Sadhaka Haranandinatha in the temple working on a mailing to our San Marga devotees and donors.

Today was a quiet Sun Three.. the Pillaiyar Kulam gave its report with some great news about increasing Hinduism Today sales and steadily growing sales of “Yoga’s Forgotten Foundations.”

Gurudeva dancing… we think this is in India or Malaysia…

Meanwhile the April, May, June issue of Hinduism Today is off to the press with a special Insight section on Hindu Parenting… for which we will be printing an extra 30,000 copies.

Bodhinatha’s program to reprint the educational sections of Hinduism Today is turning out to be great success.

Go to our online store and see the growing collection of available items. which you can use to teach classes in your area.

From the Tirumantiram, speaking of the path of renunciation:

“When you seek a guru
Seek one who is holy and pure
And then give him your all–
Your body, life and wealth.
Then in constancy learn clearly,
Not a moment distracting.
Surely shall you thus reach Siva’s State.
Placing His Feet on my head,
The Master blesses me. He is holy Guru.
He my Self-Realization works.
He takes the jiva to the state beyond tattvas.
He sunders my bonds. All these he performs–
He that is Truth itself.”

Tirumantiram–Verse 1693 and 2049

Today was Sun Two and the Ekadanta Kulam gave a report at lunch. Saravananathaswami has been working on finishing up the study guides for those who are taking their Vratysishya initiation.

These check off sheets guide the student through a series of studies and practices to prepare for the initiation.

Sadhaka Dandapani who is behind the camera taking the photos, as he is most days… told about his work on finalizing the programs on Bodhinatha’s coming trip to London in March.

Our Siddhidata Kulam logs in a bountiful harvest this morning. All home grown: jackfruit, papayas, star fruit, avocados, oranges and grapefruits.

A misty afternoon makes for a mystical looking Wailua river valley, the tall Albezia trees reaching 80 to 100 feet are host to gigantic colonies of morning glory vines that fill the tree nearly to the top. The river, full from mountain rains rushes dynamically to the sea.

It is Sun One and Bodhinatha gave a wonderful discourse drawing on the daily Master Course lesson and the Natchintanai…

In case you have been wondering, it has been a while since we posted any audio or transcripts. Our move to a new server has changed things quite a bit, but we will be bringing the voice of the Sat Guru back to TAKA very soon… so stay tuned!

We also have more news from Sri Lanka. Patrick Harrigan has mounted a web site for needy children in eastern Sri Lanka. The orphanage we are working to help rebuild is listed there with more information. Click here to go visit the site.

Saravananathaswami performs the homa today.

We all listen intently as Bodhinatha reads his special message to the Sri Lankan community in response to the Tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka. It includes the words of Siva Yogaswami from Natchintanai about the eternal nature of the soul.

A visiting family… Praful Patel and wife who have visited here a couple of times before attended this morning’s homa with a friend. They are visiting from Canada and enjoy coming to Kauai to visit the aadheenam. They are also subscribers to Hinduism Today.

Morning light is coming earlier now as we proceed into the uttarayane half of the year.

Bodhinatha with Pitchai Kurukal, the Hindu of the Year, 2004. He writes this for the coming new edition of our special “Island Temple” magazine update:

“Sri Sivaya Subramuniya Swamigal worked hard to make people all over the world realize the greatness of Lord Siva, experience the power of the Panchakshara mantra and thereby, lead joyous and fulfilled lives. Pursuing his vision and perpetuating the lineage, Sri Bodhinatha Veylanswami is continuing the building of the Holy Temple. It is imperative that the Hindus of the world support the Aadheena Kartar in completing this task of temple construction and consecration. They bring out the magazine ‘Hinduism Today’ to educate the world on the uniqueness of Saivite worship. Innumerable Hindus benefit greatly from this. May the Almighty Lord Karpaga Vinayagar bestow His Grace on the Hawaii Aadheenam and their devotees with long lives, permeated with Siva-ness.

Tour day today… the last day of this phase.

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 Divtiya Tithi, Sun One, Thursday, February 10th.

Today Deva and Amala Seyon came to the Pillaiyar Kulam office to learn how to do bulk mailings with Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami. This mailing of Island Temple magazines is going to 620 people interested in Iraivan Temple. By sending the magazines bulk vs. first class mail, we saved the temple $527 in postage. Deva and Amala also prepare the Hinduism Today renewal mailings with the help of Deva’s mother.

This is an exquisite museum-quality ten inch tall Lord Ganesha made from one piece of beautiful Jade stone. As you can see from the photo, with the right lighting you can see through the thinner parts of the hands and trunks. This Lord Ganesha would make a beautiful Deity for your home or office . Weighing 24 pounds, we only have one of these rare forms of art in Jade. We are planning to put this Deity in our next Mini Mela catalog going to press soon, but we thought we would give our TAKA readers a chance to purchase this one-of-a-kind masterpiece first. Interested? Email minimela@hindu.org. $3500.00

The Swaminathan family with their six-month-old daughter Kahini visited for the first time from California. They had heard about us for quite a while and finally made the trip. They were very happy to see the traditional Iraivan Temple coming up, as they come from the temple town of Madurai, South India, originally.

On the right another family of tourists tags along as they missed the main tour.

Such good karma for this little one…

It was a magnificent day for Iraivan and our guests

Two little girls try their best to chip away a piece of granite with their mother’s help.

Our lettuce has been loving the recent rains…

A bountiful harvest…

See you all next phase.

Om shanti….

Siva Yogaswami writes to a young man named “Yogendra:”
=======
Sivamayam

Letter to Self who is Yogendra full of Love.

I am with you and you are with me. You are myself and I am you. What is it you fear? Look! I am you. Then what would you do? You must feel and show love. To whom? To everyone. In fact your nature is nothing but love. It is not only yourself, but the whole universe which is overflowing with love. Yet it is not any other, because you are the only one in existence. You are all things. Study well. Be obedient. Listen to and follow the advice of your father, mother elder sisters, younger brother, as well as your uncle, aunt and elder brothers. Always set an example in obedience.

Siva does all

I am you…

Yogaswami

This is Umeshchandra and Vijayalakshmi Patil visiting Kauai for the first time from New York. They only found out about us in the last few days of their two-week stay because they were attending a local Rotary Club meeting as guests and one of club members mentioned that a Hindu Temple was located in Kapaa! So they came this morning and were very impressed with the beautiful Iraivan Temple and surrounding pristine environment which they know is so important

Karthik and Archana Sundaram from California attended this morning’s 9am Siva puja then enjoyed a tour of the temple grounds and Iraivan. It is Archana’s birthday today. Happy birthday to you Archana from Bodhinatha and all the monks here.

Quite a number of Hindu families today… we don’t know their names.

The group was big enough to warrant a mini-tour to Iraivan.

The past week our Siddhidata Team and a few of the other monks helping in the afternoon have been working really hard to erect a super scaffolding structure around the east Chinna Gopuram.

Our silpis were having difficulty with the few boards we had before. A firm footing and a safety net if a metal bar should slip are critical. They may have to move a 3 ton stone half an inch to the left…

Base camp… twelve feet up… preparing mortar

It was an “upper body work out” for our team lifting giant 4 X 12 foot beams and attaching everything securely and took five days to get this up.

Small stones destined to finish off the main vimana have arrived in the recent shipment. These pairs of Nandis will be one on each corner…

Other forms of Siva …

to grace the sanctum heights.

Sadhaka Haranandi hosts a group of local island folk, friends of our crane operator, Larry Conklin who recommended they go see the temple.

A brilliant sunny day with a new camera shows a remarkable distance capture power… we bring you uncaptioned visions of Mount Waialeale and the rim of this ancient volcano that rise up several miles from the ocean floor to form the Garden island of Kauai.

This is Jogi and Annapurna Pattisapu from Florida. They have visited here several times before and really savor their visit each time. They met Gurudeva here and fondly remember him giving them sadhanas to perform at the Aadheenam like the Wailua Ganga Sadhana. They
met briefly with Bodhinatha during which he gifted them a
copy of a recent talk on how to maintain “Peace and Contentment.”

Here they are with Kishore and Meera Rao from Virginia (on the right) The Rao couple is visiting for the first time. Meera is using Hinduism Today
to teach classes on Hinduism.

Both couples receive Hinduism Today regularly and the Pattisapus are Lifetime subscribers.

They love to perform abhishekam to the Narmada Lingam

They are also quite active with their local temple in Orlando which is going to have its kumbhabhishekam this coming June.

Silpi Sankaran has arrived from the silpi resident house to come for darshan at Kadavul temple as do all the silpis, before going to work on Iraivan. We catch his bright face while he picks some betel leaves on the way out to Iraivan.

The Orchid Mandapam in the distance in the morning sun.

Our young couples on pilgrimage come again this morning.

Arun and Hemah from West Virginia with Bodhinatha…

Rajesh and Aditi from Michigan…

We had a photo shoot scheduled today for a group monks shot… everyone gathers at the temple. Paramacharya Palaniswami speaks with our pilgrims.

Yogi Japendranatha walking past, shows the full size of Kadavul Nandi.

All monks….

Our swamis….

The great sayings of Sage Chellappaswami:

Oru Pollappumillai–Intrinsic evil there is not.
Eppavo Mudintha Kariyam–Accomplished is His Will.
Naam Ariyom–We know not.
Muluthum Unmai–All that is, is Truth Absolute.

Arun and Hemah from West Virginia are still on the island and came again to worship. Arun said he had never felt the presence of God as he had when he stepped into Kadavul temple.

When it is not a tour day, the grounds are closed to general passing tourists. They drop in nevertheless, having found out about us in some magazine or guidebook. We have some big mounted binoculars they can use to see Iraivan from a distance or look up at the top of Mount Waialeale on a clear day.

Our Mauritius report writes:

“Year 2005 started up with a very nice ceremony at the Spiritual Park on January 2. The Ganesha Homa sponsored by the Koothan, Moorghen and Manick Kutumbas has been another inspiring spiritual event in the midst of New Year 2005 festivities. An unusually large group of devotees turned on that day.

There were so many cars parked on the roadside early that morning that our own members had problems to find a parking for themselves.

Pancha Mukha Ganapati looked majestic on that day….

The interior of the Mandapam was packed to capacity and devotees had to accommodate themselves on the steps …

Those outside were happy and concentrated their attention on the whole ceremony.

No one ever missed to pass their hands over the sacred flame and gently touch their eyes…

Devotees gathered under the shade of the mango trees to have lunch.

One nice family from Poudre D’or. They rarely miss a Ganesha Homa…

Kulapati and Kulamata Kulagan and some friends of the Park.

The Chinniah family from Piton. Mrs Chinniah is an enrolled Himalayan Academy student. Her little son is in the Saivite Hindu Religion children’s class at the Park.

Our smart gentleman with his family from Quatre Bornes. They attend Homa regularly.

Mrs Vanisha Virapin on the right with her family. They prepared and offered lunch to everyone on that day. Mrs. Vanisha is from Grand Baie and is an enrolled HA student.

These two gentle are from Flacq. They are so happy starting the new year with Lord Ganesha’s Blessings.

Kulamata Premila Manick (in orange) with the Rungapen Pillay family.

Kulamata Moilavadee Moorghen and her three sons.

Members Thungavelu ( right) and Logadassen from the SK Moorghen kutumba in Rose Hill.

Mr. Siven Veerapen and family from Vacoas. They are very close friends of the Park and have been actively helping in many projects, including the Muruga Mandapam.

We have good news today from Patrick Harrigan about the progress of the Thirunavukkarasu Nayanar Gurukulam orphan boys…

Patrick Harrigan hands the new clothing to Dr. Mihir Meghani as they boys line up to receive these welcome gifts from afar. Patrick is eager to get them into their traditional clothing, as the emergency relief clothing is all pants and t-shirts which they do not normally wear in their culture. He writes:

“I distributed the 34 dhotis gifted by the Venkatakrishnan family of Chennai to the 17 boys who were residing at Vipulananda Swami Childrens Home some days ago. Today I returned with Vigyananand Swami.

Dr. Mihir Meghani helped Patrick distribute the new clothing. He is in Sri Lanka doing relief work. He has been reading Hinduism Today since he was a young man. Gurudeva guided his life and he is now president of the American Hindu Foundation in the US.

” …all the Thirunavukkarasu boys in a family photo with swami in front of the Vipulananda Orphanage where they
were taken in for the last month.”

Please click here to see our home page for the relief efforts, latest news on the boys, plans for reconstruction and donations to date.

“…and another of him with Kannan and other boys who were preparing to occupy this rented house in Tambiluvil just near to the Kannaki Amman Kovil later today. They are standing in front of the new place that will be their home until the orphanage is rebuilt. I was sure that you would be interested to have this good news that they are now reoccupying a house together as a gurukulam once again, even though it is not the entire family just yet. Kannan has over 30 boys ready to occupy this house today, and they are looking at other building sites nearby…”

“The new house the boys will rent and live in for a few months. The young boys were spending the whole day Thursday scrubbing the new rented house to make it neat and clean for rehabitation on Friday.”

“the old gurukulam although relatively unscathed by the tsunami, happens to lie within the 100 meter zone that the government has declared as a strictly enforced zone where no habitations will be permitted.”

Another shot of the damage to the orphanage by the tsunami waves.

Bonsai by the temple tank…

Child Saint Sambandar dances in the water fountain

It is Sun One today and Bodhinatha gave a wonderful talk on “Giving.” We looked for some quotes from Gurudeva on the subject and found this:

“Pure love is a state of Being. Whereas everyone is running around trying to get love, it is found in giving. When a person begins to lose the idea of his own personality through concern for others, he will attract a like response to himself. The outgoing force of the soul in action brings freedom to the lower states of mind. The instinctive person is ordinarily so preoccupied with his own self, so wrapped up in his own shell, that he cannot give a thought to the welfare of another. He cannot give anything of himself. Such a person usually feels sorry for himself and finds other people unloving and unresponsive. He is still far from any realization of the Self within. ” –Gurudeva

Yogi Japendranatha performs homa today.

Bodhinatha’s talk was yet another in the series that will be printed in the Mauritius magazine, Vanakkam.

Arun and Hemah from West Virginia are on the island for a week and attended the 9am Siva puja. Hemah has been reading Hinduism Today since the time it was a newspaper format. They joined Rajesh and Aditi on the tour this morning and enjoyed very much being here. They hope to come up and spend more time here in the upcoming days.

Rajesh and Aditi Devay from Michigan chose to come to Kauai so that they can combine pilgrimage with vacation. This is their 3rd visit up to the monastery so far on their week-long stay on the island. They enjoined being at this morning’s homa and braved the rain later on in the day to enjoy a walk on the grounds, visiting the Swayambhu and Narmada Lingams.

Today, being Sun One, Paramacharya Ceyonswami gave his report for the Lambodara Kulam. He shared news on new lighting for the front of Kadavul, on his work with doing astrology for members, marriage compatibilities and other charts and working with India to get information on the next group of silpis who will be arriving at the Aadheenam in the months ahead.

Mary Beth Harnett, from Ohio, arrived on Kauai yesterday and made Kauai Aadheenam her first destination. She enjoyed the tour of the grounds and seeing the progress on Iraivan. She also had a wonderful meeting with Bodhinatha.

Today was the Chitra Pada Puja…

Sadhaka Nilakantha is the pujari, assisted by Yogi Japendranatha.

There was complete silence the later part of the puja when the Sri Rudram chanting finished…

“This, our Land where loving devotees sing his praise,
This, our Land where Lord Siva is pleased to take his abode,
This, our land stands revealed in its fullest stature
By our Guru, who melts us all in the web of his Love.”

–Siva Yogaswami

“Know the Self and be wise,
yea, by the light of wisdom, be ye wise.
In the undifferentiated plenum, behold
The Supreme Brahman in thyself and myself.”

Siva Yogaswami

Final Arati… Jai Gurudeva!

Mary Beth (right) was one of the 2004 Indian Odyssey Innersearch participants and here she is with her friend from Australia, fellow Innersearcher, Ganga Sivanathan.

Ganga is a registered Master Course student of Himalayan Academy and Mary Beth reads the lessons by email. Today they get a chance to meet Saravananathaswami who handles communications with students.

Being the last day of the phase, we had a good crowd of guests. Here one man takes his turn carving a spare stone.

About forty guests today braved very wet weather…

Our monks are learning the new camera. Also we put on Ganga’s macro lens for some close ups… We have picked the best from all the “practice” photography and will let you view the following without caption and simply enjoy the beauty of Kauai Aadheenam.

We are off for a two-day retreat. See you all again on February 3rd!

Ganga Sivanathan from Adelaide Australia had darshan with Bodhinatha today. She is enjoying a very peaceful stay in paradise.

The big news today: stone lift by crane, 4 and 1/2 hours of painstaking careful, aerial placement.

Because the foundation is getting tight, stones are being off loaded now outside on the ground.

Guests are allowed to watch, but only from a distance. The team has asked that all visitors stay clear during these operations.

Today, the primary goal is placing three giant roof beams on top of the East Chinna Gopuram

Inevitably adjustments must be made after the stones are put in place. Which involves a massive scaffolding effort on the part of the Siddhidata Kulam

Exacting placement of a stone weighing 3,000 pounds while up in the air like this is a challenge.

Our team on the ground does the rigging.

They have become adept at the job.

Larry Conklin, who is very safety conscious is happy with their work and offers tips from the side. Normally he has to do the rigging as well.

This stone which is on the east face weighs 5,000 pounds: 2.5 tons!

The tongue and mortice style corner interlocking fit between the two stones requires perfect placement.

The second stone, almost in place, the team rigs up the last one.

Larry checks on the the lines carefully before the lift.

Our photographer climbs to the top of the temple for an aerial shot.

At a pace of about one stone per hour, it is still faster than if the stones were raised by traditional methods.