We began a bright new phase today with news at lunch from the Lambodara Kulam. It appears we may have as many as 3 priests coming for the Garbanyasa ceremonies during Guru Purnima.

Our Sun One Homa….

Someone asked what the “Garbanyasa” ceremony signifies. “Garba” means womb and this ceremony is usually done near the half-way point in the cycle of the temple’s manifestation, which is now.

The Garbanyasa ceremony is likened to the quickening of the fetus inside the mother… the first time the baby kicks and is felt moving. So this will be that time for the “baby Iraivan.”

Shailaja and Nat, to be married on Sunday on Kauai, were our guests at this morning’s homa. Congratulations to you both! Shailaja’s mother had organised the visit to the temple so that the young couple would get Bodhinatha’s blessing before the wedding.

Shailaja and Nat, both teachers, live and work in California.

Here’s part of the wedding party who were present at the homa.

We are happy to bring you news from our spiritual homeland in Sri Lanka… Rishi Thondunatha sends these photos and captions of the consecration of the reconstructed Siva Shrine in Kopay.

“The Sri Subramuniya Kottam is an institution established by Gurudeva. It’s main purpose is to provide religious and secular education to the youth of the surrounding villages. As an outgrowth of the Kottam, the Shanti Lingam Temple came in existence 22 years ago. In fact the original structure of the inner sanctum that houses the Shanti Lingam was erected almost entirely by the young students at the Kottam. Only one professional mason was hired. He oversaw the work of the youth as they cemented the temple with him brick by brick with their young hands. Then on January 5th 1983, on Gurudeva’s 56th birthday he placed Shanti Lingam in the temple constructed by the youth with his own hands.

“Since then, the temple has been serving devotees in Kopay through all of the trials and tribulations that the island goes through. It is only by Gurudeva’s grace that the temple continues to exist and be of service all this day.”

“Shanti Lingam temple has been keeping Gurudeva’s name and presence alive in Jaffna.

People who come and worship there are constantly reminded of Gurudeva, by the very fact that he brought the Siva Lingam from Kauai Aadheenam and ceremoniously placed it in the sanctum.”

However during the war in 1996 the temple’s mandapam roof in front of the shrine was damaged. It was deteriorating since. For fear of possible collapse of the roof and the safety of the devotees, Sri Subramuniya Kottam decided to rebuild it.

A professional construction firm, Manoharan and Vettivel Constructors, in Jaffna was hired. With the first donation given by Satguru Bodhinatha the reconstruction commenced on April 10, 2005. The stone laying ceremony was held on this day. Currently the construction is moving along smoothly.

Happy noni plants are growing strongly on Himalayan Acres.

We are harvesting already about ten pounds of fruit a week from the 40 or so two-year-old plants. Noni is a native Hawaiian medicinal fruit and well adapted to our soil. Of course, so is the guinea grass you see growing between the rows!

Four weeks ago we grafted about 60 avocado trees which had been planted about 18 months ago from seed. It’s difficult to see, but the little bud at the very top of this plant shows the graft has taken. The new growth below the bud is removed to force the tree to put all its energy into the graft. Amazingly, given our lack of experience, 55 of the 60 grafts had taken, and of the five that failed, two had been knocked off, likely by wild pigs.

Grafting the young avocado starts rather drastically, cutting it off completely about a foot from the ground.

The piece at left is the “scion” wood, a branch from an avocado tree of the right type, in this case “green gold.” Avocados do not grow true to type from seed and are always grafted.

Sorry for the blurry photo, as the camera didn’t know what to focus on. This shows the cutting away of the bark for a side veneer graft.

The scion is cut wedge shaped and placed inside the flap of bark.

It is then wrapped in parafilm, a paraffin wax product recommended to us by Satya Palani. In the back you see the bag of scion pieces, kept moist with peat moss, the cutting saw, grafting knife, rubber band and par
afilm wax.

The last step is to tightly wrap the graft with a strip of rubber band to hold it together. Over the coming weeks, both parafilm wax and the band will deteriorate and fall off the plant, leaving the graft to grow.

Not much to see, but this Honduran mahogany tree is actually doing quite well. Several hundred of these were planted a few months ago and are doing well despite our lack of rain.

Sadhaka Adinatha laid up two more strips of mulch for more tree planting. We’ve switched to four foot wide mulch from the three foot, which didn’t keep the weeds far enough away.

This shows a strip of ironwoods, just nine months old or so, at the left of the picture. Many are not five feet high. We’ve seen several of our stands of ironwoods, planted for windbreaks, double in height in a matter of months.

This is a red cedar tree which was planted in January and has really gotten off to a good start. Red cedar is a fast growing tree, with a medium value wood. It is part of a test plot to see what trees grow happily here.

This is a less-than-happy teak tree, which seems to want to grow a fat stump while remaining close to the ground–bad strategy in an area which the weeds hit several feet high easily.

It is the last day of a short 4-day phase. We had our guest day tour… Iraivan is “in the air” with silpis in India about to go to the US Embassy for Visas to travel here…

Meanwhile we have another set of photos from Bodhinatha, Orlando mission. Jutikadevi sends them with captions…

Here is Bodhinatha in the evening at the temple in Florida… giving a talk to a several hundred devotees in the auditorium. (story continues further down…)

About thirty guests on the tour today..

This young man has a good strong arm…

Sthapati is a great spokesman for India’s ancient tradition of stone temple building.

Our silpis have perfected their weekly “show”… it’s really fascinating to watch how they work.

A travel magazine recently ran this article. The reporter describes her visit and experiences.

I was late for my appointment at Kauai s Hindu Monastery, and I practically flew through its trellised entry. Barreling along at a 21st-century pace, I suddenly felt like a bull in a china shop. Around me, a few men in flowing robes were sweeping and cleaning the grounds, moving gracefully in their jobs. Birds were singing in the breeze, and a rainbow hung in the light mist. A passer-by smiled and bowed to me, hands together, and I decided it was time to slow down.

Set in a tranquil upland Kauai forest, the 458-acre monastery casts a similar spell on most outsiders who pay a visit. While it maintains a low profile on the island, the transcendental destination is attracting growing numbers of people who visit out of respect, faith or simple curiosity. Almost everyone, however, comes to see its San Marga Iraivan Temple, a one-of-a-kind edifice under construction at the Wailua Valley retreat.

My guide was Saravananathaswami, one of the 20 monks who live, work, meditate and pray together at the monastery. He led me to a covered pavilion near the entrance and gave me some background as I perused informational displays.

The monastery was founded in 1970 by Hindu minister and teacher Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately called Gurudeva.

In 1975, Gurudeva had a vision of a new temple that would last 1,000 years and serve as a wonderful example of India s beauty in the Western world,  he said.

Since 1990, millions of pounds of granite have been quarried by hand in Bangalore, India. Massive blocks have been cut and shaped by master craftsmen, then shipped to Kauai, with the first pieces arriving in 2000.

It will take about seven years to assemble the temple, which will measure 100 feet long by 45 feet tall,  said Saravananathaswami. However, depending on the rate of fund raising, it will likely open a few years after that. 

Throughout construction, clients can see the growing white sanctuary firsthand during guided tours.

As we strolled through lush tropical gardens and enjoyed views of the Wailua River from on high, Saravananathaswami said that an average of 70 guests show up for each guided tour of the new temple.

Since we launched our Web site in the mid-1990s, more and more people have realized that there s something special going on here,  he said.

While a Web site at a rural monastery sounded like a contradiction in terms, it made sense when I peeked into a room full of high-tech computers where the monks publish a quarterly publication called Hinduism Today.

On the way to the new temple, we passed the monastery s existing house of worship, a small wooden temple with a colorful interior honoring the god Shiva. Visitors need not be Hindu to enter the temple and take part in a daily meditative ritual ceremony, which lasts about one hour.

Saravananathaswami led me along a footpath to the site of the new Hindu temple, and I heard a gentle tap-tap-tapping playing through the air like a musical prayer. Soon I saw the source of the sound. A small group of Indian craftsmen were rhythmically pounding enormous pieces of granite by hand, preparing them for placement in the temple. I touched the smooth white blocks, each carefully numbered, and held a few of the soft iron tools in my hands, marveling at the patience required for such a task.

Saravananathaswami showed me around the temple-in-construction, pointing out different design touches and describing what the building will eventually look like. Remarkably, the pieces of granite are being assembled without use of modern machinery or materials. Instead, they re held together by gravity.

There s nothing li
ke this anywhere else in the United States,  said Saravananathaswami.

The temple will be surrounded by groves of exotic sacred, medicinal, fragrant and decorative plants from around the world, he added.

As we said goodbye, I asked my new friend why Gurudeva chose Kauai for the realization of his vision.

He wanted a pure spot halfway between the East and West,  he explained. Our monastery is a place imbued with Asian overtones, in a remote U.S. location. India s pilgrimage sites are beautiful destinations far from big cities, places that take some effort to get to. This is the same sort of destination. 

Indeed, Kauai s Hindu Monastery is a lovely place to slow down and appreciate life s riches.

Devotees waiting to listen to Bodhinatha…

Diana, Robert Isaac, and their yoga student in the back, the Isaacs both are yoga teachers and live close by the temple they run the Lake Center Yoga. They both read Merging and Dancing with Siva for lunch everyday!

Jutikadevi runs our table of literature…

There were continuous visitors from Florida being dropped off by tourists vans with eager visitors every 5 minutes.

They got the guided tour of the temple. For many of them it was their first visit to a Hindu temple. They were all very fascinated.

Lord Venkatheswara is the main deity at homa tent.

Here is a group of devotees at one Homa pit, lead by Priest Anand Dixit from the Hindu temple of Ohio, he was brought here to perform ceremonies for Lord Krishna in the form of North Indian ceremonies.

He encouraged the devotees to be full of life by singing wonderful bhajans throughout the homa ceremonies.

Bodhinatha participates in the homa….

Bodhinatha seated to address the crowd in the evening.

His talks were very well received and there were quite a number of devotees who not naturally born Hindus who attended his talks.

By the entrance to the Auditorium, we set up a table so that anyone could come and sing up to receive their free informative Hindu Literature in the mail.

Back at the homa tent, Lord Venkatheswara was invoked for the coming day of the Maha Kumbhabhishekam.

Five other Swamis were present to also bless the event.

Mohan and Srilakshmi and daughter Uma Sankaran were here again today with Srilakshmi’s mother and their cousin.

They had a wonderful meeting with Bodhinatha during which they discussed how careful Srilakshmi has to watch her daughter’s education, because Uma started attending pre-school in California and is already being asked to sing along with a Christian prayer. There was another Hindu child in the class who refused to sing the prayer and started singing “Aum Jai Jagadish Hare…”!

Mohan and Srilakshmi have been here twice before but it’s the first time for the mother.

So we drove them around to see some different spots like the Swayambhu Lingam and Narmada Lingam.

Supriya Kaushal and her son, Ajay, are visiting from San Francisco. Accompanying them are her parents from Mumbai, India.

It has been Supriya’s mother’s dream to come to Kauai. She had written a prayer to Lord Siva which was offered in our temple homa fire a few months back and not long later the request was fulfilled. So she wanted to come in person to thank Lord Siva for fulfilling her request.

Ajay has a go at carving one of the granite pieces.

And if you missed the videos we mentioned yesterday… because we had a bad link! Please try now… we have also reduced the file sizes to make it easier to download.

Four Short Videos of Silpis at Work (click on the newest link under “Iraivan)

Jay and Bhairavi along with their son, Yash, who are visiting us from Florida were among our many Hindu guests this morning. Here they are in front of Dakshinamurthi.

Yash also gives stone carving a try. He commented later how difficult it is to carve something in this way.

Our cows Chathurti and Hana are waiting to be milked.

Hana eager to get in the milking stantion to provide her milk for the temple and cheese making…emm…or for some grains we feed them during milking.

Hana being milked

Chathurti is waiting for her turn.

Shanmuganathaswami transferring the milk to milking machine bucket to another stainless steel pail to transport the milk to the kitchen.

Closer look at the transfer. Sanitation is very important during the entire process. Otherwise, hours spent during cheese making will be wasted.

Our milking team, Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha arrived with the morning milk outside the back door of the Aadheenam kitchen. It is about seven gallons of milk. Which can yield about 6.5lbs of cheese.

Milk is being prepared to be pasteurized. We are very fortunate to have the steam kettle which normally is used to cook for our Aadheenam guests during festivals. We could put the milk directly in the kettle for pasteurizing it but there no quick way to cool it down after it is heated. So we put a large pot in the kettle filled with water to heat the milk to 145�F and sustain that temperature for about 30 minutes. To cool it we just need to remove the pot and put in the sink or the same kettle filled with cold water and ice. The temperature will be lowered to 86�F for this particular cheese “Monterey Jack” which is the attempt today.

As the temperature rises it is monitored very closely.

Yoginathaswami in action. The goal today is to produce Monterey Jack.

The large pot of milk is removed from the kettle after it has been kept at 145�F for 30 minutes.

The milk transferred to the steam kettle for easy and precise heating.

Temperature is being monitored constantly.

Mesophilic culture is being added. This is lactic acid producing bacteria, similar to that used for making yogurt, but very specific for each kind of cheese.

Culture is being mixed gently but thoroughly. We have to let the milk ripen for 45 minutes.

We follow the ripening with addition of vegetable rennet just being added. We will have to let the milk coagulate for about 40 minutes or so for this cheese.

When the curd is firm enough, then comes the cutting. It must to be cut into uniform 1/2inch cubes. This size will vary from one kind of cheese to another.

Closer look at the cutting process.

The curd after cutting…

Another look at it from a distance….

Now…next comes a somewhat challenging task: We have to raise the temperature no more than 2�F every five minutes while stirring the curd gently but consistently. The temperature will be raised from 86�F to 100�F in about 30 to 45 minutes.

The curd being cooked.

Finally…we reached the target temperature

The temperature now is maintained at 100�F for another 30 minutes while stirring it frequently.

The whey is now drained to the level of the curd and again the temperature is maintained at 100�F for another 30 minutes. Now it is stirred every five minutes to prevent the curd from matting (sticking together).

The curd is now poured into the colander lined with cheese cloth.

Drained curd.

The curd is being removed from the colander.

Salt is being added and mixed well with the curd.

Now the curd is transferred to cheese cloth lined mold.

The curd is placed in the mold, ready to be pressed in our home made cheese press.

Now it will sit with a very light pressure for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, it is removed from the mold and the cheese cloth. Then this very fragile block is carefully placed upside down back in the mold lined with cheese cloth. And will be pressed for another 12 hours with a bit more pressure.

The cheese block is removed from the mold and air dried at room temperature for few days.

After several days of air drying now the cheese is waxed. We mixed both clear wax and a bit of red wax so that we can see where the wax was applied 🙂

Completely waxed wheel of cheese with its label.

Our cheese refrigerator

Second shot of our fridge. Now the new cheese (can you see it?) will have to be turned several times a day for a couple weeks. Then once a day for a couple more weeks. Finally a few times a week for the duration of curing which for most cheeses is three months to six months minimum.

As the cows reach the end of their lactation cycle and the milk production goes down in a few months, everyone will be happy we took this effort to preserve this bountiful gift.

Our calves, Anuradha and Nandini…. We tend to the calves personally and they think they are little human beings. They get a lot of love and attention from the monks and visitors. Small children love to feed them with their favorites: bananas and banana leaves. We will keep them in this calf pen until they are old enough that we can be sure they will be safe from cattle rustlers in our open range fields.

With their earthly reincarnation they made the cheese making possible. Thank you to you and both of your moms!

All is well at Kauai Aadheenam. The Ekadanta Kulam gave their report today. Saravananathaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani have been working to upgrade their news announcements to a lovely HTML format. Saravananathaswami also completed a mailing for the Kauai Aloha Endowment which is preparing to make its first community grant since it’s inception… another seed planted by Gurudeva coming to fruition. He has also been working on future travel plans as well as documents for those young men interested in monastic life.

Sadhaka Dandapani spend most of his time hosting guests and the stream of visitors is rising as summer vacation time is here. When he has a few hours free he’s working on preparations for Guru Purnima and the big Open House we will have this year.

This team of two does a huge job!

Acharya Kumarswami and Yogi Japendranatha complete their participation in a conference put on by Adobe for our primary publications tool here: Adobe InDesign CS2. It was a very fruitful time and we unexpectedly made personal contacts with Adobe’s top engineers.

That was over yesterday and today they joined California Golden Gate Mission for satsang and Kulapati Deva Rajan’s home. Here they are greeted at the entrance….

Acharya leads the group in a guided Shum meditation and tells us news about the Aadheenam. (Garland was flown in fresh from Hawaii!)

Yogi Japendranatha greets Siva in Deva Rajan’s home.

Acharya takes questions from the Mission members and guests.

Yogi shares some thoughts….

Kulapati Easvan Param unveils Chandra Param’s stage design for the upcoming September 25th Iraivan Temple fundraiser concert.

Graphic artist Markendaya Sendan chats with Yogi Japendranatha.

Mahendran and Sujatha Bakeirathan from London, UK, attended the morning Siva puja. Of Sri Lankan origin, the elders in their family are devotees of Satguru Yogaswami. They had heard about us from their aunt so they decided to include us in their Hawaiian vacation. They also felt blessed to meet Bodhinatha this morning.

Matt and Elsa from San Diego, married a week ago, were among our guests today.

The Iron That Is Changing the World

Paramacharya Palaniswami went on a shoot the other day and we bring you his offerings… a small documentary on the key tool for stone temple architecture: the iron chisel, and some videos.

Here we are at the “patrai” — the blacksmith forge, hand made by our previous silpi team. It is a simple clay bed with a 1 foot cubic fire pit that has a pipe going out to the back. In the back a rotary bellow is hand cranked to drive air into and up through the bottom of the small fire pit which is filled with a kind of coal called “coke”.

Chisels that are dull are placed into this ancient style furnace…

Palaniswami took 4 short videos of the silpis and we have mounted these all onto a single pages… at 11 megs each, this is really for broad band users. Please go to our main Video index page and click on the new link.

The temperature rises to a point that nearly melts the tips of the chisels.

A pile of dull chisels awaiting their turn to enter the little inferno. They may have only been used for 10 minutes before being set aside for a sharp chisel.

One silpi deftly uses tongs to pass the heated chisel to another one who swiftly pounds the molten head of the chisel back to a sharp point.

From a dull point…

… to a sharp point with just a few highly skilled blows….

…and then, into the water to be chilled and tempered, ready for use.

Here is yet another project that Senthil Rajasankara, the son of Jiva and Kanmani, our worksite managers, have achieved recently. It is the biggest sign ever done in granite in India.

This was recently exported to UK where it will be the biggest granite sign in that nation.

It is done
for a company that is involved with large scale soil control and land forming.

The size of the single-stone sign 19.5 feet long, 6.5 feet high and 18 inches thick.

It weighs a whopping 32,000 pounds.

Our phase began today with homa and Bodhinatha’s regular Sun One talk…

Aum Sivaya, Svaha!

Dr. Ramana Rao, his wife and daughter visited from London today. Accompanying them was Dr. Rao’s niece Deepika, and her daughter.

It was their first visit here and they heard about us from Dr. Rao’s brother, Narayanan, who was on the Europe Innersearch with Gurudeva.

The Hindu Temple of Orlando president, Mala Karkhanis, and devotees give Satguru a grand welcome, as he arrives in the limo with Sadhaka Haranandinatha.

Devotees chant the Guru Mantra as the Arathi is passed.

Bodhinatha is brought around to the homa tent, where as many as 10 different homa pits are going at the same time, all eager devotees offering their bhakti to the devas and Mahadevas.

All the devotees were invited to sit and offer their prana, energy, into the sacred fire.

Priests and devotees came from all over the USA to the Maha Kumbhabhishekam events.

Here is one of the Saiva priests from the Hindu Temple of Atlanta chanting the Vedic mantras.

Meanwhile here is Kailash Dhakshinamurti by the one of the booths we had set up that featured our informational Hindu literature for anyone who came by to read, sign up for and receive for free at home.

Kailash answering some enquiring minds. Several hundred non-Hindus came for part of the weekend event, part of a concerted effort by the temple to relate to the local community.

Meanwhile, Satguru Bodhinatha gives a beautiful talk on the importance and significance of temple worship inside the Chinmaya Centre mission on the temple grounds.

The devotees were full of questions and enquiries about temple worship.

Our carving village in Bangalore is a special place, really more of an ashram than a village. Just last week a European photographer documented the amazing craftsmanship there. Another, little-known side of it is Artha Enterprises. This is a business which our site manager’s two sons, Senthil and Thurai, have started. That’s Senthil on the right standing at the sanctum doorway at the consecration ceremony a few days ago.

As you know, they came with their parents to India from Malaysia over ten years ago, and they are now graduates building their own careers and about to be married, both on the same day.

Today we received from them photos of an uplifting project. They have just completed their first plaster temple for Jindal Steel Plant,some 400 km from Bangalore. It is common for large corporations in India to build temples for their thousands of workers. The entire temple from drawing, executing the work, statue, door frames, kodimaram and landscaping was done by Senthil and his team.

These are done simply, with plaster masons, but it is still beautiful and we are enormously proud of them for helping Iraivan all these years and now using their learned knowledge in such a fine way.

The Kumbhabhishekam was held on 16-6-2005. They did so well that twomoretemples are in progress and two additional confirmed orders for JainInternational College, Bangalore.

Bodhinatha arrived back home this evening about 7 pm, after a long 18 hours of travel from Florida. It was a very successful mission.

Our artist in Chennai, A. Manivelu, has just completed this depiction of Lord Ganesha, dancing on a lotus flower in a lotus garden. There is a mushika sitting on a rock nearby, offering a modaka ball, the sweet that Ganesha loves so much. This art is scheduled to go in the educational center section, called Insight, in HInduism Today. There will be a 16-page article on Ganesha and His worship in the next issue. Thank you, Manivelu, for your hundreds (make that thousands) of works, small and large, you have produced for us over the years. You have brought Hinduism to life through your brush, and have at the same time kept a traditional art from going extinct, since all Indian artist today want to do contemporary works that resemble Pablo Picasso or Jackson Pollack (AKA, “Jack the Dripper.”)

Our end of phase brought a giant tour group.

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 Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Friday, June 24th.

Here’s Sadhaka Dandapani who conducted this morning’s tour. He’s been working on some of Bodhinatha’s upcoming travels which includes the trip to Canada in August, California in October and the Innersearch to Australia and New Zealand next January. With only 195 days to go, it’s a good time to make reservations if you plan to join Bodhinatha on this adventure. You can email Sadhaka Dandapani at ddanda@hindu.org or visit the website for more info at our innersearch web site

Local Hawaiian visitors… standing by a pillar of Iraivan with the shum portraits that describe pranayama and withdrawal of ida and pingala into the spine.

We are happy to have with us Andre Garzia from Niteroi, Brazil. He is here to get oriented to help work on our web sites and other IT technologies.

Andre is 25 and in his last year of study at a film school in Brazil. He’s a code wizard and professional software programmer. He uses all the same tools we use here at the Aadheenam and we look forward to years of collaboration together. He uses one of our favorite tools — the Runtime Revolution–the same computer language we use for this daily web page

Over 80 guests today…

Tomorrow, June 21, Acharya Kumarswami and Yogi Japendranatha fly off to San Francisco for six days. Their mission is to attend a rare, high-end educational seminar on InDesign, the primary design and layout tool for the Ganapati Kulam.

For three days they will be in intense classes for eight hours, morning to night, learning, learning, learning. Some of the most knowledgeable people in the world will be there to teach the intricacies of this remarkable tool. And the monks will be able to ask lots of questions to these designers and software experts. Even though the monks know Adobe’s InDesign program fairly well, a new version has just been released with hundreds of features and added capabilities. The seminar will allow our team to absorb all the important additions and bring them back to the Kauai for the monks to incorporate in producing our many publications. Bon voyage!

The Spiritual Park of Mauritius with its spiritual appeal is a humble place of worship, specially on Ganesha Homas held on the first week of every month. Worship of Lord Ganesha helps bring harmony into one’s family and abundance into one’s life.

Visitors walking along the little pond near the Ganesha Mandapam…

Just below the Ganesha Bridge nature’s beauty is at its peak…

Classes on the Saivite Hindu Religion series by Sat Guru Bodhinatha are being conducted on every Saturday at the Park.

In the Saivite Hindu Religion children also learn how to traditionally worship Lord Muruga, the God of Yoga. Here is what the course says:” Lord Murugan is Siva’s son. He is the God of Yoga. He will help you breathe deeply. When you breathe deeply, your mind is concentrated, your body is healthy, your feelings are positive. When you control your breathing, you control your body and mind….”

Visitors never miss to worship the Siva Dakshinamurti a few metres north east of the Ganesha Bridge.

A closer look at the artistic carvings at the Feet of Siva Dakshina .

Mr. Seeven Veerapen and his family are regular visitors at the Park. He is a manager in one of the big international hotels of the island.

Here is lovely baby girl Niranjana born of parents Sivaneswaran and Venilla Sockanathan after an international marriage which has developed firm membership bonds with Mauritius and Malaysia. Welcome Niranjana!

The Namakarana Samskara ceremony officiated by Sivacharya Umapathi was held in Mauritius at Kulapati & Kulamata Mardemootoo’s residence, parents of Venilla.

The happy father writing his daughter’s name on a plate of rice, easily readable to the inner worlds..

” ….has been born into the Hindu religion to devout Hindu parents, who hereby declare they will raise this child according to the principles of the Sanatana Dharma, and bring forth this child to formally receive a Hindu name and to sanctify this irrevocable entrance into Saivite Hinduism.”

Here is Niranjana in the cradle that rocks, beautifully decorated with flowers for that day.

Putrika Dipanjali Mardemootoo traditionally rocking her little cousin….Many lovely hands will rock Niranjana when the parents are back in Malaysia…

The Spiritual Park Newsletter gives an overview of recent events and current activities at the Park. Bodhinatha’s message to visitors and supporters of the Park for this latest issue is: ” Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami had many visions of Lord Ganesha, including a powerful one of Him bathing in the Rempart River near the Spiritual Park. Gurudeva encouraged all Hindus to regularly worship Ganesha and deepen their devotion to Him. A practical way to do this is to focus on Him when traveling to the Spiritual Park or any temple to worship Lord Ganesha. Make travel time a religious time. Don?t allow yourself to focus on problems at home, work or school. Instead, listen to some religious music, bhajans or Sanskrit chanting. This simple action will put you in a religious frame of mind and allow you to be closer to Lord Ganesha during your worship at the Spiritual Park or temple. Thanks to many our loyal contributors for your continued financial support. Jai Pancha Mukha Ganapati !”

We thought we should share with you this glowing review from a recent reader of Dancing with Siva.

I came across this book during my frantic search of a religion that could answer those long standing questions of life which have been bugging me for ages, and never looked back since. This book presents almost every aspect of life from Hindu perspective, such as explanation of the soul, our purpose on earth, marriage and family, gender roles, social responsibility, death, reincarnation, and also an unbiased comparison of most other major world religions.

…Every topic is presented in a simple short topics which makes reading this book such an ease. The views, stated in the book have very good explanation and reasons on why it is in such a manner. For example, reasons to be vegetarian, law of karma(good deed), praying to statues and why every human soul are unique. It allows readers to question and reason on each views before accepting them. The views in the book makes so much sense, and will certainly will give a good clear picture of the depth of Hindusim and change anyone view that hinduism is merely praying to statues.

I am most impressed that the book says hindus view all other religions with respect and they believe “The truth is one, but paths are many”. To call it merely another book is an understatement. It is the book of life! Being first part of the tri-book mastercourse by Subramuniyaswami, it explains about the fundamentals of Hinduism. His second book “Living with Siva” gives a practical approach on how to lead a Hindu way of live and the final book “Merging with Siva” allows serious seekers to experience God himself through meditation and yoga. Yes, Yoga, it is more than a physical & breathing exercise that have been practiced by most western society without realizing the true value of Yoga.

For serious seekers, this master course books are also being used by Himalayan Academy of Kauai for systematic learning through correspondence studies. I would recommend this book to everyone, including the non believer, because this book is not only about believe/faith alone but more about a way of life and guide to personally experience God himself.

Bodhinatha has complete his last day in Orlando… there were many wonderful reports of the event.

Amarnath and Latha Devarmanai visited with their children Shaailesh and Anushri. They came to Hawaii with the intention to visit Iraivan Temple. They were here yesterday and returned again today.

After the 9am Siva puja they toured the grounds and Iraivan temple. Here’s Shaailesh trying his hand at carving a stone under the watchful eye of his sister.

Anu has a go at it. Both children are devout Hindus and enjoyed very much being here. Today they plucked flowers from our gardens then proceeded to perform a milk abhishegam for the Narmada Sivalingam. They also insisted that Nandi get an abhishegam too which they went ahead to perform.

Here’s the happy family hugging a rudraksha tree. Thank you for bringing such a wonderful loving energy to our aadheenam.

Kartikeya reading a Father’s Day message from Living with Siva.

Son Jothi hugging father Janaka Param

Father and son, Vijay and Easan Sankara

Daughter Yatrika hugging father Hotranath

Son Bhajana garlanding father Chandran

Son Kartikeya with father Easan

Daughter Sandya garlanding father Jothi

Aran Sambandar, Kartikeya Katir, chat with guest from Chicago Panshula Ganesan, who recited beautiful Sanskrit from the Upanishads during satsang.

Last Saturday members of SSC had the glorious opportunity to be present for our 9-year-old Premila Gunalan’s Salangai Pooja at the Tan Sri Soma Hall.

The Theme of the event was “Blooming”, named after Premila’s entrancing accomplishment at a young age. Premila made a grand debut and danced for seven songs, all in solo.

“Pushpanjali”, An invocatory dance dedicated to Lord Ganesha…

Premila as depicting Mother Yashoda in “Krishna Nee Begane”, A song in praise of Lord Krishna…

Such realistic expression…Mother Yashoda in anger when the young Lord Krishna steals the ghee from the pot.

All applauded at her performance, “She is a born dancer”, some said. It was a glowing moment of joy for Gunalan and Lalitha Ponniah.

“Karpaga Vinayaga” …A dance on Lord Ganesha who resides in Pillaiyar Patti, Tamil Nadu.

Our Premila Gunalan is blooming …soon to be a flower, an accomplished bharathanatyam dancer in our congregation.

Gurudeva says, “All my followers should perfect a cultural accomplishment, be it a form of art, singing, drama, dance or a musical instrument of Lord Shiva’s ensemble”. Aum Namasivaya

It’s ashram Sadhana day today at the Aadheenam. Everyone including our TAKA photographer and daily page builder have been up to their ears in soap and water, fixing and renovating… so, today’s news is short.

Bodhinatha checked in briefly…he is having a dynamic time in Orlando…he writes:

“Saturday events:

We had darshan with several families at the hotel in the morning. Then to the temple to join the Rudra homa for a while.

Then an hour workshop on Temple Center of Religious Life. By the time we were done there were about 120 attentive participants…

Lunch with Swami Chidananda of Chicago Vivekananda Center. Swami mentioned he had met Gurudeva at Barsanadam. We shared with him that his predecessor, Swami Bhasyananda, had been to Kauai.

Met a few staff from Hindu University…

After some rest we returned to the temple for evening activities… Lots of homa activity in the yagnasala.

I gave one hour talk to an attentive audience of about 200-300. Then the evening closed with the Yantra installation ceremonies for shrines.”

–Bodhinatha

Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Haranandinatha arrived safe and sound in Orlando…

It was Chitra puja today….Sadhaka Nilakantha is the pujari…

Being Sun 2.. at lunch the Ekadanta Kulam shared news…

Sannyasin Saravananathaswami shared Ekadanta Kulam news. He told of one Master Course students who has completed Level One of the study and have moved on to Level Two: Devi Tandavan of Washington state USA. A number of other level one students have indicated they also wish to further their progress.

This phase he is also working on the Kauai Aloha Endowment newsletter, in communication with the mayor’s office new staff writer. He also shared news of other Kauai Aloha Endowment developments in the area of design of their literature and mailing materials. He has also been working on advance arrangements for Bodhinatha’s visit to Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Mauritius. Visa’s, applications to speak in a public setting etc. all have to be settled far in advance.

Sadhaka Dandapani has been doing a lot of hosting recently, and he also prepared a handout for Bodhinatha’s new prasnottara satsangs he will be holding on his visit to the temple in Toronto. The brochure lists questions about the mystical significance of the temple which he will answer, and encourage a more interactive format for these educational gatherings. Sadhaka Dandapani has also been working on an email to send out to everyone announcing the new updated Innersearch itinerary.

On the home front, preparations for open house continue. Sadhaka is engineering an upgrade for the Banyan Mandapam display area. All the pictures and frames on which they are mounted will be replaced and upgraded to something shiny and fresh for the coming Guru Purnima and open house celebrations which are now just one month off.

We also had a big team today working on the gold leafing of more Tandavas… only 18 more to go!

It’s Sun One of a new phase and we captured Bodhinatha as he left the temple this morning after our homa… Today he left for Florida.

Yogi Japendranatha performs the homa today.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha, the quiet and ever busy with some selfless service deva of the Lambodara Kulam, is accompanying Bodhinatha today. He hasn’t left the Aadheenam except for trips on Kauai for over five years. Sadhaka handles all the Iraivan Fundraising communications, takes a special interest in making sure our silpi team is well taken care of, does the daily San Marga puja and numerous other essential tasks we are all discovering as we cover his duties in his absence.

The away team at 9am this morning…

At airport, bound for Orlando, and, as Bodhinatha joked, “Not to go to Disney world… ” He was invited to grace the Maha Kumbhabhishekam of a new temple in Castleberry, just outside of Orlando. Click here to open the temple site in a new window if you are curious about the events.

Besides Bodhinatha, a number of other swamis from various locations are also coming to the event and Bodhinatha is looking forward to meeting some of America’s other Hindu religious leaders.

One of our sisters has come for a visit: this is Meenakshi Palani, sister of Sadhaka Jivanandanatha. Meenakshi has gone into the health services career after a stellar academic record at high school followed by some immersion programs where she traveled with some prominent Ayurvedic doctors. Meenakshi is now going to medical school to earn an osteopathic medical degree and looks forward to incorporating alternative medicine in her healing service in the future. This is her vacation after a very intense schedule of late.