Aum Namah Sivaya

For many years now, the shishya of our local Wailua Mission have been working tirelessly to harvest, clean, drill, oil and string Siva's most divine seed. These five-faced beads represent the five divine functions of Lord Siva by which we and the whole Universe evolve: Creation, Preservation, Dissolution, Ignorance and Illumination. The rudrakshas are used for malas, bracelets, earrings and more. With this wonderful effort has come an abundance of rudraksha sales in our Mini Mela store, accounting for a large percentage of Iraivan Temple's monthly donations. Aum.

Jai Ganesha!

Today we take you through some savory classic dishes. Our monks rotate through cooking meals, so each day has a slightly different flavour. You'll find several online review for the monastery that state something like "The view was gorgeous, but whatever amazing-smelling food they were cooking prompted us to leave right away to get lunch." For there's nothing quite like the Indian practice of tempering spices in oil, which infused the whole dish with flavour and the whole atmosphere with mouth-watering aromas.

The lotus is of course legendary, for its beauty and rarity, for its water-repelling leaves and more. Lotuses are everywhere in Iraivan.

Years ago we had a large pond with hundreds of plants and blossoms, but along came the tropical tilapia fish and ate them all (people eat the roots, too).

We are trying again and today four different kinds came to the garden, to be planted soon, this time in more protected areas.

A gramatophyllum orchid arches over the monastery pond, called Nani Kaua in Hawaiian. "There is an art which you can learn which will make all of your decisions easier. It is the art of being constant. Consistency wins. Consistency is one of the most important qualities of a devotee. It is only through consistency in your daily life that you gain the awareness which enables you to cognize the experiences of life, taking from them their real lessons. It is only through consistency that you can avoid many of the boulders that lie in your way on the classical yoga path to enlightenment. Practice the art of being constant, and you will unfold your destiny, discover what you were born to do and learn how to accomplish it in this life. For in that security you will awaken and fulfill your destiny and realize the Self. Thus having your feet planted firmly on the ground, your consciousness can dwell freely in the spirit born of Self Realization. Study your approach to life today as you practice this exercise. Take some of the experiences from your subconscious state of mind. Add them up and see how well your life balances out. Visualize a scale before you. Put the total of the experiences understood and the lessons derived from them on one side. Put on the other side of the scale the total number of experiences that you do not fully understand and from which you can still reap lessons. See how they balance. If they balance evenly, you are well on your way to becoming steadfast and constant. If they overbalance on the reactionary side, you are on the right track because you now have the power to balance your scale—your subconscious. If they overbalance on the understanding side, you should consider dedicating your life to the service of others. Sit quietly with your eyes closed. Look deep within and trace back to the peak experiences that have happened through your life from your earliest days. Quickly fan through the pages of your life and pinpoint each climax, and know that that climax was the sum total of many experiences, forming one great experience out of which one great lesson of life was born. ¶Take the experiences that you are not quite sure of—all the ones that you cannot form into a solid stone of understanding. Take those experiences and resolve to trace down each intuitively. Don’t analyze. Just look at the sum total of the experiences, and after awhile you will get your clarification in a flash of intuition. This will be of great benefit to you. The great lessons that those experiences offer will become apparent as you progress in your practice of concentration. Do this, and you will do much for yourself." - Gurudeva

Aloha,

On this glorious day we are happy to announce that you are the first to know about two new areas on the monastery grounds! Thanks to a super huge excavator and our talented operator Dennis Wong, we uncovered two areas that until now contained items too large for the Monastery's machinery to handle. The first area is our organic waste depot where we deposit palm fronds and other organic matters from our landscaping. The area was becoming a little too full to be used properly. The second area is the space around Chellappaswami's granite statue at the top on the Path of the Saiva Satgurus. It was inhabited by some dead (but still fighting) banyan trees. Now we can look forward to the beautiful gardens that will be placed in their absence!

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Good mornafterevening, continuing the long tradition of replacing the old red concrete path around the monastery we replaced the old red concrete path by Bodhinatha's office with some brand new quartzite. Even though the process was very distressing for Mr. Path he was very happy to have it complete as he could finally fit in with his quartzite-laden friends. Additionally, if you were wondering, Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock formed through tectonic compression of sandstone within orogenic belts. That definitely wasn't from wikipedia, monks are expert geologists by nature.
Aum!

Aum Sivaya! You might want to reconsider reading today's post as it might be too powerful for mere mortals' minds. You have been warned! Today a fierce new fence and accompanying gate have been installed near the start of San Marga. With the new Iraivan Temple parking lot area now open to the public, this enchanted swamp green gate will keep the uninvited from gazing upon Iraivan's celestial glory. It took less than a day to construct this fence but its sturdy frame will allow it to resist our weather's potent power of dissolution. Hopefully soon these gates will open for you so that you might deliquesce in Iraivan's glory. Aum Aum Aum

Aumloha! I hope this Tuesday has been better than all previous Tuesdays! It sure has been an incredible Tuesday for the 4600kg, 10,141.26lb bronze avudaiyar which has been in Iraivan Temple's sanctum for several years after being shipped here from India. It became discolored from the salty air during its ocean voyage. After trying several different methods for cleaning it, we've landed on one that works quite well. If you haven't seen already, we've attached some links for you to learn more about this amazing artifact!

https://youtu.be/X8ucfjbzOcI
https://www.himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2009/02/page/7/

Here are a few photos from a recent lunch prep in the Aadheenam kitchen.
We have a extra abundance of tomatoes coming from the hydroponic greenhouse right now.

Bonjour all,

Today we will be visiting a thing that did not technically occur today, but in a way, you reading this right now is creating it today. Anyways!.. Work has begun on the Pillaiyar Kulam office expansion. The Pillayar Kulam is the group of monks who oversee the Mini Mela, magazine subscription, and much much more. The space has been quite tight for a long time so its great to see the building getting a much needed confidence boost. This building will accommodate current and future monks for many years to come. Aum