The Second Season: Jivana Ritau

During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December, Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture is the primary text. The key word of this season is work.

Wailua Mission sishya join us…

“The Aadheenam’s 50-foot flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags. This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life’s elder advisor stage. The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past. Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world. Practicality is a word much used this season”

“In the monasteries and the missions, there is a big push on studying the sutras of Living with Siva and these Saiva Dharma Shastras. The format of the mission satsanga changes into one that in fact helps everyone live and breathe with Lord Siva through personal adjustment to the aphorisms of Living with Siva, which define tradition, culture and protocol. Gurukulams are established or renewed to teach the 64 kalas for boys and girls. All work hard to perfect and strengthen Saivite culture in the life of each member. ”

“Kulamatas, grihinis and their daughters should think ahead and make plans to send talented children to dancing, singing and art schools for special courses, and ponder ways to make this possible through scholarships and special funds.”

“It is a time of building and repairing and caring for what has been built, planted or created in any realm of life. It is a physical time, of exercise and exertion in the Bhuloka, a magnetic time for action and willpower, of finishing all jobs started since the first ritau. On the farm, there is harvesting of the land’s fruits as we celebrate abundance. In the missions during Jivana Ritau, the shishyas can form tirukuttams, and thereby visit students’ homes, see how they live and meet their families.”

400 Jivana Ritau Bhajana Satsanga

Jivana Satsanga is from mid-August to mid-December. This is the season when those in the vanaprastha ashrama are especially honored. All turn their attention to the special gifts of knowledge and experience that are the legacy of our elders in the community. We listen to their vision, their high-minded work in the broader community in guiding the dharma within the broader social and spiritual and political arenas. We encourage garlands to be brought to these satsangas, then offered with words of kindness and respect to those who have been through so much and who now have an awakening wisdom by which all within the Church can be guided along the right path by those among us who have grown naturally into the subtle duties of vanaprastha dharma.

1. Activities begin with Ganesha arati by the padipalar of the day. He then leads the group in chanting the Gurudeva Namaskara Veda Mantra.

2. Then the padipalar conducts satguru padapuja.

3. Sutra Meditation: The teaching period for this four-month season emphasizes Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture. This is the time when we ignite the fire of progress among this holy band. The goal is to strengthen each member’s commitment to upholding all the vowed sutras for the coming year in public and private life and all sadhanas they have been given to perform. Therefore, a thirty-minute meditation is held, guided by the pechalar, on the meaning of vrata and the need for prayashchitta or penance when a vrata is not upheld. The sutras should all be in front of each devotee in written or printed form. During the meditative, reflective period, each one writes down on paper any sutras or neglected sadhanas they need to strengthen their commitment to fulfill. A positive plan for perfection is made, first through inner commitment and then actual change. These papers are kept by the devotee and looked at each night before sleep. They are finally burned in a full-moon havana when all penances have been completed and guilt has disappeared. This tantra demonstrates that each one is responsible to himself for applied metaphysical practices and consciously recuperating sadhanas that were neglected along life’s pathway. This is the Natha way of self effort to attain Self Realization.

Dawn breaks over the Wailua River valley below.

Iraivan looks lovely in the morning after some light showers. The place is humming now as contractors arrive for the day’s work on the foundation of the Nandi Mandapam

The ground and gravel bed were laid in of the past few days and compacted and now it is time to put up the forms for the cement.

All around are stones awaiting their time to become part of the amazing Iraivan temple.

The silpis at work, making refinements on the edge of the roof.

Today was tour day for this phase.

About 70 people came for the 9 AM tour.

And then 30 more for the 11 AM tour.

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami spent a busy day in Kansas City and will be winging their way home tomorrow arriving on Star Two.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Thursday, August 17th.

At the Aadheenam today the big news is the beginning of the Nandi Mandapam, which will sit on the South end of the temple, at the entry. After pilgrims take a holy dip in the Wailua River, they will climb the steps and arrive here before entering the temple. This is an artistic, computer generated rendering of the future mandapam. You can see the sacred, golden temple flagpole (kodimaram) with Nandi in front kneeling before Iraivan.

Stage one of this project is the forming up and pouring of a concrete foundation, which will also include the three side extensions of Iraivan. So the next two weeks is all about concrete.

Today, after months of planning by several teams, work began on the foundation of the Nandi Mandapam. It began at 8am with this meeting at the site.

Concrete executives, excavation crews, form-building teams, power-screed reps all working out the logistics of the next few weeks.

Right after the session, this loader arrived. Here it makes a space nearby for dirt that will be removed.

In order to make room for the new foundation (which is basically an extension of the existing foundation), we had to take apart the dirt ramp that has been our sloped access to the top of the foundation for six years. You can watch our movie of the day showing this behemoth in action.

This job is one of the biggest concrete pours done on Kauai in recent times, not as big as the iraivan foundation, but still it will take about 65 truck loads of concrete, all to be delivered in a single day. Yoginathaswami meets with the different contractors who all work out a game plan together.

Yoginathaswami writes about this moment:

“Here is a group photo of the various team members who are working so harmoniously together to make the Nandi Mandapam foundation a reality on August 26th. From left to right: Gary Avrice from Kauai Precast, he and his team will be handling the fly-ash application into the silo and the cement truck at the batch plant; Pat Debusca, Plant Manager at Honsador/Glover, is our local concrete batch plant; Craig Kawakami from Craig Kawakami Builders, our general contractor who is guiding all the subcontractors; Richard Basulto who will be operating the power screed; Yoginathaswami; Bill is Richard’s assistant; Jesse and Mark Evans from Small Line Concrete Pumping, a father-and-son operation, they will be pumping the concrete from the concrete truck into the four-feet-deep form.

More pictures tell the story, from puja, to ground breaking and final removal.

And you can watch a short video below.

Sadhu Paksha Day Eleven

At home, today was Ashram Sadhana Day and the monks were out cleaning and repairing and renovating.

Bodhinatha had darshan meetings with devotees in the Washington, DC, area today and will be flying off early tomorrow to Kansas City to visit Banta Publications where Hinduism Today is printed and also meeting with the company that warehouses and mails out all our miscellaneous free literature that is printed along with Hinduism Today.

And that’s it for today’s TAKA

Sadhu Paksha Day Ten

Another quiet Sadhu Paksha day at Kauai Aadheenam.

Bodhinatha sends a brief report on his day today.

“Om Sivaya, everyone,

Jai Ganapati.

Today was the Nallur Katirgama Festival at the Maryland Murugan Temple. A good crowd, maybe 300-400. We went in the late morning for the end of the homa, all of the abhishekam, gave a talk, then the puja continued with dhupa, dheepa, etc.

In the afternoon we returned for the procession around the temple which stops at a table representing each of the six Tamil Nadu temples, one for Batu caves and one for Iraivan, meaning to them God.

The talk was well received with many postive comments afterwards from all age groups. Many were extremely pleased we came. Lots of literature was distributed.

Om Namasivaya,
Bodhinatha”

Out at Iraivan some major “logistics” works were underway today. There is a massive scaffolding used to support the stoneworkers at the roof level where they are working now.

Previously, it was taken apart and reassembled to move it.

But this time the team was able to move the whole thing intact.

Using small pipes as rollers…

the team worked for about an hour to move it across the foundation to the Eastern side.

They started, as you saw above, with the forklift pulling it.

But it turned out the tea could actually move it faster by hand with their iron rods! Watch the movie of the action below.

Over the retreat we were able to take the silpis on a rare outing, giving them a break from their arduous and painstaking carving.

They had not been on a boat before!

Nor had they ever seen a dolphin or giant turtles, and we ran into lots of both.

We took them completely around the island in one day, something few people ever do.

They loved every minute. “We have never seen so much beauty or so much of nature before.”

Satya was along for the ride and other young monks as well.

Lots of photographs to share with family at home.

The island cliffs go on and on. The entire journey took from 7am to 5pm, and covered about 108 miles!

There were sea caves to be explored.

Looking out to the ocean from deep inside one of them.

At day’s end the silpis pose for a photo with our captain, Joe, and his boat.

Meanwhile we have a series of photos “hot off the camera” that arrived this morning from the San Marga Temple Iraivan carving site in Bangalore, India.

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara writes:

The yalli pillar was carved overlooking the wall where you can notice the side and front elevation drawings . Beside it was a cement model to capture the exact shape and style. Each pillar weighs over 3500 kilos. The crane is lifting the pillar away to be erected on a special platform to check if there are any corrections before dispatching them to Kauai.

The Yalli Pillar are two special pillars that will be placed at the Raja Gopuram , the entrance to the Iraivan temple. The pillar is carefully lashed using a nylon sling rope.

The Yalli pillars is placed upright with the use of the crane.

The panel in grey granite is the ceiling for the namaskaram mandapam. This comprises of 3 stones with very rich ornamental carvings. The centre portion has 6 parrots carved at a depth of 12 inches. Here, Selvanathan is drawing to show how the parrot will look like.

Selvanathan was very happy on the quality of the carvings achieved by normal stone carvers.

Selvanathan Sthapati who has been working on Iraivan from the start came from Chennai to our worksite to check on the final drawings that need to be carved and etched on blackstone for the Namaskaram Mandapam flooring. Present are Chidambaram, our resident sthapati and manager, Jiva Rajasankara.

Discussions are in progress to finalize the flooring concept where the red stone flooring meets the black stone panel.

Before I forget, This namaskaram Mandapam is in the centre of the main mandapam of Iraivan Temple, a very special place where our Satguru , Bodhinatha Veylanswami will prostrate. It is a restricted place only for the Satguru.

A silpi is busy carving a manikattai , a small knob like to be placed
on the hand rails.

Selvanathan is discussing with Thangavelu our chief ornamental carver on some carving details.

Discussions on the red stone flooring in progress.

Both pillars were erected taking into account the actual space that will be available. Three devotees can easily pass through. Here is the main supervising team responsible to bring Iraivan to reality. Standing from left are Chidambaram Pillai our resident sthapati, Thangavelu our chief ornamental carver , Selvanathan Sthapati and Jiva Rajasankara.

We were searching for over 4 months for suitable land to shift Iraivan worksite, as the current site will soon no longer be available. Some land was too far away, some were too expensive and some had some legal complications in the land documents. Finally, Jiva decided to pull out his 2 acre vanilla farm which is just next to the present worksite. It was an tough decision to take, to write off over US$35,000. He made a great sacrifice for a good cause- to continue carving Iraivan . Most important is the silpis will be happy to continue work in the same village. What you see is the small Ganesha shrine at the back where we plan to conduct the morning puja for the silpis. We will be creating a shrine to place the photos and tiruvadi of Gurudeva and Bodhinatha.

Shanmugavelan, brother of Selvanathan was deputed to draw a master plan according to Vaastu so that the worksheds, office, silpis quarters and mess are located at the right locations.

Selvanathan making some changes it the master plan, giving
his reasons for the change.

Kanmani was also present for the meeting.

Shanmugavelan sharings his thoughts. At the back ground you can see the high wall measuring about 10 feet which goes around the 2 acre land. It will be totally protected from intruders and will have a lot of privacy to carve our Iraivan Temple to completion. More photos will follow once the work commences.

After a long three-day retreat, our phase starts again. It is all quiet at the Aadheenam. So we will turn to a series that arrived today from Shanmuganathaswami who sends pictures of their time in Colorado.

We continue our story on Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami’s “Across America” journey.

In our last TAKA episode our latest stop was Salt Lake City. Stopping off in Denver we took one of those “dinky planes” to Eagle, Colorado, the local airport for those living in the Eagle/Vail, Colorado area. High in the Rocky Mountains we were met by Vel & Valli Alahan and Rajkumar, Ananda and Saroja Manickam. The Eagle airport is quite new with high vaulted ceilings of giant natural wood trusses which reminded us of a ski resort. We came to find that this style of building was the norm for this area.

One of our first visits was at Rajumar, Ananda and Sarojo Manickam’s new home in Eagle. Their townhouse number was “B1,” and we had fun talking about how they were always reminded to “Be One.” Here you see Rajkumar doing a welcoming puja for us in his shrine room. Little Saroja is helping by ringing the bell. You can see Gurudeva’s tiruvadi in the center of the photo.

Rajkumar presented Bodhinatha with a gift from Nepal, a brass bowl with which you make a mystical sound with a wooden stick.

A group photo is a requirement on these kinds of visits. Here is Bodhinatha with Vel in the back. Ananda is on the left, then Valli and Rajkumar, with Saroja in front of Rajkumar. Saroja turned 4 years old on August 9th.

The next day we went to Vel’s house. Here you see two additional members of the family. Ambika is all the way to the right with her husband, Mat. Vel and Valli’s house is next to a perfectly clear stream of cool water. Every few minutes a small flock of Canada geese would fly over their house. They really live in a magical place.

Bodhinatha chatting with Rajkumar and Ananda.

As a group we drove to Vail, Colorado, of ski resort fame. We rode up the ski gondola to the top of the mountain. This is one of the views of the ski area. Siva’s little beetle creatures make their homes in some of the trees, and the trees eventually die. This turns the tree red and adds some additional color to the forest.

A view of Vail’s ski slopes in the summer.

This photo is taken at 12,000 feet. The air is a bit thin up here which makes the scenery even more “breath taking.”

A view of Vail from the gondola.

Later in the afternoon we left Eagle for Denver. Here is a double rainbow we saw in Denver created by the rain which came with us.

On Sunday, August 6th we started out the day with breakfast with the Alahans and the Manickams, who had driven down from Vail. Surya Sundaram joined us with his wife Beth and three daughters, Dhamanika, Chandra and Dhena. Rakesh and Rasi Chandranatha also joined us with their four children. Then we drove south of Denver to the Hindu Temple And Cultural Center Of The Rockies. Bodhinatha talked about two questions on the minds of youth today.

Bodhinatha is introduced to the Denver community.

The first question is “Why do we need Hindu temples?”

About 150 worshippers were there to hear Bodhinatha.

The second question is “What is the relevance of Hindu temples in this modern age?”

The temple’s acharya was very appreciative of Bodhinatha’s message. The temple congregation has grown larger since it was built, and they are thinking seriously about buying some land to build a larger temple for the Denver area community.

In a separate room of the temple is a shrine containing many of the South Indian Deities, including the Ganesha murthi given to the temple by Gurudeva to start the temple. Ganesha is on the left. You can see the flowers and fruits which are placed at His holy feet.

A closeup of Lord Ganesha.

Outside the Denver temple.

In the middle is Rajendra Giri who escorted us to the Siva Mandir. Vel, on the left, is our host and driver.

We visited Siva Mandir located at 1391 S Pennsylvania St in Denver. Here we were greeted by Kim Howard, the caretaker of a large four-faced Siva Lingam from Nepal. Kim told us this mandir is a “gateway” for Westerners into Hinduism.

A view of downtown Denver.

On Monday, August 7, we met with our regional rep from Stelter Company, Jeremy Stelter. Jeremy is helping us to develop a comprehensive planned giving program for Hindu Heritage Endowment. Stelter maintains the planned giving section of our HHE website at www.hheonline.org.

That afternoon we flew to Des Moines, Iowa to visit the Stelter headquarters. More to come…

It is a quiet day at the Aadheenam. No word from the travel team today, but we have this announcement for Bodhinatha’s next trip to South Asia:

For TAKA viewers tuning in from Malaysia and Singapore, you are cordially invited to take part in a rare opportunity. On September 2 in Malaysia, Bodhinatha will conduct a one-day seminar on the topic of “Key Hindu Practices” at the Hotel Singgahsana in Petaling Jaya. Please to go the Academy Programs page to get the PDF for details about the program and how to enroll.

On September 9-10 in Singapore, Bodhinatha will conduct a two-day seminar on the topic of “Spiritualizing Daily Life” at The Legends Fort Canning Country Club. Please download this flyer from the the Programs page to get details about the program and how to enroll.

We hope to see you there!

Kulapati Easan Katir sends this photo of the last day of the camp in Pennsylvania. Kartikeya Katir leads youth in a Hatha Yoga demonstration for parents.

Our members of the Wailua Mission always take every chance to honor our silpi team. They gave Chinnu a going away party. Here are Basanti and Dipanjali who sang so beautifully for Chinnu and served so perfectly all of the appetizers.

A group photo with all the silpis.