Bodhinatha and Sannyasin Arumugaswami leave for England on the 22nd… If you are in the UK and want to come to some events, please see the schedule on Bodhinatha’s Travel page.

Photo shows Gurudeva worshipping at the Highgate Murugan temple in North London during the 2001 European Innersearch. Bodhinatha will be here on Friday, 25th March, as the guest of honor at the Satguru Yogaswami Mahasamadhi celebrations.

A short walking meeting… take time for sharing and get some fresh air at the same time…

It’s an exciting time at the temple as the Vimanam is slowly unveiling… It seems this rock requires some adjustments….

A view from the east…

From the Northeast…

A close up of the top of the temple…

The gold-leafed capstone is even more brilliant that we could have imagined… And, yes, it’s real 23-karat gold!

Work continues on the top of the East Gopuram, still “under wraps” to protect the team from sun and showers.

Sages sitting in silence…

Yogaswami wrote: “Thus it is clear that there is nothing apart from the Supreme One. His Will prevails from everlasting to everlasting. Word–It vibrates in the light of Peace–Mounam (Silence). The Act–It pulsates in the light of Peace–Mounam. Everything radiates the effulgence of Peace, Perfect Peace. ”

The Lord of Music. Siva as Vinadhara outside along the path…

Today is a very auspicious one — the 32 anniversary of the installation of Lord Nataraja. In a way, it could be said to be the founding day of Kauai Aadheenam.

The story began in 1969 when Gurudeva discovered the island of Kauai and bought the estate up in the Wailua Homesteads overlooking the river… Here he began to train his monks and settle down to bring Saivism to the West….On the 1972 India Innersearch, Gurudeva was in New Delhi and he said to a few of his monks “Let’s go for a walk.” They arrived at a small shop called “Nirmala’s Copperworks” and in front was this giant, six-foot tall bronze image of Nataraja.

Gurudeva went in and asked the shop owner how much he would sell it for. The shop owner said he wouldn’t sell it, because it had been in his family for so long and was like an emblem for his business. The man was very intrigued with Gurudeva’s state of the art sony cassette tape recorder, and asked where he could get one, as such did not exist in India… Gurudeva replied if he would sell him the Nataraja, Gurudeva would give him the tape recorder.

He agree, and a year later the Nataraja arrived in a crate and was first placed on the edge of the pali, the cliff looking down over the river. Gurudeva one evening asked Lord Nataraja… “Where would be a good place for us to install you,” then the next morning on March 12, 1973, Lord Muruga came in a vision, and with his Shakti Vel struck three times a step that was the main entrance of the estate. The monks were surprised, “But, wait, that’s the main doorway?… ” After considerable struggle the monks placed the Deity at the very spot Lord Muruga had imbued with his powerful Shakti and Gurudeva instituted immediately the 24-hour vigil– a monk on duty, awake, alert, doing puja, sadhana and studies for 3 hour periods. Slowly the physical temple came up with the worship and sadhana.

The rest, as they say, is history…

This is Manivel’s depiction of the holy sanctum of Kadavul Temple….

From that moment… to today, Kadavul has been the spiritual anchor for the monks and thousands the world over.

Our little calf, Anuradha, is given plenty of time to romp and play.

Shanmuganathswami and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha are raising and caring for the calf. He brought “Anu” out to play and get some fresh air and sunshine.

The little calf thinks it’s a little human being… and gets a lot of love and attention from all.

Tandu Sivanathan has decided to gold leaf all the 108 Tandavas.

It is a massive karma yoga undertaking…

But this will be magnificent, turning Kadavul into the “Golden Hall of Lord Nataraja.”

The curtain is closed, but deep in the inner sanctum the Lord of the Universe dances…

Bodhinatha in a joyful moment with guests today in the Guru Peedam.

Now we go back to the last day of this phase and pick up from Maha Sivaratri night, then a retreat “walk about” our property and then today’s events….

Four of our silpis shaved their heads in the afternoon of Maha Sivaratri day… a traditional sacrifice many Hindus make for the more “austere” festivals for Siva and Lord Muruga

They feel blessed to be “monks for one day” as Bodhinatha described Maha Sivaratri later in his talk…

We got a box of orchids and it was incredible that they were packed one by one in perfect formation.. and it seemed like thousand came out of that one small box. The monks make garlands for the celebrations during the night.

After some bhajans in the temple, at 8 PM, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami is ceremoniously paraded into Kadavul temple.

The evening ceremonies begin with a homa…

Then Paramacharya Ceyonswami guides the whole group is a meditation… the inner vibration in the temple was “out of this world.”

After a break, the group listens to a talk over the speakers by Gurudeva and then Bodhinatha give a wonderful upadesha on realizing the Self, and how close the Self really is… not something to get, or become, but something you already are….

Then the amazing Siva abhishekam begins with Paramacharyas Palaniswami and Ceyonswami first doing vibhuti abhishekam.

This year we have a spot light on the Siva Lingam and though it is small devotees could observe the rites from all the way out in the mandapam.

Bodhinatha is seated just in front of the shrine.

The vibhuti is removed and will be sent to devotees around the world as prasadam from Kadavul. Many are the testimonies of the miracles that this vibhuti has brought into people’s lives.

Next, while some of the swami and monks are chanting Rudram, other come in pairs for the milk abhishekam.

This year the offering is the fresh milk of our dear cow, Amma Chaturthi… who just gave birth…

Bodhinatha chants Sri Rudram along with the monks.

The image of the main sanctum is “rahasya,” (Lord Nataraja is never to be photographed…. ) so we cannot offer more photos. Suffice it to say it was as always, a profound and mystical night.

As always the sense of spiritual renewal that comes with Maha Sivaratri and the immense peace that follows in the days afterward is like the famed “sugar candy… cannot be described, only known by those who have tasted it….”

Our retreat followed and someone took off for a tour of the river… From above we see the ever amazing 100 foot tall Ablaze trees which are hosting tons of Morning Glory vines that provide an image that is daily awesome, even after years of seeing it again and again…

Descending down the path… a close up of the mammoth cloak of vines.

We’ve had several weeks of relatively dry weather …

and the river is very low and calm.

The falls is a small flow now…

The camera spies Bodhinatha off in the distance on Guha day having a morning meditation …

…overlooking the river from the Orchid Mandapam

Look up and zooming in on the Ganapati Kulam Publications Building… who would know that inside there and through the monastery runs 100BaseT ethernet, a giant Mac OS XServe with terabytes of space and G4’s and dual processors which talk to the world via a T1 line…to our server in Connecticut…

Finally coming to today’s morning homa… the unfailing routine of Kadavul’s pujas is the immovable anchor that Gurudeva established for us years ago…

Aum Namasivaya!

Bodhinatha meets with long time devotee of the Kailasa Parampara… Vinaya Alahan from Santa Rosa California.

Narayandas and Sangeetha Klamath who joined us for Maha Sivaratri have darshan and a discussion with Bodhinatha.

They are avid readers of Hinduism Today. Natarajnathaswami shows them the latest issue.

They share with Arumugaswami the situation of young people in Toronto slowly losing their ancestral language and more and more knowing only English.

Also they detailed the amazing history of their family from the days when their ancestors lived on the banks of the ancient Sarasvati River thousands of years ago, to today where they have landed in Canada.

A joyous and profound Maha Sivaratri to the whole world!

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our short four-day phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dvitya Tithi, Sun One, Friday, March 11th.

The latest edition of Hinduism Today has “hit the streets” and this issue is getting a lot of praises, especially for the Parenting Insight section. Bodhinatha’s educational initiative is taking dynamic shape…

This elderly couple came to Kauai for Sivaratri. Appa is over 80 years old and a true Siva Bhaktar…

They joined everyone for the tour today.

And later had darshan with Bodhinatha

Tour day brought a huge crowd of visitors

Try to chip granite “Wow, that stone is really, really hard!”

Slowly the scaffolding is coming down and the golden Vimanan is revealed.

Hugging rudrakshas tree…

Narayandas and Sangeetha Kamath are here on pilgrimage from Toronto, Canada for 7 days. Here they are helping with Mahasivaratri decorations. Narayan promised Bodhinatha last year when he met him in Toronto that he would visit soon. So, they came for Mahasivaratri to fulfill that promise.

A view up at the East Gopuram

Shanmugam Sthapati, the man it is putting it altogether, first in his mind, then in reality.

And the steady, tireless team…

Time for a nature walk… the weather is still cold at night, but days are warming up and the plants are all coming to life.

Though we have no snow in Hawaii, it does get cool and our garden slows down… It is starting to pump again… fabulous looking cabbage!

Lettuce can be challenging, but our Siddhidata Kulam is producing some beautiful varieties.

Kale doesn’t mind the cool weather.. and is growing really well.

An overview of Anna Purna Gardens….

Some beds are deliberately left fallow to “rest” while others are planted in rotation. The same species is usually not planted twice in the same bed…

An offering from one of the devotees…

Have a wonderful Maha Sivaratri night and go deep within to the source and come closer, and closer to the Lord Siva within…

It was definitely a day for looking up! Bodhinatha took a rare moment away from his usual busy morning schedule to go out to the temple and watch the glorious morning events….

Dr. Thiaga Rajan and his wife Sudha from Houston. They had a wonderful time touring the grounds and the temple site. They were very fascinated and interested in all the medicinal and sacred plants that line the path to the temple. They’ve been living in the Houston area for over 20 years and have been active in the Meenakshi Temple in Pearland. Sudha is president of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana Houston Center (sVYASA-USA)

The gold-leafed capstone of the East Gopuram went up in two pieces today.

The edges are carefully taped to protect the gold leaf work.

Easy.. down….

OK, more, more…

Almost there…

One foot more…

Watching from distance…

Our Kauai members…

Just three more inches..

Larry Conklin on his crane taking signals from Yoginathaswami…

This Hindu couple is overjoyed to have come on a pilgrimage and be here on this auspicious day.

The ground team starts work to rig up the second piece.

Meanwhile, above, the team makes some more adjustments to the first stone which is now sitting on blocks…

But wait… isn’t that Sadhaka Dandapani with the video camera? Who’s behind this camera?

Top-side team takes a break…

Oh, it is Paramacharya Palaniswami, shooting from the east corner and he spies high above him fruits of a giant palm…

We are told some of these may even be edible.

Back to the temple where the second piece is about to go up.

Here it is….

This one is about one third, while the first one was two-thirds of the complete capstone(s).

The capstone was made in two pieces because a single piece would simply been too heavy to handle.

Ok, easy… down…

“Looking good!….”

Moving into place….

“OK, (close hand signal) stop!”

The silpis move the stone which is still hovering.. right into place…and the final one inch lowering is done for final placement.

These pieces will go on top of the gopuram eventually.

Our gold leaf team did a wonderful job!

on-lookers….

A distance shot…

Returning home after witnessing a most mangalam moment!

Sun Two of Maha Sivaratri phase… We had quite a number of guests today… though no photos…

Gurudeva would often speak of Hanuman bringing Iraivan Temple from India to Hawaii, flying through the Akasha, holding the completed Siva Palace in his hand. And he envisioned a Hanuman stone monument near Iraivan to depict this visualization. In fact, every Sun One, as he began the homa he would call on Hanuman to bring Iraivan to completion.

Recently some supporters have inquired about sponsoring the 12-foot-tall statue of Hanuman in black granite, and asked us what it will look like. So this week our intrepid artists, A. Manivel was commissioned to depict the completed masterpiece. Just today he e-mailed Palaniswami the completed illustration and we thought all of you would enjoy being the first to see it!

Our good friends of the Gitananda Ashram in Italy send us this Sivaratri greeting.

Anticipation is in the air… as the top of the Chinna Gopuram will be going up tomorrow

With the silpi standing along side, you can get a sense of how big this is!

From underneath the Banyan tree by Dakshinamurthi

The Narmada lingam on the path of the Saiva Saints.

These will be going up tomorrow and will certainly change the whole vibration of the temple…

The final details on the top of the gopuram..

The days are warming up rapidly and the day lilies are blooming….

Bodhinatha’s 2006 Innersearch travel-study program to Australia and New
Zealand is taking shape. 12 wonderful days with Bodhinatha in two of the
most beautiful countries in the world are being planned. So don’t miss out!
If you would like to know more about the program please visit
Bodhinatha’s 2006 Innersearch travel-study program to Australia and New
Zealand is taking shape. 12 wonderful days with Bodhinatha in two of the
most beautiful countries in the world are being planned. So don’t miss out!
If you would like to know more about the program please visit
the home page for our 2006 Innersearch.
The application form is also now available online.

Our kitty Rasi is a fearless one. Being a Prima Donna show cat in her youth she learned not to be afraid of crowds, and will regularly walk out directly into a group of guests. All other kitties are afraid.

Rasi takes a walk to say “Hello” and talk story with Anuradha, our new calf.

We had a scintillating Sun One home this morning to begin a short 4-day phase that will culminate on the night of Maha Sivaratri. We bring you a few photos today from our retreat outings.

Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Adinatha went to Himalayan Acres on a “check up” tour. Here is the river ford. Some young people wanted to make a swimming hole so they put rocks in front of the culverts to raise the water level and now the water is flowing on top of the road way.

This river ford was built nearly 50 years ago and is still serviceable today.

On a small field in a gully, well protected from the wind with plenty of wanter, these 35 Noni trees are doing very well. They don’t seem to mind having their feet well and are healthy and vigorous.

Only two years old, the little trees are already starting fruit. Score 1 for a successful trial test. Armed with this experience we can confidently expand the number of Noni trees on Himalayan Acres.

Wind breaks are extremely important to prevent soil erosion and protect plantings in fields. Many of our pilgrims have help plant these rows of iron wood trees.

To date we have planted 1000’s of trees, offset from each other in two rows.

With few exceptions they are all doing well…

The earliest plantings done about three years ago are now finally high above the guinea grass and are beginning to do their job of wind protection. One of these trees was planted by Swami Bua. About 8,000 feet (a mile and a half) of trees have been planted in two rows… so that’s 16,000 feet of wind break we have planted.

Tree planting is one of the great things we can do for Mother earth. And Gurudeva used to encourage his sishya to plant ten tree every year.

The silpis went on their monthly outing.. destination: the sea shore just a mile north of Kapaa. It was here that Gurudeva used to park daily for several years in his Winnebego, without fail and he and his editing team would work on Dancing with Siva. He used to say the whales knew he was working on Dancing with Siva, and they would celebrate progress on this profound work by playing in the waters near the shore for the team to see, and swimming completely out of the water with a giant splash. On the final day of the book, just as Gurudeva declared it was completed, one shale lay on his side and slapped his giant tail 27 times on the ocean surface, something none of us had ever seen before, or since.

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, Saturday, March 5th.

---

Today at lunch the Ganapati Kulam related their activities to the whole monastery. Everyone worked during the first few days of the phase on the first third of the next issue of Hinduism Today. All articles slated for completion in February were processed, output, edited and proofed. Paramacharya Palaniswami then turned his attention to plans for a new book, which will comprise all the insights sections of Hinduism Today. It’s going to be something truly beautiful…

Acharya Kumarswami has been focused on his Hinduism Today pages and the completion of the next pocketbooks, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva.

Arumugaswami worked on his increment of Hinduism Today articles and has been continuing his efforts to move the Saivite Hindu Religion course forward. He recently completed first manuscript of a new version of Book Four, which is now being edited by Bodhinatha and the editing team.

Natarajnathaswami has been working on his Hinduism Today articles.

Sivakatirswami also completed one of his pages for the magazine and then switched back to his long list of internet to do’s. He’s almost completed the migration of all the content and links from the previous TAKA archive server to our new server. He has also installed a wiki on our local server on the LAN and has been studying up on implementation and configuration.
He and Arumugaswami will be putting this to use soon to coordinate the project of sevaks, HPI input.

Yogi Japendranatha completed his February article for the magazine and is working on the details for the actual printing of the next pocketbooks, along with many other miscellaneous tasks he has…

It’s a very busy team!

Being the last day of the phase we had a group of about 50-60 visitors… here they are gathered at the front entrance at 9 AM.

We would have thought the flow of visitors would have dropped at this time of year. But, not so… they continue to come.

Arriving at the temple Silpi Karuppaiah Chinnaiah demonstrates the stone cutting…

Mother and son give it a try together.

What a magnificent day!

Some close ups of guests today:

Lisa and Jim are first time visitors as well and were part of the tour group. They said this was one of the main highlights of their visit to the island. They are welcoming a baby girl into planet Earth in July. Congratulations!

Rudy and Dora Tanzi from Boston came up to the monastery yesterday because Dora had purchased a rudraksha mala from the local market where she was told 8 of the beads were blessed by Gurudeva himself. So, they decided to come and visit Gurudeva’s home yesterday. They returned again today to spend more time here after getting to know more of Gurudeva’s teachings and making a new friend in Lord Ganesha.

In the future, guests will arrive at the entrance of the Rudraksha forest and come down San Marga…

On the way, they will see many remarkable plants, like this beautiful flower of the vine called Thunbergia Mysorensis that hails from Mysore in India.

After worshipping at the Swayambhu Lingam they will spy the beautiful Iraivan Temple to the east,

Walking to the temple they may go to the river first or simply come to the temple..

Going around the temple… in the traditional way..seeing the awesome pillars and carvings.

Coming up the front of the temple, of course there will be a roof over their heads at this point.

Approaching the sanctum…

With tarpaulins removed the gold-leafed capstone of the vimanam shines brilliantly in the sun. Our team is taking a very cautious approach to dismantling the scaffolding, to be safe and absolutely certain no harm comes to the temple stone work.

It is a very auspicious day at the Aadheenam as our dear Jersey, Chaturthi, has given birth today to a little heifer. Her name is Anuradha, named after the nakshatra of the day of her birth. Here she is less than an hour after coming out into the Bhuloka, strong, alert, healthy and already walking…

Shanmuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha have decided to take on all the duties of nurturing the mother and her calf. It’s a great service to the rest of the monastery and a break from all their computer world of accounting and programming. Here Sadhaka Jivanandanatha makes sure little Anuradha knows that her human caretakers are all love and kindness.

Like any new born, sleeping is a major activity

Welcome to the Bhuloka! We took her to see Bodhinatha first, and then to the temple. After taking her back to her pen for feeding she ran back to the temple!

Like her mother, Chaturthi, Anuradha will be raised by the monks. Chaturthi actually thought she was a human being in her early years (we are not kidding).

Vyagrapada tends to get a little jealous when other little creatures get all the attention…He’s also very much a “guard bird,” and will screech loudly when something like a little calf walks by… as if to say “Look there’s an intruder here”

Meanwhile another small family is on it’s way as well.

Our Mauritius reporter writes: “We are right into the great preparations for Maha Sivaratree Mauritius. TV programs on Lord Siva is now being broadcast everyday. In Mauritius Maha Sivaratree is the greatest Hindu festival, mostly marked by pilgrimages to the volcanic sacred lake, Ganga Talao at Grand Bassin. It is a public holiday. On the great night of God Siva, devotees attend the four Siva pujas in their local temples until the early morning. Meanwhile, here are photos from our monthly homa….

The Homa fire opens the inner worlds to devotees and allows them to send their written prayers to be answered there. On the first Sunday of every month such a ceremony is performed at the Ganesha Mandapam at the Spiritual park of Mauritius. The February Homa was sponsored by Kulapaties Valaytan, Mooneesawmy and Pariatumbee from Flacq.

Devotees from all over the island rarely miss to attend this ceremony dedicated to Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati.

Everyone joins in to sing devotional songs.

Those who are not able to find sitting accommodation inside the Mandapam humbly stand on the front lava steps with their minds concentrated on the whole ceremony.

During the testimony session facilitated by Kulapati Rajen Manick, devotees are given opportunities to come forward and share their spiritual experiences with everyone present. Such testimonies are always inspiring and uplifting and all devotees look forward to hear them. Here is Mr. Sookool, who has never missed a Homa sharing his wonderful experience and showing his appreciation for the good works done by the stewards of the Spiritual Park.

Mr. Deven Kathapermal from Lalmatie giving another testimony about how he was inspired to offer lunch to all devotees at the Park.

The testimony session over, Kulapati Manon gave a short explanatory talk. His topic for that event was on Bodhinatha’s talk entitled: “The Power of Kindly Speech”. Here is an extract:

“The case of a friend who is overweight: We are genuinely worried that it is vital for his health to lose some weight. We voice our concern by saying, ‘You are too fat’. Our words pass the test of being helpful, but they fail the test of being kind. We need to express our concern more gently such as ‘I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but it might be good for your health if you get serious about diet and exercise. ‘ In other words, even helpful words need to be expressed in a kindly way.”

Then after the final arati devotees would leave the Mandapam to receive the sacred flame and would then move into the mango grove area where are found the food stations for that day.

This a time we meet everyone and can exchange a few words. Here Kulapati Manon is talking to some friends attending the Ganesha Homa.

Our three young men, Prakash, Tirthadeva and Bhaveshan happily holding the trays containing the sacred flame and vibhuti.

Siven Veerasamy, our hired workman never misses the Ganesha Homa. He comes early morning to set a few things at the Park and is always ready to give a helping hand even on his days off.

The food was sponsored by Mr. Deven Kathapermal and many of his relatives turned up to help serve our guests.

Here are two smiling faces, happy to be together at the Park: Sivaneswaran and Venilla. Sivaneswaran is back to Malaysia after being with his wife a few days. Venilla is staying at her parent’s place expecting a baby soon…

Kulamata Sornumbal Mardemootoo (right), a friend and Tirumati Komadhi Mardemootoo. They all look happy to be at such a wonderful event.

Arnasamy Chellapen from Goodlands, now living in Belgium is very impressed by the new developments at the Spiritual Park. Arnasamy has been to Kauai Aadheenam on Task Force and says that the only spiritual path he knows and follows is that taught to him by Gurudeva.

Kulapati Anba Dayananden Valayten with Kulamata Saroja Valayten and their daughter Ulasa. Kulapati Amba is the main co
ordinator for karma Yoga activities at the Spiritual Park and he organizes a karma yoga for everyone at the Park every month. He is very concerned about tidiness of this spiritual place. Thank you Kulapati Anba!

Today Bodhinatha went to the second Interfaith meeting of clergy from different Churches on Kauai. We had such a group in the early 1990’s but it disbanded. The new young group of leaders are very eager to see a new interfaith group get started. There was a lot of enthusiasm and energy at the meeting to create a spirit of sharing, understanding, tolerance and eventually some action goals to get things done in the community as a group.

Today, we visit our ever-productive and ever-efficient Pillaiyar Kulam. Here is the talaivar, artisan in charge, Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami. For the last several days he has been working to prepare our 2005-2006 panchangam (astrological almanach), especially revising the program that generates it to give more refined calculations of the “yogas” (combinations of week-days with lunar asterisms). The panchang will be posted soon at www.himalayanacademy.com.

Sadhaka Jivanandanatha, who tracks incomes and expenditures for our monastery’s far-flung and varied activities, meets with Sannyasin Saravannanathaswami. Today they are discussing ways to budget items to renovate and modernize facilities at our Center in Mauritius, which includes the beautiful and popular Spiritual Park.

Sadhaka Jothinatha is holding two samples of the many items he is currently collecting up and shipping to helpers in the UK in preparation for Bodhinatha’s visit there later this month. He says that there is quite a bit of enthusiasm around London for this visit and various people are coming forward to help make it a grand event.

There is the information office, where the Pillaiyar Kulam do their Sivathondu….

Leaving the offices we come to the Nepali Ganesha at the beginning of Tiruneri and then…

Up the path to Kadavul temple.

The team has removed some of the tarpaulins and the vimanam is open to the sky for the first time in a long time.

The gold-leafed capstone shines brightly in the sunlight.

The “quick-tent” removal was the first step in the dismantling the scaffolding.

These small stones have been placed….

The vimanam is nearing completion!

Gate Mission Homa Satsang with Kulapatis presiding: Iraja Sivadas, Easvan Param, Deva Rajan, Easan Katir

Shrineroom altar through haze of Havana smoke

Golden Gate Mission members and friends listening as Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami talks to us from the
Aadheenam

Putrika Sandhya Param on her patti’s (Kulamata Bhavani Param) lap

Mukhya Jothi Param singing a carnatic piece during our cultural program.

After Satsang final preparations were made for the ritukala (coming of age) samskara for Yatrika Ajaya. All of the ladies joined in arranging flowers, setting up the area in front of the hearth for Yatrika to stand, preparing the trays. The men readily joined in as they were called upon to help.

With the celebration of the ritukala samskara in the home, the community acknowledges, blesses, and honors a girl who has blossomed into young womanhood.

Kulamata Sundari Katir does the milk blessing for Yatrika as did all married devotees at the ceremony, men and women.

Grihini Gowrie Sankara approaches for blessing Yatrika with milk.

After bathing and being wrapped in her first saree, Kulamata Bhavani Param hands Yatrika the kumbam she will hold throughout the rest of the ceremony.

Procession of trays into shrine room. Grihini Sahana Param carries tray with one hand and in her other arm, Bela Sundari.

The tray with rice and curries is presented by Kulamata Bhavani Param and Grihini Gowrie Sankara.

Her mother, Amma Punita, puts kumkum on Yatrika’s forehead.

After prostrating to Appa and Amma, Yatrika and Amma enjoy a loving hug.

Putra Jeyendra Param showers Yatrika with flowers.

Yatrika thanks everyone for coming to bless her by giving plates of her homebaked cookies. Here she gives a plate to Kulamata Asha Alahan.

Yatrika with her Appa and Amma

A good friend and former Innersearcher, Jeff Weiske, came back to Kauai today and he came right away to the monastery to visit the temple and have darshan with Bodhinatha.

Jeff is an accomplished physical therapist with a wonderful healing touch and an Pilates expert. He loved Gurudeva very much and once helped Gurudeva get through a back injury.

Jeff is now a successful health care practitioner Pilates instruction in Arizona where he has a clinic with a partner. Years ago he made a Pilates instructional video tape of himself with a home video camera… It turned out to be very popular. He’s come back to Kauai to make another one, this time with a professional camera crew.

This is Sri Ram and Ragini Veeraraghavan, from Sunny Vale California, originally from Trichi, now working in California. They heard about us through friends.

Paramacharya Palaniswami took the camera off to Iraivan today to catch the magical morning light… Dakshinamurti under banyan with the pillars shine in dawn’s light.

He has climbed up to take get some shots of the lovely ornamental carving…

“snake” carvings on the vimanam cornice pieces…

Looking southward… roof beams span the bhadra pillars with stones arrayed in the background

Storage tent and blacksmith forge in the distance.

Vimanam Nandis

Our silpis, having gone to Kadavul for their morning darshan of the Gods, are coming now to the temple.

This is their daily trek… what great karma did they do in a previous birth to have the opportunity to build such a holy structure?

Small pieces to adorn the Chinna Gopuram.

Forms of Siva…

Nandi, beautifully carved.

Maha Nyasa on the side of the gold-leafed capstone…

Work in progress at the top of the East Chinna Gopuram.

And the incredible scaffolding built by our stalwart Siddhidata Kulam, who provide the daily logistical support for the silpis.

Arumugaswami took a turn with the new camera this afternoon… the Ganesha on the West, outside wall, of Kadavul. Every time Gurudeva would ever pass by the temple, even at a distance, on this side, he would unfailingly stop for a moment to worship Lord Ganesha…

It’s time for nature… some unusual plants that arrived recently

For our Himalayan Acres we are doing some trial grafts of avocados on root stock.

Sadhaka Adinatha continues to spearhead the tree planting efforts… Here he is raising up Mahogany tree seedlings.

Valuable species of wood trees are a major part of our Himalayan Acres diversified agricultural initiatives.

More wild looking plants…

In the distance, something we all should be thinking about… the Ganapati Kulam is installing modern air-conditioning units in the monastery’s on-going efforts to reduce energy consumption and electrical usage.

Another new plant.. some dark taro leaves…

These leaves are nearly black… one wonders how they do any photosynthesis at all.