Longtime sishya, Sivajnani Nagappan, is serving in the monastery's Siddhidata Kulam on our resident taskforce program for a few weeks. The timing works out well for him to especially help preparations for the Iraivan Temple final Mandala Pujas from May 8-11. Sivajnani has never husked a coconut before, so we gave him the opportunity to learn and husk one of the 250+- cocos that will be used during the upcoming pujas.

Our current two taskforce residents, Vatshalan and just-arrived Lucas, have never been to Waimea Canyon and Kokee state park on the drier west side of Kauai. We saw mostly-clear weather on the forecast, so took the opportunity the other day. Besides the standard lookout points, we did the somewhat-strenuous Canyon Trail hike that goes up and down, along the edge of a ridge cliff and ends at a beautiful waterfall and pond area.

Jai Ganesha! On last months episode we were introduced to Vatshalan and got too see him in action picking tomatoes in the green house. Todays episode stars Vatshalan again and his various zany adventures with Kauai Adheenam's heavy machinery. Will this city boy survive doing Siddhidata kulam work in Kauai's gruling climate? Watch more to find out!

Jai Ganesha!
Today Vatshalan starts his two months of taskforce at Kauai Aadheenam. Vatshalan and his family from the UK have been close devotees of our lineage for many years now. He is taking these two months off from his medical career to experience a little bit of living like a monk, helping with various projects around the monastery. Today he is working in the tomato greenhouse, harvesting our special strain of romas among other varieties .

Swami Sarveshananda from the Chinmaya Mission center in Dallas, Texas, visited our monastery for the first time as part of touring some Hawaiian islands. He attended the Siva puja first, then sat with Satguru for a few minutes to reminisce their previous interactions in Dallas/Fort Worth. Afterwards we took a walk out to Iraivan Temple. He was very charmed with the temple and surrounding grounds, noting various sacred trees and flowers as we walked. Swamiji recently installed a two-foot crystal Sivalinga at a Chinmaya Mission branch in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. When we were inside Iraivan Temple, he recalled being taken up inside the Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu Brihadeeswara temple vimanam tower by a priest who showed carvings of the Siva Tandava poses and said those were the first carvings copied from the original book about bharatanatyam dance. More about Swamiji here-- https://cmdfw.org/about/our-acharyas/swami-sarveshananda/

Happy monthly Ardra nakshatra abhishekam today! The evening before Ardra, the Nataraja murti is cleaned and polished with tamarind paste and vibhuti. Speaking of cleaning, while our SSC sishyas--Sivaram Eswaran family--were here on pilgrimage, Sivaram cleaned the Ganesha and Muruga murtis who bless the entrance to our Svayambhulingam area at the end of San Marga path.

On July 4th Suresh and his son Krish met with Satguru. The two live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and they came on a short pilgrimage here. Suresh is physician involved in research into innovative ways of healing, using light sound and other subtle means that are reminiscent of ancient spiritual teachings.

They've been attending pujas, doing Ganga sadhana, meeting as many of the swamis as possible, and generally wanting to make most of their precious time here. Krish, who just turned 16, joined the monks of the Ganapati Kulam on July 8th for a 9-day preview of our taskforce program. While here he is receiving instruction and guidance in meditation.

Devi Ravindraraj and daughter Bhumi from Texas were back on pilgrimage for around a week. They attended the temple a lot and enjoyed quiet sadhana, met with the monks to discuss their use of our mobile apps, plus gifted some digital art tablets for the monastery's use. They have participated in Satguru's past visits to the Dallas area.

Aum Namah Sivaya
Today our monks had the joy of hosting the Tanzi family from Boston. They're here on an extended two month pilgrimage to the island and plan to make frequent visits to the temple during that time. This is a wonderful time to visit our island. We currently have clear, warm weather and our upcoming celebration of Guru Purnima is only weeks away. Aum.

Aloha , Today is a quiet and calm day at the monastery. We are all winding down from an intense and exciting festival phase, as we like to call it, as it really doesn't feel like a normal phase at all with how much is happening! Anyways... Back to the news! Today Ajay and Lata Shah, longtime donors to Iraivan Temple, came for a short visit today, they were shown around by Shanmuganathaswami who took then to Iraivan. They also had darshan with Bodhinatha! Aum Namah Sivaya