Devi Marks arrived from Santa Cruz to visit Sadasivanathaswami, her brother. She is having a rich stay, with lots of talkstory, picnics with Paramacharya, tours of all the new things since her last visit, joining the morning meetings with the Ganapati Kulam, practical time planting things in the garden and more. But she especially has enjoyed her own quiet time as part of the beautiful pujas and homas in the temple. She did not plan it, but her timing allowed her to enjoy the monthly Krittika Homa iin Iraivan, and yesterday, the Ardra Abhishekam in Kadavul Temple. Time with island members is rounding out her experience. Welcome, Devi!

We also have a wonderful swami here from Kerala, Swami Prabhakarananda Saraswathy, the Maha Mandaleshwara of the Akhile Bharata Sanyasi Sabha in Kerala. He learned of Gurudeva in Colombo in 1991, and has been wanting to visit Kauai Aadheenam since 1997, so today was a giant fulfillment for him.

Here is the other half of miscellanous scenes that SSC sishya Rajen Manick captured during his taskforce period before returning home to Mauritius. He had a darshan meeting with Satguru just before departing to discuss personal life and mission matters in Mauritius. The rest of the photos are mostly from Iraivan Temple's first yearly anniversary pujas.

SSC sishya Rajen Manick recently completed his taskforce period and returned home to Mauritius. Upon arriving, he sorted through the many photos he had taken of the grounds and events, and shared the cream of the crop with us. Below is the first half of his collection.

While here, Rajen participated in many pujas, classes and darshan meetings, and served in multiple seva projects including book translation into French, brainstorming large information posters for the Spiritual Park of Mauritius, helping with the monthly Kauai's Hindu Monastery Newsletter mailing, preparations for Ardra Abhishekam, painting new structures and more. He warmly encourages more sishyas to make the pilgrimage to Kauai and participate in the taskforce program.

We took SSC sishya and current taskforcer Rajen Manick out to see some more of Kauai, this time a oceanside walk in the area around Shipwreck's Beach in Koloa/Poipu. Stunning vistas awaited, and Rajen practiced his photography.

Nearby the monastery, in upper Kapaa, is a wondrous walk through through lush rainforest and along a stream to visit a couple beautiful waterfalls, mainly Ho'opi'i Falls.

SSC sishya Rajen Manick, from Mauritius, is with us on taskforce and this was his first outing to see some of the island. Ho'opi'i Falls was a set piece for one of the Jurassic Park movies where they were mining amber that contained Jurassic DNA.

Kuamoo Rd is the main route for people to travel from the coast to upper Kapaa residential areas and our monastery. After climbing the main hill, drivers encounter the beautiful Opaekaa Falls lookout on the right side, and Wailua River lookout on the left. The section of road following the parking area is very narrow, with a long, steep cliff on either side. During recent heavy rains, it was discovered on December 15th that "surface roadway distresses had worsened to indicate signs of slope failure" on the right side.

It is quite a significant emergency, with repairs likely taking many months as they plan to insert huge "soil nails" into the cliff and install a shotcrete wall on the slope. This is what they did in Hanalei after a major slope failure yeasrs ago.

Fortunately, at least as of this moment, they have determined that the left side of the road is still safe to drive on (though a weight limit is to be determined). They are installing traffic lights to create one-lane traffic. In our experience so far, the delay is not bad, about 5-10 minutes, though it would be more during early morning and late afternoon rush hour.

The only other access route is via winding back roads starting at the other end of Kapaa town.

For decades while living on the island, Gurudeva reached out to the Hawaiian community, invited them to events, involved them in our various temple consecration ceremonies. His love of the confluence of the two cultures continues this week.

On November 26th, Kumu Leihi'ilani Kirkpatrick and ten hula dancers came to the monastery with their friends and family, to dance the Pihanakalani hula, and chant the Pihanakalani Oli (chant). Kumu is among Kauai's most knowledgeable and beloved hula teachers, and it showed in the performances of her wahinis.

In her introduction she gave much praise to the monastery for caring for the aina (land) which her ancestors inhabited some 8-900 years ago. Such a joy to have them here, and to see their joy in a rare performance on sacred grounds. The rains held back, barely, as they danced from 3:30 to 5:30, and almost as soon as they finished the heavens opened to bless the event.

You can see a one-minute video here:

https://youtu.be/l2dxvCWodLI

As the map shows, our island of Kauai is about 200 miles away from Maui island, where the devastating fires happened on August 9th. It was the most destructive disaster in the history of Hawaii, with the loss of over 80 lives and total destruction of an entire town, Lahaina, with a population of 12,000. It is estimated that it will cost 5-6 billion dollars and decades to rebuild everything.

Many around the world have worried if the monastery is OK, and we want to assure everyone we are.

We have a small flock of nene geese now hanging out on our Aadheenam property in various places. Short description from wikipedia-- The nene, also known as the nēnē or the Hawaiian goose, is a species of bird endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The nene is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, and Hawaii. In 1957, it was designated as the official state bird of the state of Hawaii.

It was time again for another island jaunt by our temple shilpis, and our Iraivan Temple priest, Pravin Kumar Gurukal, joined. It was his first opportunity since March to start seeing the beautiful environment of Kauai. On this sunny day they took a short walk around Nawiliwili Bay near the airport and visited a small lighthouse on the point.