Jiva and Kanmani Rajasankara sat with the Ganapati Kulam yesterday and shared their wonderful tale of being assigned the monumental task of overseeing Iraivan Temple construction in India.
“I met Gurudeva in 1975 in Kuala Lampur,” Jiva began, “At that time the communications were very slow, by the time I sent a letter to Gurudeva it could take two weeks to arrive and two weeks to return. And at that time the church sent newsletters to Malaysia on different guidelines for parents; remove your children out of missionary schools, etc. But at that time we would only read the letter with little seriousness, close the letter and set it aside. That was the general trend for the members at that time. This is what we did until we recieved a direct order from Gurudeva, then we would see what he said and apply it.
“It took some time and went through all of the maturing in stages. Over the years I found that whatever Gurudeva says might not be clear to our intellect over that time, but whatever he gives is for ten, or twenty, years from now to see the results. So I eventually got the spirit that whatever he says is the final word for our karmic evolution for this birth.
“When he gave me the instruction to move to India it was pretty easy with some challenges. The shift from one country to another and moving from one job to another, a job I had never heard of, and manage 30 to 40 workers started with struggle. We worked with Ganapati Sthapati in the beginning with some difficulty and then Selvanathan sthapati came and everything went smoother. He and I were both second generation in this field and worked well together and get a lot of things done.
“Today, I can say that because of Gurudeva’s instruction and guidance, our company is one of the leading companies in India. As a granite company who does both temples, deities and house items we are able to do cover a broader scope of work than most competitors who will only do one or the other type of job. I give all the credit to Gurudeva, this is all because of him.
“We are doing well because of the grace of the guru. I’m very proud to see where the work is now and am excited for the future.”

The tile at Kadavul Temple has recently been replaced thanks to the hard work of our head groundskeeper Doug and overseen by Yoginathaswami and the Siddhidata Kulam.

This tile has had a few years of rough weather and took too much moisture underneath the surface and started to pop up tile by tile.

Today the kitchen named by Satguru as Nataraja Niliyam had new LED lights installed by Easvan Param. Easvan comes to the monastery several times a year to perform electrical seva. The old bulbs in this kitchen were fluorescent and burned out regularly.

Namaste everyone, the monks have reached the end of their phase and bring you some project updates from 'round the Aadheenam. Hope you enjoy. Aum.

We welcome you to enjoy this short story that took many moons to complete. Large projects at the monastery take much effort and a small village of selfless servants to get it done. Thank you to everyone who has helped and will help in the moons to come.

Good Saturday everyone, today is the last day of the phase and we are going into a 3-day retreat, but first a few photos of our Siddhidata Kulam working on the monastery's CAT Skid Steer. This full day job was one of the cat's major services.

After months of toiling and research, Acharya Arumuganathaswami was ready to test out his recently-crafted barrell washer. Our method of cleaning the freshly harvested fruit heretofore was entirely manual. While effective, it isn't entirely the most efficient. Automating some of that process will aid in the overall production.

A few weeks ago, the monastery received the most recently completely bronze piece for the Temple Builder's Memorial. This piece is of two silpis moving a large, roughly hewn block of granite with iron crowbars while using a simple block of wood for leverage. In the long slideshow below we take you through the several steps required to produce a world-class bronze.

Out of curiosity, we asked chief metal craftsman in Loveland, Colorado, Bobby Page, if he was aware of any other similar project to ours. This was his response:

"In Kathy and my 34 plus years of working with thousands of artists and too many projects to count the Temple bronze's are quite unique as we have never seen or worked on a project that tells the story of a process to that scale.  I have also asked some local (old time) artisans in the area the same question and they have never heard of anything like it.

"Other than works we have done for Na Aina Kai (a world class botanical garden on Kaua`i) we can't think of any other family of bronze's. Especially workers/builders the common hands with blisters on dusty tired hands going home to rest at the end of a hard day with the echo of hammering still ringing in their ears. The countless tiny bits that get in the eyes even when glasses are worn. The missed stroke of the hammer hitting the hand or even worse marring the work.

"Holly has done such a wonderful depiction of all the pieces in the memorial that I feel quite close to them all working/looking at them, learning what they do and thinking of them as not just a work of art but people like me.

"In my opinion that is what makes this so special. They are alive in their story. And to have so many great works (literally tons) we have had a hand in on beautiful Kauai with the Monastery and Na Aina Kai is something words can't describe and I can't think of a better place.

"It is all perfect. Much Love and many thanks to all on this journey we share.

Bobby"

We present a complete slideshow of the Siddhidata Kulam's creation of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami's new procession chariot which was first used on this past Satguru Purnima. The ensuing weeks before the big day involved *a lot* of work on the part of the Siddhidata Kulam to ensure it would be completed in time. For them, we are thankful.

This week Iraivan Temple is having it's main drainage system installed. The system is built for the heaviest of Kauai's rains and will take water from the foundation and channel it away, thereby helping to prevent erosion. The team doing the installation is headed by Pradeep, an expert machine operator and a local friend of the monastery. Pradeep and his crew have been working for several days now, installing the small pipes that connect to the foundation and the large pipes to which they flow. This system won't be up and operational until the flooring installation atop the slab is complete, but this is the order that the work must be completed in. Aum Namah Sivaya.