Bodhinatha writes that they arrived safe and sound in Seattle after a pleasant flight over the Pacific.

See his travel page for details on events in Canada.

Pilgrims and visitors seem to be alike in one respect in that they have left all their worldly worries behind and are now open to new experiences, be they spiritually uplifting or just fun and enjoyable, and are therefore “very happy people.”

By the time they attend the powerful and beautiful abishekam at the Kadavul Siva Temple, followed by a walk through exquisite tropical gardens of great beauty and variety; add a side-trip to the Bali Hai Falls, and they are ecstatic.

Donna and Evan Green from California and Cynthia McClung from Kapaa and her visiting mother from Ohio. As they departed they all agreed that this day had been spiritually significant for them all and this sacred place is “just like heaven.”

A lotus has blossomed from his little pot home, next to Lord Ganesha. We did not realize they had such tall stems. It reaches up nearly two feet above the water line.

Three sisters, Sangeeta, Seema and Anu then arrived all originally from New Delhi. One with her husband, Dr. Dinesh Khanna, and their two children. They were all here for a family reunion when, by chance, they heard about the ‘Hindu Temple’ and so came up to visit the temple and worship together and made their reunion complete.

Sat Siva Guru Bodhinatha departed this morning for Canada with the well-wishes of the swamis, yogi and sadhaka of the Kauai Aadheenam and a few local devotees who were fortunate enough to be there.

Our first visitor of the day, Sundararaj Palanisamy, arrived just in time to have his picture taken with Bodhinatha as he was leaving for the airport, much to Sundaraja’s delight.

Sundararaj is working as an Agricultural Scientist at the University of Idaho. He originally came from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, South India and presently lives in Parma, Idaho.

Due to his tight schedule, he was given a whirlwind tour of the Iraivan Temple building site where he was able to converse in Tamil with the silpis and learn more about the sacred art of stone carving.

He was amazed at the progress of this wonderful temple and said that the “Iraivan Temple was definitely a must for every Hindu on the Globe to pilgrimage to.”

For all the chocoholics, this is the orchid that smells like chocolate. It really does!

And this is the one that smells like grapes…

Saravan and Bhavani Veylan had their last morning with us before leaving today.

“They do not know the path to the supreme ideal of life,
Who cannot efface the dual play of knowledge and ignorance,
And cherish the inseparable, ever abiding Lord,
Whose luminous wisdom everywhere illumines everything.”

–Tirumantram, 2580

It’s another quiet day at the Aadheenam… Bodhinatha leaves for Canada the day after tomorrow.

Another gorgeous day and newly weds, (left) Tia Dodson who is a student of Natural Resource Economics and her husband Jon Dodson, a student in Forestry both arrived to enjoy the beauty that this sacred land has to offer. The Dodsons have made their home in Fort Collins, Colorado and deeply love and revere nature and all it has to offer.

Ollie Shagnasty (right) has lived on Kauai for the past 40 years. He is an old friend and neighbor of the Swamis and was here for Gurudeva’s last Jayanti Festival. He arrived with his visiting nephew Juan Nollar, his wife Pamela and their son Jack who is in 3rd Grade. They all live in Fort Myers, Florida.

They were all amazed as they watched the Shilpis working around the Gopurams and marveled at the intricate artistry as they chipped away with such delicate precision. The carvings of the pillars reflect the beautiful spiritual history of Hinduism and the spiritual way of life of Hindus. Jon Dodson remarked he “had never seen anything like this ever. Its amazing!”

Ollie is very knowledgeable about the history of Kauai and has an unbelievable sense of humor. Here he is with his family and the Dodson’s in front of the pool outside the Kadavul Temple. He was busy giving our newly wed guests some sagely advice as they begin their lives together.

After smelling the orchids that gave a perfume of chocolate, Jack wanted to smell the orchids that smelled just like grapes, ” Wow!”

Bodhinatha gave a marvelous talk today in the temple as we started another week with a marvelous homa.

Yogi Japendranatha is the homa priest for today.

Many pilgrims came.

Bodhinatha’s subject this morning was “enlightenment” and the correct understanding of ashtanga yoga.

Saravan and Bhavani Veylan of Edmonton, Canada, met with Bodhinatha this morning.

A very beautiful, but hot day, brought another Hindu family to the Kadavul Hindu Temple for the 9:00 a.m. Abhishekam. Urmikant and Madhu Mody from San Jose, originally from Mumbai, arrived with a friend, Ragini Rao from San Diego. According to Madhu they all came on the strong recommendation of relatives who were here a few weeks ago. They, like so many others, had no idea there was such a beautiful and powerful Hindu Temple here on Kauai.

Here they are at the Iraivan Temple Building site with some of our very patient and artistic shilpis, Rajendran, Chellaiah, Karupaiah, Pandi and Velliswami. Another gentleman from Oregon who is in the healing arts also joined us.

Today is the last day of our phase. What a great phase it was too. So much progress on so many levels.

The Ganapati Kulam shared news today. Work proceeds on many fronts. The new “What is Hinduism?” book is steadily being worked on by Paramacharya Palaniswami and Acharya Kumarswami. The Hinduism Today team is working on the October issue of Hinduism Today. Sivakatirswami is getting ready to release the July Digital Edition of Hinduism Today, along with help from Sadhunathan on the web server e-mail side of things. Yogi Japendranatha is helping prepare “shells” for Bodhinatha’s Keynote presentations and working with a new piece of hardward that will take these presentations and turn them in DVDs anyone can play in the computer or on a TV set. Our newest member Satya Subramaniam is starting a new project to go through all talks Gurudeva ever gave on TAKA, extract all the data, transcript, description, etc., in preparation for selections to PodCast 365 daily inspired talks and also to help upgrade the current audio library and indices on the web.

A busy team!

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, June 20th.

Saravan Veylan is here from Edmonton, Canada with his wife, Bhavani.

We took them to visit our cows.

This is Anuradha. Raised by the monks she is totally at home with humans.

This is her sister Nandini. Bhavani gives her a banana

Another beautiful day with lots of pilgrims and visitors.

Mr. Chander Shakhar and Mrs. Nellam Babbar are here visiting from New Delhi. Her son Ashish has been attending the University of Hawaii on Oahu for the past three years for his Masters in Electrical Engineering. This is their second visit to the Kadavul Temple and Iraivan Temple with their son and they were amazed and very happy with the progress of the construction of the Iraivan Temple and the peace and beauty of these sacred grounds.

Anil and Ridhika Kapur came for a special blessing prior to the birth of their first child and plan to attend the morning abishekams at the Kadavul Hindu Temple and visit Iraivan while they are here.

Siva and Dharshi Sivakumar are here on pilgrimage with their two sons, Haran and Ganesh ages 13 & 12 who are accomplished carnatic singers. They were all previously here on Kauai at Kadavul Temple in 2001 and 2003 for the Maha Sivaratri Festivals. This lovely family originally came from Sri Lanka and their grandparents were devotees of Sage Yogaswami. They now reside in Sunnyvale, California where Dharshi practices Pediatrics and Siva is an Engineer. They attend the Sunnyvale Ganesha Temple. Both are Temple Builders contributing to the Iraivan Temple Building Fund and also subscribe to Hinduism Today.

Arun and Chittal Chetty (not pictured here) came to visit the temple with their two children, Vijay age 15 and Meena age 10. Originally from Chennai, they now live in California. Arun and his family really enjoyed the morning puja and the tour of the Iraivan Temple and gardens. He’s also very interested in the progress of the construction of the Iraivan Temple and was able to communicate in Tamil with the Silpis. He wants to keep in touch and plans to return for the Maha Kumbha Abhishekam.

Our cameras were taking a technical rest today. So we dug into our archives. Here is a lovely photo of Bodhinatha at our center in Mauritius.

Today the Siddhidata Kulam gave their report. Of course major focus for the team since there last report was on Iraivan. They worked very hard, along with the silpis preparing for the massive lift of 35 roofs stones. The team had to prepare special walkways over the open areas for Bodhinatha to come for the puja to commence the installation. Now the silpis are working on the tedious job of jointing all the roof stone, moving into final position and touch-ups on the ornamentation. It was a great accomplishment. The silpis worked extra long days in preparation for the event. To thank them we plan to take them to a Five-Star hotel for breakfast. A rare thing for them.

Images from the life of Siva Yogaswami. Though many think of Yogaswami as an austere sadhu, which he was, he was also intimately involved in the lives and karmic unfoldment of his close devotees, just like Gurudeva was. He had great healing powers. One humorous story is told where he would sit in the foyer of a clinic where a doctored worked who was his devotee. Yogaswami would inquire of other patients in the waiting room what was wrong with them, make his own prescription and tell them to go.

A short series of the blossoming of a bromeliad…

Though we had no photos, Shama writes of her hosting duties today:

Another beautiful day with soft trades, sunshine, and occasional showers greeted a group comprising of Kauaians and visitors from California and Colorado. All thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful gardens, waterfalls and lakes with lotus flowers in full bloom, highlighted by a visit through the Iraivan Temple complex. There were many questions about this beautiful temple and the mystical aspects of this ancient style of architecture.

Alan and Faith Collier are both writers and have lived on Kauai for just six months. Another local resident, Peggy Ellenberg, is a teacher at Island School.

Greg Fletcher, an environmental geologist and Becky Buckley, a microbiologist are here on vacation from Denver, Colorado. Also visiting are Pete Veriable and Penny Jennings, a psychologist from Long Beach, California. Following the tour they all departed smiling and happy and richer for having experienced this sacred place.

Bodhinatha blessing a young Hindu born outside of India and Sri Lanka…..

At home today it was the monthly Ashram Sadhana day and the monks were busy with their various chores.

At lunch today the Pillaiyar Kulam took their turn to share news:

Shanmuganathaswami got 40,000 envelopes for special mailings. The large numbers the the Pillaiyar Kulam uses these days tells a lot about how our mission work is growing. He and Satya packed up a lot of books to send to libraries here and there. The funds for this initiative comes from the noble entrepreneurs of our Hindu Businessman’s Association.

Muruganathaswami is helping adminiter the Mauritius Spiritual Park activities and is also working on silpis visa matters.

Sadhaka Jothinatha shared progress on advance preparations for events in Minneapolis and at venues along the way in Canada at each place where Bodhinatha will be visiting, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. Heis especially inspired to get our Hindu literature into the hands of families at these well-attended festivals.

Sadhaka Jivanandanatha is preparing for the visit of Andre Garzia, one of our IT associates who is visiting from Brasil again this year as an extra leg to his annual trip to an IT conference held in Monterey. Sadhaka and Andre will be working on some high-end techy tools.

Below you will enjoy a short time-lapse of the roof stones being lifted up onto Iraivan yesterday.
Look closely and you may be able to see how the sun light disappears as the stones for the roof are placed one after the other.

Manish and Radhika Thakkar are here visiting from Chicago. Their families originate in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. They are here on their honeymoon. They visited the Iraivan Temple and watched the silpis putting the finishing touches to the stones that were placed on the roof yesterday. Both Manish and Radhika were very happy they were able to be here to see this remarkable Chola-style temple being built, the only one of its kind in the Western hemisphere.

Jill Pandian and Sara Bartlemay from Bend, Oregon, openly shared how deeply moved by today’s visit to the temple. Sara plans to visit India next year and feels deeply drawn to Hinduism. Both of them want to return in the near future.

More photos from activities this year in Sri Lanka, taken some time back, they slowly make their way to the US, get scanned and sent to us…

Sri Subramuniya Kottam celebrated Gurudeva’s Jayanthi or Birthday on January 5th with a Padapuja to Gurudeva’s Tiruvadi followed by cultural events for the Kottam’s children.

Kottam priest and student Meruja Sharma doing the Pada puja. Seated behind Meruja is his mother and Kulamatha Sivalosani Kanagaratnam

Cultural performance….

Kottam children, sitting for meditation.

It was an auspicious day at Iraivan. Our silpis and Siddhidata kulam team met their goal and 35 stones were raised, over 40 tons of stone went up. The story in photos below.

Today was Ekadanta Kulam Day and Saravananathaswami shared many interesting news about our mission around the world, details below.

Bodhinatha met with the newly married couple today to who had come to the homa on Sun One with their parents. They had an in-depth discussion on how to maintain a happy marriage and how important it is for the mother to be home with her children, especially during child-rearing years.

Our Task Force program is going to be in full swing this year. Young men are coming to spend time here, either as a break or to consider monastic life. Kartikkeya Katir will be with us for a month at the end of the summer before going back to school. Then, in September, Dharmaraj Tillai from Tennessee, who was here before, is returning to pursue his monastic life with us. He is settling his affairs at home and headed for pre-monastic training. Also coming in September: Robert Brown from Rhode Island and Scott (Teja) Falzone, both with similar intentions.

On our retreat days we provide no tours, but are setting up a program for official pilgrims who will get a “Map and Entrance Pass” to go out to San Marga from the north entrance at the Rudraksha Forest.

Meanwhile, Saravananathaswami has been working on the Vancouver-Edmonton travel, and Bodhinatha’s schedule is now posted on the Guru Travels page.

Swami has also been in communications with our Spiritual Park in Mauritius. The members there are continuing to make improvements here and there are the monks want to send a big “Mahalo and Nandri” to all of you on that beautiful island, for taking such exemplary care of Gurudeva’s center there. You have all really brought his vision to life.

Swami also has been working on preliminary plans for the next Innersearch brochure, which will carry details of our 2008 Asian Odyssey Innersearch.

Palaniswami shared an interesting interview he had this morning with the religion report from a newspaper in Honolulu who is doing an article on what is being called “the new monasticism.” It seems many people are spending Friday night, Saturday and Sunday in a Catholic monastery and going to work during the week. Some do this for months at a time, giving a powerful place to their spiritual work. In the Honolulu Buddhist monasteries, more and more are taking time out for traditional Buddhist meditation retreats. Palaniswami shared about our task force program which is our Hindu version of this temporary connection with monks.

Of course, the really big news of the day today is the raising up of 35 roof stones. We were blessed with rain last night and cloud cover during the morning, making for a cool work site. It is about 9:30 and Bodhinatha is “topside” at Iraivan waiting for the muhurtha to arrive… the auspicious moment.

It is almost time. Yoginathaswami points out a small opening in north east corner for placement of gems under the first roof stone followed by Arati.

Now up comes the first ceiling stone…

After placement, a final arati is observed to mark this, yet another, historic mini-milestone in Iraivan’s growth.

Here comes number two . . .

The rest of the morning was a steady stream, riggers below, lift place, move in place, next, next, next….

As we write this report and despite a light tropical rain, the 50-foot-tall crane is perched on the North side of Iraivan methodically lifting 35 ceiling stones from the ground to the roof. The monks, clad in bright yellow rain parkas, are skillfully placing the stones.

One team on the ground rigs a stone to the crane s cable, deftly making it balance in mid air. This is crucial, for the stones are being put in their final place today, and unless they are perfectly flat, the process becomes nearly impossible to coordinate.

Beneath a shade-giving tent, they have been fitting the 11-foot by 1-foot by 1.8-foot monoliths so when today came they would already be a perfect part of the puzzle. On this day roughly 95,000 pounds of granite will be put in place, the fruit of tens of thousands of man hours in Bangalore and on Kauai.

Above a second team is working beside the carvers, guiding the stones. Once a stone is hovering within an inch or so of the final place, the carvers take over and guide it slowly into position. They can get it within a 1/4 of an inch this way, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider each stone weighs about 2,700 pounds and the crane operator is being guided by hand signals and cannot actually see the roof.

It takes 7 stones to cover each of the square spaces. These stones have been the work for our silpis (stone carvers) for the past few weeks.

Shama Kumaran our indefatigable guest host has arrived with a young couple from San Francisco and our other camera. They watch from a distance…

She writes:

“We watched as the first of 35 stones were lifted up by crane to the roof of the Iraivan Temple where Siva Yoginatha Swami stood ready with several of the Shilpis to put them in place. ”

It always gives one a real sense of joy to see the temple manifesting stage after stage and watch the total dedication, expertise and hard work of the silpis as they bring this sacred Siva Temple into being.

Ground team waiting between lifts. Stone neatly arrayed in advance by our team.

And there it is! From the inside the roof looks amazing.

Of course, final jointing has yet to be done.

Stuart and Karen Morrow are on the last day of their honeymoon on Kauai, so they came for their first visit to a Hindu Temple. Both of them stated that this was the “highlight of our honeymoon!”

They now live in San Francisco where Stuart is a researcher for the University of California. Karen is a Buddhist and found this to be “the most beautiful and peaceful place I have ever been.” She was totally enchanted by all the different types of bamboo to be found, especially at Muruga Hill.

Sun One begins another bright phase at the Aadheenam. Morning homa was followed by wonderful guests and pilgrims.

At lunch today the Lambodara Kulam shared news.

Work is proceeding steadily on the temple with a stone lift scheduled for tomorrow or the next day, pending crane schedules and good weather, of course.

A decision has been made to eventually gold-leaf more of the top of the temple… watch for it in the years ahead.

On going negotiations and planning are underway for the huge Panchaloka (five kinds of metal) base for the Crystal Lingam.

That’s the world of the Lambodara Kulam recently, with lots of coordinating with the Bangalore worksite in the past few days.

Morning homa photos tell their own story….

Bodhinatha gave a marvelous talk on Ashtanga Yoga after today’s homa….

Oh, look up there! Red jade flowers are blooming on high on vines that climb trees and hang down with amazing bunches of bright reds flowers.

Yoginathaswami top-side at Iraivan. Roof stones will be moved tomorrow.

Ganesha and Girija Ram are here with their 10-year-old son Aditya. Aditya speaks Tamil, Hindi and English and is in 5th Grade. Ganesha, his father is a software engineer in Houston, Texas. This lovely family is originally from Hyderbad, India. They now live in Katy, Texas, and are “so happy that this wonderful and sacred spiritual paradise is here.” They were accompanied by visitor Donna Trifilo.

Donna Trifilo came from San Francisco and remembers our little temple on 3575 Sacramento Street in that city. She recalls attending the Ganesha Festivals in the early 1980s at Baker Beach and says that “San Francisco has not been the same since that temple closed,” although, she added, “Gurudeva has chosen and created a truly beautiful sacred place on Kauai.”

Vetri Vel Muruganukku!

Happy Vaikasi Vishakam.

Today was a great day for the monastic order. Satya Subramaniam took his supplicant pledge and became “Sivanadiyar Satya.”

This important ceremony signifies the stage where the young pre-monastic has made a firm decision to follow the monastic path. He is now in a state of “supplication” begging the monastic order to take him into their midst and to become a postulant, or full Sadhaka.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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 Tritiya Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, June 13th.

The pledges are Purity and Humility.

Sivanadiyar Satya first discovered Gurudeva’s teachings in Brazil in 1999 when he found Dancing with Siva on the internet and purchased a copy from a bookstore in Australia.

The sacred pledges are repeated aloud and then signed in an official book.

Nearly six years ago, Satya emailed Gurudeva and asked: “Can I become a monk?” Gurudeva replied, “That’s a God question.”

Satya has certainly proved himself. Alone without support in Brazil, he stayed on the path for six years, through all the possible temptations and maya that life might try to throw at any young man. With endless delays for his Visa and challenges in getting his name changed, he faced obstacles that might have turned the head of a lessor man, but Satya stayed on track and now he is home!

Welcome to Sivanadiyar Satya Subramaniam..

Vetri Vel Muruganukku!

A truly beautiful day for the celebration of Vaikasi Visakham which began at 6:00 a.m. this morning. The Darshan emanating from Lord Muruga’s Sanctum was powerful and spiritually uplifting for all. It reminds one of Gurudeva’s saying that “there is nothing Higher than Spiritual Love.”

We will let the pictures tell the story.

A group shot with the silpies after the puja.

Though not a tour day, the temple was very active with guests and pilgrims.

Following the Muruga puja a large group went down to the Bali Hai falls. The sun is very hot these days and it was very cool and welcoming in the shade of the trees and waterfall. We all went back up to the Iraivan Temple where one of the pilgrims acted as an interpreter as the shilpis explained their work on the roof. Some visitors then went down San Marga to Muruga Hill while others visited the Sacred Lingam near Iraivan and also the Narmada Lingam on the path of the Nayanar Saints. More came later for the 9 am Siva puja

Among the guests in the photo: Natalia and Alex Ershov also returned for the morning puja. The lovely Alvappillai family returned with their two sons, Arun and Theepam for the 6:00 a.m. Abishekam to Lord Muruga and came back again for the 9:00 am Siva puja. Garani Nadaraja, daughter of our long time Iraivan supporters Dr Ravi and Gauri Nadaraja arrived for the Siva puja. She is studying at the National Institute of Health and is in her fourth year of medical school. She brought two friends, also medical students, Ahmet Altiner NY University and Lauren Shapiro, Stanford University, School of Medicine.

Bodh and Chitra Kunwar from Danville, California, originally from Assam and Bihar, came to visit on the recommendation of their son, Dr. Sandeep who was here about six months ago.

Naren and Prabha Nayak came with their four-year-old daughter “Maya.”

Here is Logarajah Thambyrajah and his wife Asha Rathina Pandi. Asha is studying for her Ph.D in Sociology at the University of Hawaii. Both are originally from Malaysia.

A short Torch Ginger and Heliconia photo documentary.

This coming retreat is a 3-day retreat, so we will see you all again on Tuesday evening.