Here are the first photos from Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami’s “Across America” journey. After several days of non-stop travel, meetings and visits, this is their first TAKA report and is written from the mile high city of Denver, Colorado. So we are going to back in time to catch up on their progress across the middle of America.

After a long delay in the flight from Lihue they took a circuitous route via Los Angeles and arrived in cool San Francisco early in the morning on August 2. After postponing their first meeting of the day they visited two professional business associates related to Hindu Heritage Endowment. Trenched in the heart of downtown San Francisco near Union Square, they visited a vegetarian restaurant where they spent time brainstorming various projects relating to Hindu Heritage Endowment.

On August 3 they flew to Salt Lake City and were met by local shishya Aditya Vinadhara, a long time devotee of Gurudeva. In the evening they drove to the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah, the first Hindu temple in Utah. Here they are at the temple on the evening of their arrival, enjoying the sacred mantras being chanted.

Gurudeva gave the Hindu community here a Ganesha murthi in the early nineties, and Lord Ganesha was worshiped in the basement of Mr. and Mrs. Neelameggham for five years. The community bought some land in South Jordan, about 20 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, and then proceeded to construct the temple.

Arriving at dusk they were greeted by the temple officials. Here you see the silhouette of the temple with the Utah skylight in background.

The priests and devotees of the temple were in the midst of a Lakshmi puja when Bodhinatha arrived and the two monks enjoyed the last part of chanting the 1008 names of Lakshmi. With each name, they are offering kumkuma to the Goddess.

About 44 people were there that Thursday evening, and it was considered a large group for a week day.

The temple opened about two years ago. Here you can see the beautiful marble floors. The mandapam is spacious for a small temple.

After Bodhinatha’s talk, the two priests showed their respect and appreciation by presenting him with a shawl and a few of the temple’s specially minted silver coins.

This is part of the audience who came for the puja and Bodhinatha’s talk. Mushika, Lord Ganesha’s loyal mount, is in the center of the photo with a garland around his neck.

The priests of all the temples Bodhinatha visits have a special sense of closeness with Bodhinatha and the monks of our monastery on Kauai.

The Hindu community is fortunate to have this temple in Utah, and we are told that Bodhinatha is the first swami to visit the temple since it opened two years ago.

Everybody came forward enthusiastically to introduce themselves to Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami.

Young couples were anxious to hear a few words of advice.

Jane Nelson, of Positive Discipline fame, came to see Bodhinatha at the temple. She had received an e-mail invitation sent to all the Utah temple devotees. We were surprised to see her there as she was on Kauai just last week. Jane explained that this was her first time to the Sri Ganesha Temple, although she only lives a couple miles away! She presented Bodhinatha with her latest edition of her book on raising children, Positive Discipline.

Bodhinatha performed a simple milk abhishekam to a small Siva Lingam in front of Siva and Parvati and the larger Narmada Siva Lingam. To the left you may be able to see the murthi of Lord Muruga watching the ceremony.

There is Lord Muruga in the upper left of the photo.

The invitation sent to devotees inviting them to see Bodhinatha was on the bulletin board.

Everywhere Bodhinatha has gone has brought rain. Salt Lake City was no exception. Here is a view of downtown.

Aditya Vinadhara took the two monks to the Oasis Restaurant for breakfast. He explained that Gurudeva had visited this restaurant/book store in 1995, and since his visit it had grown into a larger restaurant and was quite popular. Gurudeva often had this effect on restaurants he visited. Aditya related several stories of Gurudeva’s visit to Salt Lake City and the beginnings of the Utah Ganesha temple. We encouraged Aditya to write down his stories for our archives. Aditya continues with his service to the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah, and during his last visit to Kauai he inspired the creation of an endowment for the temple with HHE, fund #56.

Aditya drove Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami to the airport and they flew off to their next destination high in the Rockie Mountains of Eagle, Colorado. And, well, that’s another story for another day.

Bodhinatha gave a very inspiring talk about two questions asked by the youth today. The group listened attentively as Bodhinatha explained the first problem.

As we mentioned a few days back, two grand wooden sculptures arrived with the latest stone shipments from India. Ganesha and Muruga. They are destined to grace the entry of Kadavul Temple, hung right on the lava rock wall on either side of the giant doors. They will be part of the lighting for the outside of the temple guiding visitors to the temple in the dark hours before dawn for early puja and homa.

Each is made from a single tree, a large one. You can see from the lotus Ganesha is standing on how deeply carved it is.

And painted to look like it is already worn with age, though these were tailor made for us.

It took the carver 18 months to make the pair.

Graceful designs everywhere.

Below is a short movie of the two carvings:

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Ganesha’s noose.

Murugan is on the right side of the entrance. They are just sitting there now, waiting to be installed.

Muruga offers blessings and protection to all.

Parrots play in the trees above him.

And a peacock looks from below.

Jai Murugan!

Meanwhile, a shot from atop Muruga Hill, with our grassy cow pastures there behind the tall palms.

Bamboo on top of the hill provides shade.

This is the WILD THING of the day, an ensete flower. It’s massive, about 18 inches across and deep purple.

Ensete is a relative of the banana, but gives no fruits. This one is called “Superba.”

The last containers from India brought many gifts to Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, not the least of which is this charming Dandapani, mean Lord Muruga “who holds the renunciate’s staff.”

He has a new home in the temple gardens, on asmall mountain withlarge palms nearby.

His hair is shaven to denote his giving up of all worldliness and ego, and he wears a band of rudraksha beads on his head and larger ones in his ears.

Dandapani is said to be the first human being to renounce the world and take the path of the solitary seeker of Truth.

This is the form of Murugan at Palani Hills,where the following poem is sung to Him:

O Lord of Palani Hill!
O Dandapani!
O Karttikeya, O Muruga!
Salutations unto Thee.

Thou art the younger brother of Ganesha.
The six Krittika Devis nursed you
Thus are you named Karttikeya.
Thou art Nirguna Brahman.
Thou art Siva’s sparks of Light Divine,
Thou art the great General
Of Celestial forces,
Thou art the Destroyer
Of Tarakasura and Simhamukha.
Surapadma became Thy vehicle and flag.

Come, O come, Lord Subrahmanya
You blessed Arunagiri.
Now Bless me, O Skanda,
I am Thine, all is Thine my Lord!

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami are on the move. Yesterday they stopped to visit devotees in Colorado and today Bodhinatha reports: we visited the home of Vel and Valli, then took a gondola ride to the top of a mountain near Lionshead Village which has a spectacular view of the entire Vail Valley. Afterwards we had lunch in Vail Village, which is an impressive high-end tourist town. As Rajkumar said, all of the shops sell what you want, none of them sell what you need! Then a flight back to Denver.

Yogaswami would often unexpectedly arrive at the homes of his devotees, as depicted in this artwork by S. Rajam.

Some of you know that we are working on a new Yogaswami Natchintanai song book. Seventy songs have been selected, the Tamil was entered and transliterations completed and we are in Phase Three: translation. Many of the songs have translations done already by Siva Yogaswami’s senior disciples in an English version of the Natchintanai, published by the Sivathondan Society in Sri Lanka. In fact we are just now in the process of clearing a new shipment of these books for sale at www.minimela.com. During our work on this project we are frequently awed by the power and beauty of Yogaswami’s words. Here is one short and famous song “Arumaiyaana Theyvam”

Wondrous Gods Are We!

Elder brothers, younger brothers, mothers –listen!
Wondrous gods are we! Know this and live!

Can anyone describe our nature?
What fear is there for us? Are not all things Siva?

Can we forget the perfect saying uttered by sages long ago,
“Not an atom moves but by His will”?

It is good to live with calmness in the world,
Not thinking that God is here or there, but knowing that He is everywhere.

Servants of Siva state a truth that He is the Eye within the eye.
Service to Siva is to know its meaning and thus live free from sorrow.

This small self has crowned his head with the holy feet of
those great souls, who realize that everything is One.

Bodhinatha is “on the move.” he sends this brief update:

“August 3rd: Today was a midday flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. In the evening we went to the local Ganesha temple. The Ganesha murti was a gift from Gurudeva. We had a good group for me talk, more than anticipated for a Thursday night.”

Today he and Shanmuganathaswami fly on to Denver.

Silpi helper Chinnu completed his “tour of duty” here at the Aadheenam and five years of diligent service to Iraivan Temple and the team. He’s returning home to be with his family and hopes to start a small restaurant in India. We want to thank him for everything he has done while he was here.

The Sivakumaren Mardemootoo family is working on gold-leafing the Navagraha statues during their stay on Kauai. Yesterday morning they applied the special adhesive varnish called “sizing” to this image of Ketu and after three hours waiting for it to dry to just the right tackiness, they are applying the gold leaf.

It is always a magical process.

Bright shiny Ketu

Suriyakumar, who visited recently with his super camera, send us hi-resolution images of his “fly over” of Iraivan Temple. We will put up some really big ones in the days ahead for you all to download.

Watch now as he flys down…

Sadhu Paksha Day 1

It’s sadhu paksha and our flow of guests and TAKA photos will be more “quiet” than usual.

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami are in Salt Lake City after some flight delays in Lihue followed by a day of appointments in San Francisco. Both are well and strong.

Today we bring you photos from “off shore” missionary activities. In Pennsylvania and Sri Lanka

Kulapati Easan Katir sends sends photos from the youth camp in Pennsylvania. A series here on a morning hatha yoga session at the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Preparation for Meditation at Sri Venkateshwara Temple Youth Camp.

This bright young man wearing the shawl has attended camp the past four years, and hopes to serve on Task Force at Kauai Aadheenam soon.

On the bus to visit all the local temples, Kartikeya expounds on an abtruse philosophical point ( we are guessing )

Group photo

Senior counselors spell out SVTC: Sri Venkateshwara Temple Youth Camp, 2006

Tamil New Year celebrations at Sri Subramuniya Kottam

On April 14 2006, the birth of the new Tamil year named Vyaya, was celebrated at the Sri Subramuniya Kottam. A special shrine of Yogaswami and Gurudeva was setup at the Kottam and pujas were performed for them to receive their blessings for the coming year.

The worship was attended by the Kottam students, teachers and devotees from the surrounding community. All those who came for the celebrations received kai-visesam from Rishipathi Kanagaratnam afterwards. Kai-visesam is a Sri Lankan Tamil tradition, whereby young people receive cash gift from their elders, usually their parents, grandparents or an elder community leader. On Tamil New Year morning after visiting the temple, devotees will go and pay their respects to their elders to seek their blessings and advice for the coming year. After that the elder will give them kai-visesam. It is believed receiving money on this day from an elder will bring them good luck for the coming year.

After receiving kai-visesam the devotees at the Kottam were served food.

We had a very dynamic, “jam packed” morning today at the Aadheenam.

Here is the second and third generation Mardemootoo family, Kulapati Sivakumaran, Kulamata Kavita and children, eldest daughter on the right, Basanti, second daughter Dipanjali with her mother and youngest, son, Jayendra. They have traveled all the way from Mauritius to be here with Kavita’s parents (Amala and Deva Seyon) and have some quality time as a family together at the Aadheenam. Here they meet with Bodhinatha.

Chitra puja arrived today and was celebrated early in the morning.

Sadhaka Jivanandanatha and Sadhaka Nilakantha perform the puja.

Chanting the Pushpam chant…

One of the devotees writes:

“This morning the 6 am Chitra pada puja was so blissful, spiritual, and peacefully serene. It makes one feel profoundly grateful and truly blessed that we are devotees of this great lineage of Sat Siva Gurus!”

Later at the end of the morning just before lunch we had the extremely auspicious, “mangalam” vow renewals for seven monastics.

You can see a short video clip below. Sadhaka Jothinatha was there, too.

Each brought his vow book to the Guru Peedam.

Prostrating to Bodhinatha before the ceremony.

Bodhinatha talks of the importance of the vows, which for sadhakas and yogis are for two years at a time.

Acharya Kumarswami conducts the ceremony as they all in unison speak out their solemn pledge to follow the sacred vows of the Saiva monastic: Humility, Purity, Obedience and Confidence

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Bodhinatha listens as the vows are recited. They speak directly of the aspirations and committments of the soul for the highest attainments of human birth.

THE SACRED VOW OF HUMILITY: KNOWN IN TAMIL AS PANNIVU.

Humility is the state of profound maturity in which the soul, immersed in the depths of understanding and compassion, radiates the qualities of mildness, modesty, reverent obeisance and unpretentiousness. There is an analogy in the Iaivite tradition that compares the unfolding soul to wheat. When young and growing, the stalks of wheat stand tall and proud, but when mature their heads bend low under the weight of the grains they yield. Similarly, man is self-assertive, arrogant and vain only in the early stages of his spiritual growth. As he matures and yields the harvest of divine knowledge, he too bends his head. In the Tamil language this absence of pride or self-assertion is known as pannivu. Pannivu also means “jewel.” In the Holy Kural it is said that “Humility and pleasant words are the jewels that adorn a man; there are none other.”

Signatures are placed in the book to signify another two years of service to Lord Siva and to the Sivaguru.

THE SACRED VOW OF PURITY: KNOWN IN TAMIL AS TIRIKARANNASUTTI.

Purity is the pristine and natural state of the soul. It is not something which the sannyasin attains as much as that which he already is, and which becomes evident as the layers of adulterating experience and beclouding conceptions are dissipated. Purity is clarity and clearness in all dimensions of being–physical, mental and emotional. It is innocence as opposed to familiarity with the ways of the world. It is, for sannyasins, the observance of chastity, called brahmacharya. In Tamil purity is given its fullest expression in the term tirikarannasutti, which means –purity in mind, speech and body. These three also called thought, word and deed –convey the amplitude of the ideal of purity.

Then Bodhinatha signs each book as well.

SACRED VOW OF OBEDIENCE: KNOWN IN TAMIL AS TAALVU ENUM TANMAI.

Obedience is the state of willingness and cooperation in which the soul remains open and amenable to enlightened direction. For the sannyasin it is an unbroken pledge of trust in and surrender to the satguru, the Iiva Yogaswami Guru Parampara and the mystic process of spiritual evolution. In the Tamil language this definition of obedience is expressed in the term taalvu enum tanmai, which denotes “the quality or state of humble submission.” PObedience does not consist in blind submission and yielding to authority, nor in weakening our own will that it may be dominated by the will of another. Yet it is, in another sense, submission to a sacred purpose and the divine authority of the Second and Third Worlds. It is, for the sannyasin, an inner quality that allows him to remain consciously tractable and responsive. At those times when the instinctive nature looms strong and there arises a sense of “I” and “mine,” obedience is a surrendering of the ego to the soul or the instinctive nature to the spiritual nature. As long as the ego dominates the life of man, he will experience obedience as capitulation or subjection. As the soul unfolds and separateness is replaced by knowledge of the unity that pervades the universe, obedience is perceived as the union of minds and purpose, a state of harmony so complete that there can exist no distinction between him who gives and him who receives instruction or direction. True obedience is based on agreement, trust and knowledge, as opposed to passive servility, nonresistance or domination which have ignorance and fear as their basis.

THE SACRED VOW OF CONFIDENCE: KNOWN IN TAMIL AS RAHASIYAM.

Confidence is the state of trust in which the sacred teachings and sensitive or personal matters are not divulged to others. Spiritual instructions must be protected and preserved by those to whom they are entrusted, never wantonly or indiscriminately revealed. When we confide in another, we do so with the assurance that sensitive and serious information will not be inappropriately disclosed. In the Tamil language confidence is known as rahasiyam, meaning “secret or mystery.”

Confidence as applied to these Holy Orders does not mean “certainty” or “a belief in one’s abilities” or “self-confidence.” Rather, it is a confiding, a trusting and a relying upon. It is the sharing of privileged teachings or information that should not be disclosed, but held in confidentiality. In its most simple form it is the keeping of a secret.

You can see Gurudeva’s signature here in this book for Sadhaka Nilakantha who begain in 1999.

Our pilgrim family, the Umakants, Jeremiah and Padminidevi and their daughter Janani were blessed to have a private audience with Bodhinatha in the Guru Peedam. One could see how truly happy they all were following their meeting with the Guru.

Just one last photo of them as they departed.

Jai Ganesha we start a morning walk at the beginning of Tiruneri.

who guides us always along the right path!

Visitors came as usual today even though it was quite rainy.

One of them wore this modern Ganesha t-shirt.

All of them needed umbrellas.

Some tree trimming today.

And Yogi Japendranatha working with the local network provider to solve some problems caused by wires wearing in the trees.

Rain is a blessing and we were certainly blessed last night and throughout the early morning hours.

Following a powerful abhishekam in Kadavul Siva Temple, our group pilgrimaged down to the Iraivan Temple.

The entire group posed for a photo in front of the Iraivan Temple.

And of course there are lots of wonderful things that have been unloaded from the containers from India. Here’s a short clip of that work in action.

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Raj and Himani Dave arrived for the morning abhishekam with their two children Rachna (age 15) and Sivani (age 12). Another family, Geeta and Raj Moolchnadani and their three children, Divya, Priyanka, and Pooja accompanied them. They are all from the same town in Tennessee.

Krishna Ramachandran who is from Sunnyvale, California also arrived with his wife and two boys, Vasant and Hemant.

Krishna Ramachandran and his family beside one of the Bhadra pillars.

A light rain had begun to fall as we entered the temple site. Here is another group photo near the east-facing Gopuram. Everyone then had an opportunity to see all the wonderful stonework up close, ask questions, and talk to the silpis.

Raj and Himani Dave and family posed with Geeta and Raj Moolchandani with their children on the east side of the sanctum.

By the time we were leaving the rain had become torrential as we headed back to the Kadavul Temple.

Easan and his son Kartikeya are teaching at the annual summer camp held by the Pittsburg temple in Pennsylvania. We hope to get more news and photos later. Here he talks to a group outside during a break.

Our Wailua mission members are a small group, but they do a *lot* of Sivathondu!

Today’s series is a tree planting session. Sivakumaran Mardeemootoo and daughters, Amala Seyon, Durvasa and Isani Alahan, Lila Shaktidevi, and Tandu and Uma Sivanathan gather with a truckful of noni plants for Himalayan Acres. We are guessing that Kavita Mardemootoo is behind the camera.

This was a continuation of the planting from last Sunday when 500 plants or half the field was planted.

The trees are set in an eight inch deep hole every twelve feet. The row is a thousand feet long, and farmers’s advise when doing this kind of job, “Don’t look down the row at what you haven’t done…”

It’s a dirty job, but went very quickly and by 11:30, with the help of hired hand Augusto and his team, the work was done. Every little tree also got a handful of chicken manure. Today’s cloudy and rainy weather is also a big help as the trees adjust to their new home.

Dipanjali with a noni tree in a square tube, 2 inches by 2 inches by 8 inches. The trees were grown from seedlings in these open-bottom cardboard collars, which “air prune” the roots. As the roots grow down and hit air, they simply stop growing, unlike in a pot where they’ll tend to wrap around the bottom of the pot. When the trees are taken out of these collars, they transplant easily with little shock.

After the planting everyone enjoyed an outdoor picnic together by the Wailua River.

On another day the mission members harvested fresh Rudraksha seeds…

And there is visiting sishya, Indivar Sivanathan from California on the right.

Every purchase you make of rudrakshas lovingly harvest and processed by our devotees goes to support the Iraivan temple building fund. Click here to see what is available. Authentic and “fresh” from the sacred grows of San Marga.

It was a quiet day today at the Aadheenam. Almost no no photos were taken today, though we did have a number of pilgrims. Everyone is very focused on their duties, looking neither left or right.

The Ganapati Kulam shared news on their activities today. For the most part the whole kulam has been focused on the closing production of the October issue of Hinduism Today, which gets very intense as we work to meet our “JAZZ Day” goal, which is our term of the closing of the editorial work. Even after that, there is another week of work to get everything ready for the printer and create the Digital Edition.

We have been a bit slowed down with technology glitches the past few days. But our team keeps pushing through no matter what happens. We are happy to say that the new Oceanic Time Warner cable company on Kauai is very responsive and plans to expand and replace equipment in our area. So, we should see some big improvements in the weeks ahead.

On other news fronts, a big team of family members went to Himalayan Acres today to complete the planting of our new noni orchard where we now have 1,000 trees planted. Afterward they have a family picnic together.

Bodhinatha leaves for his next journey in two days and lots of preparations are in the works.

The unloading and unpacking at Iraivan continues and we are sure to have many marvelous things to show you next phase…

Sun Four today… The Siddhidata kulam detailed all their activities at the temple site, on the grounds and in the garden

Dr. Jeremiah Umakanthan, a psychiatrist, Padminidevi his wife, and their daughter, Janani who is a Pediatrician have visited the Aadheenam many times in the past. We are always pleased to see this lovely family again. They are originally from Sri Lanka and now living Apple Valley, California, and attend the Malibu Temple

Another lovely day with light trades. The prodigious authoress, Jane Nelsen, returned for a meeting with Paramacharya Palaniswami. He has graciously offered to help Jane with printing of pamphlets as she strives to reeducate the parents and teachers of the world to parent and teach their children through the avenue of love and understanding and not through violence and corporeal punishment.

Jane states that she is eternally grateful to Gurudeva for utilizing her books in his mission to stop the violence in the home and bring peace to the world.

Her books on Positive Discipline have been translated into about twelve different languages to include Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Spanish, and Slovakian to name a few. She has just completed a revision of her book. Jane is an intelligent, refined, sweet, humble soul who has had lots of experience with children. She has seven children of her own who are now adults, and has eighteen grandchildren (which she jokes seems to coincide with her having written eighteen books.)

Paramacharya Palansiwami presents her with a beautiful gift — “Gurudeva’s Toolbox for a Spiritual Life.”

Two days back Lucy Kauaihalau visited with her mom and dad and sister, Janine. Here Jacque and Lucille spend a few moments with Palaniswami after their tour of the temple. They have been coming for six years and tell us of their joy in seeing the progress.

Earlier this morning we went for a walk out to see what is happening at Iraivan this morning.

Tropical plants on all sides on our way…

There’s a new container ready to unload.

Boxes and boxes.

The Siddhidatta Kulam moved all the stones from yesterday’s two containers out into the open ground.

Dozens of mysterious items wrapped in coir, which is made from rubber and coconut husks.

They will be placed where this wooden staircase is.

Meanwhile, the team is hard at work unpacking the containers from India.

Hours and hours of work are required just to unload, then many more to remove the crates so the stones are free.

Our new cow arrived today. She is from the Big Island and is mostly black. So we named her after the Goddess of Fire, Pele. Pele is on the front being followed by the local cow residents of the monastery. She goes through a period of adjustment as the newbie in the pasture.

Here Pele faces off with Mimi who is a much bigger cow. Pele made it clear that she was not going to be pushed around and proceeded to do a little pushing herself. This is the way cows get acquainted.

After a few minutes of introduction, the cows posed for this shot. It wasn’t easy getting them in this order. On the left is Nandini, daughter of Hanna. Next is Pele, the Great Fire Goddess from the Big Island. The big Holstein is Mimi, also daughter of Hanna. On the right is Anu, daughter of Chaturthi.

Pele is one half Holstein and one half Jersey. She is pregnant and expecting a calf any day in the next couple of weeks.

So in preparation for our new arrival, Shanmuganathaswami and the PK members have been working on this new calf pen under the Banyan tree near Kadavul Temple. We are hopeful that the newcomer is a heifer.

Sun Three at the Aadheenam. The Pillaiyar Kulam gave their news today. Shanmuganathaswami is preparing for a big journey to the mainland with Bodhinatha. On the way they are meeting all kinds of different people about 10 places. It’s taking him a lot of time to prepare. Meanwhile Muruganathaswami has been shipping out lots of literature to be distributed at the various venues where Bodhinatha will be. Sadhaka Jothinatha is very focused on the advertising pages for the coming issue of Hinduism Today and Sadhaka Jivananandanatha has been as usually keeping up with a fast-paced flow of high finance and accounting as Bodhinatha meets with him daily for training and to turn over more administrative tasks to him.

The arrival and unloading of new containers is the big news at the Aadheenam.

They are yielding their gifts from India. These two swans are part of the new monastery archway entry gate.

Crates.

Two of the five containers have been emptied by our team, which includes Pandian here.

And roofing stones.

And more crates.

Here are the first of the perimeter handrails that will be an important element in the future.

And more crates!

Inside two we get a glimpse of ornate black elephants which will stand near the new archway entrance gate.

A box of multi-colored granite cubes!

And another box of polished granites of various hues.

These are samples for future work to be done.

Pandian shows us a few of the highly polished tiles.

Jiva also sent white and black river rocks which are designed to go on the ground below the two elephants.

The team begins the day.

And more crates!

Note the way the large stones are secured to their supporting pallets.

All carefully marked in Bangalore so the Kauai team knows where they fit into the giant puzzle.

This morning a very lovely and interesting group of pilgrims and visitors arrived for the morning puja.

P. Thiyagarajan, a scientist, and his sweet wife Suganthi arrived from Chicago on a pilgrimage to this sacred Siva Temple. They are both active in the Chicago Hindu Temple and an associate, Dr. Janakiraman, highly recommended a visit to the Kauai Aadheenam. They both feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to come here and will return again.

Our entire group with Siva Yoginathaswami and two of our great silpis.

Mike and Gity Hebel. Mike is the retired Chief of Police and Attorney for the SFPD from San Francisco. Mike had previously met Gurudeva in the early 1970’s at the San Francisco Temple and knows a few of Gurudeva’s close devotees.

Aitreyia and Acoma Reifsnyder are from Arizona where they have a metaphysical shop and also perform Reiki in their studio.

. . . and in front of the Iraivan Temple.

. . . and with Siva Yoginathaswami who was very busy moving the newly arrived stones from India with the forklift.

Near the swayambhu lingam.

Then along the path of the Nayanar Saints past the lotus ponds to the Narmada Lingam where all participated in abhishekam with the ever-fresh mountain stream water.

Dr. Jane Nelson from California authored the Positive Discipline books and was honored in 1999 when Gurudeva chose her books as part of his program to create peace in the world through peace in the home. She has returned and will meet with H.H. Bodhinatha Veylanswami tomorrow morning.

More photos of our wonderful visitor, Swami Anubhavananda who went out to Iraivan yesterday.

Swami could not help himself when he found our sacred Wailua River and he waded out to sit on a rock.

Atop Muruga Hill

The sacred Rudraksha trees near Iraivan Temple are dropping tens of thousands of fresh fruits, called Blue Marbles in English.

The entire ground is covered.

This color is unique in the natural world, caused by the molecular structure which interacts with light at the surface of the skin in a refractive way, not a reflective way. This was documented in a Scientific American articles years ago.

Maruthu Dharmalingam leaves tonight to return to Malaysia. This morning he met for a final darshan with Bodhinatha.

At lunch Maruthu expressed his appreciation for his stay here and all the varied experiences he had in all the kulams. He really made big contributions during his month stay in each kulam that he served in.

He said he was especially impressed about the way that “the monks approach a task… they focus on it and really stay concentrated until it comes to completion.” It was a lesson he will take home with him to Malaysia. He was also grateful for the loving humble attitude of all the monks and how open and easy it was to talk with any one off us in a way that he never experienced before at home.”

From our side all the monks want to thank Maruthu for his wonderful spirit of devotion, service and ever bright attitude. We feel we have another man on the team for sure, no matter where he may be.

We were honored today to meet with Swami Anubhavananda from Mumbai. Swami has been reading Hinduism Today in India and always wanted to visit.

He meets with Bodhinatha who presents him with a copy of the Trilogy.

Swami Anubhavananda radiates a peaceful humble presence, is a popular speaker, offers guided meditation tapes, is a prolific author and is also well known for his “management seminars.”

Swami is traveling with Prashant Kanhere.

Shama Kumaran captured Maruthu fulfilling his last assignment while here. From the high tech publishing world of Tamil and Malay in the Ganapati Kulam we sent him for a few days off to the high touch world of polishing the Navagrahas. Shama writes:

“Maruthu Pandian Dharmalingam is a 27 year old resident physician at a state hospital in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Maruthu is an exceptionally fine young man who came all the way from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to serve his Guru and the Swamis for one month on ‘task force’ here at the Kauai Aadheenam. He has served in three Kulums performing computer work, proof-reading and editing all of the Saivite Hindu Children’s Books, working on the grounds to include Himalayan Acres where a plantation of Noni bushes are being planted. Attending classes with Swamis and attending pujas in the temple. Maruthu states that he has totally enjoyed being in the presence of the Guru and amongst the swamis and learning from them. He confided that he most especially enjoyed the good food here!”

Here is Maruthu cleaning and scrubbing the Navagraha deities to resplendency.

These deities will soon be gold-leafed and eventually placed in a Navagraha Mandapam near the Iraivan Temple at a future time.

A bath of tamarind water is first used to soak the statues for many hours. They come up with most of the oxidized coat taken off, ready for polishing.

Gurudeva presides over his work. The final job is done by hand with a wire brush.

It’s another exciting few days at Iraivan as 5 containers have arrived from India.

Here we are this morning at the Iraivan Temple site before the morning rains fell.

The first of four containers arrived yesterday and has been opened.

About 85 such containers will take the 10,000-mile journey (Hmmm! That’s about a dollar a mile) from India to Kauai to bring all the sculpted stone to the island.

The containers are off loaded onto the foundation, since it happens to be exactly the height of the bed of the container and our forklift canroll inside to do the heavy lifting.

The carvers roll up their afternoon sun shade to let the morning light into their work space.

Later today the team will bring out all of the crates, efficiently packed as you can see.

Today the team is focused on the roof level, working around one of the six crocodile rain water spouts which you can see at the center of this photo.

They are working on a strong platform built by the resourceful Siddhidatta Kulam. This entire structure will move along the side of the temple in the months ahead.

Another tour day arrived today. The 9 am group numbered 63 bright souls.

We thought to share some “Quotes and Quips” from our visitors to lighten up the day. Notable testimonies and questions from guests are always good for a smile.

“Can you tell me about the chakras? I was a Mormon missionary and met some Hindus in Germany who told me about the chakras. Today I’m no longer a Morman.”

The truths of Hindu metaphysics have a way to speaking for themselves to anyone in a powerful way!

The second group was about 35. One young man happened to be passing by Kadavul after the main puja was done and Ceyonswami was doing abhishekam on Nandi outside. Later the young man asked:

“Why was that man with the long white beard throwing water on the hippopotomus?” (smile)

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Next we have a special series from the camera of recent pilgrim Suriyakumar who took these aerial shots from a helicopter. These are without question the best aerial shots of iraivan ever taken. He has a very good camera and was able to focus even with all the vibration. No one has ever done this before. Later when we get the hi-resolution photos we will put up some really big shots.

We started another phase today with morning homa.

Shama Kumaran has been hosting guests all through the retreat and tells us about our pilgrims.

Today we had a wonderful 6 am Sun One homa followed by Upadesh by Sat Siva Guru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

Pilgrims attending the homa included K. Varadha Rajan who arrived from San Ramon, California with his parents, S. Ganga and C.V.K. Sundaram who live in Bangalore, India. They visited the Bangalore carving site and met Gurudeva and Sri. Trichi Swamigal several years ago. They have also visited Kauai Aadheenam on several occasions in the past. Varadha and his parents were very impressed with the progress of the Iraivan Temple and he sponsored two stones on this visit.

They were given a tour of the Aadheenam, first to the Rudraksha forest. . .

In front of the Dakshinamurthy deity

And a dip in the Wailua river.

At the Bali Hai falls

Danyse Crotti and her niece Jennifer just arrived from Adelaide, Australia, in time for the 9 am abhishekam in the Kadavul Siva Temple.

Danyse is now studying Gurudeva’s Master Course and plans to go on the Innersearch Pilgrimage to India in 2007.

Another family arrived from the Mainland, Vikash and Regina Lal with his mother, Gyan Wati Deo. Vikash left Fiji in 1987 to settle in California. Vikash was so impressed with the sacredness of the Addheenam that he wants to move here. All he could say was “its amazing, just amazing!”

Picking up rudraksha seeds . . .

Here is Vikash with a haleconia.

We have received this series of photos from the recent trip to Edmonton.