Happy Ardra Nakshatra!
Aum Namah Sivaya!

On Siva's most auspicious nakshatra of the month, we welcome one of our newest monastic candidates into the pre-monastic aspirancy program. Vatshalan Santhirapala has been on taskforce for several months at the aadheenam and has long been interested in monastic life. In several days he will be returning to the UK, and while there as an aspirant he will continue to work towards his supplicancy vows. While someone must usually be under 25 years of age to enter our monastic order, if they are born into the Saivite Tradition and meet certain other qualifications, they may be eligible to take monastic vows provided they are under the age of 35--as per an adendum added by Gurudeva in 2001. Aspirancy is one of two major steps as a pre-monastic before qualifying to take vows as a postulant Sadhaka.

As stated in the aspirancy pledge:
"Saiva Siddhanta Chruch has established the Aspirancy to offer a pre-monastic training through its theological seminary for those who aspire to follow the monastic path. By this agreement aspirants affirm their commitment to deepen their study of the Saivite Hindu religion, particularly the Advaita Ishvaravada philosophy, also known as Advaita Siddhanta, enunciated in the Saiva Siddhanta theology of the Himalayan rishi Tirumular. They have chosen Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami as their satguru and the Kailasa Parampara as their heritage of faith and awakening. Aspirants come to monasteries and temples to learn through example and observation, and to be trained and taught the principles of religion, theology, philosophy and yoga. The primary objectives of aspirants are to emulate Saivite monastic life, intensify their Master Course study by studying the trilogy each day and to become thoroughly immersed in the tradition which they aspire to serve as a Saivite monastic."

Visitors come daily, some from far lands, many who have been planning their trip for ten or more years. Such was a group of seven from Calgary, Canada, today. One was celebrating her 70th birthday, and all the others were, amazingly, all having an unbirthday. What are the chances. The elders told of going every Saturday to Yogaswami's hut, and of meeting Gurudeva at a Ganesha temple in Sri Lanka in 1974.

Jai Gurudeva!

This week the monastery has been enjoying Gurudeva's 2022 Mahasamadhi celebrations. Each day begins with an early morning puja at Gurudeva's shrine in Kadavul Temple. Many devotees from around the world have come for these few weeks to celebrate Gurudeva's life and mission. Throughout the day attendees join in Kadavul for the Siva Puja, followed by an event or class. On the first day everyone gathered in the Media Studio for presentations about current projects that the publications team has been working on. Afterward they had lunch, cooked by the monks. In the afternoons devotees enjoy access to the 3pm Ganesha puja followed by time to wander the Aadheenam grounds to perform sadhana and take in the beauty of nature.

Three silpi craftsmen from India were supposed to return to Kauai a couple months ago, but could not due to visa issues. The issues have now been resolved and we expect them here shortly, so a team headed today to the house where they stay, for a second round of cleaning and food supplies preparation.

We mentioned him briefly in the last post about visiting Waimea Canyon, but here's a bit more. Lucas Brzozowski, age 18, arrived from Massachusetts just days ago to begin a six-month resident visit because he is interested in monastic life. He also briefly stopped by a couple months ago for one morning while he was visiting from Maui island. Here he is helping Shanmuganathaswami and Vatshalan unpack MC trilogy books to store in the new back room of the Pillaiyar Kulam building. This back room is the more affordable replacement for the warehouse space we were renting on the mainland.

Aloha all, Recently students from the Kauai Creative Academy of Movement Arts and Academics, a local art school for youth, enjoyed one of their Friday field trips to San Marga, Iraivan Temple and Kadavul Temple. They enjoyed their visit and it was definitely a new experience for many of the kids! Aum Namah Sivaya

The Siddhidata Kulam reports that on June 9th we planted two Atlantic Pumpkin vines and 2 local pumpkin vines ( Japanese Variety). They were harvested a few days ago. The single Atlantic pumpkin on the cart transport is 120 lbs. This variety is usually grown for size competition in state fairs. The local pumpkin produced 211 lbs from about 33 pumpkins.

Happy Chitra Nakshatra! After 22 years, we have replaced the trusty, conventional lightbox that has displayed Gurudeva's photos at his shrine in Kadavul Temple. The technology was old school. Each month a monk stepped up on the shrine, opened the box, pulled out the plexiglass sandwich and inserted a new transparency. The new box houses a high grade digital screen that will rotate through many high quality images every three hours, while drawing a similar amount of power as the old unit. Kumarnathaswami and Kanda Alahan teamed up on the project. It was Kanda and his sons who had built the original version in their California cabinet shop.

Island School is a private school on Kauai, and the social studies classes have taken a field trip here almost annually during the period of the year when they study world religions. The teachers say the students always enjoy their visit here because it's so different from anywhere else on the island. Pat Gegen is the teacher who brought the students this time. He said, "I really enjoy bringing the students because they are so amazed and it interests them - they leave with a much better understanding and a greater appreciation for the Hindu world." Here are some photos of the group visit a few days ago.

A few days ago we posted about the Bala Alaya events to transfer energy from Kadavul Temple Nandi, Balipeedam and Dhvajastambha flagpole to a miniature wood replica so that craftsmen can soon do upgrade stone work around the bases. Here we present photos of the final event when the shakti was transferred from the kumbha pots into the replicas, just after the priests, Satguru and monks paraded all the kumbhas from the yagasala in Banyan Mandapam into Kadavul Temple in front of the Iraivan Sivalingam.
The shakti is contained in the water inside the kumbha pot, so a small amount of water from each kumbha was poured over each replica accompanied by powerful chanting, followed by decoration, dhupa, deepa, naivedyam. Toward the end, the priests chanted selections from all four Vedas, as is traditional at an event like this. Finally, they honored Satguru and he gave them the traditional tray of gifts and dakshina for their efforts.